Featured Movies
Partners
CoffyThis is the film that launched Pam Grier's career as the queen of blaxploitation films and won her prime pin-up status during the early 1970s.
Hailed as 'the baddest One-Chick Hit-Squad' that ever hit town, Grier plays Coffy, a nurse with attitude. When her sister is poisoned as a result of her heroin addiction, Coffy sets out to seek revenge on the suppliers. The mission involves seduction, bullying and murder of dealers, pimps, mobsters and any other poor low life that happen to cross her path.
This is clearly trashy fare and didn't win any awards for its acting (which, with the exception of Grier, is pretty bad) - and primitive dialogue. But it still has a certain sparkle. Director Jack Hill's biggest triumph is coolly synthesising the comedy and action. The fight scenes are as camp as sequinned handbags, and there are numerous cat-fights where suits are ripped open to reveal ample bosoms. The hardcore action is innovative and non-stop, while the costumes and afro wigs are the epitome of seventies super-fly cool.
But the real reason to watch this is its star, Pam Grier. Her athletic kung-fu prowess reigns supreme, and sits sublimely with her don't-mess-with-me aura. Grier stands tall as an icon of the genre - one rightly resurrected by Quentin Tarrantino some 25 years later in Jackie Brown.
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