Bullet Points: The Return of Superfly
1972’s Super Fly was one of the quintessential films of the Blaxploitation Era of the 1970’s. Much like Shaft before it, Super Fly had a badass lead actor (in the form of Ron O’Neal) and an epic theme song (courtesy of Curtis Mayfield). Super Fly spawned an immediate sequel in 1973, Super Fly T.N.T. and much to my surprise another sequel that wasn’t released until 1990… The Return of Superfly!
- Out with the Old: As the opening credits roll, the treacherous trio of Joey Maxwell, Manuel and Renaldo (played by Kirk Taylor aka The Giggler from Death Wish 3) are on their way to eliminate their boss’ competition in the New York City drug trade. First stop is an apartment building where some business is being done… Joey, Manuel and Renaldo bust in and start shooting. One guy is able to jump out the window and into a trash heap… he then runs to the nearest pay phone to alert his boss Eddie Baker. Eddie may have been more alarmed by the news if he wasn’t in the midst of some afternoon delight when the call came in. Later, Eddie still basking in the afterglow, would be gunned down just like all his men.
- If You Can Make It There: Eddie Baker used to be the boss of Priest (aka Superfly) back when Priest was in the drug game. When the news reached Priest (Nathan Purdee taking over from Ron O’Neal) that Eddie had been killed, Priest hops on a plane in his new home in Paris and returns to his old NYC stomping grounds… but not without some hassles. Priest is stopped at customs and soon finds himself in a meeting with some detectives and his lawyer, Tom Perkins (played by Christopher Curry of C.H.U.D. fame, he was also Johnny Rico’s dad in Starship Troopers). The cops are offering to put Priest into the witness protection program if he can help them take down the drug dealers. Priest ain’t biting… the cops cut him loose.
- Who Killed Eddie?: Priest may not have any desire to help the cops, but he is damn sure interested in finding out who killed Eddie, so he tracks down another old colleague, Nate Cabot (Samuel L. Jackson, The Long Kiss Goodnight). Nate tells Priest things are much different than back in the day, the new power player is Hector Estrada (Carlos Carrasco, Speed) and the guy who killed Eddie for Hector… one Joey Maxwell! …Priest, while visiting his lawyer, meets another key player in the movie, Francine (Margaret Avery, Riverbend). Priest and Francine bond over their admiration for the late Eddie Baker. This is normally where I’d say the two became fast friends, but fast lovers would be more appropriate. With attempts being made on Priest’s life, Francine points Priest in the direction Willy Green (Tico Wells, Universal Soldier), a guy Eddie will call upon when he needed to bring out the heavy artillery. And Francine also tells Priest, where he can get his hands on Joey Maxwell!
- Parking Garage Rule: I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating… parking garages are some of the most dangerous places in action movies. Joey Maxwell finds that out the hard way when Priest surprises Joey in a parking garage, knocks him the eff out and then with Willy’s help, interrogates Estrada’s right hand man. With Joey having no choice but to spill the beans, Priest starts systematically destroying Estrada’s drug operation… from taking out the phony cops on Estrada’s payroll to messing with Estrada’s stash and even blowing up some of the “factories” that produce the crack for Estrada… It’s actually the explosions that lead Estrada’s men to Willy’s place since nobody knows nitro like Willy. This means Joey is free to have his dramatic final confrontation with Priest on the streets of New York. Joey learns that when you live by the crack and you die by the crack!
The Return of Superfly has a happy ending for Priest, who returns to France with Francine, presumably to live happily ever after… but I have to wonder how happy diehard fans of the original were after watching the third chapter, especially without Ron O’Neal in the role he made famous. Making a “Blaxploitation movie” well after the Blaxploitation era had ended was an interesting choice to say the least and it certainly was not done as well as Original Gangstas would do it years later.
The IMDb description refers to The Return of Superfly as an action-packed sequel and I would say that’s a stretch. Thanks in great part to the Willy character the action does pick up, like when they blow up the cop car (if there was a site called Exploding Police Cars, I would have rushed to tell them about that scene) and the shootout at the end was memorable… but the parking garage “fight”, completely pathetic.
And now before I wrap up this review on The Return of Superfly, here’s the return of the Bonus Bullet Points…
- The Return of Mayfield: While Ron O’Neal opted not to return for the third installment in the Super Fly franchise, Curtis Mayfield was back and this time he brought Ice-T with him for the updated theme “Superfly 1990”.
- The Return of Superfly: A year prior to the release of The Return of Superfly, “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka returned to the then World Wrestling Federation as part of WrestleMania V.
- The Return of Sig Shore: The Return of Superfly also saw the return of Sig Shore. Shore had been one of the producers of the first two Super Fly films and he pulled double duty as producer AND director of The Return of Superfly.
- The Return of Superfly: A reboot of Super Fly was released in 2018, titled Superfly (the space between the super and the fly was lost somewhere between 1973 and 1990) with Trevor Jackson taking on the role of Youngblood Priest.
