While arguably Pam Grier's best known work from the period when she owned the Blaxploitation genre, Foxy Brown is unfortunately the least satisfying offering from that chapter of her filmography. While Grier is always delightful to watch, this rather silly outing doesn't offer enough action or originality to distract the viewer from how ultimately stupid the premise is.
None of the plot turns that propel the story forward are the least bit feasible, and while I'm certainly aware that films like this aren't meant to be taken seriously, seeing how well Coffy balanced the camp elements with a gritty urban realism makes this follow-up seem disappointing and disjointed.
The general plot concerns the murder of Grier's government informant boyfriend, who has been given facial reconstructive surgery to protect his identity from the underworld figures he infiltrated. Apparently, the surgery wasn't all that radical, because despite the sincerity with which Grier and boyfriend's fellow Feds marvel at his unveiling, Grier's sleazy drug addict brother is able to recognize him upon seeing him in his new guise for approximately 10 seconds.
Her brother, of course, drops the dime to our resident drug carteles, who are looking for revenge against the man who irked them, although it's not entirely clear why they want him dead. Obviously, the members of this underworld family are not in prison, and are still free to orchestrate their dope trade unhindered, so one has to wonder exactly how this former agent wronged them so significantly that they're willing to risk a broad daylight hit against him. Anyway, he apparently did, so they shoot him down in front of Grier's house. It's worth noting that the two assassins ALSO are able to ascertain his identity after seeing his new face for 10 seconds... This is apparently the most piddling facial reconstruction in the history of film, and one can't help but think that he might have been safer if they skipped the plastic procedure and threw a pair of Groucho glasses on him instead.
Grier is, of course, devastated, and immediately sets a revenge plan in action. Once she finds the parties responsible, she does what any rational person would do: poses as a hooker to get inside their organization. Surely, there must be an easier way to get close enough to them to hatch an egg of vengeance (especially since her "audition" for the call girl position allows her to walk right into the midst of their home-base and stand face to face and alone in the room with the woman who ordered her lover's death).
But we wouldn't have much of a movie if Foxy's plan was that simple, so we follow her on a call-job, where she befriends a fellow working gal who is content to continue hooking even though she has a husband and child, who storm their way onto the cartel's compound to confront her as she and Foxy leave for their assignment. (Security at the estate that serves as base of operations for both a call-girl ring and a lucrative drug pushing syndicate must not be a high priority, since this random guy can just walk onto the grounds carrying a small child). This subplot is rather meaningless, and the hooker she befriends eventually disappears from the film without any explanation, but the whole point of this detour seems to be for the cartel to find out Foxy is playing spy so that they can send her to a pair of their henchmen to be raped, tortured, and force-fed heroin.
Now armed with even more incentive for revenge, Foxy escapes, enlists the help of a local vigilante crew, seduces Sid Haig, and eventually has her bloody vengeance, producing a few memorable bits along the way, luckily for us. One of these involves a thug meeting an airplane propeller head-on to delicious effect, and another finds Foxy castrating the lover of the cartel's chairwoman and delivering his cash and prizes to her in a pickle jar.
There are plenty of cheap thrills here to make Foxy Brown a worthy view, but nothing that will encourage repeat viewing the way that Coffy's much more violent, sexy, and solid template does. Having an original title doesn't disguise the fact that this film is, for all intents and purposes, a sequel, thus subject to the familiar rule of diminishing returns. Foxy Brown may not be an Empire Strikes Back, but it definitely isn't a Phantom Menace, so Grier completists won't feel much pain while crossing this one off their list.
If that sounds like a meager recommendation, it is, but if you're a fan of Blaxploitation films or Pam Grier, you already know you're going to see this. So why do you care what I think anyway?
None of the plot turns that propel the story forward are the least bit feasible, and while I'm certainly aware that films like this aren't meant to be taken seriously, seeing how well Coffy balanced the camp elements with a gritty urban realism makes this follow-up seem disappointing and disjointed.
The general plot concerns the murder of Grier's government informant boyfriend, who has been given facial reconstructive surgery to protect his identity from the underworld figures he infiltrated. Apparently, the surgery wasn't all that radical, because despite the sincerity with which Grier and boyfriend's fellow Feds marvel at his unveiling, Grier's sleazy drug addict brother is able to recognize him upon seeing him in his new guise for approximately 10 seconds.
Her brother, of course, drops the dime to our resident drug carteles, who are looking for revenge against the man who irked them, although it's not entirely clear why they want him dead. Obviously, the members of this underworld family are not in prison, and are still free to orchestrate their dope trade unhindered, so one has to wonder exactly how this former agent wronged them so significantly that they're willing to risk a broad daylight hit against him. Anyway, he apparently did, so they shoot him down in front of Grier's house. It's worth noting that the two assassins ALSO are able to ascertain his identity after seeing his new face for 10 seconds... This is apparently the most piddling facial reconstruction in the history of film, and one can't help but think that he might have been safer if they skipped the plastic procedure and threw a pair of Groucho glasses on him instead.
Grier is, of course, devastated, and immediately sets a revenge plan in action. Once she finds the parties responsible, she does what any rational person would do: poses as a hooker to get inside their organization. Surely, there must be an easier way to get close enough to them to hatch an egg of vengeance (especially since her "audition" for the call girl position allows her to walk right into the midst of their home-base and stand face to face and alone in the room with the woman who ordered her lover's death).
But we wouldn't have much of a movie if Foxy's plan was that simple, so we follow her on a call-job, where she befriends a fellow working gal who is content to continue hooking even though she has a husband and child, who storm their way onto the cartel's compound to confront her as she and Foxy leave for their assignment. (Security at the estate that serves as base of operations for both a call-girl ring and a lucrative drug pushing syndicate must not be a high priority, since this random guy can just walk onto the grounds carrying a small child). This subplot is rather meaningless, and the hooker she befriends eventually disappears from the film without any explanation, but the whole point of this detour seems to be for the cartel to find out Foxy is playing spy so that they can send her to a pair of their henchmen to be raped, tortured, and force-fed heroin.
Now armed with even more incentive for revenge, Foxy escapes, enlists the help of a local vigilante crew, seduces Sid Haig, and eventually has her bloody vengeance, producing a few memorable bits along the way, luckily for us. One of these involves a thug meeting an airplane propeller head-on to delicious effect, and another finds Foxy castrating the lover of the cartel's chairwoman and delivering his cash and prizes to her in a pickle jar.
There are plenty of cheap thrills here to make Foxy Brown a worthy view, but nothing that will encourage repeat viewing the way that Coffy's much more violent, sexy, and solid template does. Having an original title doesn't disguise the fact that this film is, for all intents and purposes, a sequel, thus subject to the familiar rule of diminishing returns. Foxy Brown may not be an Empire Strikes Back, but it definitely isn't a Phantom Menace, so Grier completists won't feel much pain while crossing this one off their list.
If that sounds like a meager recommendation, it is, but if you're a fan of Blaxploitation films or Pam Grier, you already know you're going to see this. So why do you care what I think anyway?