Anthony's Film Review - Friday Foster (1975)

Once again, Pam Grier shines as a tough heroine in the face of danger...

Friday Foster is a blaxploitation movie that, interestingly enough, was based on a Chicago Tribune comic strip of the same name. It stars Pam Grier as the title character, a photographer for Glance magazine who gets herself caught up in a world of crime. Not as a criminal herself, but rather as a witness whose life is put in danger. Basically, in the beginning of the movie, Friday's boss, even as it is holiday time, asks her to perform a task, one that is inconvenient but sounds simple enough. This leads her to the airport where she accidentally stumbles onto something horrific: the killing of a black man.

This takes place just a few minutes into the movie, and, boy, is it something. The scene goes on for a while, featuring lots of gunshots going off from two opposing sides. Various gunmen, including police officers, are killed instantly in the melee. Meanwhile, Friday is almost in the middle of the action. She is hiding nearby and nervously taking pictures of the chaos. The fact that she is witnessing the massacre from such a close range is the other reason that this scene is notably intense.

Friday converts the negative films into photographs, one of which depicts a man who is vaguely familiar to Foster. Just then, something else happens. One of Friday's old friends, a model named Cloris, is suddenly murdered with a knife in her back. Now things get really heated. With the help of Yaphet Kotto as private investigator Colt Hawkins, Friday sets out to find out who murdered her friend. Her adventure takes place in both Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. as she slowly uncovers something: a scheme called Black Widow. On the way, she meets various characters, including a black senator named David Lee Hart and a gay informant at a strip joint.

If the action scene I described above sounds good, you'll be happy to know that there are a few other action scenes that shouldn't disappoint. One of my favorites, aside from the thrilling climactic action scene, involves Colt chasing the murderer onto an apartment building roof. They proceed to jump from one roof to another before a shootout and a fistfight up close take place. I like this scene because Yaphet Kotto shows his tough side here. In the beginning, his character is just a relatively calm private eye, but once you see the roof scene, you definitely don't want to mess with this guy.

As for Pam Grier, you'll certainly like her in this movie if you enjoyed her performances in previous films. As usual, she is physically stunning and the various male characters, not surprisingly, are captivated by her charm. Very much like how James Bond sleeps around with women, Friday Foster finds herself in bed with several fine men. In between sex scenes, Friday is brave and strong, definitely not afraid of danger. What's nice is that she doesn't pose as a prostitute to get closer to the villains. Not because I object to that, but because she already did that in Coffy and Foxy Brown, so not seeing her do so in Friday Foster was refreshing.

So is Friday Foster a standard action movie? Yes. Is it good enough to watch for one and a half hours? Certainly. The bottom line is that there is plenty of action and sex within an engaging plot to engross the audience. If that's what you're looking for, check out the movie Friday Foster. It's quite fun and it won't really waste your time.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Friday Foster, visit the Internet Movie Database.