She’s the ultimate tough and sexy heroine. She’s Soul Cinema superstar Pam Grier, and whether delivering her justice with a shotgun, a razor or just her bare hands, she doesn’t miss a beat in this “smashing, no-holds-barred tale of retaliation” (Variety)! Nobody ever commandeered the screen quite like Pam Grier…and Coffy “couldn’t be better! [It's] one of the most entertaining movies ever made”(Quentin Tarantino)! Grier is Coffy, nurse by day and avenging angel by night. When she discovers that her little sister has been doped upand freaked outby a greedy drug pusher, she not only puts an end to his miserable days, but she vows to follow his trail of corruption up to the topthe very top. But what Coffy doesn’t realize is that all is not as it seemsand that the leafy green behind the pushers’ scene just may come from someone she knows!In the opening minutes of Coffy, Pam Grier’s star-making role, she blasts the skull of a sleazy drug pusher into pulp like a watermelon and shoots his junkie assistant with an overdose of heroin. Jack Hill knows how to open a movie, and he never lets up on the down-and-dirty action. Coffy is an emergency room nurse by day and vigilante by night, targeting the dealers who made her sister a comatose junkie. She works her way up to the Italian mobsters muscling into the ghetto drug trade while she’s romanced by glib, smooth-talking politician Booker Bradshaw and wooed by nice-guy cop William Elliot, whose refusal to sell out to the corrupt force earns him a crippling beating.
There’s plenty of sex, a catty girl-fight that leaves the losers topless, and car chases and shootouts galore, but what makes Coffy a blaxploitation classic is Grier’s Amazonian presence and fiery charisma, and the gritty, low-budget action scenes marked by visceral, wincing violence. Mob strong-arm Sid Haig (Spider Baby) cackles while dragging his victim (a strutting peacock pimp played by Nashville‘s Robert DoQui) behind a speeding car in a sadistic lynching, and Grier runs down one bad guy with a speeding car and takes care of another with a shotgun to the groin. Hill had previously directed Grier in The Big Doll House and The Big Bird Cage. Their next and last picture together, Foxy Brown, was originally written as the sequel to Coffy. –Sean Axmaker
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March 13, 2010
#1
I’ve always been a big Pam Grier fan, however this is definitely not her best film. Unfortunately like many blaxploitation films, this film seemed so monotenous and predictable. It felt like another movie that was being cranked out of the blaxploitation factory, one that was not made with any care or originality. This film puts to shame a lot of great Blaxploitation films of the era, such as “Shaft”, “Uptown Saturday Night” (which features a young Bill Cosby, Sidney Poitier, and Harry Belafonte) and “Cooley High”, just to name a few. If you insist on seeing this film, I would recommend renting it first.
March 13, 2010
#2
You do this movie such an injustice by giving it silly trendy lables. Screw lables. The boobs and violence are only there because in that lifestyle there’s plenty of both. Ya know what? This is how many cops and politicians operate folks – sorry, I didn’t make it that way, they did. You’ll find that the most unknown/unpopular movies often tell the truest stories…hmmmmmm I wonder why that is. It might take you a nanosecond to realize that movies that show the reality of our corrupt government are ridiculed with lables like “blaxploitation” so that many people will reject them sight unseen. Buy this movie, you won’t regret it. It’s exciting yet depressing, if you have enough sense to know this is how our “leaders” truly operate. And yes, they do. Deal with it.
March 13, 2010
#3
My hopes for a digitally remastered version of Pam Grier’s ‘Coffy’ were killed when I obtained this AWFUL mono DVD!! Yuck!! Don’t get me wrong, I love the movie (& Pam!!), but this DVD should be destroyed ASAP!! The mono sound is no better than an average VHS tape, but the picture quality is fairly decent.I thought that I would see ‘Coffy’ with surround sound, but NOOOOOO!! The sound is terrible, so save your money & get the video tape (or wait for a PROPER DVD VERSION!!!).
March 13, 2010
#4
SKIN AS SMOOTH AS VELVET. THIS IS ONE TOUGH WOMAN YOU DON’T WANT TO MESS WITH. THIS IS ANOTHER CLASSIC FROM PAM GRIER AND THIS IS A MUST HAVE FOR ANY FAN. I WOULD RECOMMEND ANYONE WHO LIKES BLAXPLOITAION FILMS TO BUY THIS VIDEO BECAUSE YOU WOULD DEFINITELY ENJOY THIS VIDEO. I LIKE THIS VIDEO IT IS GOOD, EXCITING, AND FULL OF ACTION. PAM ALWAYS DELIVERS A LOT OF ACTION WITH HER MOVIES I LIKE THIS ONE AS WELL SHE GETS EVEN WITH SOME PEOPLE BUT SHE STILL DOES IT IN A SLICK,SUAVE, AND PERFECT WAY AND LIKE ALWAYS SHE ALWAYS EVEN THE SCORE. IF YOU LIKE ACTION MOVIES, PAM GRIER, AND BLAXPLOITATION MOVIES THEN YOU WOULD DEFINITELY ENJOY THIS ONE IT IS A MUST HAVE FOR ANY PAM GRIER FAN.
March 13, 2010
#5
I LOVED THIS MOVIE!! WORDS ALONE CAN NOT EXPRESS ABOUT THIS GREAT MOVIE! I AM A “HUGE” FAN OF PAM GRIER!! SEE THIS MOVIE! IT’S ACTION-PACKED! IT HAS VIOLENCE! BUT, MOST OF ALL, IT HAS PAM GRIER!!!