4/10
Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em
11 June 2014
From the swaggy gentlemen at Po' Boy Productions, comes "Original Gangstas", a film that is as engrossing as it is hilarious. This painfully average film almost manages to keep the viewers glued to their seats for decent portions of the movie.

Fred "The Hammer" Williamson headlines what could be described as a surprisingly good cast, at least in terms of blaxploitation standards. At the ripe age of 58, Fred has shown no signs of slowing down, and I was extremely impressed at the old man's youthfulness and his flair for kicking ass. Fred is joined by industry mediumweights Pam Grier, Jim Brown, & Richard Roundtree.

The movie takes place in the Hammer's hometown of Gary, Indiana. When a bunch of young, ignorant pranksters initiate a crime wave within the city, the Hammer decides to take matters into his own hands. The storyline is pretty solid, and the veteran actors turn in decent performances.

On the other hand, the younger guys in this movie didn't seem to know how to act at all. They weren't very believable, and "Dru Down" deserves a special mention, as he may be one of the worst actors I've ever seen. This ignoramus couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. A department store mannequin would have sufficed. With that said, the dialogue is above average. This film is full of great one-liners you can playfully recite with your friends while conversing at Chuck-E-Cheese. The action scenes were rough but entertaining. There is a scene where the Hammer round-house kicks a guy to the face, which causes the victim to conveniently land on a randomly placed mattress.

At times, this movie comes off like it was produced by some Mickey Mouse operation based out of the Cayman Islands. We're not dealing with a cinematic masterpiece here, folks. Nevertheless, this film will suffice for a day in order to cure boredom. However, if you're a fan of the Hammer, or blaxploitation films, or hilarious fight scenes, then you'll enjoy this movie.
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