Best movie of this year hands down!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

You have to wonder who this movie was aimed at, since it shows a bunch of old dudes killing young gang members, bad mouthing them and telling them to behave. (One half expects Fred "the Hammer" to strap one of the youths over his knee and dole out a spanking!) The young listen to "horrible" rap and the old listen to old soul songs. The old talk more "white" and the young are more into hood culture and talk slang. It may be valuable as an explication of generation gaps in black culture.The film itself is a pretty silly action film that lacks the inspiration of its 70's genre film forebears. The action takes place mostly in the dark and you cant see much of whats going on. There are some big explosions that look pretty good though. The soundtrack is made up of dated new jack stylings, not as lively or memorable as "Coffy is the color of her skin" or "the Slaughter theme".Disappointingly, Pam Grier is given second banana status and doesn't kick that much ass, or sexily vamp it up like she did in her 70s classics. She is a dutiful member of the family/crew.The movie explores issues of race, class, urban decay and gang violence in a ham-fisted, unconvincing way. Worth seeing for the blaxploitation completists out there, but not a priority for anyone with a passing interest in the genre.The DVD has a disappointing non-anamorphic transfer.

This movie is correctly graded as a B picture. And yet it is more: an honest hommage to a real, existing town in the throes of death. Before I picked up Original Gangstas as a cheap video cassette, I did not know that the town of Gary existed. I didn't even know a town like Gary could exist (this proves once more: maybe we Europeans are kind of naive in the ways we evaluate the US's wealth and power and its effects.). Now I know better.There is a certain similarity between this film and Jules Dassin's legendary documentary/crime movie The Naked City of 1948. Both use a style that wants to "tell a city". With the title credits the town is introduced to the viewers, with aereal footage, ordinary street scenes and a voice-over that tells something about the history of the town and a few selected buildings (the bakery, the cinema etc.). It is really educational. Very good location shooting gives a vivid impression of the specific urban wasteland. Gary becomes a real place. I also had the impression that the mood of the people who are forced or willing to live in present day Gary is accurately recorded: A mixture of anger, shame and - above all - fear. People are desperate, they don't see a future and the affiliation of youngsters to a gang appears for many to be the only way to survive.In the story the main character played by Fred Williamson (also the producer and a Gary native who certainly put some very personal feelings into this movie) descends on the town as an aging "knight in shining armour". He assembles his old, middle aged buddies (plus Pam Grier!) and stages a war against the gangs. I did not care much for the story and its action scenes with unvariably high death tolls, but I must admit that this movie realistically highlights in a specific place a specific problem that is disquieting and difficult to solve.

A blaxploitation-movie with the stars of this genre, Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Richard Roundtree, Ron O'Neal and Pam Grier. One year before "Jackie Brown" Pam Grier and Robert Forster starred together in this movie. B-movie veterans like Charles Napier and Wings Hauser complete the cast and that is a good reason to watch this movie.

A veteran cast make this update of the blaxploitation genre worth watching. Fred Williamson (Black Caesar), Jim Brown (Slaughter), Pam Grier (Coffy/Foxy Brown), Richard Roundtree (Shaft) and Ron O'Neal (Superfly) join forces to combat the newer, younger version of the same gang they formed some twenty years prior. Not enough Roundtree or O'Neal and barely enough action but a decent enough entry. For fans of the genre.