Cleopatra Jones (1973)

Wonderful character development!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

While I'm not saying that "Cleopatra Jones" is a BAD example of the blaxploitation genre - it's fun to a certain degree - there are some aspects of it that will likely disappoint viewers in this day and age. The movie is indeed well produced, and while Tamara Dobson is a little awkward in the moments involving action, she does otherwise make a charismatic lead. As the lead bad guy, Shelley Winters is campy and a lot of fun in her scenes. Strangely, however, she only appears for a few minutes in total - a movie like this really needs a villain who regularly shows up to cause trouble. Another problem with the screenplay is that Cleopatra Jones seems mighty slow tracking down the bad guys - her investigation moves at a crawl. It's also strange that Cleopatra Jones is also offscreen several times for significant periods of time. Despite these problems, the movie is still worth a look. It is occasionally fun, and it's one of the few blaxploitation movies outside of Pam Grier movies to showcase a black actress in a lead role.

This film sure has a lot of familiar faces--Bernie Casey, Antonio Fargas, Shelly Winters (as "Mommy"), Esther Role and even Don Cornelius (from "Soul Train") are all here to support Tamara Dobson as Cleopatra Jones. Cleopatra is an extra-special narcotics agent--practically James Bond and a DEA officer combined! She knows martial arts, carries a machine gun, drives like a NASCAR driver AND manages to look hot on top of everything else! It seems that Cleo's efforts have begun to hurt Mommy's businesses and those of her associates--especially Fargas' drug dealing. So, it's the mob against Cleopatra. Considering it's only 682 to 1, it's reasonably certain that Cleo will be victorious by the end of the film.This movie has some similarities to COFFY and FOXY BROWN, as all three films are about an angry woman's attack on the drug trade. One major difference was that in these two Pam Greer films, the title character wasn't a special agent--just a vigilante wanting to rid the world of dope fiends. Dobson, unlike most other blaxploitation heroes works for "the Man"! Another difference is that Ms. Dobson manages to keep her clothes on throughout the film! The final difference is that, believe it or not, Greer's films were a lot more believable, as Dobson can do ANYTHING and is practically Wonderwoman--whereas, Greer is just really, really mad!! Heck, one of the victims even calls Dobson "Wonderwoman"!Overall, this film is far less gritty blaxploitation and more like an episode of "Get Christie Love" or "Charlie's Angels"--the music, the plot, the acting--the whole package. I wonder if Aaron Spelling had anything to do with this project!!

It deserves to be seen because it features the incredible Antonio Fargas, as a mob little boss, with cool clothes and hilarious jive talking. In my opinion Antonio is a great actor, each time i saw him i was stunned by his rhythmic talking and the way he moves. It deserves to be seen because it features Shelley Winters as Mommy, a lesbian red-head old mob chieftain whose angriness and sadism are really funny to see (in my European DVD, there is no scene in which she receives a feet massage!). Plot, kung-fuish fight scenes are not fantastic, Tamara Dobson who plays the leading role is a nice-looking tall woman who does not play very well and does not do really sexy stuff (she does not match with Pam Grier), but i nevertheless had a good moment seeing this movie, and i hope you will too. Cleopatra drives an awesome car, the car chase scene is good, and she wears a majestic afro haircut, and like Pam Grier in Foxy Brown she changes clothes before each scene, it's like a fashion review, it is cool.

I suppose that as a conservative, I should give this movie points for avoiding the normal anti-establishment "blaxploitation" theme (you can't get much more establishment than being a federal agent during the Nixon Administration) and showing blacks working within the system to effect change.But I can't.The only thing that makes John Shaft the cultural icon that he is, is the fact that he was meant to frighten middle-class white people. Without the whole "black man standing up to whitey's system" aspect, *Shaft* is just another dime-a-dozen, derivative private-eye flick (and the sex scenes, effective in the 70s as a play on the "oversexed black man" stereotype, seem pretty sleazy now).And *Cleopatra Jones* is just another dime-a-dozen, derivative supercop flick. Here, the "black thing" is merely a gimmick. It could have been made with an all-white cast with very few changes.Even considered purely as an action movie, it fails. Even the cool car chase has some editing problems, and Tamara Dobson, though a stunningly beautiful woman, simply doesn't have the moves for the fight scenes.About the only really enjoyable scenes are those involving Doodlebug (Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargas) and his henchmen.