Pretty Good

Just perfect...

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

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

Accomplished, but unspectacular blaxploitation horror with a tremendously ripe lead performance by Glynn Turman in presenting two very different (from placid to extreme) personalities. He plays a genuinely high flying and collected law student Isaac that during a hypnosis session experiences shocking visions and begins to undergo a personality change of a brutally hot-headed and jive-talking 1940's street hustler J.D. Walker. Through flashbacks that erupted in Isacc's mind we learn that J.D was wrongly accused of murder and then killed. Now he's seeking revenge beyond the grave and he's using Isaac to do so.Director Arthur Macks doesn't generate anything particularly frightening with the flipped-out supernatural current, but works well with the gritty and murky air to cement tough groundwork. There is a ruthlessly razor-sharp vibe throughout, even though the make-up is cheaply done, it's Turman's tour-de-force performance that sells it. Despite a well-rounded story, there are moments in the script that seem to linger and succumb to repetitiveness with a conclusion that feels all too convenient. Robert Prince's unhinged music amusingly experiments with psychedelic sounds from foreboding electronic stings to funky cues. The rest of the performances are efficiently fair with Louis Gossett Jr. and Joan Pringle.

I recently saw a documentary called "The Fifty Worst Movies" (a title and concept they ripped off from the book by the same title). Since I like to occasionally laugh at a bad film, I decided to get a copy of "J.D.'s Revenge". However, the movie wasn't nearly bad enough to be in the documentary (and this could be said of many of the selected films). Sure, it was bad (far worse than many of the IMDb reviews would indicate) but the basic concept of the film isn't really bad at all--it's just that the horrible acting by Glynn Turman as "J.D." and the writing combined for a very bad paranormal blaxploitation film.Turman plays a nice guy who is going to law school and driving a cab. His wife manages to convince the overly studious guy to take a night off and go on the town with some friends. While a participant in a stage hypnosis show, the spirit of J.D. somehow creeps into him and slowly begins to reveal itself. This really wasn't explained well and was a bit confusing as to the how and why. Regardless, this isn't a huge problem. The huge problem is that the character of J.D. is almost like a combination of Steppin' Fetchit and Scarface!! The guy that Turman becomes is a giant walking negative stereotype of a 40s Black man and it's not even close to being subtle or clever--just rather silly and often offensive. What's worse is that some of J.D.'s behaviors were just cruel and made the film, at times, tough to watch. All the nudity wasn't the problem (though there was a lot), but when he rapes his wife and treats women like garbage I cringed and felt it was perhaps pandering to some that might actually enjoy seeing this sort of violence. This is certainly NOT a film that would receive the Betty Friedan seal of approval!! Turman's stupid characterization (which I blame on him and the writers) is a real shame, as there really was a decent story idea underneath all this crap (which included repeated and unnecessary shots of cows being slaughtered among other things). A man wrongly killed who returns from the dead years later to set things right is an exciting idea and how all this was worked out in the end was far more clever than I would have expected given the overall tone of the movie. Lou Gossett's character and his on-screen brother really were interesting and complex--too bad J.D. was just an idiot! By the way, Turman playing a jive-talking 40s punk reminds me of Robert Townsend's film "Hollywood Shuffle" as the film laments that the only roles for Black men in films are pimps, drug dealers and the like (which was very true until recently).

"J.D.'s Revenge" is a simply there possession film without a whole lot going for it either way.**SPOILERS**In the middle of New Orleans, Ike, (Glynn Turman) and his girlfriend Christella, (Joan Pringle) try not to let his celebrity status affect their fun. Hitting a popular nightclub, he goes on stage for a hypnotism act and falls under, emerging from the experience seeing strange visions of the murder of an unknown woman in an animal slaughterhouse. Concerned nothing is wrong, he continues on with his life until he runs into Reverend Elija Bliss, (Lou Gossett) and he learns that the trouble has been caused by being possessed by a gangster who had a run-in with him years ago, and is now seeking revenge for being wrongly executed back then. Switching between personalities as he carries on his mission, they try to stop him before he is able to complete his blood-lust through the possession.The Good News: There wasn't a whole lot to this one that really worked. One of the best ones is that it changes the rules around the whole possession angle. That this one has the male get possessed leads to some really nice moments, as the changes are going to stick out much easier compared to others, which is what is needed to sell the change. That also gives the later half of the film, with the real revenge getting carried through in real gang-land traditions is a lot of fun. From the confrontation in the Church to the fight in the meat factory, it has some really good stuff to it, action-packed while leaving closely enough to the horror elements through the changes which give it some extra pull. The different ways that the film presents the change, from outright changes to the flashing between the two with the same characteristics is rather nice and give the film a little more to it. The last big plus is the really inventive manner of the possession, here done through the rather harmless hypnotism scene. It comes with a great way of doing so that is completely innocent and really rather new. These here are the film's good points.The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot to this one at all. The fact that the film doesn't have much action at all, either normal action or horror action, is a pretty big effect on the film. It makes for some really dull moments as there's nothing much happening during that state. It happens during most of the movie, which is the worst part of all of this. It's really just dull for an incredibly long time of the film, and that's something which can really hurt the film. What also ruins this is that the tactics used to indicate that the possession has occurred don't have all that horrific a tag attached to them. Merely wearing a different style of clothes or hanging out with different sets of people are warning signs something's wrong, not something that is used to generate scares from. It's fine to have them as supplanted tools for the actual possession, otherwise this one shouldn't be based solely on such non-frightening motives for such a scary motive. The last flaw is that there's way too many scenes in the animal slaughterhouse. It's unnecessary, is morally disturbing to keep showing that scene over and over again, and does nothing for the film. That alone is one of the major things holding the film down, and all with the other areas are the film's flaws.The Final Verdict: While not entirely without flaws, the good parts to this one are really just kinda there anyway and overall it's just mediocre. If there's something appealing about the genre or the film or just plain curious, then give this one a shot, otherwise it's best to proceed with caution.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, several sex scenes, a rape scene and animal slaughter

A solid standout from most Black flicks of the middle 70's, JD's Revenge provided an early platform for Glynn Turman (Cooley High) to prove his acting prowess. By playing essentially two characters at once, Turman's passion for the roles combines with the spookiness of the New Orleans setting for memorable results. Louis Gossett plays an excellent preacher with a sordid past. The horror edge of this film is a little heavy-handed, but it is considerably better than most of the genre. A great Black thriller.