Super Fly

While this blaxploitation classic may best be remembered today for its funky Curtis Mayfield soundtrack, the movie manages to cobble itself together into a solid enough of a watch for genre fans. Although the film unsurprisingly suffers from its weak script, poor editing, and cheap production, Ron O'Neal and company create enough of an atmosphere to drive the otherwise plodding film along like a chromed out Cadillac creeping down the avenue.

Ron O'Neal is certainly as fascinating to watch as Jeff Goldblum is, but I definitely preferred the more traditional take on the story that Cronenberg used when making his version.

You'd think from a movie on which so many mediocre R&B units based their names, Super Fly would be a much better flick. What we have instead is a jumble of poorly executed ideas and terrible acting that make other blacksploitation movies of the era look like Citizen Kane. Buy the album, borrow the name, scan the poster, but save 2 hours of your life and avoid the film.

Doesn't matter how good the music is when it's just the three same tracks on repeat for ninety minutes.

The soundtrack serves as the legendary backdrop to the often drab Blaxploitation hallmark film. It isn't bad, but the awful editing and lack of a significant script leaves a lot to be desired. It is much more down to earth than other films in the genre, I just wish it did it with a letter more finesse.

It's interesting as a Blaxsploitation film because it recognizes the duality of the criminal lifestyle. It shows the lavish lifestyle without necessarily celebrating it, and it shows the crippling effects of drugs without necessarily condemning Priest for peddling them. That said, it never reaches its potential because of poor pacing and a general lack of filmmaking skill. I should add that the Curtis Mayfield soundtrack is amazing.

Blaxploitation classic about Priest, a pimp and coke dealer looking to make one big score so he can retire from his criminal life. In his desperation to make the deal happen, he gets even more deeply involved with a bunch of crooked cops. Priest is not a nice guy, but he plays his cards right and sticks it to the man. Hilarious jive talk, giant pimp hats, and the super funky soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield is simply awesome.

A much slower, down-to-earth entry in the blacksploitation genre, but I enjoyed it for those reasons. Interesting to have a coke dealer as the main character, and O'Neal manages to make Priest into one of the most... human characters I have seen in this type of film. Too bad it never really peaks and the ending comes quite suddenly, leaving the viewer a bit dissatisfied.

I'm trying to keep this movie in the context it was made -- New York in the 70s, but it isn't easy. The mindset behind this movie is a relic. The glorification of selling drugs and toxic attitudes is a little unsettling. I understand the context of crime as a method of escaping racial oppression but seeing it as power fantasy on-screen... well, it is something we would never see today. And for its uniqueness, I like a lot about Super Fly. It knows what it is and what it wants. I respect that.

The movie is bland and mostly uninteresting and while the music was great I noticed that I was listening to the music more than I was paying attention to the "story".

They could have done a lot more with the ingredients of this film. The montage just felt like they got tired of filming. The ending was abrupt.

Super Dumb

Oneals performance is rightfully praised. He brings to life the character's ambitious yet troubled personality, endearing yet cold. Without a strong performance from him, the movie wouldn't have legs to stand on, as very little happens until the final act. Mostly we see the life of Priest as he talks of and works towards the life that he wants. not just implies but through a still photo montage clearly depicts that cocaine use is at worst a silly diversion, a way to cut loose and be goofy.

As one of the most famous Blaxploitation movies around, I figured this one would be good, but it's not. there are better Blaxploitation movies out there, and even those ones aren't that great. I'll give it that it has some pretty funky music, anyone can appreciate that.

If 'Foxy Brown' simply follows the blaxploitation formula, 'Superfly' surely created it. Still, this movie is pretty good. Ron O'Neal is a trip from start to finish with his unflinching seriousness about getting out of the life with a million in cash..."the big ONE!" Hey, if nothing else, you've got the Curtis Mayfield-produced soundtrack which is quite possibly the most complete suite of music from any of the films in this genre. The soundtrack is a classic, even if the movie isn't.

One of the few films to be so cool, so angry, so absurd, and so despairing at all once.

Most famous for Mayfield's classic soundtrack but this is an extremely solid movie on its own merit. It's still squarely in the realm of your traditional low budget blaxploitation flick but it's a refreshingly socially conscious narrative, portraying a world where the only way to get out of the drug game is to play it.

Pretty average movie in most respects: the few times where you're almost ready to call it better than average are weighed down by a dragging plotline. The music is good, and the ending is different from what I expected, but there's just not enough here that I'll be able to differentiate it from other similar flicks in a few months.

Soundtrack is indeed greatness. Conclusion sparkles. Pacing is off.

This movie was recommended to me to watch as a part of a collaborative review. Having seen it, it's ridiculous, but it's only really ridiculous in the sense that it feels like it's....supposed to be bad. Even so, I don't think I'll see it again. Exploitation films of the 70s have always been really strange to me.

Sometimes the most obvious thing is the best and in this movies case the soundtrack is godly and the rest i dunno

Remarkably restrained and calmly paced as exploitation movies go, and of course Mayfield's score is some of the greatest music ever recorded.

I'm not a big blaxploitation fan, but I liked this. Not a spectacular film, but a well filmed and enjoyable one (review written a year after I saw it, so the details are somewhat blurry).

Tough to rate this one, because it was funny and enjoyable to watch in a campy way, but clearly this is NOT a good movie. Great music of course.

Interesting as a commentary on Hollywood's limited roles for black actors ("this is the only game the man left us") but still, this is really boring. Basically all of the calculated attempts at cool are the same thing I rolled my eyes at with Tarantino. At least, there's sort of an amateurish/campy charm here that feels genuine. The sex scene is sort of good, I guess. That's it, sorry.

not the best blaxploitation movie out there but it had a lot of cocaine use and bad ass one liners. Was thin on action though.

It's really bad but in a somewhat entertaining manner. Except for the score, which is actually good.

Once you get over how awesome Priest and his chest-hair are the film gets dull and tedious. Script is hardly worth the paper it was written on. The filmmaking here is highly experimental, but amateurish. Score nails it really hard though. You dig?

Great OST.

The movie's decent enough on its own, Priest is a terribly interesting terrible person and it's all nice and voyeuristic following him around, but the politically charged rock n' soul soundtrack album by Curtis Mayfield is what's essential here.

The soundtrack is better than the movie, but the movie is still a pretty solid entry in the blacksploitation pantheon.

Plenty of things are Superfly in this movie; the car, the suit, the character, the soundtrack. Unfortunately the plot isn't so much Superfly as superslow. That said when things finally do pick up around the photo montage sequence it's not a bad movie.

Not too much of a story, but Ron O'Neal was great as Priest. I really enjoyed the soundtrack and I love how towards the end of the movie felt like I was watching a heist movie. So it was a good set up to an excellent ending. The music was great too. But on the negative side, the last fight was choreographed so badly. That was one of the worst fight scenes I had ever seen in a movie.

Nice and gritty, with a raspy real-time atmosphere, but pretty slight in the plot department. Curtis Mayfield actually does make an appearance in the film...but we don't get to hear "Freddie's Dead" (only a small instrumental excerpt). But seriously though, "The Curtis Mayfield Experience"?--that was a little hard to swallow ("move over, Rover, and let Curtis take over").

Good film.

Great music, that's about it.