The Candy Tangerine Man/Lady Cocoa Double Feature (BluRay)

The Candy Tangerine Man: The film opens with pageantry pimp Baron (John Daniels) driving his customized two tone red and yellow Rolls Royce around down town - night time L.A. His ladies have been coming up short lately and he wants to know why. Turns out that two L.A.P.D. cops - Dempsey and Gordon (who have been after Baron for some time now) have resorted to rousting his girls every chance they get. Indeed in the next scene they have set Baron up with a copper in drag to entrap him with procurement of prostitutues. Of course the Baron is wise to their ploy and ends up grabbing the ecopper by the short and curlies. Starring John Daniels, Eli Haines, and Tom Hankason.

Lady Cocoa: A young woman is released from prison in order to help the government build a case against her gangster boyfriend. Lots of violence, explicit language and adult situations keep this blaxploitation film moving forward from beginning to end. Starring Lola Falana, Gene Washington, and Alex Dreier.

BluRay
Region A
Studio: Vinegar Syndrome
TBR

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Action, Blaxploitation, Crime,

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Melinda (1972)

The little-known 1972 film Melinda is a blaxploitation gem that is part romantic drama, part revenge story, part mystery, and even part afro-chopsocky flick. It has an interesting pedigree too, coming from the first black men to be nominated for Academy Awards in film editing and screenwriting. After getting the nomination for cutting Midnight Cowboy, Hugh A. Robertson reportedly made a deal that he would go on to edit Shaft for MGM on the condition that they would give him a film to direct afterward. Playwright Lonne Elder III wrote the script, which is tonally quite different from his adaptation of Sounder, the family drama which got him his Oscar nom and which was released in theaters only a month after Melinda.

The hero of this funky little flick is strutting radio DJ Frankie J. Parker (Uptown Saturday Night's Calvin Lockhart), whose first line of dialogue -- spoken into a mirror, but really spoken at us -- is, "I hate to say this, but I am such a pretty motherfucker. Hahaha... YEAH!" It's an immediate indicator that the character is a larger-than-life badass -- or at least, he thinks he is. In the next scene, Frankie talks tough to his instructor in a karate class and gets his ass handed to him. By the way, that instructor is played by Enter the Dragon's Jim Kelly, so Frankie clearly didn't have a chance. Frankie may be a black belt, but he is not Black Belt Jones.

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Blaxploitation,

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Brotherhood of Death (1976)

A group of black Vietnam vets go up against the Ku Klux Klan.
After antagonizing a Caucasian male, three black men: Raymond Moffat, Junior Moffat and Ned Tiese go on the run; join the army; fight Vietnamese; make dough selling dope; and return home to Kincaid County. They decide to assist oppressed citizens to be more assertive, and with the preacher's help, get them registered to vote. This does not auger well with minority Caucasians - who feel threatened, put on Ku Klux Klan hoods, amidst signs to 'Fight Communist and Intergration' and launch an all-out attack with impunity. Things get even more complicated when a black woman is sexually molested, a black male is blamed, and the Sheriff is shot dead, leaving corrupt lawmen and heavily armed Klansmen free to slay whoever dares to oppose them.

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Blaxploitation, Thriller,

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The Black Gestapo (1975)

General Ahmed has started an inner-city People's Army to try and relieve the misery of the citizens of Watts. When the locals are put under increasing pressure by Mafia thugs, Ahmed's second-in-command Colonel Kojah asks for permission to start a protection squad to take more direct action. Ahmed fears this protection squad will just turn into a vigilante mob, and his prediction soon proves correct. Will Ahmed be able to wrest control back from the power-mad Kojah, or will he be the mob's next victim?
Supposedly one of, or THE most mean-spirited/violent blaxsploitation flick. TBG initially revolves around a group of black guys in uniform standing up to a bunch of white honkey's who are terrorizing their community. Well, this group of black guys, led by the bailiff from Night Court, turn themselves into a private army of lethal and brutal vengeance. But plans backfire as they eventually become what they despised and it's now up to the original guy in charge of the People's Army to set things right. Yeah! Anyways, this was a pretty good flick. Initially it started out very entertaining with oodles of racism by redneck jerks who were all in their own right laugh-out-loud funny. The director Lee Frost was especially good as the leader of the bad white guys. But as the story develops, it becomes a little less entertaining as the racism kinda fades away, and your left with black on black drama. Which isn't as entertaining in my book. But the movie still stays violent, and you also get to see some Uschi Digard boobies.
In the wide world of blaxsploitation I think this flick is a must-see. Especially if you want to see a black dude call another black dude a 'jive-ass n-word'. Hell, I think they use the word 'Jive' like a couple dozen times. And that's a recipe for success in my book.

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1975, Blaxploitation, Exploitation,

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Hammer (Blu-ray)

Hammer (1972), an early Blaxploitation film that was former American Football League defense back Fred Williamson's starring debut, doesn't have a particularly great reputation. Leonard Maltin's movie guide gives it an anemic two stars (out of four), while users of the Internet Movie Database give it a similarly tepid 4.4 out of 10 rating.
The movie is a cliché-ridden boxing yarn, reminiscent of ‘40s and ‘50s noir boxing movies like Robert Wise's great film starring Robert Ryan, The Set-Up (1949). But the clichés in fact jibe quite well with the struggles of its African-American characters and their varied desperate circumstances, lending it an authenticity usually lacking in such cheap pictures. Further, for the most part Hammer is pretty far removed from "The Hammer," Williamson's later, quietly cocky, cigar-smoking and testosterone-driven screen image. B.J. Hammer, the character he plays here, is more subtle, conflicted role. He's pretty good, and several of the supporting performances are unexpectedly excellent. All told, not a bad film at all, and quite unlike the flashier star vehicles with which Williamson is most associated.

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Blaxploitation,

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Coffy (Blu-ray)

Whenever I think about the Pam Grier-starring string of female empowerment revenge fantasy blaxploitation flicks, I'm reminded of Chris Rock's line about being black in America: "It's like the uncle who paid your way through college, but molested you." The same can be applied to women and blaxploitation. Sure, films like Coffy presented a woman, of color no less, as an action hero taking down armies of pimps, drug dealers and other horribly misogynistic monsters, but they also exploited every female character's sexuality with juvenile abandon.
If you see any halfway attractive woman in Coffy, in the supporting cast or even as an extra, you can bet your life that her breasts will be exposed within a minute, regardless of the context of the scene. Grier herself was almost contractually obligated to show her large "assets" in every single scene, and she plays the protagonist so you do the math. No opportunity to show breasts is squandered. The infamous catfight scene is an obvious

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Blaxploitation,

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4 Film Favorites: Urban Action (Black Belt Jones, Black Samson, Hot Potato, Three the Hard Way)

Thankfully none of these films star Keith Urban, but are instead some previously unavailable Blaxploitation films. Coz as we all know now, "Urban" means "Black". I found this out years ago working at a video store when reading the monthly business catalogues that advertised "urban" films like Phat Beach and Belly as being very profitable in "urban neighborhoods".

But anyhow, there are fewer Blaxploitation fans as big as I(in loyalty, not body mass), and I've been waiting to get my mitts on two of these titles for some time now. Three of the four films feature martial artist, Jim Kelly, who we all remember from Enter the Dragon as John Saxon's buddy. First on the bill is Black Belt Jones, directed by Enter the Dragon's director, Robert Clouse. Jones is an all around butt kicker who works for a karate school run by Scatman "How'd you like some ice cream, Doc?" Crothers. He's also working with the feds or something. Some mafiosos employ their "urban" man, Pinky, to try and gain possession of the karate school by any means possible to expand their evil real estate project. Well, after Pinky's goons start roughing up Jones' pals, it's all out war with Jones slapping the snot out of everyone and winning over Gloria Hendry(who does some snot slapping herself). Tongue in cheek, and as Ronnie Dawson would say, "ACTION PACKED!"

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Blaxploitation,

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Death Journey (Code Red) (Blu-Ray All Region)

Death Journey (Code Red) (Blu-Ray All Region)

DEATH JOURNEY is the first of a popular theatrical series starring Fred Williamson (FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, HELL UP IN HARLEM) as Jessie Crowder, a no-nonsense ex-cop who is hired by the FBI!  Crowder has 72 hours to take an overweight accountant (Bruce Kirby) from California to New York in order to testify against a mob leader in court.  The Mob says IMPOSSIBLE.  Crowder says TRY ME.   Co-starring  D'Urville Martin (DOLEMITE).  Contains the top 40 hit song 'Do It Any Way You Wanna'!  Directed by star Fred Williamson, this black exploitation classic is finally remastered in its original scope ratio in 16 x 9, mastered in HiDef from the original camera negatives.

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Blaxploitation,

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