{"id":3786,"date":"2024-09-03T15:40:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T15:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3786"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:17:30","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:17:30","slug":"the-big-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/03\/the-big-score\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Score"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Big Score <\/strong>(1983)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Almi Pictures\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence, brief nudity, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Fred Williamson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gail Morgan Hickman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jay Chattaway\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Joao Fernandes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 1983 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Fred Williamson, Nancy Wilson, John Saxon, Richard Roundtree, Ed Lauter, D\u2019Urville Martin, Michael Dante, Bruce Glover, Joe Spinell, Frank Pesce, Tony King, James Spinks, Chelcie Ross, Stack Pierce, Jerome Landfield, Ron Dean.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Only in a cheap blaxploitation movie like 1983\u2019s The Big Score<\/strong> will you get a line like, \u201cEither you cooperate, man, or I\u2019ll do the hustle all over your g**damn face!\u201d Dialogue like this is priceless.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Fred \u201cThe Hammer\u201d Williamson (Black Caesar) plays Frank Hooks, a Chicago detective who finds himself in trouble with both sides of the law after $1 million in drug money goes missing. It\u2019s not the most complex of plots, but nobody expects any amount of depth from B-movies like The Big Score<\/strong>. I didn\u2019t get to see it at the movies because it didn\u2019t open in any of the suburban movie houses I frequented in my teen years. It showed up on HBO in September \u201984 and I stayed up to watch it at 3am a few days before the school year officially began. I remember liking it despite its poor production values. It has low budget written all over it as evidenced by the cinematography, editing, sound and film stock. The acting is really bad; the fight choreography clumsy. It\u2019s illogical and filled with plot holes and inconsistencies. So why watch The Big Score<\/strong>? Because Williamson is a total bad ass, that\u2019s why! The movie features plenty of action, bloody violence and a funky jazz score. It\u2019s a cool B-movie action flick.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Detective Hooks, like his white counterpart Dirty Harry, hates watching dirtbags get away with breaking the law he\u2019s sworn to uphold. The movie opens with him busting a drug dealer named Goldy Jackson (Dante, Cage) in an undercover operation (he\u2019s dressed like a pimp!). Even though he catches him red-handed, the guy walks out of the police station just a few hours later. Hooks and Goldy exchange words before the cop hauls off and punches him right in front of his lawyer (Ross, The Last Boy Scout). Naturally, his captain (Lauter, Death Wish 3) chews him out for this ill-advised action, telling him that he has to apologize to which Hooks replies, \u201cYou tell Jackson and his faggot lawyer to kiss my ass!\u201d Hooks gets another shot at nailing Goldy after obese stool pigeon Cheech (Spinks, Car Wash) informs him of a big deal about to go down.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Along with partners Davis (Saxon, A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Gordon (Roundtree, Shaft), Hooks stakes out the abandoned building where the million dollar drug buy is to take place. As expected, all hell breaks loose when one of the bad guys spots Hooks on the fire escape peeking through the window. Shots are fired and bad guys end up dead while Hooks chases Goldy through the city streets. The drug dealer is carrying a briefcase containing the soon-to-be-missing money when the pursuit begins and hides it in the trunk of an abandoned car before Hooks catches up and shoots him dead. Since nobody knows where the money is, it\u2019s assumed that Hooks stole the money. Ultimately, he\u2019s suspended from the force until the matter can be cleared up. Since Hooks isn\u2019t the kind of guy to wait around for justice, he sets out to find the cash himself. Meanwhile, crime boss Mayfield (Spinell, Maniac) gives two of his henchmen, Koslo (Glover, Diamonds Are Forever) and Jumbo (King, Sharky\u2019s Machine), the go-ahead to go after Hooks and his nightclub owner wife Angie (jazz singer Wilson) in order to retrieve his money. Don\u2019t they know if you push a man like Hooks he\u2019s going to push back with a vengeance? Guess not.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s nice to see that Williamson, as a director, still appreciates the street slang heard in many a 70s blaxploitation flick. People refer to each other as \u201cman\u201d; Goldy refers to Hooks as \u201csucka\u201d and \u201cpig\u201d. The script, by Gail Morgan Hickman (Murphy\u2019s Law, Death Wish 4), includes great dialogue exchanges like the following:<\/p>\n

Cheech: \u201cStuff is being delivered tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hooks: \u201cSure of this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheech: \u201cHey man, I wouldn\u2019t s*** ya, straight up. I got a lot riding on this thing \u2026. like my ass!\u201d<\/p>\n

Such dialogue wouldn\u2019t work as well without a cast of cool B-movie actors like the one in The Big Score<\/strong>. Williamson is a cool cat. This guy knows how to kick ass. Acting is another story. Let\u2019s just say that performances aren\u2019t this movie\u2019s strong suit, but I love the actors just the same. I have just one problem. Roundtree receives top billing, yet plays only a small part before disappearing completely (without explanation) about midway through. At least in Kill Point, similarly misleading in giving him top billing, we see him getting killed. As an admirer of the man also known as John Shaft, I wanted to see more of him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Another blaxploitation vet, D\u2019Urville Martin (Hammer and Dolemite among others), shows up as the illegal weapons\/explosives dealer that helps Hooks in the climax. And what a climax it is! Without giving too much away, although the end is pretty much a given thing in a movie like The Big Score<\/strong>, a man literally gets blown to pieces by a hand grenade. Sweet! The only violence I object to in The Big Score<\/strong> is the killing of two house pets (a cat and little dog). They occur off-screen, but still. The music is great. Ms. Wilson gets to sing a number and Ramsey Lewis makes an appearance. That\u2019s in addition to Jay Chattaway\u2019s funky score.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the end, what\u2019s important is that The Big Score<\/strong> succeeds in what it sets out to do. It\u2019s a cheap action movie best seen as part of a triple bill at some grimy urban grindhouse theater. There\u2019s absolutely no mistaking it for quality cinema. If I wanted that, I\u2019d reach for Bergman. This kind of flick is just fun.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Big Score (1983)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Almi Pictures\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence, brief nudity, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Fred Williamson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gail Morgan Hickman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jay Chattaway\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Joao Fernandes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 1983 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Fred Williamson, Nancy Wilson, John Saxon, Richard Roundtree, Ed Lauter, D\u2019Urville Martin, Michael Dante, Bruce Glover, Joe Spinell, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/The-Big-Score-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3786"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5381,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786\/revisions\/5381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}