I love black films, old and modern. Blaxploitation kicks ass. Basically, it’s about a black motherfucker with cool clothes, a cool car, a badass attitude and cool music to walk on. Richard Roundtree expressed this genre perfectly as John Shaft. Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Pam Grier and Ron O’ Neal were other superstars of this era. In the 90s, blacks are mostly portrayed as young gangsters who shoot out people while driving by in cool cars. Two good examples of that genre are “Boyz N the Hood” and “Menace II Society”. “Original Gangstas” brings those two worlds together. It starts out as a typical ghetto movie. A young basketball pro hustles a gang of young black thugs. He gets killed soon after. The owner of a liquor store gives information on the killing to the police. He gets hurt real bad by the gang. The plot thickens when we learn that the gang attacked the wrong people. The b-ball hustler was the son of Jim Brown and Pam Grier and the old man is the father of Fred Williamson! Plus, Williamson and Brown have some other mean friends like Richard Roundtree and Ron O’ Neal! These old gangstas won’t leave some young, careless crooks mess with their business. They all get together in order to terminate The Rebels, a gang that they actually formed in the 70s.

The story is entertaining, and the film also looks really good. Usually, blaxploitation looks cheapie. Not here. It’s a top notch B-movie. The direction from Larry Cohen is really good. His film is always interesting. The fights and shoot-outs are really fun and the dialogue is hilarious. The whole cast is great. The leads are some of the coolest American actors. I especially like Williamson. He’s such a badass! The young actors are also very interesting. The soundtrack is one of the coolest in recent memory. It’s filled with great R&B, soul and rap songs. Altogether, this film is extremely enjoyable. Blaxploitation never looked so good.