June 20, 2018 The Skanner Page 7
Arts & Entertainment
FILM REVIEW: Trevor Jackson
Plays Iconic Title Character in
Stylized Remake of ‘Superfly’
By Kam Williams
For The Skanner News
“S
uper Fly” (1972)
was one of the
most profitable
of the Blaxploi-
tation-era flicks. Re-
leased during the genre’s
heyday, the picture re-
volved around its iconic
title character, Young-
blood Priest, a flamboy-
ant cocaine dealer who
dressed like a pimp,
drove flashy cars and
sampled his wares from a
spoon shaped like a cross
draped around his neck.
Overcoming a modest
budget of just a half-mil-
lion dollars, the film’s
phenomenal box-office
success led to a couple
of sequels, (“Super Fly
T.N.T.” (1973) and “The
Return of Superfly”
(1990). Nevertheless, the
franchise is probably
best remembered for the
“
Given its
woeful
produc-
tion val-
ues, “Su-
per Fly”
is a movie
almost
begging to
be remade
original’s soundtrack by
Curtis Mayfield which
enjoyed a long run at #1
atop Billboard’s Top 100
chart.
Given its woeful pro-
duction values, “Super
Fly” is a movie almost
begging to be remade.
And 2.0 represents an
upgrade which does not
disappoint in that regard.
As overhauled by Julien
Christian Lutz (aka Di-
rector X), the highly-styl-
ized production bears a
greater resemblance to
McG’s frenetically-paced
“Charlie’s Angels” (2000)
and Baz Luhrmann’s de-
cidedly-decadent inter-
pretation of “The Great
Gatsby” (2013) than to
any blaxploits made back
in the 1070s.
The setting has been
shifted to Atlanta, but
the basic plotline is oth-
Incredibles cont’d from pg 6
ro Lucius Best/Frozone.
Noteworthy
additions
to the ensemble include
Catherine Keener, Isa-
bella Rossellini and Bob
Odenkirk.
The picture picks up
precisely where the first
left off. Jack Jack is still a
toddler, but learning to
harness the superpow-
ers that had just start-
ed to manifest towards
the end of the previous
episode. At the point of
departure, we find the
“
Might
someone
else be
behind a
wider dia-
bolical plot
to hypno-
tize all of
humanity?
Parrs being forced into
retirement by a govern-
ment agent (Jonathan
Banks) because of the
costly collateral damage
of their last operation.
Of course, that doesn’t
last long. Helen is soon
coaxed back into her
stretchy superhero suit
by a rich fan (Oden-
kirk) for a photo op de-
signed to resurrect her
disgraced clan’s image.
The impromptu sex role
reversal has Bob stay-
ing home to assume the
child-rearing and domes-
tic duties.
Next thing you know,
Helen is further re-
cruited
to
subdue
Screenslaver (Bill Wise),
a pizza delivery guy-
turned-hacker who has
started hijacking peo-
ple’s computer screens.
Might someone else be
behind a wider diaboli-
cal plot to hypnotize all
of humanity? If so, that
might call for the rest of
the Parrs to morph into
their superhero alter
egos and join the fight.
What ensues is anoth-
er visually-captivating,
dizzying delight for
young and old alike. Pix-
ar and Disney have done
it again!
Excellent HHHH
Rated PG for action and
brief mild epithets
Running time: 118 min.
Production Studios:
Pixar Animation Studios
/ Walt Disney Pictures
Trevor Jackson (of TV’s “Grown-ish”) stars in ‘Superfly’
erwise faithful to the
source material. The
blow-by-blow is narrated
by the picture’s protag-
onist, played with per-
fect aplomb by Trevor
Jackson (of TV’s “Grown-
ish”).
At the point of de-
parture, a beleaguered
Priest informs us via
voice-over that he’s
been selling drugs on
the street since the age
of 11. He now sits atop
a gang caught up in an
escalating bloody turf
war marked by drive-
by shootings with a
flashy posse called the
Snow Patrol.
U n d e r s t a n d a b l y,
Priest wants out of
the game, but first he
has to do a bigger deal
than he’s ever attempt-
ed before. That in-
volves going over the
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head of his supplier Scat-
ter (Michael Kenneth
Williams) and securing
a huge shipment of nar-
cotics directly from the
South American cartel
kingpin, Adalberto Gon-
zales (Esai Morales).
Somehow Lutz, a vet-
eran director of music
videos, manages to ma-
nipulate the audience
into rooting for the sort
of unsavory characters
you’d cross the street to
avoid in real life. Listen,
the cinema has a long
history of championing
ruthless
lawbreakers
like Bonnie and Clyde,
the Godfather and more
recently, the “Ocean’s 8”
crew.
The upshot: this in-
carnation of Superfly
proves to be a riveting,
slick and pulse-pound-
ing reboot that easily
blows away the original!
Excellent HHHH
Rated R for pervasive
profanity, graphic sex-
uality, violence, ethnic
slurs, nudity and drug
use
Running time:108 min-
utes
Production
Studios:
Columbia Pictures / Sony
Pictures Entertainment /
Silver Pictures
Distributor: Columbia
Pictures