CodyZamboni
Movie is campy, goofy, and very tame for this kind of movie, Ms Jones is a super government agent who uses her martial arts skills to punish comical bad guys. Film has one cool action scene, the muscle car chase, and the subplot of racial injustice rings true.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
09/19/23
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Audience Member
Another one of the many blaxploitation flicks Starring Tamara Dobson as a special agent who's concerns center around drug interdiction She vows to bring down drug kingpin 'Mommy' who's framed her boyfriend Reuben 'Mommy' vows revenge for her poppy fields being destroyed so she hires her elite team of female henchmen to take out Cleopatra Cleopatra knows martial arts and a strong sense of will, powerful and assertive too Even her relationship at the time was a more progressive outlook at black men and women This is action, comedy, and spoof all into one Slick car chases, big gun fights, and an over the top performance by Shelley Winters as the villainess It's a shame though Cleo and 'Mommy' don't face each other until the very end But the film zips by with ease showing a tough black actress holding her own game much like Pam Grier's Foxxy Brown Very relevatory as a feminist feature and there's so many themes of sex, feminism, and race, it illustrates a lot of progress towards gender equality More black female presence in cinema such as this is always welcome
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
07/13/23
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David K
Feminist film? No way. I don't mean to be putting 2020's worldview on a film from 1973, but all they've done is make Cleo the brash-talking, jaw-snapping, sex toy that all men can't help but make a pass at. The acting is awful. And, they did all of this with much more of a budget than it warranted.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
05/09/23
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Demented N
Great movie great introduction to an amazing character a moment of history captured beautiful. The producer of this movie was going to have his wife his wife and it up starring in velvet smooth check it out it's terrible
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
09/14/22
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Audience Member
Entertaining blaxpoitation film with some tremendous assets: a confident heroine, some amazing dialogue, and Shelley Winters (!!!!) as the big bad - a drug kingpin named "Mommy" (!!!!!!). Fun stuff.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/27/23
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Audience Member
For some reason, I had been seeing this at local media pawn stores for a while now. A lot of the time the copies had been in the extra cheap "Please take this away" bin. So, I figured, why not, it can't be that bad. Honestly, it's not. Cleopatra Jones has some fun stuff to it, but it also had a hard time keeping my attention. Average is better than bad I guess.
The movie starts with the title character looking fantastic and showing up in a country filled with terrorists and heroin-producing poppies. It's not told to us, but I am guessing she bought the poppy field, which she then destroys with a firebomb dropping jet. It's a neat beginning to the film, and kind of leaves you with the impression it's going a spy-style film. It's not. See, after a drug-dealing madame in CJ's hometown uses crooked cops to attack one of Cleo's drug rehab homes, our heroine comes home to fight the war on drugs all by herself.
Now, this is when it gets a bit bland. While "mommy" the madame seems like the villain, the movie pushes more that drugs are the villain. Which, while they make a good villain aren't the most talkative. This leads to us watching random action scenes and car chases which are a bit choppy on the editing front. As well as having us zoomed in so close on the fight scenes so they can try to hide the ineptitude of the martial arts being done. Add that to an uninteresting story, and you have a dull film. Not bad, just dull.
While Cleopatra Jones has its moments, the movie as a whole just doesn't entertain enough to look past its flaws. I figure it's worth at least one watch, but more for those interested in Blaxploitation than action films.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/08/23
Full Review
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