S.O.S. Black Guns

As a huge fan of 70's action movies, I was looking forward to seeing this, especially since it has Quentin Tarantino's endorsement. I was expecting another campy blaxploitation movie, but was very surprised that this was not the case. The film explores the politics and race relations in Detroit in the early 70's, using the repercussions of an armed robbery of a political fundraiser as a backdrop.

Aside from the funky music and 70's fashion, and to a certain extent the dialogue, this could easily be any urban area in the 90's. The media is portrayed as eager to turn this high-profile crime into a racially-motivated crime. The cops are shown as being under pressure from all sides to solve the case quickly.

As the investigation unravels, the viewer finds out that not everyone is who they seem to be. And although the end of the film is somewhat predictable, it is still entertaining.

Some of the dialogue is typical camp, and some of the acting is wooden, but the one major complaint I have with this movie is the chase scenes that are shown in immediate succession. Its almost as if the writers thought to pad the drama with some action as an afterthought. Overall, though I was very suprised by this film and the issues it attempts to address.

I saw this movie because of Quentin Tarantino's initiative to bring back classics like this to the video stores. This movie is just terrific. First of all the story is very well done and it is still original today. This is remarkable considering that this movie is 26 years old! The actors might be a little weak at times but the cool dialogs and the raw action scenes are the best ones I've ever seen. There aint no special effects here but it still is pretty spectacular. Of course, this movie is not an Hollywood super production but it still is an excellent movie that one should see at least once. The music is also fantastic, seeing those guys shoot each others and thoses cars explode with some 70's era funk music is just too entertaining.

I recommend this movie to any action or thriller movie fans. Tarantino fans might also be surprised..this movie obviously influenced Tarantino a lot. See for yourself.

Not your typical Blaxploitation movie. I rented it because Vonetta McGee is in it but was pleasantly surprised. You should see the top tier Blaxploitaion movies (Fred,Pam,Jim,Isaac) first to appreciate this one. Definitely a sleeper.

Another entry into the blaxploitation genre, Arthur Marks's "Detroit 9000" has a black detective and a white detective cooperating to investigate the theft of some jewels from a congressman's fund raiser in the Motor City. For the most part the movie has a lot of the things that we expect to see in a blaxploitation flick, although they put an interesting twist on racial stereotypes: the black detective is the refined character while the white detective is the streetwise one. There was even a line or two that they obviously lifted from "Dirty Harry". Otherwise, it was just a fun movie with a funk soundtrack. Among the cast members are Hari Rhodes, Alex Rocco (Moe Greene in "The Godfather"), Vonetta McGee and Scatman Crothers (Dick Hallorann in "The Shining").

Detroit was long seen as the backbone of the US economy and now it's bankrupt. Geez.

"Lieutenant Danny Bassett" (Alex Rocco) has just been handed an extremely volatile case involving some burglars who have stolen approximately $4 million in cash and jewels from a fund-raiser being hosted of a black Detroit congressman. There is no way he can win because if the suspects turn out to be black the mostly black population will think it's a cover up. If the perpetrators are white then the white population will think it's a whitewash to appease the black community. And obviously if he fails to find the culprits the public will want his head on a silver platter. To make things even worse a black police sergeant named "Jesse Williams" (Hari Rhodes) is also assigned to the case who Lt. Bassett believes will get all of the credit for apprehending the suspects instead of him. Anyway, for a "blaxploitation" film this movie wasn't too bad. While the film was a little rough around the edges I liked the selection of Detroit for the movie which was a refreshing change from the usual locations (New York, Los Angeles and Chicago). I also liked the addition of Vonetta McGee as the prostitute "Roby Harris". Again, this wasn't a bad blaxploitation film and I rate it as about average.