Sheba, Baby

Pam Grier, undisputed queen of the 70’s Blaxploitation genre, returns as Sheba Shayne in this tougher than nails revenge flick from 1975. Get ready for a rollercoaster ride of action and every cliché you can think off. Yeah, Sheba is one hot ‘mama’ you don’t mess with!

When she receives a telegram informing her that dad Andy (Rudy Challenger), a loan business owner, is threatened by a bunch of local mobsters to take over the biz she leaves Chicago for her hometown of Louisville in Kentucky to ‘sort things’ out. Aided by her dad’s associate Brick Williams (Austin Stoker) the trio soon find themselves confronted by mob boss Pilot (D’Urville Martin) and his gang of thugs. At first it looks as if our ultra feisty Sheba might just intimidate enough to leave daddy and his business alone, not even shying away from dipping the head of one mobster into a barrel filled with toxic powder (hilarious scene, that). But after a merciless shoot-out in Andy’s shop during which he’s fatally wounded Sheba see’s red! Never mind an earlier attempt on her own life courtesy of a car bomb… now it’s all turned into a revenge story as Sheba vows to take down the gang one by one, aided by Brick (who just happens to be a former boyfriend of hers).
But Sheba soon realizes that she’s taken on more than she bargained for as there’s another reason behind Pilot’s doing, and that reason is more sinister. Enter merciless car chases, karate fights, shoot-outs and badass language throughout as Sheba tries to infiltrate the real ringleaders behind it all during a party on a yacht. Cat fights, more explosions, more dead bodies, and even a kickass boat chase are the order of the day although it goes without saying that in the end Sheba walks away trumps.

Admittedly the plot is a bit no-brainer though the plot is not what really matters here. What does matter is an absolutely dynamic Grier (Coffy, Foxy Brown) marvels as the female avenger who is ahead of the game thanks to her brains, her general street-smartness and her sassy looks! And of course, we do love all those camp and tacky 70’s outfits and flares while the soundtrack is as much part of the whole shebang as is the slang (“Yo bitch, you’re talking to the Nr. 1 dude!”). Sheba even gets her own song during the film’s opening sequence.

As usual with Arrow Films, the bonus material is not be sniffed at and includes various interviews (for example with producer David Sheldon) and a mini-docu about the former career highs of Pam Grier – although this reviewer is of the opinion that she was never better than in Tarantino’s terrific Jackie Brown!