THE RETURN OF SUPERFLY (1990) ** ½

After the death of his friend Eddie, Priest (Nathan Purdee) returns home to the streets.  As soon as he gets off the plane, the cops instantly want him to turn snitch.  Meanwhile the new kings of the street are out to get him.  Priest then sets out to get revenge for Eddie by tainting the bad guy’s drug supply and busting up the operation from the inside out.  

By 1990, the Blaxploitation films of the ‘70s had already made a sizable impact on home video.  The Return of Superfly was an effort from Super Fly producer Sig Shore to revitalize the franchise.  It came and went with little fanfare, but it’s surprisingly enjoyable as far as seventeen-years-later sequels go.

The Return of Superfly was released at an interesting time.  It arrived shortly after the big action bonanzas of the ‘80s, but just before the wave of ‘90s African-American-led action flicks starring the likes of Wesley Snipes and Denzel Washington.  This was also a time when rap music was still mostly good (for me anyway), and you can hear guys like Tone-Loc and Ice-T on the soundtrack.  

Speaking of the soundtrack, Shore was also able to convince Curtis Mayfield to return as well.  His songs are decent for the most part, although they’re not quite up to the level of the original.  Still, they’re a nice counterbalance to the contemporary rap on the soundtrack.

I thought I’d miss seeing Ron O’Neal in the role of Priest, but Nathan Purdee does a solid job.  He has a quiet, but charismatic presence and carries the film with swagger.  He has enough machismo that when characters talk about him in awed, hushed tones, he lives up to the hype once we finally see him in action.  If the lack of O’Neal is what’s holding you back from seeing this, you really owe it to yourself to check it out.  Purdee is basically the George Lazenby of Superflies as he never got a fair shake in the role, mostly because he only got the one movie to prove his worth.

The supporting cast is a lot of fun.  The most notable is Samuel L. Jackson who plays Priest’s old pal who makes crack in coffee pots.  Tico Wells has some good moments as Priest’s militant friend who likes to blow up stuff a bit too much.  The best performance though comes from Leonard Thomas, who plays the whiny, twitchy, giggly villain.  Just hearing him whimpering and screeching uncontrollably is enough to make a lasting impression on you.

Shore’s style is about on par with your typical low budget action film of the time.  After a smashing start, things get bogged down once Priest starts pounding the pavement and shaking down various thugs and crooked cops for information.  It occasionally flirts with awesomeness but pulls back and becomes generic whenever it’s about to truly take flight (no pun intended).  There are just enough offbeat touches, violent outbursts (the bloody squib technician earned his paycheck at least) and laugh-out-loud moments here that it’s hard to completely dismiss it.  

One thing worth mentioning is that it ends on more of a hopeful note that the original did.  Too bad we never got a direct continuation from this plotline.  It would’ve been interesting to see where the series would’ve gone from here.  As it is, we at least have the excellent Superfly remake from last year (which you all slept on, by the way) to tide us over.