Visum für die Hölle

On those occasions when I have told people that I am a big fan of Italian actress Lucianna Paluzzi, I've usually been greeted with blank stares. When I add that she is the redheaded bombshell S.P.E.C.T.R.E. agent seen spilling out of her negligee in the James Bond movie "Thunderball" (1965), and also appeared in the sci-fi shlock classick "The Green Slime" (1969), only then do I get nods of recognition. Well, Ms. Paluzzi's role in "Black Gunn" (1972) was my reason for renting this film, and although her part turns out to be a small one, the film did still prove to be a decent night's entertainment. Here, ex-Cleveland Browns fullback Jim Brown stars as Gunn, an L.A. nightclub owner whose brother steals some money (and, more important, some books) from the Mob, and is later killed as a result. This naturally sets big Jim on the ol' vengeance trail. Whereas Superfly had "a plan to stick it to the Man," you might say that Gunn has a job to stick it to the Mob! He soon runs afoul of a whole slew of nasties, including Martin Landau and Bruce Glover (so memorable as one of the gay assassins in another Bond movie, 1971's "Diamonds Are Forever"). This film is actually pretty standard blaxploitation fare, but is nevertheless well put together and well acted by all. Perhaps the film's single best element is an exciting, funky, kinetic score by one Tony Osborne; what a great soundtrack CD this film should have! On the down side, some of the action scenes (particularly a climactic shoot-out on the L.A. docks) are a bit hard to follow, with overly fast cutting and dark exteriors. If the film offers any message or moral, I suppose it would be that you don't want to get on Jim Brown's bad side. But you probably suspected as much already, right?

Just watched this Jim Brown action movie on the Crackle site. He plays Gunn, a nightclub owner who vows vengeance after his brother-because of his involvement in a robbery-gets killed. Unlike most blaxploitation movies, this one takes it's time in developing the story though it threatens to get monotonous when sequences get too talky. Of the supporting cast, the most interesting player to me was Jim Watkins playing the only black officer-in this case, Lt. Ken Hopper-who is firm but fair in his dealings with Gunn. My favorite scene was the one where a couple of white women staying at his girlfriend's house start putting the moves on him before that girlfriend shoos them away but not before Gunn's shirt came off! Ooh, yeah! So on that note, Black Gunn is highly recommended.

I'm not sure why the Mill Creek Entertainment company thought that this movie was deserving of a Blu-ray release. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy some elements of it. Since it's a blaxploitation movie from the 1970s, it has many of the fun trademarks of the genre, such as the clothing, hair styles, attitude, slimy bad guys, nudity, and so on. Also, the movie does boast some good action sequences here and there (love those splattery blood wounds!) Unfortunately, there are less action sequences than most viewers will be expecting and demanding. The movie instead is strung along with many long (and slow) sequences of talking, which often doesn't advance the plot that much. In fact, it takes almost half the movie before the character of Gunn is enraged and decides to take revenge. And even when the character of Gunn is engaged on the path of revenge, the performance by Jim Brown more often than not makes the character seem disinterested and bored. The movie also ends on a note with several plot threads clearly not given a proper conclusion. There are definitely worse blaxploitation movies than "Black Gunn", but there are definitely some that are much better. I'd only recommend it to fans of the genre who have already seen the better efforts and are really craving for more, and who are willing to put up with the aforementioned defects the movie has.

Jim Brown deadpans his way through Black Action Film heaven. All the touchstones are here: The Mafia, a Black Panthers rip-off, drugs, trashy whores, nasty pimps, jittery dealers and even sweatier addicts, fist fights, gun play, drug dealers, revenge killings, psycho hit men, racial slurs, car chases, stolen cars, and explosions. Even more than that, plenty of early Seventies atmosphere here to enjoy: giant sedans, huge lapels, enormous hair, used car dealers, bowling, black revolutionaries, sexy stewardesses, and lots of fuzz guitar, tremolo and wah-wah pedals on all the music.

Jim Brown is a schmoove nightclub owner (this is an adult nightclub, kids, where the immaculately coiffed adults eat steak, drink whiskey and slow-dance to overproduced soul easy listening music) who's cooler than a cucumber popsicle. His uncool little brother is in with BAG, the Black Action Group, who get deep into it when they steal money and ledger books from THE MOB.

The greasy mobsters aren't gonna put up with that, so they put out the word: find those lousy #$$%*#* and kill 'em. But little brother hid the ledgers at Gunn's nightclub/suave bachelor pad. So they kill the brother anyway, and that REALLY makes Gunn mad. It's all-out war now, and Gunn has to avoid both the Fuzz and BAG on his one-man war of vengeance. There are some slow spots here and there, but the action sequences make up for the few slack bits. Brown is not going to be doing heavy drama anytime soon, but he does what he does here extremely well. Highly recommended for fans of Black Action Cinema.

Jim Brown, the personification of coolness, is the nightclub owner who decides to avenge his brother's murder and begins a war against the local Mafia. Familiar but enjoyable, thanks largely to Brown's presence, and to some dynamic action scenes. Two interesting things: the use of wide-angle lenses during a fight scene, and a strong supporting role for the actor who was memorable as one of the two homosexual goons in "Diamonds Are Forever". (**1/2)