Detroit 9000 (1973)

Funky music, gunfights, and plenty of fake looking blood, 2 January 2006

Unlike many of the other movies of its ilk, Detroit 9000 has a much more serious tone. It's more akin to something like Across 110th Street than it is to Foxy Brown. As serious as it may be, there's still a lot of fun to be had – funky music, gunfights, and plenty of fake looking blood. For the most part, it's a fast faced, enjoyable, gritty look at crime in Detroit in the 70s.

But the movie isn't without its problems. Chief among them is the lead detective played by Alex Rocco. I enjoy watching an actor who makes you forget they are an actor and you really start to believe in their character. No such luck with Rocco in Detroit 9000. I never bought his down-on-his-luck, good-cop routine. To me, he was nothing more than someone reciting lines. And the whole subplot about his wife in the asylum added nothing to the film other than to slow things down to a crawl.

6/10