Superfly

The clothes are great. The cribs are well-appointed. The fight sequences, although too few, are nicely choreographed. Yet none of it seems to coalesce into a movie.

Director X...can't seem to differentiate between the strip-club aesthetics of a rap video and the demands of a full-length feature film.

An unlikable misfire of a film, with only a few decent performances on hand to make it worth your while.

The early scenes are so full of bling and macho posturing that you half suspect the film must be intended as a spoof.

The whole thing plays like a fancy dress parody of a crime movie, except nobody seems to be having much fun.

The new Superfly seems...like an embarrassing throwback.

I’ll say this about X’s blaxploitation update-It’s a solid action film with a concise point of view.

SuperFly is a moderately flashy, mostly fun update of its 46 year old source material but also a reminder of how little has changed in that time.

Director X knows how to make a film look impressive and beautifully composed, but he seems lost when it comes to working with actors. The ingredients for a much better film are all there on screen, but nothing quite hits the way it should.

The film also contains great work from supporting actors and fun cameos by musical artists such as Rick Ross, which imparts the Atlanta setting with an interesting mix of street authenticity and outlandish fantasy.