Petey Wheatstraw was... interesting, to say the least. I'm not sure if it's the genre I would really enjoy. I don't have an urge to go find more of its kind like I did with some of the other films I've watched. Maybe it's the exploitation aspect that I didn't really like.
Or maybe it was the bizarre ridiculousness. The first scene was crazy, with the woman giving birth a watermelon first and then to an 8 year-old child. She didn't seem very surprised, either.
I'm curious as to why there was so much of a Kung-Fu aspect to this film. None of the characters were Asian, even the dude who taught Petey everything he knows about Kung-Fu. And the fight scenes were pretty bad. I liked the fight scene in Manchurian Candidate better.
I'm not a huge fan of violent films. I can handle watching violence, I just don't prefer it, especially if it's unneeded. It was pretty crazy when the men opened fire on the funeral procession. They didn't try all that hard to convince Petey to postpone his show before they killed him and all of his friends.
And then Lucifer came into the picture. What?? At least he didn't have anything to do with the funeral massacre, right? I'm not sure if I'm interested in watching the rest of the movie. Professor McRae's quick explaination of Petey being almost forced to marry Lucifer's ugly daughter and being given magical powers to do "good in the hood" was enough for me to imagine how the movie would finish.
I'm not entirely ruling out seeing more movies of this genre, but the first half hour of the movie didn't really intrigue me.
I agree with you fully! I've heard of this genre before and, to me, these type of films are just unappealing and unenjoyable. There were no redeeming qualities about the film: no good acting, no cool camera shots, nothing really that provacitive! It seemed like what my parents would call "smutt."
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't even funny. I could continue watching it if it had a least that. One word to sum it up: ridic.
ReplyDeleteAnd its not all that weird for pregnant women to give birth to full grown eight year olds. I mean, look at Octomom. All those babies combined equaled an eight year old.
I just thought of cannibalism whenever someone ate a watermelon after the birth scene
ReplyDeleteI tried to defend this film in my post but I think that ultimately what makes this movie unsuccessful is it's overall poorness both in production and performance. I think in order for a film to actually pass it off as if it has an underlying message or even purpose, it has to be done in a way that doesn't allow people to concentrate on and find entertainment solely in its flaws.
ReplyDeleteI think it's funny that you mention the woman giving birth to the watermelon because at one point Petey throws a bomb into a truck full of watermelons. There is a gigantic explosion and everyone takes cover. Possible metaphor here? (I'm almost positive I'm joking)
Melissa's comment made me laugh out loud. I think blaxploitation, like a lot of B-movies, might be an acquired taste. They tend to be really garish and over-the-top, but some of the images you just don't see anywhere else. I think my fascination is that it's almost a whole other America.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the exploitation elements bothered you?