One of Quentin Tarantino's favourite grindhouse movies, Coffy is a great example of blaxploitation film – a genre that emerged in the USA in the 1970s, created specifically for black people, that featured black casts and funk and soul soundtracks. It was a box-office hit and Pam Grier became the first female African-American protagonist of an action movie.
Flower Child Coffin (Pam Grier), also known as Coffy, is a nurse whose little sister's life has been ruined by heroin. In the first scenes, Coffy finds the dealers who got her sister hooked on heroin and, pretending to be willing to do anything for a fix, goes home with them and kills them. Later in the movie, when two masked men beat up and seriously injure her police friend Carter in his home, while she's present, because he wouldn't be bribed, she decides to avenge him.
Even though the main character fights what we could call a war against drugs, the movie's message isn't "you shouldn't do drugs". As I said before, this is a blaxploitation movie – a movie that exploits certain themes. The story itself isn't very relevant. It's all about watching Coffy, often naked, getting her revenge by killing people and fighting other, often naked, women. And it is Coffy – or better, Pam Grier – who leads the movie. She is great in her performance, and truly believable: whenever men fall for her, it's obviously because of her beauty and charms – she is sexy and she knows it, and she uses these qualities to get what she wants. Also, her relationship with her sister isn't developed at all, but we still take her (Coffy's) side in her fighting the drug bosses, again because of her amazing performance.
Of course, this isn't an excellent movie, but you shouldn't expect much from the exploitation genre. It's just meant to entertain: it makes people laugh – like in this movie, when Coffy gets in a fight with some hookers and throws a bowl of salad onto one girl's head -, shocks – the best example being the killing of a man by tying a noose around his neck, attaching the rope to a car and dragging him around town -, and features a lot of female nudity; but it has many flaws – to give just one example, some of the supporting actors' performances are bad, but in a funny way, and the movie is sometimes boring. So if you're looking for a somewhat silly movie that will mostly make you laugh and make you ask yourself "the hell am I watching?", Coffy is the one for you!
Rating: 7/10 Read more at http://passpopcorn.wordpress.com/
Flower Child Coffin (Pam Grier), also known as Coffy, is a nurse whose little sister's life has been ruined by heroin. In the first scenes, Coffy finds the dealers who got her sister hooked on heroin and, pretending to be willing to do anything for a fix, goes home with them and kills them. Later in the movie, when two masked men beat up and seriously injure her police friend Carter in his home, while she's present, because he wouldn't be bribed, she decides to avenge him.
Even though the main character fights what we could call a war against drugs, the movie's message isn't "you shouldn't do drugs". As I said before, this is a blaxploitation movie – a movie that exploits certain themes. The story itself isn't very relevant. It's all about watching Coffy, often naked, getting her revenge by killing people and fighting other, often naked, women. And it is Coffy – or better, Pam Grier – who leads the movie. She is great in her performance, and truly believable: whenever men fall for her, it's obviously because of her beauty and charms – she is sexy and she knows it, and she uses these qualities to get what she wants. Also, her relationship with her sister isn't developed at all, but we still take her (Coffy's) side in her fighting the drug bosses, again because of her amazing performance.
Of course, this isn't an excellent movie, but you shouldn't expect much from the exploitation genre. It's just meant to entertain: it makes people laugh – like in this movie, when Coffy gets in a fight with some hookers and throws a bowl of salad onto one girl's head -, shocks – the best example being the killing of a man by tying a noose around his neck, attaching the rope to a car and dragging him around town -, and features a lot of female nudity; but it has many flaws – to give just one example, some of the supporting actors' performances are bad, but in a funny way, and the movie is sometimes boring. So if you're looking for a somewhat silly movie that will mostly make you laugh and make you ask yourself "the hell am I watching?", Coffy is the one for you!
Rating: 7/10 Read more at http://passpopcorn.wordpress.com/