"Fired undercover cop Dylan Gamble must save his kidnapped girlfriend, Tanisha, from the Styles Syndicate. With help from crook Hendrix Moon and rival Leslie Kindall, he faces the challenge of rescuing her and taking down the Syndicate." 

OUR MOVIE REVIEW:

Going into a film expecting to be incentivized for your time and interest is a shared goal between the filmmaker and the audience. That social contract often leads to increased reward with the less you know going into it. And sometimes, knowing what type of film you’re about to experience ahead of the lights turning low can temper expectations. 

I relish going in blind, cold, oblivious, and so on for most cinematic adventures and let the film come to me on its terms. Occasionally, I appreciate an antecedent instead of a mystery, especially five minutes into the opening of Lanfia Wal’s New Jack Fury.

Because holy shit.

For my life, I have no earthly idea who to recommend this movie to. New Jack Fury is either the work of a brilliant, sociopathic genius or the second coming of Ed Wood. I am certain there is no middle ground to straddle with that analogy, and after seeing this film, you will either be all in or out cold. 

In its simplest form, New Jack Fury is the antithetical buddy-cop movie. A year after being fired, former detective Dylan Gamble (Andre Hall) recruits two criminals, Leslie Kindall (Dean “Michael Trapson” Morrow) and Hendrix Moon (Paul Wheeler), to help him track down the syndicate criminals, and their boss Silk Styles (Page Kennedy) who stole his girlfriend, Tanisha (Ally Renee) and rescue her. They prowl the streets of New Jack Fury, with all the clothes, hairstyles, attitudes, and neon aesthetics of the 1980s dialed up to 11.

That’s it, that’s the plot. 

This film plays out like an acid fever dream: crude, zany, and for consenting adults only. Shot on a budget so low it could pass U.S. Customs without a declaration, New Jack Fury looks and feels like the ultimate psychedelic college film class prank. Virtually every set piece is shot on a green screen. The acting is purposely flat at moments or melodramatic at others. Postproduction effects like film grain and distortion mask the film for every frame, and the effects are hammy and cheesy. 

Then, between the first and second acts, the film cuts to a series of fake commercials (with hilariously off-putting products like a Kool-Aid man parody). This is when the other shoe drops. 

Yes, this is an ironic take on the movie-of-the-week or after-school special, purposely crafted to look as cheap as it is à la the Grindhouse and Blaxploitation movements. This film is not too serious to be tongue-in-cheek but was made for a particular audience. Yes, I will address the white elephant in the room. 

Black artists and a black crew created New Jack Fury, which features mostly a black cast. I do not intend to take a reductive stance. I know very well how hard making a film is, but I also know that cultures and voices from minority groups carry different sensibilities. I suspect some white people will leave New Jack Fury dismissing it because they could not connect or relate to its humor or performances. That is okay; they learned that not every movie is made to please their lens. 

My earlier position about not knowing who to recommend this film to still stands; perhaps I should widen my circles. New Jack Fury is surreal, funny, absurd, and confidently knows exactly what it’s doing. This film is created to please an audience that will appreciate the over-the-top goofiness accompanied by a sincerely great soundtrack.

This film will be too campy for some viewers and perhaps a little too profane for others, and I will double down on my take that it is likely to divide the crowd on their reception. I may not be able to appreciate this film as deeply as its target audience likely will, but I must respect it.