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Surprisingly mild vehicle for Pam Grier, targeted at the black urban audiences of the 1970s, isn't terribly good despite a varied roster of bemused supporting talents, including Jim Backus, Yaphet Kotto, Scatman Crothers, Godfrey Cambridge, Carl Weathers from "Rocky", Ted Lange from "The Love Boat", and Eartha Kitt, hamming it up as usual playing a breathless fashion designer. Grier (looking lovely) is cast as a professional shutterbug tracking down an assassination ring who target black politicians. Campy nonsense is hardly "The Manchurian Candidate", though it does have a fresh moment here and there. The assembly-line shootout-climax is tired, and the film's production seems cheesy, but Kotto just about steals the picture as Grier's sidekick. ** from ****

I'm sure many fans used to the action-packed Pam Grier flicks must have hated this film when it came out. FRIDAY FOSTER doesn't feature Grier kicking ass or cussing out a criminal, but does have a great cast, excellent acting by Grier, and a funky score.

Grier stars as Friday Foster (real name? who knows?!), a photojournalist who becomes involved in a scheme to kill off all the black leaders of the world. Chasing criminals, sleeping with politicians, and brushing elbows with hired assassins, Friday saves the day and solves the case in the end.

OK, no Pam Grier kicking ass. So what? Here, this is where Grier got her acting chops. While previously in films like BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA, COFFY & FOXY BROWN, Grier was just a vehicle for action, here she is given a vivid character to perform with and does a superb job. Besides Grier, there are plenty of other blaxploitation regulars to savor: Godfrey Cambridge as a gay suspect; Eartha Kitt as Madame Rena, a flamboyant dress designer (always fun to see her); Carl Weathers as a hired assassin; Thalmus Rasulala as the richest black man in the world; Yaphet Kotto as Friday's cop boyfriend (he's great!); Scatman Crothers as a dirty old man preacher (criminally underused); and "Gilligan's Island" regular Jim Backus in a cameo as a sleazy white politician. Also appearing is Tierre Turner, the annoying little kid from BUCKTOWN, as Friday's kid brother.

While FRIDAY FOSTER might not be action-packed and an excellent Grier action vehicle, blaxploitation doesn't get any better than this. I might even say this is Grier's best 70s film besides COFFY, if only because she does her best acting job here. Recommended.

Friday Foster is probably the most fun of all the 70's Pam Grier flicks. Though not as good overall as Coffy or Foxy Brown, both had a certain amount of serious content; not Foxy Brown. Here Pam's intrepid reporter discovers a dangerous plot to eliminate black leaders. She's aided by Yaphett Kotto, hunted by Carl Weathers, and along the way she runs into Scatman Crothers, the guy who played the villan in Bucktown and the hero in Blacula, one of the cast of Across 110th Street and the bartender from the Loveboat. The film is light, but very amusing...I recommend it for Pam Grier fans.

What I'm reviewing now was the very last movie Pam Grier made for American International Pictures. She plays the title character as a photographer for a magazine who's on assignment to shoot the arrival of the "black Howard Hughes" Blake Tarr (Thalmus Rasulala). Accompanying her on some of her assignments other than the one I mentioned above is private detective Colt Hawkins (Yaphet Kotto). I'll stop there and just say how fun I found the whole thing and why not with a cast that includes Eartha Kitt, Scatman Crothers, Jim Backus, Ted Lange without his mustache that he became famous for when he was cast in "The Love Boat" a few years later, a pre-Apollo Creed Carl Weathers, and Godfrey Cambridge several months before his untimely death. I can't admit that everything that happened made sense but I found myself smiling if not always laughing the whole time I was watching. So on that note, Friday Foster is well worth a look.

Friday Foster (Pam Grier), an ex-model magazine photographer, goes to Los Angeles International airport to photograph the arrival of Blake Tarr, the richest black man in America... and things go awry.

I love blaxploitation films and I love Pam Grier (which is pretty much necessary given how much the two overlap). Here she is made out to be a very strong woman in a variety of ways -- head-strong, smart as a whip... and someone who sexually knows what they want (this is a fine line between "easy" and "determined", and Foster walks it well).

Is it the best of its kind? Probably not. But well worth a watch for fans of the genre, with some great supporting actors -- including Scatman Crothers, Eartha Kitt and Carl Weathers, among others. Unfortunately for us, this was Grier's final film with American International Pictures.