Abar

A black doctor and his family move to the fancy white suburbs and are met with incredible racism from his new neighbors. He also gets some grief from some in the black community for 'abondoning his people'. You really feel sorry for these people. Eventually, the hatred for these people is so severe that the racists are even willing to kill. The family's only apparent hope is a local black power group--but even they can't protect them 24-7. Ultimately, their hope comes in a VERY bizarre form--a brand new black superhero...Abar! It was very surprising that the first hour of the film was, despite the cheapness, very compelling. Addressing racist attitudes in the fancy suburbs was a very timely idea---though I will be the first to admit that it was handled with all the subtlety of a 2x4 upside your head! It went way too far in handling this, though the emotional toll on the family was well portrayed. As another reviewer pointed out, it was good at addressing the justifiable frustrations in black America.

Unfortunately, after the first hour, it literally looks as if they threw away the script and started over--and the entire film changed so dramatically it seemed insane. And, considering where it went next, insane is the best way to describe it!! Yes, Abar becomes a super-hero of sorts after getting a miraculous potion from the doctor. With it, he has amazing mental powers--powers to help prostitutes beat up their pimps, black men to stop playing dice and get educated and other ways that force his community to clean up its act. And Abar's hero outfit? It's a blue leisure suit! Now this sounds stupid and bizarre. Well, it is bizarre but surprisingly non-stupid and interesting throughout. For a cheapo film with seemingly nothing going for it, it's surprisingly fun to watch and has some amazing depth.

There are a lot of interesting ideas here and it's clearly someone's passion project. Other reviewers have said that the ending is absurd--maybe, but the ending was the most interesting part of the movie. Everything leading up to Abar becoming the "black superman" takes twice as long as it should.

The performances are, for the most part, bad. The script needs tightening. And, unfortunately, due to pacing problems described above, the movie drags and didn't hold my interest. I almost gave up on it, in fact.

That said, I thought it was a thought-provoking movie. It's certainly not a must-see, but there's worse out there.

This is a bicameral movie, of sorts. The first two thirds is an examination of the problem of middle class blacks (Dr. Kincaide and his family) wanting to move out of his black neighborhood for security and class consciousness concerns. Abar, a vigilante type character running a kind of rogue chapter of something akin to the Black Panthers (but unarmed), challenges Dr. Kincaide to consider raising up those among his race that he is leaving behind.

At this stage, the viewer may be somewhat confused, as the title makes one think they are going to see a genre superhero film, but that doesn't really happen until the last act. The first two acts flesh out the class conflict between the two main characters and their mutual enemy, the white bigots of the neighborhood who want to force Dr. Kincaide to move.

To me, this was the novel and more engaging part of the movie. The last act, when Abar becomes a psycho-telekinetic "superman" is rather amusing, but it is pure fantasy rather than science fiction as it claims ("The first Black science fiction film!"). The goal seems to have been to have this catharsis for black audiences to howl over in the theaters.

I think most of the reviewers here on IMDb have been too hard on this film. Sure, there are technical deficiencies and so forth, but taken on its own terms, "Abar" deserves praise for attempting to tackle a tough subject like class struggle which most blacks would prefer to slough off erroneously as a race question.

I agree with most of the reviews here. I am the child actress Debbie Kinkad. I did not have any formal training and I'm not sure if the others did, but I think they did. I however had an amazing time and great experience filming when I was young. It truly is a bad movie, however the storyline was great!

This is absolutely a low budget movie as I didn't get paid. I didn't have a clue it even was put on tape or DVD, as I had not seen the movie until I was in my forties. Someone searching my name and asked me about it. So I had to do a search for myself and it popped up under my name as the original name of the movie was changed, from SuperBlack to this.

thus my high rating, because believe me this hits the bulls eye.

A black doctor and his family move into a wealthy white suburb of Los Angeles so he can focus on his research. Unfortunately, all his neighbors are racist in ways that make the cast of In the Heat of the Night look like pikers. So the family winds up being protected by Abar, the head of the Black Front for Unity.

It turns out that the doctor is working on a formula for invincibility, and after he perfects it, he administers it to Abar, who uses he newfound superpowers to make black teens go to college, black hobos drink milk instead of malt liquor(!), and black preachers ride a horse and buggy instead of a Caddy. Really.

The plot veers wildly, with a wacky western dream sequence and liberal use of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech punctuating things. Meanwhile, the acting ranges from pretty bad to unbelievably awful. The doctor is ridiculously wooden, while his wife resorts to over-the-top screaming.

And then there's the fabulous 1970s design. There probably wasn't enough of a budget for a wardrobe, so most of the people presumably wore whatever they had (thankfully, they didn't have Audrey Hepburn's Givenchy). This results in a lot of authentic 70s fashion statements and some garish color schemes in the outfits. But there's even more garish color in some of the sets. The doctor's new house has lovely avocado green shag carpeting, and one room that's entirely bright red, as though it had been borrowed from Bergman's Cries and Whispers. The result is an utter disaster, but one that winds up being lots of fun.

1/10 if you're looking at it as a normal movie; 8/10 if you're looking for a "so bad it's good" experience.