Original Gangstas (1996)

Director:

Larry Cohen

Writer:

Aubrey K. Rattan (writer)

Release Date:

10 May 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The original bad boys are stepping up in '96!

Plot:

Marvin Bookman is a small shop owner in Gary, Indiana, USA. After he sees a drive-by shooting of Laurie Thompson's son by a local gang...

Plot Keywords:

African American | Arms Deal | Blaxploitation | Child Murder | Gangster

Cast

Fred Williamson	...	John Bookman
Jim Brown	...	Jake Trevor
Pam Grier	...	Laurie Thompson
Paul Winfield	...	Rev. Dorsey
Isabel Sanford	...	Gracie Bookman
Oscar Brown Jr.	...	Marvin Bookman
Richard Roundtree	...	Slick
Ron O'Neal	...	Bubba
Christopher B. Duncan	...	Spyro
Eddie Bo Smith Jr.	...	Damien
Dru Down	...	Kayo
Shyheim Franklin	...	Dink
Robert Forster	...	Det. Slatten
Charles Napier	...	Mayor
Wings Hauser	...	Michael Casey

Also Known As:

Hot City

MPAA:

Rated R for non-stop violence and pervasive strong language.

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS

Certification:

Australia:M (TV rating) | Iceland:16 | USA:R (certificate #34373) | New Zealand:R18 | Germany:18 | UK:18 | Australia:MA | Singapore:(Banned) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

Po' Boy Productions

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Camera crew shadow visible during the fight at the abandoned steel mill.

Movie Connections:

Features RoboCop 2 (1990)

Excellent Low Budget Action--No Matter What The Star Says

It has always amazed me how the star of this film, Fred Williamson, has gone to such great lengths to badmouth this flick and the work of his former friend, writer-director Larry Cohen. I've read it and I've heard it on DVD audio commentaries--"Hiring Larry for Original Gangstas was a mistake," Williamson says. Yet he has nothing but praise for his own work as a writer-director.

Is the Hammer on crack, or what? This is a very slick, very cool little low budget action flick that shows the old time stars to great advantage. Cohen did a great job. In fact, if you took all the good parts from every movie that Fred Williamson produced and directed himself and put them together, the film you'd end up with would still be 1/100th the film this one is (of course a compilation of "good parts" from Hammer's self-directed flicks would only be 15 minutes long).

I love Fred Williamson. His pre-1976 movies like "Black Caesar" and "Bucktown" are classics, and I like him as a performer. I'd LOVE to see him work in more mainstream movies, as a lead. But the man has only been in three halfway decent films in the past quarter century: "Starsky and Hutch," "From Dusk Til Dawn," and "OG." And "OG" is the best of the three in my opinion. His self produced-directed efforts, his Italian-Euro cheapazoid flicks--they ALL rank as some of the absolute worst movies of all time.

So, don't listen to the star of the show, just watch the movie. "Original Gangstas" is a solid flick.