SuperFly

This is a loud slick noisy update of the 1972 Blaxploitation Super Fly. The tunes lack the funk of the original and I welcomed the burst of Curtis Mayfield's title track.

Trevor Jackson is cool but bland as the Atlanta drug pusher Youngblood Priest. He wants to make that one big score and get out with his two girlfriends.

To do this he makes a connection with the Mexican cartel, stay one step ahead of rival gang Snow Patrol and then he has to deal with crooked cops who want a piece of the coke pie.

Priest has been made more nicer and morally centered in this version, he was not so nice in the original.

Despite looking more lavish than the original. Director X has stuck to his music video aesthetics. I think all those shots of women in strip clubs looks sleazy for all the wrong reasons.

The film is really too long, the crooked cops were just cartoonish, I am surprised no one caught them out earlier. The script is full of holes but it is a watchable that improves as it goes on.

It's like the ultimate male fantasy come to life!

Priest is the king of the drug game in Atlanta, his head so strongly connected to his shoulders he does not need to bring a gun to a gun fight (And that's why it was so important to advertise it's from the producers of the matrix). He has the perfect life running the game with his boy and sharing his bed with not one but two hot chicks who don't mind sharing at all, as he runs his house like a true king, but one day he realizes he no longer has the mind set for the game and needs to do one last big score and get out before he gets got.

It's like if Disney was making a movie about a drug dealer. This dude Superfly is so perfect. In that way it's the perfect homage not just to the original movie but to the blaxpolation era altogether (both positive and negative) with their imagery of a brother who's near perfect.

But I have to admit, I would not have expected a movie like this in the times we are living in. It appeals so heavily to a male psyche the world is trying to change. Obviously mine has not, because I loved this flick. The producers of the Matrix (as the poster advertised) loaded it with so much Style and action (plus hot naked women) that I can't help but to enjoy.

Something tells me this is going to be my guilty pleasure.

The original Super Fly is credited as being one of the original Blaxploitation movies along with Sweet Sweetback's Baadassssss Song and Shaft. All of which are considered essential movies in the genre.

This remake hits all the right notes and it updates it for today's audiences but it doesn't really bring anything new or noteworthy to the mix. It's stylish and honestly feels more like an extended music video in some parts. Now part of that could very well be because of the director and his background. But that's good for music videos and not for a feature length movie.

But the real issue is this movie has no real reason to exist. It's a remake that really is the same exact story as the original. I get why they wanted to make it but it doesn't bring anything really new to the mix.

As a stand alone movie it's just kinda okay. As a remake it's just a tepid retelling of a much better story.

It's Entertainment. A comic book story made into a movie, with all the comic trimmings. I guess the other reviewers really didn't like Priest's over-the-top hairdo... and they're kind of right: it is excessive. But then again, he's supposed to be a combination of dangerous, sharp, slick, & smooth, all at once; so I'll give him that. Besides, the movie is entertaining. That, and I wasn't expecting a blockbuster; but it's nicely done. Wastes no time. What happened to people just watching movies and expecting to be entertained? That's what I expect from a movie: "Will it entertain me, and how much will it entertain me?" All the other niggles about script, technical qualities, and what not, are just that: niggles. If you're down with going on a fantasy gangsta trip for 116 minutes... see expensive cars, gals, guns, gratuitous T & A; cool martial arts, and a hail of bullets, with a sprinkling of love to round it all out... Go see this movie.

If you walk into Superfly with the intention of not taking it seriously....it's actually pretty fun for all the wrong reasons. What makes Superfly work is its jaded views on street credibility and several of the lead actors to bring some much needed levity to what is a rip-off of every crime drama that came before it.

The plot is all you have heard a million times before. The whole "one big score to end it all" after a traumatic moment, corrupt cops, navigating through a Mexican drug cartel, all wrapped into a copy and paste style script. What makes it a little more worth while is the rival gang Snow Patrol, which is gloriously over the top in literally all white everything and filled with actors overacting in ways I haven't seen in a movie in a long time. So it's sad to say that there is a long period where they aren't the focus and the film reverts into familiar cartel territory, which is not investing at all.

Trevor Jackson is okay in the lead role, but is clearly outstaged by his co-star Jason Mitchell, who is having more fun in the role than he is. He plays it pretty straight, but doesn't stretch his range out enough to make him captivating. Also the film runs 20 minutes too long and could have sliced a large amount of the ending to keep it more focused and internal.

Superfly is simply harmless pulp that was close to being a guilty pleasure. In a post-Black Panther world, films like Superfly will have to beef up their reasons for existing by either going all the way absurd, or just asking new questions these characteristics. It's crime isn't its influence, but instead it lacks wings to truly fly.

Rating: 4.5 / 10