I am not an expert of blaxploitation movies because honestly, I have not seen many. But, I have seen a couple of movies that started the genre such as Shaft and Foxy Brown, starring Richard Roundtree and Pam Grier respectively. I was glad I enjoyed it once but I have not revisited them. But, the genre died down and filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino made movies giving their homage to that genre such as Jackie Brown, which I thought was quietly dynamic because of the dialogue. But, unfortunately, Shaft was remade in 2000 with Samuel L. Jackson. I'll give that remake most of the performances like Jeffrey Wright's however the plot was forgettable. I was enamored by Taraji P. Henson's charisma and positive attitude to make this movie but in spite of her performance, it falters in many categories that it went downhill from the opening scene.
Expert assassin Mary (Taraji P. Henson) is guilty after killing a target that is related to his son, Danny (Jahi Di'Allo Winston). One year later, Danny works for a criminal named Uncle (Xander Berkeley). Mary keeps an eye on Danny from a long distance. He sorts of screws up his assignment as Uncle punishes him as his boss gives Danny a warning. Danny goes outside to take a nap on the bag as his bag is swiped. However, after his bag is swiped and he chases the them. He takes out his gun and fires it but he faints and Mary takes him in.
Later, Uncle and his goons are shot by Mary and she later goes to meet with her fellow assassins led by Benny (Danny Glover). Uncle's criminal family thinks that someone from Benny's organization is responsible for Uncle's death. Benny believes that someone will be responsible if someone did kill him. Mary tries to kill another person on the team to cover her mistakes and it seems that trouble gets worse.
The opening sequence, the first 10 minutes, the chemistry between Taraji and the kid are the aspects that are solid in this movie that hearkens back to the 1970s blaxploitation genre. Everything else is almost unbelievably bad. The storyline should have been simpler than being shown or written on-screen. I was praising most of the cinematography in the latter part of 2017. Here, I can barely see the action as the lighting is dim and most of the action is unfocused, not edited well or in dark shadows. It is utterly frustrating that the cinematography is bad. If you want to see the difference, show John Wick or John Wick: Chapter 2. Then, compare that to this movie.
Taraji P. Henson does what she can for this role and I admire her for it as she has got swagger. But, the movie does not match her talent. I think the best performance goes to the kid played by Jahi Di'Allo Winston as he got some range and I think casting directors should take a look at him and hire him for other roles in different projects. Danny Glover, Neal McDonough, Billy Brown seems to just do this movie, act and want to get it over with. To be quite honest, I did not care for much of the storyline or the characters. It seems to be on par with the straight-to-Blu-ray category or VOD category. The dialogue is even on that level with the "Shut your mouth!" being repeated so much that it got annoying. I encourage writers to keep writing main roles for women and women in color because I believe it is important to get them chances. However, getting the role is great but you cannot accomplish finishing the movie after step 1 without completing the other following steps.
*1/2
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