A brazen band of no-count thieves rob roughly $400,000 in money and valuable merchandise from a political fund-raiser being held by ambitious black congressman Aubrey Clayton (a perfectly smarmy Rudy Challenger). It's up to suave black Sargeant Jesse Williams (the super smooth Hari Rhodes) and slobby, cynical white Lieutenant Daniel Bassett (a fine performance by the ever-funny and engaging Alex Rocco; Moe Greene in "The Godfather") to get to the bottom of things before the whole city erupts into chaos and racial violence.
Director Arthur ("Bucktown") Marks keeps the pace speeding along at a steady breakneck clip and stages the thrilling action scenes with considerable rip-snorting brio, further enhancing this already fun and entertaining crime caper picture with amusing amounts of his trademark dark humor (my two all-time favorite moments are when hooker Vonetta McGee complains to her pimp that a john treated her like a piece of meat and the positively gut-busting scene where a hoodlum exclaims "Mother*beep*er!" after taking a fatal bullet to the chest). The uneasy give-and-take relationship between Williams and Bassett adds greatly to the tension, leading to a wonderfully ambiguous and genuinely startling climax that packs a substantial punch because of its marvelously up-in-the-air moral ambivalence and uncertainty. This isn't your garden variety simplistic cops and robbers yarn where there's a fine line between the good guys and the bad guys. Instead almost everyone in this movie is either on the make or on the take, creating a stark and brutal world where morals are decidedly gray at best and such sterling virtues as honor, honesty and loyalty are hard to come by. It's the powerfully vivid way Marks depicts this sense of pervasive corruption which in turn makes "Detroit 9000" a superior crime thriller. Luchi DeJesus supplies a fine, funky-throbbing score while Harry May's rough cinematography gives the film an appropriately raw and gritty look. Popping up in nifty bit parts are the ubiquitous Bob Minor as a cop-killing criminal, Marilyn Joi as a prostitute dancing in a bordello, and the great Scatman Crothers in an especially lively cameo as a fiery hell-and-brimstone bible-banging priest. A real solid and satisfying little winner.
Director Arthur ("Bucktown") Marks keeps the pace speeding along at a steady breakneck clip and stages the thrilling action scenes with considerable rip-snorting brio, further enhancing this already fun and entertaining crime caper picture with amusing amounts of his trademark dark humor (my two all-time favorite moments are when hooker Vonetta McGee complains to her pimp that a john treated her like a piece of meat and the positively gut-busting scene where a hoodlum exclaims "Mother*beep*er!" after taking a fatal bullet to the chest). The uneasy give-and-take relationship between Williams and Bassett adds greatly to the tension, leading to a wonderfully ambiguous and genuinely startling climax that packs a substantial punch because of its marvelously up-in-the-air moral ambivalence and uncertainty. This isn't your garden variety simplistic cops and robbers yarn where there's a fine line between the good guys and the bad guys. Instead almost everyone in this movie is either on the make or on the take, creating a stark and brutal world where morals are decidedly gray at best and such sterling virtues as honor, honesty and loyalty are hard to come by. It's the powerfully vivid way Marks depicts this sense of pervasive corruption which in turn makes "Detroit 9000" a superior crime thriller. Luchi DeJesus supplies a fine, funky-throbbing score while Harry May's rough cinematography gives the film an appropriately raw and gritty look. Popping up in nifty bit parts are the ubiquitous Bob Minor as a cop-killing criminal, Marilyn Joi as a prostitute dancing in a bordello, and the great Scatman Crothers in an especially lively cameo as a fiery hell-and-brimstone bible-banging priest. A real solid and satisfying little winner.