Customer Reviews

Black Heat [VHS]

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Yet another pick from classic 1970s blaxploitation. It's definitely not Dolemite, but it had enough action to keep me occupied for all 96 minutes. This one's hard to find in regular video stores. Amazon is about the only place I know that even carries this film. A great addition!

Here's a slice of '70s Blaxpoitation cheese that manages to pack a sizeable wallop for its miniscule budget. Tough African-American detective Kicks Carter (Timothy Brown) is out to break up a pair of bottom-feeder crooks and stop a guns-for-drugs trade organized by a black mobster improbably named Guido. Along the way there's plenty of clumsily choreographed (and often poorly-lit) fight scenes and shoot-outs, a smattering of sex and nudity (like when Kicks makes sweet love to his TV reporter girlfriend Tanya Boyd), a fair amount of sleaze (like when a woman with a gambling problem is gang-raped by four sweaty redneck card sharps; the fact that this woman resembles a young version of "That '70s Show"'s Debra Jo Rupp only adds to the scene's nastiness) and stilted dialog so awkwardly peppered with jive talk it's obvious the script was written by white people. Still, schlock director Al Adamson is in peak form with this one, keeping the action moving and making sure to hit all the right buttons to please his audience--even including a little bit of lesbian action, again involving our hapless gambling addict. The cast also includes Adamson regulars Russ Tamblyn (who plays a bug-eyed, low-rent mobster named Ziggy) and aging blond bombshell (and Adamson's wife) Regina Carrol. The movie runs out of steam by the final ten minutes, but all in all, "Black Heat" is pretty hot. Just don't be fooled by the updated cover art on the DVD: "Black Heat" is a '70s movie through and through, from Timothy Brown's huge afro down to his crotch-molding, (...) tight jeans.

Black Heat is not as hard to find as one might think. I was in Hollywood video browsing the action section and it jumped off the bottom shelf and kicked me in the shin. It hurt like a muther!