Priest (Ron O’Neal) is back in a sequel to the hit “Superfly”. However, this time he’s quite different–a kindler, gentler sort of Priest. You see, in the first film, Priest was completely amoral—and made his fortune selling dope and women. Here, the film finds him living the good life in Europe–he’s retired and financially secure. However, he is also vaguely dissatisfied and despite his repeatedly saying he’s only out to make money and take care of himself and his woman, he is eventually persuaded to help a man (Roscoe Lee Browne) in his attempt to start a revolution in his small African nation against the colonial powers–he wants Priest to smuggle in weapons for their struggle. Finally, Priest has a purpose to life and his performance throughout the film is very restrained and low-key. This, I’m sure, is a big disappointment to fans who want the confident and ultra-bad anti-hero–not this confused and more likable guy. I appreciated, however, that the character finally showed some conscience and a sense of purpose (to quote Steven Martin from “The Jerk”–‘I found my purpose!!’).

I do agree with one of the reviews that complained that it took so long for this plot to develop. It was clearly a slow film and could easily have been tightened up quite a bit. Also, I agree that the soundtrack was incredibly disappointing, as the original film had one of the best blaxsploitation scores ever–second only to the one from “Shaft”. As a result, the film is certainly watchable but not a whole lot more. It’s a shame, as the plot wasn’t a bad idea–it just was so slow and dull when it should have been anything but.

By the way, one thing to look for if you do see the movie is Robert Guillaume singing near the beginning. With his beautiful voice it’s easy to see why, for a while, he played the lead in the play “Phantom”.