Foxy Brown - Mammaries, Like The Corners of My Mind…

Sep

7

Foxy Brown - Mammaries, Like The Corners of My Mind…

≡ Category: Action, Blaxploitation, Highly Recommended, Movie Reviews By Country, United States |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Action/Blackploitation
Director: Jack Hill
Year: 1974

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MOVIE

Alright, Foxy Brown is a bit slow by today’s standards. The acting is never going to win any awards. (It reminds me of gweilo actors in Hong Kong pictures.) Bob Minor’s work as a stunt coordinator is just pitiful — until I checked on the Internet Movie Database, I thought the producers hadn’t hired one. The special effects work is minimalist, to be kind. When one of the characters gets sprayed with the contents of a shotgun, they simply dump Kayro syrup mixed with red dye on him.

Part of the reason for these technical shortcomings is the estimated $500,000 budget, which would just about cover the catering on the average studio picture.

So how does Foxy Brown manage to be so darn entertaining? Maybe it’s the willingness to be outrageous. Characters are set on fire, have their faces sliced up with coathangers, are run down by prop planes (not a half bad effect, by the way), or endure impromptu birth control techniques. There’s plenty of N-words flying around, mammaries of all shapes and sizes (writer/director Jack Hill contrives to have a prostitution ring be an integral feature of the plot), enforced rape and the implied existence of a bordello specializing in snuff, conveniently located in Haiti.

Then there’s Foxy Brown herself (Pam Grier). She’s got a ton of charisma. She can be charming, she can be mean, and she’s the toughest mutha for miles around. Producer Buzz Feitshans must have spent half of the 1.98 budget on her ghetto fabulous 70s outfits. And then there’s her titties — my jaw dropped. Pam Grier is a moose — a pretty moose to be sure, but a moose just the same. Those things are huge, and they’re hers. No surgeon’s knife has ever been anywhere near those babies.

Oh, yeah, the plot. I almost forgot.

Foxy Brown is dating a Fed, who’s been working undercover in a heroin sting. The boyfriend gets killed by the drug dealers and then it’s time for…you guessed it, revenge!

The ensuing shenanigans bop to the beat of the funkay soundtrack by Willie Hutch, no Isaac Hayes or Curtis Mayfield, but because the music isn’t timeless, it places Foxy Brown even more firmly in the 70s. And it’s not bad, exactly, just cheesy, like the film.

And that’s the final element. If you like a fine slice of 70s cheese, that’s exactly what you’re gonna get with Foxy Brown. And there’s plenty of outre elements like the ones I’ve already mentioned to pass the time. And you won’t have to put up with cinematography filmed with lighting supplied by table lamps. The lighting is as lurid as the plot.