Friday Foster

Jack Hill's brilliant 'Coffy' is one of the 1970s best exploitation movies and remains the definitive Pam Grier role. It's such a pity that within two years Grier was forced into making something as mediocre as 'Friday Foster'. It's no wonder he career quickly went down the toilet after lame movies like this and 'Sheba, Baby'! 'Coffy' is a classic revenge movie and actually had some element of realism. Hill's next collaboration with Grier 'Foxy Brown' stepped away from that, and I didn't enjoy it as much, but compared to this it's a masterpiece. In 'Friday Foster' Grier is getting even closer to 'Cleopatra Jones' territory, but without the fun and style of that movie or its sequel. This movie actually has one of the best supporting casts of any blaxploitation film, but even that fails to satisfy. Yaphet Kotto plays Grier's detective buddy, and Julius Harris is her boss. Plus there's Scatman Crothers ('Black Belt Jones'), Thalmus Rasulala ('Blacula'), Godfrey Cambridge ('Cotton Comes To Harlem'), Paul Benjamin ('Across 110th Street') and Carl Weathers ('Rocky'), as well as Eartha Kitt, Isaac the bartender from 'The Love Boat' (Ted Lange) and even inexplicably 'Gilligan's Island's Thurston Howell III (Jim Backus)! As much as I love Grier and Kotto, 'Friday Foster's paper thin plot didn't hold my interest for very long and I was bored way before the climactic shootout. I regard this and 'Truck Turner' (which funnily enough also co-stars Yaphet Kotto) as the two most disappointing blaxploitation movies I've seen. If you want to see Pam Grier at her best watch 'Coffy', then follow it up with 'Foxy Brown' and 'Jackie Brown'. All three movies wipe the floor with this limp effort.

"Friday Foster" - the reputation of this work is more legendary than the film itself. I was quite disappointed when I saw it for the first time, because it didn´t deliver the typical kickass madness you normally get from a Pam Grier movie! The storyline is tame, the forced political correctness is only pesky and the whole stuff lacks in violence and sex, so prepare for blaxploitation in its mildest form! If you want to be entertained somehow watch out for the performances of genre greats like Yaphet Kotto, Carl Weathers, Eartha Kitt, Scatman Crothers or Thalmus Rasulala! Their fine acting improves this average film considerably. Main actress Pam Grier is convincing in the lead, but she´s not that sexy and tough as she was in "Coffy" or "Foxy Brown"! A quite unspectacular film, nothing special at all!

Sexiest black woman of all time Pam Grier kicks ass and looks great doing it. This film has everything you are looking for in a blaxploitation flick. Scatman Crothers and the bartender from the "Love Boat"; what else would you want? Great!

"Friday Foster" is certainly not as violent or as sexual as Pam Grier's most notable blaxploitation films, those being "Foxy Brown" and "Coffy". Still, "Friday Foster" is an enjoyable action romp for die-hard fans of blaxploitation films or Pam Grier. As the title character, Grier plays a photographer for a black fashion magazine who stumbles onto an assassination attempt on a prominent black politician at the airport. Soon she discovers a larger conspiracy out to eliminate other black leaders. The film features Yaphet Kotto as her do-good boyfriend, Carl Weathers as a menacing hitman, comedian Godfrey Cambridge as a gay club owner, Earth Kitt - purring as usual - as a fashion designer, and Ted Lange as a sweet-talking pimp. There are many other blaxploitation regulars scattered throughout the film. Grier naturally provides her obligatory nude scenes in obvious places. In this film; it's the shower, a jaccuzzi, and then a bed.

This film doesn't examine the dark side of street life, such as drug addiction or prostitution that was addressed in "Foxy Brown" and "Coffy", but it is still enjoyable if these films are your thing. There is still an abundance of funk music, crazy clothes & furniture, and that unmistakable 70's dialogue:

• "Is she crazy or something?" - "No, she's just all woman." - "Damn... I need a beer!"

"Friday Foster" is a worthy rental or purchase for the hardcore fans.

Pam Grier is back in action in the big screen adaptation of 'Friday Foster'. Friday Foster debuted in January 1970 as the first comic strip to star a black woman. It was syndicated and featured soap operatic story lines drawn in a realistic style, similar to Mary Worth, and starred an ex- model turned photojournalist somewhat like Diahann Carol.

I think a lot of blaxploitation fans have a hard time getting their heads around this movie because it's a different role for Pam Grier than the gritty asskicker she played so well in movies like Coffy. Nonetheless, this film gives Pam an opportunity to show range as an actress. I think Pam Grier is one of the most beautiful actresses in the history of film with real star charisma. It's good to see her getting credit.

Although it has the elements of classic blaxploitation - car chases, shootouts - Friday Foster is fun, light hearted comic strip of a film. Definitely see it.