Foxy Brown/Review 2

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< Foxy Brown
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Film Review

Foxy Brown (Pam Grier) is a tough as nails woman whose brother Link (Antonio Fargas) is a drug dealer that has run afoul of the people who supply him with his wares. Foxy rescues him, but he returns the favor by turning in her former undercover cop boyfriend (who has recently had plastic surgery to hide his former features) to Katherine Wall (Kathryn Loder), the woman he works for. When Foxy's boyfriend is killed by thugs who are also working for Wall, she decides to infiltrate their gang as a call girl so she can exact her revenge with a style that only she can.

Originally intended as a sequel to Pam Grier's box office hit Coffy, writer/director Jack Hill's (who also directed Coffy and the cult hit Switchblade Sisters) semi follow-up to that classic seventies film is almost just as good as the film that made Grier a household name. Many similarities can be found between the two films, even though they were restructured to be less like sequels of one another. The result is a film that has inspired many modern entertainers, including Quentin Tarantino (who cites this film as his inspiration for the adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Jackie Brown) and even a rap artist who goes by the same name.

As was the case in Coffy, there are many interludes where nudity is prominently featured, both of Grier and of the supporting cast. Many fans can attest to the fact that Grier was in prime form when these films were made and that statement can most certainly be backed up by Foxy Brown. Though she doesn't seem to show as much off as she did in her previous feature, there are still some excellent opportunities to view her incredible physique.

While not containing anything quite as interesting as the "prostitute wrestling" scene featured in Coffy, Foxy Brown does contain its fair share of memorable moments. One of these moments is a bizarre scene in which Foxy gets into a brawl in a lesbian bar because a girl she was trying to protect had accidentally ventured into it. Another scene, where Foxy confronts her brother about getting her boyfriend killed is also highly notable. I think it goes without saying that Foxy kicks a lot of drug dealer ass throughout the film.

DVD Review

Foxy Brown has been released as part of the Soul Cinema Collection though MGM Home Entertainment. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The image is pretty clear and free of artifacting, but some of the night scenes seem a little darker than they should. Included as a special feature on the disc is the original theatrical trailer.

Also on the disc is an entertaining feature length commentary track by director Jack Hill. Hill discusses how the script was originally written as the follow-up to Coffy, but adds that the studio deemed that sequels were not commercially viable at the time and forced him to re-write the script. He seems kind of bitter about the experience throughout the track, as well as when he discusses how the studio didn't seem to want to help him with the film, but overall he sounds like he did enjoy making it. The track is also very informative as a reference to where he got most of his ideas for the film (either from Grier, from stories he had heard, or from other films he has watched).

Film/DVD Review Courtesy of Pockets of Sanity

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