utgard14 A white Detroit detective (Alex Rocco) has to investigate a heist at a political fundraiser and he's none too happy about it. He's even less happy when he's forced to partner up with a black detective (Hari Rhodes). Despite their differences, the two cops work well together and get to the bottom of things.Alex Rocco and Hari Rhodes are both good. Beautiful Vonetta McGee isn't on screen nearly enough but has an important part. The minor roles are played by a variety of actors, some of whom seem like complete amateurs who recite their lines robotically. The actress playing Rocco's wife has one scene and she uses it to give a lesson on terrible acting.Mostly straight but there are some unintentional moments of hilarity. Such as a car moving at slow speed driving into a parked car, causing both vehicles to instantly explode like they were packed with dynamite. Or an older white reporter seriously asking the Chief of Police "Do you think it was a honky caper?" There's also a scene that rips off Dirty Harry's "do you feel lucky punk" scene. The dialogue is different but the scene is too similar to be a coincidence considering Dirty Harry came out a couple years before this and that scene was an instant classic.It's a good blaxploitation flick. I enjoyed all of the Detroit locations, including many now-demolished buildings. It's obviously a limited movie, in terms of budget, but it's still entertaining.

MisterWhiplash Arthur Marks somehow knew how to do it: combining the tough and thoughtful police-thriller with a seeming exploitation (or blaxploitation) flick into something worthwhile. It may not be for some; matter of fact, from all I can tell looking at various reviews it's made little of an impression aside from negative. But I was drawn into this seedy, multi-racial tale of dirty criminals and (some) dirty cops and a dirty politician because of the simple strengths of the acting and (most of) the writing, not to mention an explosive climax and a nifty opening heist scene. It's even more than nifty; Marks somehow has the cojones to make a poignant moment in this scene, as well as a couple of other times in the film (i.e. Ruby dying in Jessie's arms), where the singer who's doing a number gets cut-off by the tape recording telling everyone to get down and fork over the cash and jewels... and she just goes on singing, and a song sung with a mournful voice.The nuts and the bolts of the plot are that in Detroit, where according to officer/athlete Jessie Williams (Hari Rhodes) his new partner Danny Bassett (Alex Rocco) is in the minority in the black-dominant area, a heist has taken place during a fund-raiser for an up-and-coming politician (perfectly one-note Rudy Challenger), and there's already tension: is it an all-black gang, or all-white? Can there be a crack when those the cops find immediately shoot back and end up shot dead? It all leads down to a pimp and his girl, or so it's thought, and not everything is what it seems with tough/smart cop Bassett, yada yada. Describing a lot of the plot isn't necessary, as much of the interest in Detroit 9000 are in scenes of pure attitude, of this time and place in this city a microcosm of racial strife and unrest. If anything it's not even a blaxploitation movie, per say, but something of a black pride movie in a strange way. And there's at the least some equality: the gang is found to be multi-racial, including a dead) Indian from Canada! There are ways this movie can get cheesy or stuck in its 1973 time-frame, and of course the clothes, the slang, and the soundtrack all speak to that. But I enjoyed how Hampton's screenplay struck a line between giving many of these characters, including supporting ones like Ruby Harris and Ferby some personality past their stock characters, or how the wit creeps up as really unexpected (the line Clayton's "assistant" gives to a prostitute is so classic QT lifted it for Jackie Brown). And Rhodes and Rocco, otherwise usually relegated to supporting and character-actor parts in other movies, get to show what their made of as cops on a dirty case that just gets dirtier. Lastly, without sacrificing some sophistication in the writing or a refreshingly bittersweet ending, Marks tops it all off with that big chase going six or seven ways across the railroad tracks and fields and cemeteries of *really* gritty parts of Detroit and put to a raucous, spot-on soundtrack.In a word (and I can almost hear a James Lipton voice saying this as I type this): under-rated.

bensonmum2 Unlike many of the other movies of its ilk, Detroit 9000 has a much more serious tone. It's more akin to something like Across 110th Street than it is to Foxy Brown. As serious as it may be, there's still a lot of fun to be had – funky music, gunfights, and plenty of fake looking blood. For the most part, it's a fast faced, enjoyable, gritty look at crime in Detroit in the 70s.But the movie isn't without its problems. Chief among them is the lead detective played by Alex Rocco. I enjoy watching an actor who makes you forget they are an actor and you really start to believe in their character. No such luck with Rocco in Detroit 9000. I never bought his down-on-his-luck, good-cop routine. To me, he was nothing more than someone reciting lines. And the whole subplot about his wife in the asylum added nothing to the film other than to slow things down to a crawl.

mlepard Bought this movie in the bargain bin at Rogers Video store for $2. I enjoy a good B movie now and then and figured this looked like a good one. The movie is quite cliche "1970's" and is quite groovy for that. Unfortunately the story line is hard to follow and not a lot happens in the movie. In fact, I turned it off after watching it for 45 minutes and figured a week later that I should watch the whole thing no matter how slow it was. The movie has good spots in it, but you have to wait and wait and wait.......for them.If you are into B movies, this might just be for you, just be warned that the movie is slow and not much really happens, and did I mention not much story line either...