For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

What better film to mark my one thousandth IMDb review than Velvet Smooth? If you enjoy badly shot and badly acted films, look no further. If you admire horrendous poly-knit suits, hideously ugly furniture, and sets apparently designed to duplicate the worst of suburban sprawl in the midst of the inner city, this is your film. If you're looking for a worse theme song than that featured in Darktown Strutters, Velvet Smooth has you covered there, too. And let's not overlook the film's unconvincing and badly choreographed (by co-star Owen Watson) martial arts scenes--there are times when characters appear to be playing hacky-sack rather than beating up on each other. In fact, the film's sole (soul?) redeeming quality is lead actress Johnnie Hill as the titular tough gal, a private investigator hired by local thug King Lathrop to unmask some goons who have moved in on his territory. She's not much of an actress, but she's easy on the eyes, which is more than can be said for virtually everything and everybody else in Velvet Smooth.

Blaxploitation as community theatre: anyone who bemoans the incompetence of, say, "Disco 9000" should get a load of this. Not only is it shot almost entirely in master shot, but the master shots in question are frequently badly framed - off center, too much head room, hello there boom mic. Thus, the magic of cinema can do little for the worst fight choreography I've ever seen - every punch and kick lands a visible ten inches away from its target, and the director always shoots the exchange from the most unflattering angle available. Sometimes they try to deal with this by speeding up the film, to ridiculous effect; sometimes it looks like they intended to speed up the film but forgot/didn't bother, so that the fisticuffs resemble a lethargic dress rehearsal. And why is Fink trying to shoot fights when he can't even stage an exit - every time someone leaves the frame it looks like they're going to run into the cameraman. The acting isn't the problem, but it isn't the solution either, in spite of the presence of Rory Calhoun and the legendary (?!) Smedly Schmergel. The songs are the best thing about it, funky in a gawky low-budget way, especially during the big climax. Which leads inexorably to a 'twist' ending that is so tossed-off you almost miss it, and if you did miss it, it would definitely not spoil your evening anyway.

OK, I believe an in-depth analysis is not exactly necessary for this one. Its only value is in the unintentional laughs it has to offer. The martial-arts choreography is a disgrace to the words "martial" and "arts". The girls may be sexy and smooth, but I'm sorry, a weekend's training in combat is just not enough. The stuntmen are a joke. The fights are slow, clunky, and graceless. "T.N.T Jackson" has better fight scenes than "Velvet Smooth". Peter Sellers and Burt Kwouk have better fight scenes in the "Pink Panther" films. "Benny Hill" has better fight scenes - wait, "Benny Hill" has no fight scenes, I just got carried away by all the sped-up action. Well, you get the idea anyway. I think 0.5 out of 4 stars is a fair enough grade.

For a low-budget 70's martial arts film, I thought it was pretty entertaining. The soundtrack is really a hoot, as are the sets and costumes. I especially enjoyed the scene where King and Velvet are on the sofa and you can actually see the audio boom shifting back and forth at the bottom of the screen! When Velvet speaks her line the boom points at her and when King says something, the boom races back toward him--hilarious! I noticed that the casino bouncer is one of the "family" from "Super Fly". There are some amusing parallels: Velvet takes off her bracelet at home, cut to bracelets being stolen at the casino robbery. Also, during the fight scene on the top of the MTA building, the costumes match the colors and shapes of the hele-pad. I thought the Kojak lookalike was a really strange touch and whatever they were using for stage blood looked like marinara! Fantastic!