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Nabaza.net-The MarketPlace - Friday Foster
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List Price: $4.94
Our Price: $1.37
Your Save: $ 3.57 ( 72% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Starring: Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey Cambridge, Thalmus Rasulala, Eartha Kitt
Directed By: Arthur Marks
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 0027616796035
Format: Closed-captioned
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: 2001-01-09
Running Time: 90
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: 1975
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Editorial Reviews:
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Soul Cinema superstar Pam Grier leads an outta-sight, all-star cast, including Yaphet Kotto (Alien), Eartha Kitt (TV's original Catwoman), Carl Weathers (Rocky(r)), Scatman Crothers (The Shining), Ted Lange ("The Love Boat"), Jim Backus ("Gilligan's Island") and Godfrey Cambridge (Cotton Comes to Harlem) in this ultra-slick, pulse-pumping actioner that brings a foxy camerawoman into the focus of danger! When photographer Friday Foster (Grier) unwittingly uncovers a white supremecist plot to knock off all of the country's top black leaders, she andher free-wheelin', trouble-dealin' P.I. friend, Hawkins (Kotto), go on a mission to stomp the killers' plans! From the backstage murders at a righteous fashion show to a pedal-to-the-metal car chase from a funeralin a hearse(!)this shutterbuggin' babe will go anywhere and do anything to expose the corruptiononly this time, the shooting isn't just with a camera!
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: good film during the wane of black action flicks
Comment: *** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Friday Foster, based on the 1970's era comic strip by Jim Lawrence and Jorge Longaron, is about a young black woman magazine photographer. In the original strips, Friday was the assistant to a white photographer; in the film, it's Friday herself who's the shutterbug. Friday (Pam Grier) works for Glamour magazine, and her boss (Julius Harris) sends her to cover the airport arrival of Blake Tarr (Thalmus Rasulala) a self-made billionaire, and apparently the richest black man in the world. Friday gets more than she bargained for as this presumably ordinary assignment turns into an attempted murder, with Tarr as the target. Friday got photos of the hit men, so she becomes a target as well. As it so happens, Tarr is organizing a massive meeting of influential African-Americans at his vast estate; it figures to be an agenda-planning affair for black America. The bad guys (who are for now anonymous) don't take kindly to a black think-tank getting traction, and Friday's misadventures lead her to discover that someone plans to murder everyone who attends this event.
Her partner in (fighting) crime is Colt (Yaphet Kotto), a private detective who likes Friday, but with him she keeps it strictly platonic. She reserves her romantic side for Tarr and for Senator David Lee Hart (Paul Benjamin). A pre-Rocky Carl Weathers (as the hit-man Yarbro) gives chase to Friday for much of the film, and a pre-Love Boat Ted Lange is a young pimp who openly pines for Friday to join his enterprise. Other notable actors in the film include Earth Kitt, Scatman Crothers, Godfrey Cambridge, and Mr. Howell himself, Jim Backus. The action in the film is fast and slick, and the narrative manages to maintain a certain knowing campiness, despite the presumably serious political intrigue of the plot.
Produced and released during the wane of the black-action film trend of the 1970's, the film met with modest response at the box office; a few years later, Hollywood abandoned low-budgeted action fare aimed at ethnics for bigger-budget 'mass-appeal' blockbusters.
Customer Rating:
Summary: [3.5]- "Is she crazy or something?" - "No, she's just all woman"
Comment: In 'Friday Foster' Grier is getting even closer to 'Cleopatra Jones' territory, but without the fun and style of that movie or its sequel. I was slightly disappointed when I saw it because it didn't deliver the typical kick a** madness you normally get from a Pam Grier movie! The storyline is tame, the forced political correctness is only pesky and the whole stuff lacks in violence and sex, so prepare for blaxploitation in its mildest form!
In here we have Pam Grier, as Friday- a magazine photographer, who is given the assignment of covering the airport arrival of the richest black man in America. But Friday gets more than she bargained for as this routine assignment turns into an assassination attempt. Because Friday was able to get some shots of the would be killers, her life is in danger. Soon, everywhere she goes, people end up dead. Friday's investigations lead her to corrupt government officials, a renowned preacher with an eye for more than the Bible, and something called The Black Widow.
Pam Grier is convincing in the lead, but not as tough as "Coffy" or "Foxy Brown"! This movie actually has one of the best supporting casts of any blaxploitation film, but fails to hold up on its end. If you want to be entertained somehow watch out for the performances of genre greats like Yaphet Kotto plays Grier's detective buddy, and Julius Harris is her boss. Plus there's Scatman Crothers ('Black Belt Jones'), Thalmus Rasulala ('Blacula'), Godfrey Cambridge ('Cotton Comes To Harlem'), Paul Benjamin ('Across 110th Street') and Carl Weathers ('Rocky'), as well as Eartha Kitt who is a hoot as a flamboyant fashion designer, Isaac the bartender from 'The Love Boat' (Ted Lange) and even inexplicably 'Gilligan's Island's Thurston Howell III (Jim Backus)!
This film does have some lighthearted tone in comparison to her other films. That's not to say there aren't plenty of killings, but it never feels as depressing, downbeat, or serious as something like "Coffy." It's a nice change of pace to see Grier laughing and joking with Kotto in many of the film's scenes. The action scenes are good and funny at the same time. One of my personal favorites is the rooftop chase with Kotto and Weathers and the second being the fashion show. The fashion line up was just as crazy because the models showed no form of expression going down the runway while doing a form a vogue-dance that sort of scared me a bit while maintaining a zombie like expression across their face, you have to see it in order to understand it.
I'm a fan of 70s Blaxplotation because it reminds me of my parents era and fashion sense, gotta love them. As I stated before "Friday Foster" may not be a spectacular film but it's still welcome in my movie collection.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Friday Foster
Comment: Wasn't her best movie but if you're as big a fan of Pam Grier as I am it's a must own to fill out your collection.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Still a Whole Lotta Woman!!!
Comment: Pam Grier is smokin hot in this blaxploitation classic...and enough "Jive" dialect to keep you laughing for days!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: So-So Pam Grier Vehicle
Comment: Pam Grier is fine as the spunky photo-journalist title character and Yaphet Kotto is amusing as her P.I. sidekick helping her ferret out the "black widow" conspiracy. Their efforts are essentially for naught in this sluggishly directed actioner that has the substance of your average Spelling-Goldberg production. Lots of prominent African-American talent on hand(Eartha Kitt, Godfrey Cambridge, Scatman Crothers,etc.) but their impact is marginal. What this film needed was Sid Haig!
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