The Best of Soul Cinema [6 Discs]The Best of Soul Cinema [6 Discs]

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MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

    Say it loud! Five titles from MGM Home Entertainment's "Soul Cinema" series of classic African-American films are collected in this special boxed set. The Best of Soul Cinema features the films Coffy, Cooley High, Foxy Brown, Hell up in Harlem, and I'm Gonna Git You Sucka! All five movies have been transferred to disc in letterboxed format at the widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1, except Foxy Brown (which is letterboxed at 1.78:1) and Cooley High (which gets a pan-and-scan transfer at the full-screen ratio of 1.33:1). All letterboxed transfers have been enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16 x 9 monitors. The audio on all films has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono, except I'm Gonna Git You Sucka!, which is in Dolby Digital Surround. All five films are in English. Cooley High and Hell up in Harlem also include alternate dubbed tracks in French, while Coffy is dubbed in both French and Spanish. All five movies include optional subtitles in Spanish and French, excpet Cooley High, which is subtitled in English and French. All the pictures include their original theatrical trailer as a bonus, except for Cooley High, while Coffy, Foxy Brown, and Hell up in Harlem also boast commentary tracks from their directors. Finally, the box set includes a bonus disc of music from the films. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:
  • Region: 1
  • Number of Discs: 6
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
  • Screen: Pan and Scan
  • Audio: Dolby Digital Surround
  • Features:
    • cc
    • Original theatrical trailer for Coffy, Foxy Brown, and Hell up in Harlem
    • Commentary track for Coffy, Foxy Brown, and Hell up in Harlem
AWARDS
  • Telluride Film Festival
  •     Film Presented - 1978
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
REVIEWS:
  • As he was bursting on the scene as star of the TV variety series In Living Color, Keenen Ivory Wayans also made a confident and hilarious directing debut with I'm Gonna Git You Sucka! Featuring such exaggerated stereotypes as a pimp who awkwardly struts with miniature fish tanks in his shoes, and a small-timer who dies from wearing too many gold chains, the film amply demonstrates the daring of this humorist. Risking controversy, especially at a time when black filmmakers like Spike Lee were taking themselves very seriously, Wayans doesn't mind ridiculing and possibly offending his own people with such wild characterizations, knowing that the essentially lighthearted humor will win out. It does indeed, and Wayans gets plenty of cameo and leading role help, much of it from actors straight out of the blaxpoitation films he's satirizing. As zany as it is, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka! alternates between highs and lows, episodes of incisiveness and moments of broad simplicity. But where it scores, it scores big, and the fact that the performers are such willing co-conspirators gives the impression that everyone is having a terrific time. The apparently selective Wayans seems able to sniff out a hit -- in part because of a questionable shift in focus to uneven acting vehicles, he didn't direct again until Scary Movie (2000), which became the highest grossing film not released by a major studio, 12 years later. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi
  • Coffy is one of the more lively blaxploitation films of the period, with some silly touches like genre standby Sid Haig as a racist Russian goon named Omar, puny Arbus as the perverted gangster (he calls Coffy a "wildcat from the tropical jungle"), and a catfight in which Coffy beats up a room full of scantily clad hookers. There's also a junkie hooker whose "man" is a giant leather-clad lesbian named Harriet, and DoQui wears one of the gaudiest yellow pimp outfits ever seen on film. Like all revenge films, this one puts its protagonist on dubious moral ground. Not only does Coffy ram heroin needles into people and blow a corrupt councilman's gonads off with a shotgun, but she intentionally steals a car from an innocent bystander, and causes hooker Linda Haynes to slice her hands to ribbons just for spilling food on her out of jealousy. Coffy also gets to run over a half-blind hit man, shotgun Vitroni in his swimming pool, burn a crooked cop alive in his squad car, and repeatedly jam a bobby pin into Omar's carotid artery. Needless to say, she is not a woman to trifle with. Despite taking the moral low road, this is an outstanding exploitation film with enough violence, sadism, nudity, and social outrage to satisfy even the most demanding sleaze buff. Grier is terrific, and it's no coincidence that Quentin Tarantino released Switchblade Sisters to theaters and cast both Grier and Haig in his masterful 1997 blaxpo tribute Jackie Brown. That film also featured music by Coffy composer Roy Ayers. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
  • Despite being poorly acted, poorly scripted, and just plain scattershot, Cooley High developed a fond following as one of the earliest "guys hanging out and getting in trouble" films for the urban community. Michael Schultz' film is also remembered for its signature song, Freddie Perren's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," which the group Boyz II Men re-popularized in the 1990s on their album Cooleyhighharmony, indicating the enduring popularity of this film. The adventures of Preach (Glynn Turman) and Cochise (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) feel authentic -- good, rambunctious fun on the streets of lower-middle-class 1960s Chicago. These bits earn the film the good will that defies its faults. However, even though scripter Eric Monte wisely resists casting the characters strictly as saints or sinners, their frequently ignoble behavior ends up making them unsympathetic. Cochise is a handsome and generally affable jock, but he's such a seducer that he finds women utterly disposable, to the point that it's hard to root for him. And the bespectacled Preach fritters away his obvious intelligence (he reads and writes poetry for fun) by always acting the fool, undercutting the few strides he makes with outrageous blunders. The film's episodic nature cripples its fluidity, and when a concerned teacher played by Garrett Morris is introduced far too late in the narrative, it becomes clear that Cooley High isn't enough about high school to warrant being named after one. Viewers might also find the tonal shift at the end rather abrupt, given the loosey-goosey nature of the events leading up to it. The kind of film that's fun despite a litany of reasonable complaints, Cooley High remains a benchmark in early black cinema, and Schultz would follow it with a blaxploitation classic, Car Wash (1976). ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi
  • Jack Hill's successful follow-up to the brutal blaxploitation hit Coffy manages to top that drive-in favorite by piling on twice the action and outrageousness. The B-movie revenge plot is nothing new, but works nicely thanks to Hill's flair for infusing commonplace plots with colorful moments that give them a new lease on life. The highlights in this vein include a fight in a lesbian bar and the Black Panther-inspired "community watch" group that keeps pushers off the ghetto streets. Hill also turns in some nice work behind the camera, slyly alternating light comedy and brutal action to keep the audience off guard and maintaining a lean pace that keeps the film crackling with the energy of a good B-movie. However, Foxy Brown's top asset is Pam Grier's performance. No matter how strange the situation is, Grier plays the material straight and fuels her characterization with charm and intelligence to create a truly memorable B-movie heroine. Other performances of note include Antonio Fargas as Foxy's shifty drug dealer brother and Kathryn Loder as the snooty but twisted madam who tangles with the heroine. Ultimately, Foxy Brown may be a little too twisted and violent for the average viewer, but remains a one-of-a-kind grindhouse epic guaranteed to satisfy anyone who craves blaxploitation at its fastest and funkiest. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi
  • This fast-paced sequel to Black Caesar delivers twice the action of that film, yet is only half as satisfying because it lacks the hard-hitting drama and balanced tone of its predecessor. The key problem is its script, which manages to be underwritten and over-plotted all at once. Hell Up in Harlem also suffers from weak villains; little time is devoted to the motivations of characters like Zach and DiAngelo, so they come off as simple cardboard villains merely designed to push the plot along. Fred Williamson and Julius Harris make a compelling father-son criminal team, but their relationship never gets the time it deserves due to the film's unnecessarily complicated plot. On the plus side, Hell Up in Harlem benefits from a slick funk score by Motown producers Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell. Also, writer/director Larry Cohen does maintain a snappy pace (an action scene occurs about every five to ten minutes in this film), and works in plenty of odd, witty touches like a chase scene that involves its participants boarding separate planes to pursue each other across the country. However, the constant flow of bullets and fisticuffs becomes numbing after a while, because there is no emotionally involving story to back them up. As a result, Hell Up in Harlem feels like the cinematic equivalent of empty-calorie junk food. It's fun while it lasts, but is ultimately unsatisfying. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi

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