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Amazing Grace

Play trailer Poster for Amazing Grace G Released Aug 30, 1974 1h 37m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 2 Reviews 76% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
A feisty old woman (Moms Mabley) forces moral support on a big-city candidate (Moses Gunn) for mayor.
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Amazing Grace

Critics Reviews

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Gregory Mims New Pittsburgh Courier Despite the fact that she hasn't made a film since 1933 (the classic The Emperor Jones) Jackie "Moms" Mabley has lost none of her natural timing and performing ability. Dec 14, 2021 Full Review Scott Weinberg Apollo Guide Though it's billed as a comedy, Amazing Grace contains very little in the way of laughs - I counted approximately zero. Rated: 45/100 Feb 18, 2002 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member I didn't know anything about Moms Mably but boy she had zero screen charisma as she mumbled in an old gravelly voice to herself throughout the movie. Amazing Grace was pretty bad but I made it through. It could have really said something about the message that it was going for but backpedaled into serious boredom. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member see this cos this is moms mabley's last starring vehicle Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member What can I say about this 1974 Blaxploitation flick? For one, I've never seen "Moms" Mabley in action. The whole point of me watching this film was to see how well she would go over in a "G" rated movie. Of course she was nothing like her raunchy act on the old tapes i heard that had me cracking up, but she was still funny. I gave it 3 stars because it was one of those movies that wasn't "great" but I had to watch it to the end just to see how it turned out. It's like a train wreck, really: You want to turn away, but you really can't because you just HAVE to know about all the fatalities. This movie was slow, the dialogue was really boring & the acting was horrible. I liked the POINT of the movie, but as far as everything else was concerned it really was a disaster. 3 out of 5 stars. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member I'd wanted to see this movie because I'd read a comment about a scene where Slappy White, depressed after a sad showing for his song and dance routine at a local political rally, along with Jackie "Moms" Mabley, walk home dejectedly and step on a poster of Stepin Fetchit (aka Lincoln Perry). It is indeed a sobering moment in the film. <p> Perry, the first black superstar in Hollywood, is regarded nowadays with more disdain than praise for his repeated although personally lucrative portrayal of what many would consider a horribly demeaning silver screen stereotype of African Americans. That moment Mabley and White -- a 70s version of the old Stepin Fetchit character with his song and dance routine -- step on the poster is a kind of acknowledgment that African Americans, having been politicized in the all-embracing revolution that was the decade of the 60s, must move forward to create a new image. That new image is embodied in Welton J. Waters, the character played by Moses Gunn, who goes on in the movie to become the first African American Mayor of Baltimore. It is indeed a new dawning, not just for Waters, but especially for all the younger up-and-coming generation of African Americans represented most potently by the students of Morgan State University who rally to support Waters's mayoral bid. <p>Definitely <i>Amazing Grace</i> is one of the amazing pieces in the movie puzzle depicting the history of African Americans, and it is worth seeing as such. <p>But what I did not expect, and what may have been the most powerful moment on second viewing once I knew what was happening, is that Lincoln Perry himself makes an early cameo appearance playing a face-in-the-crowd, very much NOT Stepin Fetchit member of Mabley's extended family. That, in a movie where it is acknowledged that the old Stepin Fetchit stereotype must be left behind in the past, is a moment even more stunning than the scene where Mabley and White actually step on his poster. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Amazing Grace

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis A feisty old woman (Moms Mabley) forces moral support on a big-city candidate (Moses Gunn) for mayor.
Director
Stan Lathan
Producer
Stan Lathan, Matt Robinson
Screenwriter
Matt Robinson
Distributor
United Artists
Production Co
Amazing Grace
Rating
G
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 30, 1974, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 16, 2008
Runtime
1h 37m
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