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Purely Joyful Movie!

How sad is this?

Good movie but grossly overrated

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Sidney Poitier walks through role as San Francisco police lieutenant Virgil Tibbs in this second sequel to 1968's "In the Heat of the Night", following "They Call Me Mister Tibbs!" from the previous year. Plot, however, is engrossing and complicated as a multi-racial, anti-drug revolutionary group summons Tibbs to their hideout, hoping to take him into their confidence. They've just pulled off the elaborate robbery of four millions dollars' worth of heroin from the vault of a furniture-making company--unfortunately, they had to kidnap one of the top executives to get the vault open and, after they left, he was murdered. What the revolutionaries were planning to do with the heroin isn't really clear (if it's a shakedown of the drug syndicate they wanted, they'll need a lot more members!). Still, they manage to disrupt everyone involved in the acquisition of the smack, from the suit-and-tie organization in their skyscraper headquarters to their goons on the street to the furniture company's night watchman, who gets shot on his way to the station with Tibbs for questioning. Tibbs agrees to work with the group, which forces him to conceal his knowledge of information from his department as well as from the highly defensive chief of narcotics, whose superior just committed suicide. Poitier isn't convincing interacting with the vigilantes, nor with his superiors, nor with wife Barbara McNair and their two kids; it's a dud performance. The colorful supporting cast of character actors (Raul Julia, Allen Garfield, Bernie Hamilton, Billy "Green" Bush, Dan Travanty, Sheree North, Ron O'Neal, Maxwell Gail Jr.) nearly makes up for the star's lethargy, and the San Francisco locations are an asset. Director Don Medford keeps the scenario busy, but it's activity without a lot of gripping action, the chases and shoot-outs coming right off an assembly-line. ** from ****

While investigating a corporate break-in, San Francisco Police Detective "Virgil Tibbs" (Sidney Portier) discovers that the suspects are in reality a group of revolutionaries bent on destroying a drug cartel known as "The Organization." Without permission from his superiors, "Tibbs" begins to work with the revolutionaries. They work their own ways, "Tibbs" working within police regulations, but still together.This is a pretty well written movie, but with some slight flaws in performances. The pacing of the movie is slow, but well paced.The stand out performance is easily Portier. This is the third movie where he portrays "Tibbs," of which he is probably best known for. He plays "Tibbs" two ways in the film. First, he plays the cop. You actually believe that he is a veteran on the police force. "Tibbs" passion is his work, and Portier makes you believe it. He also plays "Tibbs" as a family man who obviously loves his family. We don't get to see a lot of this side of the character since the focus is on the case he is on.One problem with this movie is that the supporting characters is poorly presented. There is little to no development in the revolutionaries, and we don't get to see much of "The Organization" beyond the hired guns. I was also unimpressed with their on-screen chemistry with each other. Not one really stood out if you ask me. In fact, I felt that these characters would fit better in an early-1970's television series than in a major motion picture.When it comes to the soundtrack, it's typical 1970's movie music. Not one piece is memorable. However, some pieces of music was used quite well in scenes.The action is pretty toned down in this film, probably because of the time it was filmed. You get a lot of chases on foot, and one pretty forgettable car chase. You also get some gun play with little blood. There is little to no intensity in the action scenes. The only thing that makes these scenes intense is the music played over them.There is a pretty good, and unexpected twist at the end of the movie, and it's handled pretty well thanks to Portier's performance. I didn't see it coming. There is also some really good transition edits in this film that I thought were done nicely.Though not a perfect movie, it is enjoyable, mostly thanks to Portier's performance.If you ever catch this on HBO or the free section of your On Demand service, check it out if your regular show is either not on for alternative programming or in a rerun. I actually watched it on Hulu, and only had to deal with about two minutes of commercials, which were sometimes oddly placed.

Sydney reprises his Mr. Tibbs moniker in a nicely paced crime drama that has some well orchestrated action sequences, especially the one at the onset of the film. Those first 10 minutes or so reminded me of the heist scene in "Rififi" (1955), in that this scene too was captured with no dialog, letting the viewer see for himself how the action plan was set into motion.Some reviewers "dissed" the 70's sound track and street jargon, but what do you expect? It's a period piece, a 70's action film and by definition will employ those contemporary motifs. To me, it's both refreshing and amusing to be thrust back into the cultural modes of yesteryear.The plot line may have had some small weaknesses to it and some of the actors were no Academy Award nominee hopefuls, but the thrust of the film keeps you attentive and anticipatory. Also, it was nice to see Raul Julia, Demond Wilson and Ron O'Neal in one of their earlier films. Sydney, as usual, shines in his rendition of the Tibbs detective. But the plot twists toward the end where Mr. Tibbs puts the pieces together and gets ready to see justice served... Well, see for yourself in this brutally realistic conclusion.

I lived in San Francisco from 1964-1980 and got to see a LOT of movies filmed there. I watched them film the sections in Bart ( being built back then and one of the film's chase scenes goes on in the tunnel) and Muni and saw this and the 2 previous Virgil Tibbs films in San Francisco theatres.It is fun to look at this movie after 30+ years and see what is still there and what has changed over the years. The 70's seems like a million years ago. The Phillips gas station on Beach Street has had about 10 different brands over the years. The hofbrau on Turk Street ( Iate there every night, it was cheap) and Lew Lehr's steak house disappeared in the 80s.Hare Krishna's on Market Street across from the Sheraton Palace.I feel this movie is better than the previous Tibbs film, but my opinion is, of course, subjective. Even a bad detective movie has some merits. Of course, the premise of this film, that 6 people could bring down "the organization" ( mafia?) by stealing 4 million dollars worth of heroin is kind of silly. And the organization is having a hard time coming up with cash to buy back the drugs? Come on guys....As for the 70s music, well, Lalo Schiffrin and others composed a lot of movie music back then and times change. I liked the music myself.The 70s saw a lot of movies filmed in the city by the bay. Bullitt, The Laughing Policeman, The Dirty Harry Films, The Monk ( TV film, not the recent TV show, this was with George Maharis and Janet Leigh), The Towering Inferno,and the Streets of San Francisco TV show. I worked as an extra in films in those days and miss that era of cheap food, cheap rent, and cheap Giants tickets...A great site I just found shows probably every movie filmed in San Francisco.http://www.MisterSF.comclick on cinematic sf !George Senda Concord, Ca