Wonderful character development!

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

What better film to mark my one thousandth IMDb review than Velvet Smooth? If you enjoy badly shot and badly acted films, look no further. If you admire horrendous poly-knit suits, hideously ugly furniture, and sets apparently designed to duplicate the worst of suburban sprawl in the midst of the inner city, this is your film. If you're looking for a worse theme song than that featured in Darktown Strutters, Velvet Smooth has you covered there, too. And let's not overlook the film's unconvincing and badly choreographed (by co-star Owen Watson) martial arts scenes--there are times when characters appear to be playing hacky-sack rather than beating up on each other. In fact, the film's sole (soul?) redeeming quality is lead actress Johnnie Hill as the titular tough gal, a private investigator hired by local thug King Lathrop to unmask some goons who have moved in on his territory. She's not much of an actress, but she's easy on the eyes, which is more than can be said for virtually everything and everybody else in Velvet Smooth.

For a low-budget 70's martial arts film, I thought it was pretty entertaining. The soundtrack is really a hoot, as are the sets and costumes. I especially enjoyed the scene where King and Velvet are on the sofa and you can actually see the audio boom shifting back and forth at the bottom of the screen! When Velvet speaks her line the boom points at her and when King says something, the boom races back toward him--hilarious! I noticed that the casino bouncer is one of the "family" from "Super Fly". There are some amusing parallels: Velvet takes off her bracelet at home, cut to bracelets being stolen at the casino robbery. Also, during the fight scene on the top of the MTA building, the costumes match the colors and shapes of the hele-pad. I thought the Kojak lookalike was a really strange touch and whatever they were using for stage blood looked like marinara! Fantastic!

This is one of the weaker Blaxploitation films made in the 70's. Production value? Well, I have seen student films with better attention to detail. The acting is not any better. The music isn't too bad and unfortunately one of the only good things about this film.If you are dedicated to the Genre, then you have to see it. Otherwise you aren't going to miss anything. They took the formula approach and it shows. You can't take any of these movies too seriously, but you can pass on this one.See: Three the Hardway, Blackula, Superfly, Shaft or Detroit 9000.

This little known film is worthy of seeking out . So o.k the production values are limited and the walls move when they close doors , but don't yours ? Our heroine is the foxy detective who is trying to find out who is breaking in to a local drug tzars turf , with plot lines skipping all over the place she soon learns not to trust anyone .. why was she hired in the first place..whats the alteria motive of the gang leader. Velvet soon discovers the truth and unleashes a whole can of "whoop ass" on the hapless baddies. Its not the best but its a hell of a lot better than the worst , and our leading lady..whoa !