Kind of Watching It TV: Truck Turner

This had to happen. I've mentioned Truck Turner, Scatman Crothers plus other stuff in this blog. Truck Turner is kind of like the Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon in this regard and I recently saw this. Here's a "review." Truck and his friend Jerry are bounty hunters. Their assignment? To go kill a pimp--a decidedly nasty and showy one, hence the pink pimpmobile. Anyhoo, Truck gets the job done, but after a while the pimp's friends are out for revenge. The friends? Nichelle Nichols, Yaphet Kotto plus a wide array of pimps from the general vicinity. Nichols offers the pimps 50% of her business to the one that kills Truck Turner. With that, a ton of folks are on board. In a related plot the legendary Scatman Crothers plays a pimp with a heart of gold who offers Truck some good advice.

Long story short, the list of casualities at the hand of Truck mounts. Sadly with the bounty o'er head, Truck's buddy Jerry gets assassinated (he was a head of state.) That just got Isaac Hayes angry and he turned the whoop ass on 11. Truck Turner's best scene has to go to Yaphet Kotto. He meets up with Truck and loses, Truck dusts a few bullets in him. The end? Not hardly. Kotto's acting skills are on full display in his 5 minute death scene. He falls, pauses, gets up, shuffles, falls near his car, opens the door, gets in and then his noggin hits the steering wheel. Isaac Hayes does nothing to save Kotto. The movie also has a nice sub-plot with Truck Turner, his old lady and a couple of cats.

Note: I'm a big fan of the Truck Turner soundtrack. It wasn't a big hit, it was originally a double album release for Enterprise/Stax Records. At that point Hayes was competing with his prior accomplishments and of course Barry White. The majority of the songs in the movie have different versions on the recordings finished product.

And the Oscar goes to...