Slaughter's Big Rip-Off

Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: Douglas Gordon

Starring: Jim Brown, Ed McMahon (yes), Brock Peters, Don Stroud, Gloria Hendry

From: AIP

Here's a movie I was inspired to track down, and I was able to do it in a not so ethical way, as a few months ago I stumbled upon a podcast known as Bad Movie Fiends; where they not only review awful movies with little merit like Battlefield Earth and The Happening but also awesome low-budget films that technically aren't good but are awesome to watch anyway. I burned through all 100 plus episodes they've done and they're great to listen to and enjoy. Anyhow, I wrote them an e-mail asking them about blaxploitation movies and recommended Slaughter, a movie I saw last summer and thought was pretty great. Much to my surprise they liked the idea so much they watched that movie and this month for them will be blaxploitation. They also managed to enjoy Slaughter a hell of a lot so I am quite flattered they liked my ideas so much.

Anyway, they knew of this sequel but no one knew if it was any good or not, and not even I could answer that, until now.

The plot is that Slaughter is back in LA. He's on a picnic in the country with some pals. Suddenly, a bi-plane appears and machine guns his best friend, while Slaugher survives; needless to say he's PISSED that “The Syndicate” is after him so he I on the path to take down Ed McMahon (!), a.k.a. Duncan, who he finds out is the guy that ordered the hit. Along the way he meets up with a cop (Peters) that coerces him to getting a special list from Duncan that has all of his contacts, including fellow people on the police force. There's also interactions with a wide variety of people wearing lout and wacky clothing from the period, including Scatman Crothers, who only appears in one scene, and doesn't use The Shine. He also has to get help from a pimp (Dick Anthony Williams) who overacts to a hilarious degree.

While it isn't as awesome as the original it's still pretty great and filled with many laughs. Slaughter does some tremendous things, like threaten to shove a guy's face into an airplane propellar, and he even bitch-slaps a guy who has curly hair and a porn 'stache. He dropkicks a guy as if he was a WWE wrestler. He also has to team up with a pimp named Joe Creole who overacts to the nth degree and thus is always hilarious. Needless to say, Slaughter ends up killing many sons of bitches.

Oh, and there's SCATMAN CROTHERS who briefly appears as a jive dude but he only appears in one scene for about 2 minutes. My favorite scene, though, was when Slaughter and the pimp break into a mansion to retrieve the film's McGuffin and you see Ed McMahon make out in a hallway with a woman in her 20's. They then go into a bedroom where you hear them have sex, and it includes Ed McMahon moaning like he's going to orgasm! That is a sound I'll never forget.

About the only bad thing I can say is that when MGM released the movie on DVD they were cheap and didn't pay the cash to have James Brown's soundtrack appear so it was replaced with generic funk and that's unfortunate. Still, this movie has lines such as, “I'm going to kick your eyes out your ass”, and I probably don't need to say much more than that.

I'll be back Friday afternoon with something interesting, and I'll also be posting something about Episode 1 (yes) on Saturday afternoon.