Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

What up, my brothas! Welcome to my Black Christmas (and I don't mean Q'Uanz'hah, or whatever the hell it is) write off. Come celebrate the best and worst of hard hitting, hard lovin', two fisted, no nonsense blaxploitation flicks ever offered by Hollywood (and of course from outside the studio system, too). The sleazy, the exploitative, the classics, the forgotten and the crap - all examined over the 12 days of Christmas. However, with this comes a disclaimer:

WARNING! Absolutely no one under 18 admitted to this review!

No, seriously. While I do try and keep in mind that epinions is an all-ages site and do try to mind my manners appropriately, there's no point in being polite when discussing movies like these. Salty language may and will creep in from time to time.

And with that, on to MEAN JOHNNY BARROWS! Can you dig it?

I picked up a big box of public domain Blaxploitation flicks the other day for five bucks - and public domain often means to go in with low expectations (both in quality of the films and quality of the DVDs). So it came as a shock that Mean Johnny Barrows was pretty good. I was expecting my typical blaxploitation trappings - a cool action movie with the usual wonderful dialogue, some funky seventies fashion, some soul and/or disco music and bad ass attitude. While I got all of the above, I was also treated to a thoughtful, emotional film about the struggle for a downtrodden black man to survive in a prejudiced white America.

Johnny Barrows (Played by blaxploitation icon Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, fresh from Hell up in Harlem and The Legend of Nigger Charlie) is dishonorably discharged from the army for punching out a fellow officer (who really did have it coming to him). Shipped back home to Los Angeles, Johnny promptly gets mugged and hauled in by some racist cops for being drunk (or in this case, freshly mugged). Unable to secure gainful employ, Johnny finds himself on the soup line (with a cameo from Elliott Gould with one of the better character names ever committed to film: Professor Theodore Rasputin Waterhouse) and down on his luck.

Walking into a Italian restaurant hoping for a handout, he's offered a job by Mafiosi Mario Racconi (Stuart Whitman, sporting one of those faces that makes you go "Yeah, I know that guy from somewhere!") and his girlfriend Nancy (Jenny Sherman) but Johnny turns him down. It seems that he's not slipped so far as to start doing odd jobs for the Mob. Eventually Johnny lands a job at a gas station cleaning toilets and scrubbing floors for the mean penny-pinching Richard (R.G. Armstrong, another veteran from the 42nd street exploitation flicks, appearing in classics like Boss Nigger and White Line Fever) who receives a beating for ripping off Barrows.

Meanwhile, a Mafia war starts brewing between the Racconi family and the Da Vincis (the family, not the painter). Seems the Da Vinci family wants to bring in all kinds of dope and start peddling it to black kids. The Racconis, being an upstanding Mob family, wants no part of that on their streets. And so it goes, with the Racconi family wiped out in a treacherous double-cross, with only Mario is left standing. (An aside here - while I know this was probably a low budget film with not a lot of money for extras, these are the most anemic mobster families I have ever seen. Both sides consist of about eight men each. One good gun battle and both Families were pretty much wiped out.)

Anyway, Nancy is kidnapped by the Da Vinci family and gets a message to Johnny claiming that she was made to do "terrible things". Brought to the brink by poverty, the Man constantly screwing him and his love for Nancy, Johnny agrees to become a hired killer for Mario to avenge the Racconis. And so the body count starts going up as Johnny in all his white-suited glory gets mean and starts killing his way through the Da Vinci family. Several twists and turns and gunfights later (including an encounter with a hit man hired by the opposition), Johnny wins - but is it a happy ending for Mean Johnny?

The first part of the film is really effective, making you feel something for Johnny as he simply tries to catch a break or find some kindness. He doesn’t talk much, letting the bleak, poverty ridden surroundings do the talking for him. The film almost seems more the character-study of a betrayed, flawed hero than a typical blaxploitation flick where the Brutha-man deals out beatdowns to every whitey that crosses his path.

In the end I was really pulling for Johhny to finally catch a break - but even this was denied him as events take an unexpected twist from left field (where did that land mine come from, anyway?)

As an action movie goes, I have to give this a thumbs down - there's just not a lot happening here in-between the bits of Kung Fu and gunplay (although when called to duty, Williamson can be quite the badass with his dual wielding shot gun style). Roddy McDowall was certainly not an actor I'd expect to appear in a low budget blaxploitation flick, but there he is . The up side is that while he's only got a small part, he's a pleasure to watch. The rest of the cast seem serviceable enough, falling back to fairly cliched Italian mobster speak as necessary. Williamson's directorial skills are pretty standard, but he has a knack for capturing emotions through simple images and music.

RUDY RAY MOORE OR PAM GRIER? No
BREASTS ON DISPLAY: 0
A BRUTHA GETS SOME: 0 times
MUSICAL NUMBERS: 1 (kind of)
EXPLOSIONS: 2
ROUNDS FIRED: 27
HANDRAIL DEATHS: 0
CAR CHASES: 0
AFROS: 1
F BOMBS DROPPED: 3
WHITEYS THAT GET IT: 12
BEST LINE: Since you like screwing so much, maybe I'll throw your ass in the sea, let some fish bite it off!
SEVENTIES FASHION SENSIBILITIES: 23%
SOUL POWER 36%

THE DVD -
Mastered from video tape (complete with the occasional drop out), this flick looks dreadful. The pan and scan really messes up the framing, and the sound is barely mono. In short, you get what you pay for here.

THE EXTRAS -
Being a public domain release, I was lucky to get a menu.

THE BOTTOM LINE
Surprise - a slower thinking man's blaxploitation film! Not what I was expecting at all. And honestly, how can you pass up Fred Williamson AND Roddy McDowell in the same film?

ON THE TWELVE DAYS OF BLACK CHRISTMAS, MY SOUL BRUTHAS GAVE TO ME. . . .
12) BLACULA
11) JACKIE BROWN
10) THE FINAL COMEDOWN
09) SHAFT IN AFRICA
08) UNDERCOVER BROTHER
07) DOLEMITE
06) BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA
05) MEAN JOHHNY BARROWS
04) TROUBLE MAN
03) SUPERFLY
02) THE MACK
And a LADY COCOA in a pear tree. . . .



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age