WHAT’S IT ABOUT
Superfly — the film that helped define a genre in its characters, look, sound, and feel — is reimagined with Director X, director of legendary music videos (Drake, Rihanna), introducing it to a new generation. The screenplay is by Alex Tse.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
I know most critics will feel compelled to compare this movie to the original 1972 version, but that’s not what I want to do. Yes, it is a remake (somewhat), but this version stands on its own, besides most of the audience that will see this version wasn’t born yet. Actually, most of their parents weren’t born yet either. Therefore Superfly (2018) will and must stand on its own.Right from the start, you know the main characters involved are dealing with drugs. Once you are introduced to the main protagonist, Youngblood Priest, you start to see a complex web of drug deals and dealers from the bottom of the ladder to the top – or at least from what we are shown. Youngblood Priest has the foresight to understand what he does will probably get him killed one day, so he decides to make the ultimate score and leave the drug life for good. Priest is a badass that has some serious fighting skills, but unlike others in his neighborhood, he has the knowledge and patients to know how and when to use them. So what went wrong? Just like real life, it’s always the people you associate with that thinks they could do a better job than you or the person at the top. This is what brought the negative attention to Priests entourage. This same emotion also affected Priest personally. So as we see the kingdom of Youngblood Priest crumble, we as an audience start to dismiss any idealistic dreams of living the lifestyle that this movie made look so glamorous. Fortunately, this film is not a blueprint for becoming a druglord nor does it go out of its way to teach morals. It’s a rated R inner city drug-related action flick, and that all it tries to be. Superfly is a good movie that could have been great if the soundtrack matched the movie and the story didn’t rely on the police to make it work. Let’s face it, a film like this has to be music-driven, or it loses a big part of its story. Unfortunately, as good as the soundtrack is, you can’t put tracks from the original 1972 film and expect it work. You never realize how important music is until you hear it out of place. Future should have just remade the songs superfly and pusherman to give them a hip-hop vibe. All in all, it’s still an OK movie, but without the right music, you never get fully engulfed in the film.
OUR RATING – A DEALERS 6
Media
- Genre – Action
- Street date
- Digital – August 28th 2018
- DVD/Blu-Ray – September 11th 2018
- Video – 1080p
- Screen Size – 1:85.1
- Sound – English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Subtitles – English, English SDH, French
- Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin, Thai
Extras
- Three Exclusive Featurettes:
- Trap Talk: The Music
- Director X Scene Breakdown
- Superfly: The Remix
- Future’s “No Shame” Music Video featuring PARTYNEXTDOOR
- Making of “No Shame” Music Video