Super Fly T.N.T.

Superfly T.N.T is a highly entertaining sequel which deserves more credit than it very often gets. I loved everything about this one with the exception of the soundtrack (I liked this soundtrack but missed Curtis Mayfield) and the film's finale (which doesn't end on as high a note as the original film since this time Priest's new line of hustling has just started). Alex Haley and Ron O'Neal did excellent work on this film. Haley's script is both powerful and fun. O'Neal makes a good directorial debut. He's even better in the role of Priest this time than in the original Superfly. Superfly T.N.T. has a fine cast too. It's one of my favorite films of the era and my favorite of the three Superfly movies (although they are all worth seeing). This is a great film if you can accept the soundtrack (very appropriate but not as cool as Mayfield) and the finale (Priest's work has just begun so there's no easy ending). God Bless Ron O'Neal and Alex Haley.

The premise of this sequel is not a bad one: a retired Priest, living in Europe, has his conscious stirred by African rebels needing help overthrowing their colonial government, and decides to help them. However, this movie takes forever to get started, and then takes forever to get to an end that feels unsatisfying and unfinished. Unlike the first movie, the musical score is terrible. It's no wonder this movie bombed in theaters and took forever to be released on video.

This movie bored the snot out of me.

I had seen the original Superfly first. I wanted more of the same. Butt kicking, hard slapping, big bad PIMPING.

This movie has a retired Priest, (aka Superfly, the hero of the first film) living it up in Rome, approached by a wannabe rebel leader from a small West African nation, trying to get out from under the yoke of colonial oppression by THE MAN. He wants Priest to run some guns into the war-torn African nation for him.

Imagine my shock when I discovered just now that this film was co-written by ALEX HALEY, the author of the fantastic "Roots." That first came on TV when I was a kid, as one of the last of the big network television "events" before Cable TV really got wide latitude. That was along lines of The Beatles on Ed Sullivan (before my time) a Super Bowl, or the "Who Shot J.R." episode (I remember that hype too). But "Roots" was a great piece of art, and I mean EVERYBODY but EVERYBODY watched it, whatever color your skin happened to be.

This movie was a waste and a disaster, but I guess Alex Haley is where the idea of the African setting came from (idle speculation on my part).

Anyway, I guess they were trying to do something new with the character, but the concept was utterly wrong-headed from the start. The movie is also REALLY SLOW. It takes about 45 minutes before he gets to Africa! Too long! And the whole side story with Robert Guillame as a fellow American in Rome, an artist with a fantastic singing voice, was just a waste of time.

Original Superfly: 8 out of 10. This tripe: 3 out of 10.

It's still much better than THE GUY FROM HARLEM, though.

Having left New York City with a large sum of money gained by his sale of illegal drugs, "Youngblood Priest" (Ron O'Neil) has eventually settled down in Rome with his girlfriend "Georgia" (Sheila Frazier). Yet even though he spends his time driving an expensive Lamborghini and playing poker with some acquaintences, Priest is still not content with life. This changes when he meets a man named "Dr. Lamine Sonko" (Roscoe Lee Browne) who tells him that he is trying to wage a revolution in his West African nation of Umbria and needs Priest's help in laundering diamonds into money to pay for weapons. Although he has seen poverty all of his life, Priest refuses to help and this leaves Dr. Sonko extremely angry with him. And with that Priest feels even more empty inside. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this sequel wasn't nearly as good as the original in that it lacked the passion and raw energy of its predecessor. Even so it wasn't terribly bad overall and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Well I thought the original was all over the place ... the sequel is actually even more so. Even if they did a location change (and I reckon since Italy was quite cheap to shoot at in the 70s they probably shot there too, not that it matters), this is quite a dull watch overall. Even with the charismatic lead.

As with the first one, I am not aware of production issues or the history of the making of. Historically it is known that it wasn't easy for African American/black people to get an acting job. So I guess it makes sense that Ron O'Neal directed this as well. Maybe he bit more than he could chew though. Even with the addition of a great character actor, there was not much to save ... Blaxploitation fans may feel different overall. And maybe I'm spoiled with something like Black Dynamite that is just pitch perfect ...