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Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Great Film overall

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

First-rate prison crime drama with ample doses of action and humor. Exceptional of its type. Jim Brown stars with a great supporting cast including Ted Cassidy (Lurch from Addams Family) and Frank DeKova (Chief Wild Eagle from F Troop). Roland Bob Harris is great as the sleazy captain of the prison guards who meets a deservedly gruesome fate. Look fast for the legendary Dick Miller in a bit part as a carjacked taxi driver. For sensitive types be warned it's a violent movie with lots of foul language and racial slurs. Despite this, it somehow actually manages to be a fun movie that keeps you engrossed the whole time.

This film begins with a robbery. It's a nasty affair--as they use poisonous gas to get the money. After leaving with the loot, one of them Curtis Hook (Jim Brown), betrays his partners--shooting them and hiding the money. Unfortunately for Hook, he's soon caught and sent to prison. Hook plans on just doing his time on a minor charge and collecting the money after he is released. But when he learns that the place where he hid the money is about to be demolished, he decides he must escape and reclaim the money instead. Plus, if he doesn't get out of the slammer soon, someone is bound to kill him, as practically EVERYONE seems to have it out for him.For fans of old-time TV, this is an interesting film, as two of the most deadly tough guys in this prison are played by Frank DeKova ("F-Troop") and Ted Cassidy ("The Addams Family"). However, it's not the sort of film you might expect from these guys---it is VERY rough--with foul language and lots of violence. Plus, EVERYONE seems bad in this one--everyone. While Hook is terrifically amoral, so is everyone else--the guards, the gangs, the blacks and the whites. Because of this and because Hook is affiliated with no one, it is clearly NOT a blacksploitation film--just a very gritty prison flick. While it's not a great film (mostly because I hated EVERYONE), it was very good and well worth seeing.

You don't watch this kind of film expecting Citizen Kane or Sunset Boulevard, you watch it with a group of friends because it's an experience. Imagine going to a drive-in theater circa 1973, Chicago music is playing on the car radio as you pull into the space, turn off your radio, and put the speaker on your car window. A film like this immerses you in the early 70s as if you were actually there: bell bottom pants, afros, big jewelry, flashy cars, and lapels as big as mudflaps. In today's overly sanitized world, The Slams is a wonderful look back at a time when nothing was digital, and editing was done by hand with film, actors did their own fight scenes, the settings aren't faux gritty (they ARE gritty), and Lurch (Ted Cassidy) throws a ladle of bleach into Jim Brown's face. It's all very ugly, violent, and badly acted, as the body count piles up.In keeping with obscure films, there's always one weird actor that you can't get out of your mind afterwards, and here it is a prison guard who laughs at everything; the actor's name isn't even listed in the credits on IMDb, but it's a hilarious performance, especially when he refuses an order to get into a dumpster. You have to see it to understand what I'm talking about.I can see why Quentin Tarantino is obsessed with 70s films because they have a realism that is sadly missing from today's movies; it's almost like they pulled people off the street, put them into their costumes, and fed them their lines. There might have been a script, but everything looks ad-libbed or improvised on the spot, the way real life is. If anything, watching a film like this gives you the impression that today's films are too carefully planned, too perfect to be real. Wouldn't it be nice to have a little bit of realism alongside your CGI robots and multiple explosions?

Slams, The (1973) ** (out of 4) Forgotten blaxploitation flick has Jim Brown playing Curtis Hooks, a man who ends up in prison on a small charge but once inside he has all sorts of hits on his life because everyone knows that he stole $1.5 million in drug money and has it hidden somewhere. THE SLAMS, to date, has never received a VHS or DVD release so it's one of the rarest films of its genre, which is somewhat surprising since it does feature one of the biggest stars. There's quite a bit of good stuff here but sadly we've seen everything countless times before and you just end up with one cliché after another. The screenplay is certainly prison-drama 101 as everything you'd expect to happen does just that in the exact order that you'd think it would happen. You get the typical gay jokes, the attacks in the laundry room, the sadistic white racist, the mafia boss, the crooked cops and of course every time the cops walk away you're going to witness yet another hit. The film really doesn't offer up any drama and you can't help but wish that you cared more than what you actually do. With that said, there are still some fine performances with Brown leading the way. This certainly isn't Oscar-worthy material but it's not meant to be. Brown simply shows up with that tough attitude and kicks some major butt. The supporting cast includes a nice performance by Ted Cassidy as the racist and Frank DeKova playing the mafia boss running the prison. Dick Miller appears briefly as a taxi driver and Charles Cyphers (HALLOWEEN) can be spotted playing a guard. Director Jonathan Kaplan at least keeps the film moving at a nice pace and makes it look very professional. He also manages to get a pretty good atmosphere out of the film and the prison has a very dirty feel to it as it should. Still, THE SLAMS can't be seen as anything other than a disappointment. There are a few good moments but not enough to recommend this to anyone but those who must see everything the genre offered up.