Original Gangstas (1996)

From the swaggy gentlemen at Po' Boy Productions, comes "Original Gangstas", a film that is as engrossing as it is hilarious. This painfully average film almost manages to keep the viewers glued to their seats for decent portions of the movie.Fred "The Hammer" Williamson headlines what could be described as a surprisingly good cast, at least in terms of blaxploitation standards. At the ripe age of 58, Fred has shown no signs of slowing down, and I was extremely impressed at the old man's youthfulness and his flair for kicking ass. Fred is joined by industry mediumweights Pam Grier, Jim Brown, & Richard Roundtree.The movie takes place in the Hammer's hometown of Gary, Indiana. When a bunch of young, ignorant pranksters initiate a crime wave within the city, the Hammer decides to take matters into his own hands. The storyline is pretty solid, and the veteran actors turn in decent performances.On the other hand, the younger guys in this movie didn't seem to know how to act at all. They weren't very believable, and "Dru Down" deserves a special mention, as he may be one of the worst actors I've ever seen. This ignoramus couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. A department store mannequin would have sufficed. With that said, the dialogue is above average. This film is full of great one-liners you can playfully recite with your friends while conversing at Chuck-E-Cheese. The action scenes were rough but entertaining. There is a scene where the Hammer round-house kicks a guy to the face, which causes the victim to conveniently land on a randomly placed mattress.At times, this movie comes off like it was produced by some Mickey Mouse operation based out of the Cayman Islands. We're not dealing with a cinematic masterpiece here, folks. Nevertheless, this film will suffice for a day in order to cure boredom. However, if you're a fan of the Hammer, or blaxploitation films, or hilarious fight scenes, then you'll enjoy this movie.

Original Gangstas (1996) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Blaxploitation in the 90's has a street gang killing off people so the old guys (Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Pam Grier, Ron O'Neal, Richard Roundtree) come to take the streets back. This all-star extravaganza remains a lot of fun like those films of the 1970's but this one here also has a message and asks a lot of serious questions. Whereas those 70's flicks simply blamed white folks, this one here goes a lot deeper in its message and even throws blame towards those earlier films. A lot of interesting ideas are brought up here, although we still get some mindless, if fun, action. Larry Cohen wrote a brilliant script and the performers all do a fine job. Robert Forster also stars.

"Original Gangstas" is a movie written by Aubrey Rattan and directed by Larry Cohen, released by the now-defunct Orion Pictures (now part of MGM) and Po' Boy Productions.This movie leads with an all-star cast staring Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Pam Grier, the late Paul Winfield ("Sounder", "King"), Charles Napier, Wings Hauser, Robert Forster, the late Ron O'Neal ("Superfly"), the late Isabel Sanford (Louise on "The Jeffersons), and Richard Roundtree of "Shaft".With Christopher B. Duncan ("The Jamie Foxx Show"), Eddie Bo Smith, Jr., and Dru Down.In an urban Gary, Indiana. From a drive-by-shooting, to a attempted murder of grocery-store owner Marvin Bookman (Oscar Brown Jr.), John Bookman (Williamson) comes back and reunites with his friends and gets revenge on the gang they created years back.I give it 10/10.

This film does not work.It has great potential and the theme of abandoning your roots frequently pops up -- giving potential for further plot development which most action films do not even approach. However, this all-star cast of blaxploitation veterans making their first film together rarely jells. For instance, Fred Williamson, who produced, seems to have forgotten that there were other great actors from that era. 90% of the film is him strutting around, pontificating on how bad the neighborhood has become and why don't the cops/neighbors/politicians/whoever do something about it. He saw fit to put Jim Brown in as co-star, but Brown serves as little more than a bodyguard, punching the whey out of a few people and (in his one big solo scene) threatening a young thug. Richard ("Shaft") Roundtree and Mr. "Superfly" himself -- Ron O'Neal -- are given glorified cameos. In fact, the introductory scene with O'Neal is shown completely in long shot. Why didn't the director do a few closeups? You can hardly tell it's O'Neal. That's just sloppy direction (either that or they didn't have permits to shoot on city streets and shot this on the sly).Other great character actors -- Robert Forster, Charles Napier, Wings Hauser -- are featured but have little to do but act like cartoon characters. Whoever wrote this film should have given thought to the reasons why the best blaxploitation epics worked. Not a complete failure but overall a major disappointment considering this is the first and only film these stars have been in together (no chance for a reunion with O'Neal's recent passing). ** out of *****