Boring

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Utterly dull blacksploitation that consists of a series of scenes that are boring and hysterically anti-white. The anti-honky messages are part of the game, but they don't add up at all, they get tedious after the first cliché of "whites roughing up the blacks". There's some 70's music and a few low-budget gun fights but it lacks any story or sense of urgency. Features a few actors who are recognizable. Martin Landau as Capelli, Stephen McNally as Laurento, Bernie Casey as Seth, Gary Conway as Adams, Bruce Glover as Ray Kriley and Jim Brown as Gunn.A few actors who are recognizable are also sports folks.

Just watched this Jim Brown action movie on the Crackle site. He plays Gunn, a nightclub owner who vows vengeance after his brother-because of his involvement in a robbery-gets killed. Unlike most blaxploitation movies, this one takes it's time in developing the story though it threatens to get monotonous when sequences get too talky. Of the supporting cast, the most interesting player to me was Jim Watkins playing the only black officer-in this case, Lt. Ken Hopper-who is firm but fair in his dealings with Gunn. My favorite scene was the one where a couple of white women staying at his girlfriend's house start putting the moves on him before that girlfriend shoos them away but not before Gunn's shirt came off! Ooh, yeah! So on that note, Black Gunn is highly recommended.

Black Gunn (1972) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Fun blaxploitation film has Jim Brown playing Gunn, a club owner who has to seek revenge against the Mafia after they kill his younger brother. Gunn teams up with his brother's "Black Power" group and they try and locate the man (Martin Landau) responsible for the death. If you're a fan of blaxploitation then this here is going to offer enough to keep you entertained from start to finish. The story itself was pretty standard for this type of film but it's good enough to keep the film moving and Brown turns in a nice performance in the lead. I think the lead actor was always the most important thing to a film like this and Brown doesn't disappoint as he can kick enough ass to keep a smile on your face and deliver enough lines to make you laugh. Brown does get a more dramatic moment when he discovers his brother's dead body but this scene really doesn't work too well especially when he's crying with no tears. Bruce Glover adds a lot of fun as one of the racist Mafia guys and many will remember him from his roles in CHINATOWN and BIG BAD MAMA II (what a double feature that would be). Landau, years before his Oscar, does a decent job in his few scenes as the top dog. Vida Blue, who won the Cy Young award a year before making this, appears briefly as does other sports stars like Mike Thomas and Mike Bass. As normal for a film like this, there's all sorts of hysterical racist dialogue being screamed out with most of it dealing with watermelon but that just adds to the fun when Brown finally breaks them down. We also get all sorts of bloody violence with your expected shoot out at the end but the highlight remains the cool, laid back Brown doing his thing.

Bought it on 16mm. Seriously flawed character motivation and gratuitous violence... Holes in the plot large enough to drive a '71 Caddy through... All the elements necessary for a hilarious and bewildering movie experience. The soundtrack is great although it surfaces about as frequently as the Loch ness Monster, bubbling up at unexpected and inappropriate moments. And how the hell did Martin Landau get in here? Bruce Glover is a shining beacon of kitsch. Solid, baby.