Tagline: No one sleeps when they mess with Coffy!
Curiosity: I’m a fan of Foxy Brown. On that film’s commentary track, director Jack Hill pushed Coffy as the superior film.
Plot: Nurse by day, avenging angel by night, Coffy (Pam Grier) is out to pull down drug dealers’
Thoughts: I can see why Hill would prefer Coffy. Foxy Brown was originally intended as a sequel to Coffy before Hill lost the film rights, and both films share the same formula. Grier’s character pretends to be a hooker in order to infiltrate drug-dealing crime organizations, she seduces a shit-ton of white guys, and she violently castrates somebody. But where Coffy is pretty violent and angry, Foxy often gets silly, with broader white stereotypes and ludicrous twists (Plastic surgery for witness protection! Chopping up bad guys with airplane propellers!). I give the slight edge to Foxy, because I saw it first, but Coffy is still a sweet movie.
Grier is fierce as always, although the film reveals one pivotal flaw in her acting: She sucks at accents. She pretends to be Jamaican when she first applies to be a hooker for pimp King George (Robert DoQui, side note – his theme song is a smooth soul tune that just repeats his name over and over. Sweet deal). I see now why Hill dropped accents when Grier essentially repeats the same dialogue for Foxy.
Yet there’s so much going for Coffy. Grier is beautiful and smacks the shit out of hookers on a regular basis. She hides weapons in her afro constantly (a trick I’ve used once or twice myself, although I do it more with pens than shivs). The plot is B-movie hilarity at its (nearly) best. And hey, the film boasts a strong female protagonist. That’s good for the kids.
Reflection: Seriously, how many weapons does she keep in her hair?
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