Cleopatra Jones Reviews

1973

Rated:
50
from 178 members

A buxom beauty, undercover narcotics agent Cleo Jones (Tamara Dobson) is the principal operative in a covert scheme to eradicate an international drug trade. But she's pulled away from important business when a phony raid on her boyfriend's ghetto halfway house puts the rehabilitation centre in jeopardy. Cleo will soon discover .. Read more

Starring	Tamara Dobson, Bernie Casey, Shelley Winters, Brenda Sykes
Director	Jack Starrett
Genres	Action/Adventure

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Critics' reviews (3) of Cleopatra Jones
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After napalming opium fields in Turkey, six-foot-two-tall narcotics agent Tamara Dobson returns to Los Angeles to confront Shelley Winters, lesbian queen of the drug underworld. Jack Starrett handles the action well, though clumsy martial arts and comic book theatrics conspire against his vigorous direction. Yet the meld of funky exuberance, urban angst (Jones's boyfriend runs a halfway house for junkies) and camp performances (with leather-jacketed Winters giving new meaning to the phrase “over-acting”) make this blaxploitation landmark a heady, bad-ass cocktail.
- Radio Times
- Posted 29 Jan 2006
Blaxploitation product in which six-foot-two Agent Tamara Dobson wages war on drugs, rednecks and other social evils.... read more on Time Out
- Time Out
- Posted 04 Nov 2008
Grotesque comic strip fantasy with a high mortality rate.
- Halliwell's Film Guide
- Posted 02 Mar 2006
Most helpful members' reviews (3) of Cleopatra Jones
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

[Highly rated reviewer]

Tamara doesn't cut it

Classic blaxploitaition cinema. It has the clothes, the hair, the jive and the black power politics but…it doesn’t have Pam Grier. Tamara Dobson looks good parading around in her various fashion model outfits but her fight scenes are badly staged and she doesn’t have the earthy presence of Grier to convince. Get the feeling she’d be more at home in a t.v. soap than a blaxploitation film. Antonia Fargas is in it and delivers his usual charismatic hustler performance which is the best thing about the film.
- - chungking from London
  - Posted 25 Nov 2005 22:54
Not the best...

This is nicely shot and as usual with blaxploitation films the soundtrack's incredible, but it's badly acted and not tremendously engaging. If you're a fan of the genre give it a go but if not a better starting point is the 'shaft' or 'superfly' series as an introduction.
- - spp from manchester
  - Posted 31 Jan 2005 20:40
Black Power

First of the Cleopatra Jones films & the best. Tamara looks good, drives a Stingray as if it was going out of fashion. The plot is not overly brain busting. The cops are either racist or so enamoured of her (shes a special agent) that they drool & go brain soft in her presence. The M Arts are a bit nuff, But Huggy Bear is Cool Man.

Good If your a fan of Blaxploitation..
- - A customer from Billericay, England
  - Posted 21 May 2005 04:36
Most recent members' reviews (2) of Cleopatra Jones
View all
Tame, but fun

I have to agree with the other reviewers - the absence of Pam Grier, or another actress of similar gravitas, hurts this film big-time. Tamara Dobson just doesn't have the same charisma of Pam in Coffy, Foxy Brown, The Big Doll House etc. Ultimately this is a far softer, friendlier, way less sleazy form of blaxploitation than we get in the aforementioned films - and where's the fun in that, you may well ask?! Well, it's still kind of entertaining, but more like an extended episode of Charlie's Angels with a bit of lo-fi James Bond stuff thrown in. Enjoyable, but pretty forgettable.
- - MrBenn from Liverpool
  - Posted 07 Jun 2007 09:28
Not the best...

This is nicely shot and as usual with blaxploitation films the soundtrack's incredible, but it's badly acted and not tremendously engaging. If you're a fan of the genre give it a go but if not a better starting point is the 'shaft' or 'superfly' series as an introduction.
- - spp from manchester
  - Posted 31 Jan 2005 20:40

1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

[Highly rated reviewer]

Tamara doesn't cut it

Classic blaxploitaition cinema. It has the clothes, the hair, the jive and the black power politics but…it doesn’t have Pam Grier. Tamara Dobson looks good parading around in her various fashion model outfits but her fight scenes are badly staged and she doesn’t have the earthy presence of Grier to convince. Get the feeling she’d be more at home in a t.v. soap than a blaxploitation film. Antonia Fargas is in it and delivers his usual charismatic hustler performance which is the best thing about the film.
- - chungking from London
  - Posted 25 Nov 2005 22:54
Not the best...

This is nicely shot and as usual with blaxploitation films the soundtrack's incredible, but it's badly acted and not tremendously engaging. If you're a fan of the genre give it a go but if not a better starting point is the 'shaft' or 'superfly' series as an introduction.
- - spp from manchester
  - Posted 31 Jan 2005 20:40
Black Power

First of the Cleopatra Jones films & the best. Tamara looks good, drives a Stingray as if it was going out of fashion. The plot is not overly brain busting. The cops are either racist or so enamoured of her (shes a special agent) that they drool & go brain soft in her presence. The M Arts are a bit nuff, But Huggy Bear is Cool Man.

Good If your a fan of Blaxploitation..
- - A customer from Billericay, England
  - Posted 21 May 2005 04:36
Tame, but fun

I have to agree with the other reviewers - the absence of Pam Grier, or another actress of similar gravitas, hurts this film big-time. Tamara Dobson just doesn't have the same charisma of Pam in Coffy, Foxy Brown, The Big Doll House etc. Ultimately this is a far softer, friendlier, way less sleazy form of blaxploitation than we get in the aforementioned films - and where's the fun in that, you may well ask?! Well, it's still kind of entertaining, but more like an extended episode of Charlie's Angels with a bit of lo-fi James Bond stuff thrown in. Enjoyable, but pretty forgettable.
- - MrBenn from Liverpool
  - Posted 07 Jun 2007 09:28

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Critics' reviews (3)
After napalming opium fields in Turkey, six-foot-two-tall narcotics agent Tamara Dobson returns to Los Angeles to confront Shelley Winters, lesbian queen of the drug underworld. Jack Starrett handles the action well, though clumsy martial arts and comic book theatrics conspire against his vigorous direction. Yet the meld of funky exuberance, urban angst (Jones's boyfriend runs a halfway house for junkies) and camp performances (with leather-jacketed Winters giving new meaning to the phrase “over-acting”) make this blaxploitation landmark a heady, bad-ass cocktail.
- Radio Times
- Posted 29 Jan 2006
Blaxploitation product in which six-foot-two Agent Tamara Dobson wages war on drugs, rednecks and other social evils.... read more on Time Out
- Time Out
- Posted 04 Nov 2008
Grotesque comic strip fantasy with a high mortality rate.
- Halliwell's Film Guide
- Posted 02 Mar 2006

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  A buxom beauty, undercover narcotics agent Cleo Jones (Tamara Dobson) is the principal operative in a covert scheme to eradicate an international drug trade. But she's pulled away from important business when a phony raid on her boyfriend's ghetto halfway house puts the rehabilitation centre in ...