As Good As It Gets

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Fun blaxploitation flick about a karate-kicking special agent named Cleopatra Jones (Tamara Dobson) taking on a vicious lesbian drug lord named Mommy (Shelley Winters). Statuesque Tamara Dobson is quite an imposing heroine. Not the strongest actress but she can kick ass and look good doing it. Shelley Winters hams it up with glee as the villain ("I'm tired of being a pussycat!"). She doesn't have a single scene where she dials it down a notch. She's at 20 on a 10 scale the whole time. She's a hoot to watch. Bernie Casey plays Dobson's love interest. Bill McKinney plays a racist cop. Others in the cast include Antonio Fargas, Esther Rolle, Brenda Sykes, and Michael Warren. Less gritty and realistic than most blaxploitation films with more of a focus on comedy and cheesiness. That isn't to say this is something you'd let your kids watch, as evidenced by Shelley Winters screaming profanities and racial slurs within the first ten minutes. But it is an enjoyable time-passer for blaxploitation fans.

A really witty film starring the striking Tamara Dobson in the title role. Cleopatra is a DEA officer bent on putting crime queen Shelly Winters out of business. Winters puts up quite a fight. Director Jack Starrett keeps things moving at a fast clip with a lot of great set pieces: Dobson taking out would-be assassins at a baggage carousel; a really great car chase sequence through LA; an out-of-left field car crash involving two tow trucks & a Rolls. Dobson is not only beautiful but a terrific actress, very believable despite the high fashion wardrobe (must be seen to be believed). Winters is fun with Technicolor red hair and the dependable Bernie Casey is in it too. Best of all is kooky Antonio Fargas as one of Winters' less cooperative soldiers. A classic.

Tamara Dobson plays the title character, the best dressed United States Agent in the history of cinema. She's on a quest for justice and for burning down poppy fields. Her rival is Mommy, played by Shelley Winters, who gives a subtle, restrained perf...naw, I'm fooling ya, she's re-defining over-the-top as she GNAWS on every single piece of scenery, all in a variety of Eva Gabor wigs. Seeing her rub the bottom of her young girlfriend, and then get her feet rubbed by the same girl...I wasn't sure if I was going to vomit or thank the movie gods that created this.Plot is virtually unimportant as Cleo battles the fuzz, Antonio Fargas and anyone who gets in her way. Movie is vintage fun and it was nice to see Esther Rolle in a small part. 6/10.

While it is pitiful black exploitation as we view with 20/20 hindsight, this film marked another of H*wood's strenuous efforts to embrace black actors and actresses on the silver screen. In today's view the glam outfits look ridiculous, but then if you walked the streets in the 70's, the outfits and characters might easily be a collage of reality. Big afros and "to the max" jackets are all hallmarks of the 1970's American style--especially, the Black neighborhood.The metaphorical message means much when taken in its contextual setting. Blacks were fighting for their neighborhoods against the onslaught of "urban renewal" and infestation of drug dealers and pimps, which compared to the 80's now seem a 'walk in the park'. It could be classed as some morality play--where combatants take on the role of the nemesis in reality and the heroine becomes the overcoming and empowered victims in reality.It's "fly".