Foxy Brown

After mobsters slay her government agent boyfriend, a woman (Pam Grier) seeks revenge.

Foxy Brown was originally intended to be a direct sequel to star Pam Grier and writer/director Jack Hill’s earlier collaboration, Coffy. Unfortunately, this second pairing lacks much of the energy and edge present in the first.

The problems are evident early on. Whereas Coffy was a textbook example of how not to waste time on long setups, Foxy Brown gets bogged down in building Grier’s character’s relationship with an undercover government agent (fresh from plastic surgery to alter his appearance), only to blow him away in order to start Grier down her bloody path of revenge. Why waste so much time? Coffy proved it wasn’t necessary. We came to watch Foxy kick ass, not listen to her argue with her brother about her new boyfriend.

Compounding matters, the revenge aspect never really feels as edgy. The original film was about an ordinary woman who’d simply had enough and set out to right things as best she could. One woman against a whole system of pushers, dealers, and mobsters, but she carves and blasts her way through.

This time, Grier’s got a whole gang to help her, which takes away much of the visceral thrill and empathy. Sure, we’ve all wanted to clean up the streets, but how many of us have our own gangs to back us up? This reaches a sad anti-climax where Grier corners one of her chief tormentors, only to have someone else castrate him. What the hell?

You might think it’s not fair to compare the two films, but considering many of the scenarios, from the prostitution ring to the angry lesbians, are virtual copies from the earlier film, the comparisons are valid. Indeed, there’s no real reason to watch Foxy Brown, considering that Coffy is basically the same film done much, much, better.