{"id":3788,"date":"2024-09-03T15:53:50","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T15:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3788"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:17:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:17:48","slug":"the-return-of-superfly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/03\/the-return-of-superfly\/","title":{"rendered":"The Return of Superfly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Return of Superfly <\/strong>(1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Triton\/Action-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence, drugs, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sig Shore\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Anthony Wisdom\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Curtis Mayfield\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Anghel Decca\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 9, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Nathan Purdee, Margaret Avery, Leonard Thomas, Christopher Curry, Carlos Carrasco, Samuel L. Jackson, Luis Ramos, Kirk Taylor, David Groh, John Gabriel, Tico Wells, Patrice Ablack, Arnie Mazer, Eric Payne, Ruthanna Graves, David Weinberg, John Hayden, Joe Spataro, O.L. Duke, Timothy Stickney.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $610,402 (US)<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0It\u2019s hard to believe that The Return of Superfly<\/strong> has been around for more than 30 years. Rather, it\u2019s hard to believe 1990 was more than 30 years ago. It\u2019s funny how time flies as you get older. I clearly remember going into the city to see The Return of Superfly<\/strong> on a Sunday afternoon in November \u201890. As I waited in line at the now-closed Eric\u2019s Place Theater to buy my ticket, I hoped I\u2019d be able to follow it since I never saw Super Fly (1972) or its 1973 sequel Super Fly T.N.T. I only knew that they dealt with a drug dealer named Youngblood Priest played by the late Ron O\u2019Neal who I knew from the 1979 martial arts actioner A Force of One starring Chuck Norris.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I ended up liking The Return of Superfly<\/strong>, but didn\u2019t rewatch it until I came across a copy three decades later (i.e. last week). Seeing it again after so much time was quite an experience. It\u2019s a total throwback! If not for references to Arsenio Hall and Pat Sajak, I\u2019d swear that it was made in 1975 not 1990. Watching it, I briefly felt like I\u2019d been transported back to the 70s- aka the Golden Age of Blaxploitation. Once I saw that nobody wore loud, flashy outfits and heard the rap music on the soundtrack, it brought me right back to the past-present. Who says time travel isn\u2019t possible (yet)?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Nathan Purdee (The Young and the Restless) takes over O\u2019Neal\u2019s role as the former drug dealer now living the straight life in Paris as a successful businessman. He returns to the States upon receiving news that one of his former associates was killed by a rival gang. He\u2019s taken into custody upon arrival at Kennedy Airport and spends three days at a detention center before he\u2019s allowed to call his lawyer (Curry, C.H.U.D). It turns out the NYPD, working in conjunction with the DEA, want Priest to return to his old life and inform on his old pals. They\u2019re looking to take down ex-cop\/drug kingpin Hector Estrada (Carrasco, Speed) and threaten to jam Priest up if he doesn\u2019t cooperate. They release him with a week to consider their offer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After a couple of run-ins with fake cops working for Hector, Priest decides to take matters into his own hands. If anybody is going to put a stop to the drug war in Harlem, it may as well be him since the real police can\u2019t seem to protect him. He\u2019s helped by Willy Green (Wells, The Five Heartbeats), a Vietnam vet and illegal weapons dealer whose specialty is explosives. Together, they try to bring down Hector\u2019s little empire.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Sig Shore, who produced the first two Super Fly films and also directed the 1985 female vigilante flick Sudden Death starring sexy starlet Denise Coward in her only significant movie role, The Return of Superfly<\/strong> has a cheap, gritty look to it. Although set in New York, a lot of it was filmed in Connecticut. At least I assume so; the producers thank the state and people of Connecticut in the end credits. It must be a significant portion. Either way, the action takes place in an urban landscape populated by drug dealers, crack chefs, junkies, dirty cops and irate neighbors sick of the gun violence that plagues their neighborhood. I got a real kick looking at the storefront in an early sequence. One of the shops is a Buster Brown shoe store. I haven\u2019t seen one of those in ages. Does the brand even exist anymore? Who else remembers those dopey commercials from the 70s and early 80s? In any event, the look of the movie never betrays its low-budget origins. It comes from a place where action movies get made for a tiny fraction of the cost of the average Fast & Furious film- the last one, The Fate of the Furious, cost $250 million. As a movie geek weaned on 70s and 80s trash cinema, it\u2019s a place I like very much.<\/p>\n

\u00a0No question about it, O\u2019Neal is the definitive Youngblood Priest. Recasting the role is like trying to replace Richard Roundtree as John Shaft. Before you say it, Samuel L. Jackson (seen in an early role here) plays his nephew in the 2000 reboot, hence NOT a recasting or replacement. That being said, Purdee doesn\u2019t do too bad a job in the part. He\u2019s nothing to write home about either. He\u2019s okay. He\u2019s still the coolest cat on the street. With everything he has going on, he finds time to woo this foxy mama named Francine (Avery, The Color Purple), a club owner who knows the score better than any man. She proves valuable in finding a way to screw with Hector\u2019s operation. It\u2019s too bad she doesn\u2019t get a lot of screen time. Carrasco is fine as the main bad guy and Curry is pretty good as Priest\u2019s slimy lawyer. Leonard Thomas (King of New York) overacts shamelessly as Hector\u2019s main henchman. Wait until you hear his insane laugh.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are a few cool action scenes in The Return of Superfly<\/strong>. It has a good amount of violence. That\u2019s the way it should be. Why else do people see movies like this? It certainly isn\u2019t for intelligent writing, Oscar-level acting or brilliant insights into the human condition. Leave that stuff to Fellini, Kurosawa or Scorsese. We\u2019ll take the violence, sex and super bad music. The soundtrack contains a few new Curtis Mayfield tunes including \u201cSuperfly 1990\u201d, a collaboration with rapper Ice-T. That one is especially BAD (as in good).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Trashy grindhouse flicks like The Return of Superfly<\/strong> are so much fun if taken on their own terms. That definitely applies in this case. It\u2019s badly made on several levels, but it\u2019s still cool. When I see a movie like this, I like to imagine myself sitting in a grungy urban theater watching a triple feature surrounded by potentially dangerous types. It may not be everybody\u2019s idea of Heaven, but you know what they say about different strokes and different folks.<\/p>\n

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Original Cinema 1-Sheet Poster – Movie Film Posters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Return of Superfly (1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Triton\/Action-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence, drugs, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sig Shore\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Anthony Wisdom\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Curtis Mayfield\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Anghel Decca\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 9, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Nathan Purdee, Margaret Avery, Leonard Thomas, Christopher Curry, Carlos Carrasco, Samuel L. Jackson, Luis Ramos, Kirk Taylor, David Groh, John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5542,"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-3788","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-Return-of-Superfly-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\/3788","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=3788"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5543,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788\/revisions\/5543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}