source: Friday Foster

Trailer—Friday Foster

Friday Foster

Friday Foster (1975) ** (out of 4) Blaxploitation film has Pam Grier playing the title character, a photographer who gets caught up in a plot to assassinate black political figures. As with a lot of films in the genre, this one here starts off pretty good and fun but quickly falls apart due to a rather poor screenplay. The only thing the screenplay does well is allow three scenes for Grier to show off her wonderful breasts including one scene where she takes a shower with the curtains open so that we can watch. The story is pretty serious but it's done in such a poor way that you can't take it too seriously. The film has one good, campy car chase that manages to be quite exciting but after the half hour mark everything comes to a halt. Grier is good in her role, although I wouldn't go as far as to say she's a good actress. Carl Weathers is in fun form as one of the bad guys Yaphet Kotto adds some fun.

"Friday Foster" - the reputation of this work is more legendary than the film itself. I was quite disappointed when I saw it for the first time, because it didn´t deliver the typical kickass madness you normally get from a Pam Grier movie! The storyline is tame, the forced political correctness is only pesky and the whole stuff lacks in violence and sex, so prepare for blaxploitation in its mildest form! If you want to be entertained somehow watch out for the performances of genre greats like Yaphet Kotto, Carl Weathers, Eartha Kitt, Scatman Crothers or Thalmus Rasulala! Their fine acting improves this average film considerably. Main actress Pam Grier is convincing in the lead, but she´s not that sexy and tough as she was in "Coffy" or "Foxy Brown"! A quite unspectacular film, nothing special at all!

Seemed like an extended episode of Starsky & Hutch, or some other 70's cop show, except with the occasional n-word getting dropped in there, casually. Pam Grier is such a star and drop dead gorgeous. Harmless blaxploitation fluff, for the most part.

What I'm reviewing now was the very last movie Pam Grier made for American International Pictures. She plays the title character as a photographer for a magazine who's on assignment to shoot the arrival of the "black Howard Hughes" Blake Tarr (Thalmus Rasulala). Accompanying her on some of her assignments other than the one I mentioned above is private detective Colt Hawkins (Yaphet Kotto). I'll stop there and just say how fun I found the whole thing and why not with a cast that includes Eartha Kitt, Scatman Crothers, Jim Backus, Ted Lange without his mustache that he became famous for when he was cast in "The Love Boat" a few years later, a pre-Apollo Creed Carl Weathers, and Godfrey Cambridge several months before his untimely death. I can't admit that everything that happened made sense but I found myself smiling if not always laughing the whole time I was watching. So on that note, Friday Foster is well worth a look.

Sexiest black woman of all time Pam Grier kicks ass and looks great doing it. This film has everything you are looking for in a blaxploitation flick. Scatman Crothers and the bartender from the "Love Boat"; what else would you want? Great!

I had never heard of Pam Grier until she co-starred in "Mars Attacks!" and then got a lead role in "Jackie Brown". I later learned that she was a blaxploitation star in the '70s, and I've finally gotten to see an example. "Friday Foster" casts her as an ultra-cool photographer whose life takes a dangerous turn after she witnesses an assassination attempt. There's no shortage of fun stuff. Seriously, Pam Grier is one sh*t-kickin' babe! A particularly surprising thing is the cast. In addition to Pam Grier, there's Carl Weathers, Eartha Kitt, Godfrey Cambridge, Jason Bernard, Jim Backus, Scatman Crothers and Yaphet Kotto. Ergo, this movie contains Foxy Brown, Apollo Creed, Catwoman, Gravedigger Jones, Steve Martin's friend in "All of Me", Thurston Howell III, Dick Halloran and of the Alien's victims. But anyway, it's just a really cool movie. I have no doubt that they had fun making it. Delivering the milk. Indeed!

Friday Foster (Pam Grier), an ex-model magazine photographer, goes to Los Angeles International airport to photograph the arrival of Blake Tarr, the richest black man in America... and things go awry. I love blaxploitation films and I love Pam Grier (which is pretty much necessary given how much the two overlap). Here she is made out to be a very strong woman in a variety of ways -- head-strong, smart as a whip... and someone who sexually knows what they want (this is a fine line between "easy" and "determined", and Foster walks it well). Is it the best of its kind? Probably not. But well worth a watch for fans of the genre, with some great supporting actors -- including Scatman Crothers, Eartha Kitt and Carl Weathers, among others. Unfortunately for us, this was Grier's final film with American International Pictures.