The Return of Superfly (1990)

The Return of Superfly: Directed by Sig Shore. With Nathan Purdee, Margaret Avery, Leonard L. Thomas, Christopher Curry. In this action-packed sequel, a retired drug dealer living in Paris discovers his old partner has been killed and returns to NY to avenge his murder.

“The original u0026quot;SUPERFLYu0026quot; has always been one of my favorite films, and is undoubtedly an important milestone in urban filmmaking. So, what is there to say about this lame sequel? For one, it is an attempt to get back to the original, with a somewhat interesting plot, bringing the character of Priest back to the drug scene he managed to stray away from so many years ago, unlike u0026quot;SUPERFLY T.N.T.u0026quot;, which went an entirely different, yet plausible route.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe biggest problem, and perhaps this is the factor thatu0026#39;s really holding it back, is the miscasting of Youngblood Priest, this time played by Nathan Purdee. Purdee is a sore choice to fill Ron Ou0026#39;Nealu0026#39;s shoes. You canu0026#39;t make a SuperFly movie without Ron Ou0026#39;Neal, plain and simple. Just as the original tag-line read: u0026quot;Never a dude like this one!u0026quot; Precisely. Purdee ainu0026#39;t SuperFly, which keeps this one grounded, throughout.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe best thing this film has going for it is Curtis Mayfield, who is back to score. Here he does a fine job of balancing the roots of his original music with a contemporary spirit, that suits the film well.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn my opinion, between the two sequels, u0026quot;SUPERFLY T.N.T.u0026quot; is far superior, yet it sorely lacks the input of Mayfield and Gordon Parks, Jr. But, on the other hand, we at least have Ron Ou0026#39;Neal reprising his role. With u0026quot;THE RETURN OF SUPERFLYu0026quot;, we unfortunately, donu0026#39;t have that option, yet we do have a new score by Mayfield. Go figure.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow, if only these two sequels could have met somewhere and shared a cup of coffee, we might be on to something… the melding of a perfect sequel.”