BobJenkinsPhD From the swaggy gentlemen at Po' Boy Productions, comes "Original Gangstas", a film that is as engrossing as it is hilarious. This painfully average film almost manages to keep the viewers glued to their seats for decent portions of the movie.Fred "The Hammer" Williamson headlines what could be described as a surprisingly good cast, at least in terms of blaxploitation standards. At the ripe age of 58, Fred has shown no signs of slowing down, and I was extremely impressed at the old man's youthfulness and his flair for kicking ass. Fred is joined by industry mediumweights Pam Grier, Jim Brown, & Richard Roundtree.The movie takes place in the Hammer's hometown of Gary, Indiana. When a bunch of young, ignorant pranksters initiate a crime wave within the city, the Hammer decides to take matters into his own hands. The storyline is pretty solid, and the veteran actors turn in decent performances.On the other hand, the younger guys in this movie didn't seem to know how to act at all. They weren't very believable, and "Dru Down" deserves a special mention, as he may be one of the worst actors I've ever seen. This ignoramus couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. A department store mannequin would have sufficed. With that said, the dialogue is above average. This film is full of great one-liners you can playfully recite with your friends while conversing at Chuck-E-Cheese. The action scenes were rough but entertaining. There is a scene where the Hammer round-house kicks a guy to the face, which causes the victim to conveniently land on a randomly placed mattress.At times, this movie comes off like it was produced by some Mickey Mouse operation based out of the Cayman Islands. We're not dealing with a cinematic masterpiece here, folks. Nevertheless, this film will suffice for a day in order to cure boredom. However, if you're a fan of the Hammer, or blaxploitation films, or hilarious fight scenes, then you'll enjoy this movie.

Woodbutcher68 As somebody who lives in the city just West of Gary, I can tell you that it does exist and is in worse shape than the movie portrayed. The gangs may be different but crime is still rampant. A lot of the buildings in the movie are still there, in worse shape than what was in the movie and they still film there when they want to show a disaster zone. The city relied too heavily on the former U.S. Steel to support it. As the mill downsized and other industry moved out,"White Flight" and corrupt politicians began the death knell. There are a lot of good people there who are trying to make things better, but aren't having a lot of success. It's really a shame, it was a beautiful city at one time. I did enjoy the movie enough to watch it a couple times.

wackadoo You have to wonder who this movie was aimed at, since it shows a bunch of old dudes killing young gang members, bad mouthing them and telling them to behave. (One half expects Fred "the Hammer" to strap one of the youths over his knee and dole out a spanking!) The young listen to "horrible" rap and the old listen to old soul songs. The old talk more "white" and the young are more into hood culture and talk slang. It may be valuable as an explication of generation gaps in black culture.The film itself is a pretty silly action film that lacks the inspiration of its 70's genre film forebears. The action takes place mostly in the dark and you cant see much of whats going on. There are some big explosions that look pretty good though. The soundtrack is made up of dated new jack stylings, not as lively or memorable as "Coffy is the color of her skin" or "the Slaughter theme".Disappointingly, Pam Grier is given second banana status and doesn't kick that much ass, or sexily vamp it up like she did in her 70s classics. She is a dutiful member of the family/crew.The movie explores issues of race, class, urban decay and gang violence in a ham-fisted, unconvincing way. Worth seeing for the blaxploitation completists out there, but not a priority for anyone with a passing interest in the genre.The DVD has a disappointing non-anamorphic transfer.

sanjuro-12 A veteran cast make this update of the blaxploitation genre worth watching. Fred Williamson (Black Caesar), Jim Brown (Slaughter), Pam Grier (Coffy/Foxy Brown), Richard Roundtree (Shaft) and Ron O'Neal (Superfly) join forces to combat the newer, younger version of the same gang they formed some twenty years prior. Not enough Roundtree or O'Neal and barely enough action but a decent enough entry. For fans of the genre.