Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Diagonaldi Very well executed

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Scott LeBrun This comic strip adaptation stars delectable 1970s icon Pam Grier as the title character, a fashion photographer in Washington, D.C., who gets caught up in an assassination attempt at an airport. This is just the beginning of the troubles; after her model friend Cloris (Rosalind Miles) is killed during a show, she gets personally involved and does some sleuthing - ably assisted by her friend Colt Hawkins (Yaphet Kotto), a private investigator. Eventually, she discovers a plot to eliminate various black leaders.Pam truly was a queen of Cool during this time, but her charming personality - and ample assets - can only do so much to enliven what is an underwhelming script (by Orville H. Hampton, based on a screen story by producer & director Arthur Marks). There is some bloody squib action going on, but the action in this movie is largely perfunctory. As in any Blaxploitation flick of this period, there is a certain degree of fun in checking out the fashions and listening to that funky music. (However, the score by Luchi De Jesus leans a little too heavily on a talk box.) Kotto offers one of his loosest ever performances, and is a great match for Pam. Supporting them are an impressive assortment of familiar faces: Godfrey Cambridge, Thalmus Rasulala, an amusingly hammy Eartha Kitt, Jim Backus (who's wasted in what amounts to a cameo role), Scatman Crothers, 'The Love Boat''s Ted Lange, Paul Benjamin, Jason Bernard, Julius Harris, and Carl Weathers in a pre-"Rocky" featured role as a none-too- competent hired killer.All in all, this is an okay viewing for fans of Pam, but there's nothing terribly distinguished or memorable about it.Six out of 10.

Lee Eisenberg 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!

winner55 Of the four films from the mid-'70s that starred Pam Grier in the heroic lead - Coffy, Foxy Brown, Sheba Baby, Friday Foster - this last film is undoubtedly the best - best screenplay, best direction, best production values, and an excellent cast delivering wonderful (campy but restrained) performances. So why is this traditionally given the lowest rating of these films? I suspect that this has to do with the expectations of the fans of the '70s "Blaxploitation" genre. "Friday Foster" toys playfully with Blaxploitation conventions, but doesn't adhere to them. The movie is actually targeted at a developing black middle class that was college educated and both aware of the stereotypes confronting them and ambitious to overcome these. Most enduring Blaxploitation fans now are actually white. politically left, and 40 or older; they secretly enjoy the stereotypes they argue are mocked in Blaxploitation, these remind them of an era when it was easier to deal with social classes rather than individuals.But long after Blaxploitation is forgotten as a genre, "Friday Foster" will be an enjoyable action film. The violence and danger are real enough - and very well paced, but the script and the actors performing it are witty enough to avoid taking any of it too seriously. The political message is still there, but there's no attempt to beat us over the head with it.Finally, it has to be noted that with this film Pam Grier at last came into her own as an actress. While her range is still limited by her age and experience, she has learned to push this range to its envelope and toy with expanding beyond it. Her inflection and diction in delivering her lines, along with her careful use of of her eyes and expression, are subtly rich in wit and focus, revealing as much of the character as the script itself."Coffy," Grier's best known film of that era, is not really a good film, and is not amusing enough as "bad but funny" for multiple viewings. "Friday Foster" is not "bad but funny" at all, it's just a good, well-made, fun action comedy.

Infofreak Jack Hill's brilliant 'Coffy' is one of the 1970s best exploitation movies and remains the definitive Pam Grier role. It's such a pity that within two years Grier was forced into making something as mediocre as 'Friday Foster'. It's no wonder he career quickly went down the toilet after lame movies like this and 'Sheba, Baby'! 'Coffy' is a classic revenge movie and actually had some element of realism. Hill's next collaboration with Grier 'Foxy Brown' stepped away from that, and I didn't enjoy it as much, but compared to this it's a masterpiece. In 'Friday Foster' Grier is getting even closer to 'Cleopatra Jones' territory, but without the fun and style of that movie or its sequel. This movie actually has one of the best supporting casts of any blaxploitation film, but even that fails to satisfy. Yaphet Kotto plays Grier's detective buddy, and Julius Harris is her boss. Plus there's Scatman Crothers ('Black Belt Jones'), Thalmus Rasulala ('Blacula'), Godfrey Cambridge ('Cotton Comes To Harlem'), Paul Benjamin ('Across 110th Street') and Carl Weathers ('Rocky'), as well as Eartha Kitt, Isaac the bartender from 'The Love Boat' (Ted Lange) and even inexplicably 'Gilligan's Island's Thurston Howell III (Jim Backus)! As much as I love Grier and Kotto, 'Friday Foster's paper thin plot didn't hold my interest for very long and I was bored way before the climactic shootout. I regard this and 'Truck Turner' (which funnily enough also co-stars Yaphet Kotto) as the two most disappointing blaxploitation movies I've seen. If you want to see Pam Grier at her best watch 'Coffy', then follow it up with 'Foxy Brown' and 'Jackie Brown'. All three movies wipe the floor with this limp effort.