L'exécuteur noir

Jim Brown returns for the sequel to the Slaughter. And quite frankly its as good as the first one, with a plot-line which is extremely similar. In this one, the mob kill some of Slaughter's entourage, so off he goes to kick some serious butt for the remainder of the movie. Its got a funky James Brown theme tune too. Very fun blaxploitation overall.

Here's another another golden oldie, a well made feature film, blaxploitation tale, with some thrilling action, especially the start, with the fake orange and reddy gore. We too, have hot broads, as well as the big black dude you don't mess with, as referenced by other black dudes: The one and only Jim Brown (Fireball in The Running Man) who makes most men look small. We have great villains, of course of being the eternal Don Stroud, plus a surprising well acted, and genuinely authentic performance by Ed Mcmahon. Some people want Slaughter dead, where he must of crossed some really bad guys, half the fun in the story, that has us, wondering if he'll survive, which we probably know he will. Recognize a voice and face right at the start. Sounds and looks like a very familiar Police Academy regular. How Slaughter survives a drowning, with his car catapulting off a towering cliff into the seas, had me flummoxed where his girl wasn't so lucky. If you like the attributes of what I've just mentioned, and you're a serious 70's action fan, this will make your night.

While enjoying a cook out on a ranch with several friends, a bi-plane appears out of nowhere and begins spreading the area with bullets. Although the former Green Berets soldier by the name of "Slaughter" (Jim Brown) is not killed, several of his friends lie dead and dying all around him and he immediately vows to kill those responsible. But first he has to find out who issued the contract on him and why. But before he can initiate an investigation he has to find a safe place for his girlfriend "Marcia" (Gloria Hendry) and somehow get the police off of his back as well. Unfortunately, this process becomes more problematic the closer he gets. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this turned out to be a fairly decent "Blaxploitation" film with good action and solid acting all around. Likewise, the addition of Judith Brown (as "Norja") and the aforementioned Gloria Hendry certainly didn't hurt the scenery in any way either. On the other hand, I have to admit that it loses points on the "realism scale" due to a couple of scenes which defied reality. Even so, I thought that this sequel was a slight improvement over the 1972 film "Slaughter" and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

The movie itself is pretty good - but only the ORIGINAL version with the awesome soundtrack by James Brown. For the dvd release, the studio was too cheap to buy the rights to original music, so they replaced it with new, generic sounding funk music! And they didn't even change the credits or the packaging to reflect that! That's a pretty big slap in the face to the father of funk himself, so that's why I say avoid this DVD at all costs.

This sequel to the original Jim Brown "Slaughter" vehicle is similarly bad ass entertainment, with big Jim showing off plenty of cool as always. The story is pretty entertaining, too, and the supporting cast has to be seen to be appreciated. There's a fair amount of violence to enjoy, and a bit of sex, too - even some full frontal nudity courtesy of the delectable Judith Brown.

Slaughter is now being hunted by mafioso types who want to get back at him for his activities in the first film. Among those types are the smooth Duncan (none other than Ed McMahon) and his racist thug-for-hire Kirk (Don Stroud). Determined police detective Reynolds (Brock Peters) soon ropes Slaughter into stealing important documents from Duncan - to be precise, a list of people who've received payoffs.

"Slaughter's Big Rip-Off" isn't wall to wall action, but it is enjoyable, particularly for seeing Mr. McMahon in a film of this type. He's fun to watch, as is Stroud as the kind of bad guy whom you'll love to hate. There's a bunch of familiar faces in the supporting cast, among them Gloria Hendry as Marcia, Slaughter's gal pal, Dick Anthony Williams as flamboyant pimp Joe Creole (a pimp who's also talented in the art of safecracking), Art Metrano as the sleazy Mario Bertoli, Hoke Howell as one of the Parker brothers who make the foolish mistake of not cooperating with Slaughter, Russ Marin as top cop Crowder, the always lovably genial Scatman Crothers (you wish he was in the film longer) as Cleveland, Pamela Des Barres in a sexy bit part, George Gaynes as the ill-fated Warren, and an uncredited Adam Roarke as Harry.

The pacing is mostly efficient, the action when it happens is always viscerally effective, and there are some good laughs to be had as well. Just check out the amount of vocalizations during a fight scene with Slaughter and two goons, one of whom happens to be Oriental. You hear them even when people aren't moving their lips.

Good if not great entertainment overall, with a very funny wrap-up. It's just a shame that the original James Brown soundtrack got replaced for the DVD; the new score is adequate but hardly inspired.

Seven out of 10.