Starring: Isaac Hayes, Alan Weeks, Nichelle Nichols, Yaphet Kotto

Directed by: Jonathan Kaplan  Written by: Jerry Wilkes

The Story: I'm just old enough to remember the seventies with some clarity. Its scary, actually. The clothes. Disco music. Big Afros. (If you've never had an Afro, let me school ya...it was real bitch when my mama had to fix up my hair. Anyone remember those old hot air blow-combs, or those hot combs you had to put on the stove to heat up?) Of course there were good things that came out of the seventies. American kids were first introduced to Japanese animation back in the late 60's early 70's. (Astro boy, Kimba the white Lion, 8th Man, etc) There were some cool bands making great music then. GI Joes were bigger than 2 inches and came with the Kung Fu grip. And of course blaxploitation movies were big. At a time where black people were still getting the shaft in a lot of places, it was great to see movies like Shaft, Gordon's War and even flicks like Enter the Dragon starring minority heroes. However, I never even heard of Truck Turner until I saw the DVD in the store the other day. (Hey, I was a child way back then. I'm surprised I even remember the seventies at all)

Isaac Hayes, the musician, one time front man for Canada Dry Ginger Ale, and voice of Chef on TV's South Park is Bounty Hunter Truck Turner. He and his partner Jerry make a decent living busting heads and catching bail jumpers. They usually give the "man" the finger during a normal day, like when they have to face redneck Air Force guards apprehending a military bail jumper, but they also enjoy their work.

Jerry is married, but Truck has a girlfriend, Annie, who is in jail at the beginning of the movie. She only had to serve 30 days, but right away we know that Truck must really have a thing for her, since his friend Nate (the bail bondsman) and Jerry talk about her as a "thievin'' bitch". But Annie is not the only problem for Truck. Contracted to catch a bail jumping pimp named Gator, Truck and Jerry have to ask for a really high price. (From Dick Miller!) Gator has a reputation as a real mean sumbitch, and he's known to have maim and injure people for pleasure. As Truck says when given the job, "We're going to have to AT LEAST kick his ass." .

Gator is worthy of a good ass kicking. After a long car chase he pays some local drunks to fight Jerry and Truck, leading up to a really cool fight scene. Cool because its not the usual kind of stuff you see nowadays. No fancy moves, just a big brawl in a bar, where Truck and Jerry get their fair share of lumps even though they win. Later they track Gator down to one of his hideaways and engage in a shootout that leaves the vicious pimp dead and his blonde bimbo knocked out.

Too bad for our heroes that killing Gator has aroused the ire of his head 'ho, Dorinda. She immediately takes charge of Gator's stable of hookers and puts a price on Truck's head. She enlists the help of the other pimps to kill Truck. To be honest, there's a lot of pimps in this city. I didn't know they all got together for parties and stuff though. Dorinda is played by Nichelle Nichols and shame on you if you didn't know that she's the same Nichelle Nichols that was Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek! I do have to say, even though Ms. Nichols is old enough to be my grandmother right now, back in the 70's she was fine as hell! (not that she's not a beautiful lady now, but hey, I was probably in preschool when this flick was made!)

Dorinda's offer of money and pimp power  does not go unheeded. but none of the other pimps are a match for Truck. Even when he's sneak attacked with Annie by one of them, Truck dispatches them with little trouble. But now he's aware that someone is out to get him. And Blue, the meanest and baddest of the pimps wants to collect on Dorinda's bounty. Blue's not playing around with Truck, either. He hires some real hit men to take him out. But Truck still kills any fool dumb enough to face him.

So Blue does the one thing that bad guys should know better than doing. He severely beats up Truck's friend Nate (costing poor Nate an eye and an extended hospital stay) and kills Jerry. We all know what that means. Truck is now going to pretty much f*ck up everyone after him. Being a 70's blaxploitation flick this means that no matter what Blue throws at him...which incidentally isn't much...Truck kicks some ass. Isaac Hayes isn't a great actor, but he's good enough and in the scenes where he's fighting you get the idea that he could really hand a dude their head if he really wanted to. Lets face it, Hayes looks like a badass, he probably is a bad mofo in real life (I've never meant him but I wouldn't want to fight him) and he's not a small mother f*cker either.

Truck is pretty clever too. Annie won't go away or hide until the heats off and Truck is worried that the bad guys will harm her or at the least use her to get to him. So he sets her up for shoplifting so she'll be in the pokey for  few days and safe. Luckily for Truck he doesn't have to work too hard to seek out his enemies. Blue, getting desperate stages an ambush for truck in the hospital, while he visits Nate. A giant shootout ensues, where lots of innocent people get hurt (but what the hell...at least they're already in the hospital!) and Truck introduces some of Blues internal organs to sunlight. Blue dies while trying to drive away after Truck shoots him about three or four times. By the way, Blue was played by Yaphet Kotto, who is a pretty good actor. you might know him the movie Alien or the TV show Homicide...he died in both of them too...so rest assured he does a superb job dying in this movie. (That wasn't a wisecrack...he really does)

The plot for this flick isn't complicated and it wasn't meant to be. The only problem I had with the movie was a few times when I couldn't understand what Truck was saying. Isaac Hayes has a deep throaty voice and sometimes he mumbled or the audio just wasn't too good and words got lost. Still, that shouldn't stop any of you from liking the movie. It was an enjoyable little look at the past in some ways and the action never really stops. Besides, it was really a laugh to hear Lt. Uhura cursing and swearing.

Best Lines:  “What you see ain't all you get, baby....this ain't Sears-Roebuck, nigga!” -Wow....if Nichelle Nichols had ever said that to Captain Kirk it'd be real funny. But it gets better! If you want to hear Star trek's Lt. Uhura talkin' trash and cursing get a load of these lines:

"Anyone thinking about leaving here is gonna find my left foot square up their ass, do you understand it!?"

"....and those two bitches that left...they'd better learn to sell pussy in Iceland because if I ever see them again I'm gonna cut their f*cking throats!"

"You ain't going nowhere, you  simple-minded little black bitch. I know what all you whores are sayin'!  You can't do nothin' but f*ck...

"You don't open this goddamned gate and you're gonna get the biggest enema of your life!"- Truck threatens a dude while shoving a pistol up his ass.

"Look woman, cut the goddamned sh*t, get yo' ass in the car!"- Truck talks to his woman before they make sweet sweet love, as Chef would say.

Are you kidding me?

1.) Garrity is one stupid son of a bitch. Once Truck and his partner have him in custody he starts calling them "nigger" this and "nigger" that. Even the most hateful racist would have to realize that mouthing off to two big ass black bounty hunters is probably gonna earn you some lost teeth. Of course Truck decides to shut him up by kicking his ass clean into next week.

2.) You know, even if I was a pimp in the seventies I wouldn't drive a pink car. Bruce Springsteen might have been thrilled about a Pink Cadillac but I'd drive an Orange Gremlin before I bought a sissy looking ride like that.

3.) At least Truck is an equal opportunity type of brawler. When Gator's blonde white chick stabs his partner he damn near knocks her head off.

4.) Ain't that like a woman? After a hard day of beating up criminals, getting in care chases and being shot at, Truck is late in picking up his girlfriend Annie, who just got released from prison. She's naturally pissed that instead of flowers Truck brought her beer and wants to screw her. If I were Truck I'd have had to tell her "Bitch, you're the one that got arrested. You oughtta be glad I still want to see your thievin' ass.".

5.) I thought they were joking in "I'm Gonna Get you Sucka" with the "Pimp of the Year Awards" but I guess pimps do have some kinda Guild! After Gator's death all of the pimps and hookers show up for his funeral! In pimp gear, too! Do they have their own clubhouse and pay dues too? Maybe they even set up a charity fundraiser at Christmas, too. For every ho you pay for the pimps will donate $10.00 to the Trojan corporation....'cuz Safe Sex is the only way to protect your wiener...their most valued customer!

6.) Man, I thought I had a big ego! The late Gator had a giant ass 10x10 feet photo of himself on the wall of street 'ho HQ. (I guess its his former home.) I don't think Adonis was that self absorbed.

7.) Blue tries to ambush Truck as he visits Nate in the hospital. In the Hospital. Can you think of a worse place for an ambush? There are gonna be a lot of witnesses even if you get away with it! despite what you might have seen in other movies, there are usually a LOT of people, patients and workers alike, in a hospital. even at night (though some movies make it look there aren't too many people about at night in a hospital) Blue wasn't even smart enough to do this at night though, so the place is packed! Besides, if you want to bust a cap in someone why do it in a hospital? the person might actually be saved from death because of the close proximity of medical aid and then you're really gonna have problems when they get better and come after you.

Nudity and Sex: The blonde hooker boasts her ta-ta's for the camera. Truck and his lady have sex.

Huh?:

Things sure have changed since the early seventies. Nowadays Garrity, the Air Force child molesting rapist would have been thrown in jail and had the key thrown away, but his commanding officer actually gives Truck and his partner a hard time about handing him over. The Major even uses the excuse that Garrity is a combat veteran! Who cares!? He raped a 13 year old girl! I wouldn't care if he saved the President! He's a rapist!

Dorinda shows off her prostitutes to the assembled pimps and tells them how much they've earned in the past year. Stuff like "This is Turnpike...she did $26, 500.00.....that's Taffy...this bitch grossed $37,500 workin' part time!" What the hell do these chicks do, keep receipts!?

Even though I don't have a problem with legalized prostitution like they have in Germany, (Hey, I've spent about half of my career there so far, I got used to it) I still think its a dirty business. Dorinda's ''ho's seem like they're proud to do this crap when she shows them off to the assembled pimps! You know, if you can make up to 37 grand on your back, baby, that's not something I'd be proud of.

In his quest to destroy Truck Turner, Blue has Truck's friend Nate beaten to a blood stain and his partner Jerry killed. then he kills Truck's cat, Francis! Now that's just mean! The f*cking cat didn't do anything to anyone! If someone attacked my buddy I'd look forward to carvin' 'em up like a turkey and planting them in the hoosegow...but kill my cat? (kill Jet Jaguar!? The fiend!) Man, then you're going straight to hell and I'm driving.

How much leeway do Bounty hunters get? Truck and Jerry seem to have carte blanche to speed through the city in car chases, shoot guns at random and generally whoop up on people. I'm not arguing...all the guys they went after were criminals...but still...a real cop would get thrown off of the force for some of this stuff!

The Final Judgment: Truck Turner isn't John Shaft, but this was still a decent movie. If you're a fan of the 70's blaxploitation craze you might want to list this one just a bit under Shaft. The Infernal hordes grant this movie a full pardon. It kept them entertained and didn't insult their intelligence (that which it is) too much. They just tell me they got hit by a Truck..."Mac" Truck Turner.