That was an excellent one.

Sadly Over-hyped

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It's 1898 Cuba. Buffalo Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 10th Cavalry Regiment led by Jessie Lee (Mario Van Peebles) are fighting in the Spanish American War. Sadistic Colonel Graham (Billy Zane) refuses to allow his men to retreat and forces Little J (Stephen Baldwin) to take command of the 10th. Graham sends them on a mission to rob Spanish gold but intends to kill them all afterward. Jessie, Obobo (Tiny Lister), Angel (Tone Loc) and Little J escape. With the help of Graham's long suffering aide Weezie (Charles Lane), they travel back to New Orleans with the dead bodies. Little J plays poker with Father Time (Big Daddy Kane) but rescues Father Time when he's caught cheating. Graham and his men find them and Angel is killed. The rest go on the run as wanted men.It's a big loud mess. At times, it's a cool wild brash concoction. However the movie just wore me out. Director Mario Van Peebles is trying to squeeze so much into it that the movie crumbles under its weight. I do appreciate the push for black people into the western genre. That's not where this movie fails. Also everybody seems to be mugging for the camera with the exception of Peebles. The over-the-top style can be annoying if done incorrectly. Directors like Tarantino can back it up with better work and better dialog. The flashbacks feel like experimental film school style. The movie is too much of a mess.

I wanted very much to enjoy this film. When it was released I wasn't interested in watching any westerns. I'd come back to it because I believe Mario Van Peebles has a great film in him. Unfortunately, this one is not it. It is ambitious and the multi-racial cast gives it a good go. The various skill and talent levels aren't blended correctly to make an organic, cohesive whole. A shame because its clear that Robert Hooks is trying really hard as is Billy Zane. Seeing old school players like Lawrence Cook and Pam Grier trying to make sense out of their brief story arcs was a chore. The biggest problem for me was Mario at some point decided to make it a vanity project because it started out a decent, 40's style western(albeit with nudity and some extreme violence)that morphed into a weak Clint Eastwood imitation. The contributions of rap star Tone Loc were pitiful at best but Big Daddy Kane worked harder and his work was credible. Richard Jordan and Blair Underwood are so intriguing together that they are almost in a different, better movie. There are a lot of moments like that in this film where you sit frustrated at the editing and continuity decisions made by the director and the cinematographer. What is clear is that the script is pointing to a much, much better film than what is being delivered. Oh, BTW, the word 'motherfucker' has its origins in the antebellum slave culture of North America. I've seen many complaints here about the usage of that epithet and how it shouldn't have been used during that era(1898). Research the word and you will discover its bleak and stark history. If you were a fan of the show DEADWOOD you would have noticed that the character Swearingen peppered his remarks with the word and it even popped up in the film Heaven's Gate. I have to give it up again to the Billy Zane for his spectacular death scene. I didn't have that big of a problem with the New Jack Swing musical stylings imposed on the film's soundtrack but I did take issue with the lack of banjos and fiddles.A blown opportunity for greatness.

When I heard about and saw the trailers for "Posse" I was eagerly waiting for the film's release. African-Americans made up fully a third of all cowboys in the Old West, but were virtually non-existent in Hollywood's Old West, except as train porters or mammies. The only real black cowboy seen by most Americans was Woody Strode, thanks to John Ford ("Sergeant Rutledge," "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, "How the West Was Won"), Richard Brooks ("The Professionals") and Italian filmmakers ("Once Upon a Time in the West," "The Revengers," "The Unholy Four")."Posse," written, produced and directed by Mario Van Peebles, had promise. Unfortunately, it gets bogged down by cliches and a tired storyline. A rousing climax almost saves the film, though.The movie begins with a stark history lesson about the true accomplishments of blacks in the Old West, as told to Reginald and Warren Hudlin by an old man (the legendary Woody Strode). He then segues into the fictitious story of Jesse Lee...Lee (Mario Van Peebles) and his men are getting cut to pieces by the Spanish during the Spanish-American War while their commanding officer (a slimy, but effective Billy Zane) drinks Cognac miles away. Lee complains about the conditions and is arrested. Zane later promises to exonerate him and his men if they will pull off a mission for him -- namely to steal valuable documents from the Spanish. Stephen Baldwin is thrown in with Lee's gang because he's a troublemaker Zane wants to get rid of. The group pulls off the mission, but, instead of finding documents, they find gold bullion. They also find Zane and his cohorts waiting at the rendezvous point with guns to finish them off. Unfortunately for Zane, his men are like Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders -- long on bravado, short on skill. Lee's men, having been in combat, get the drop on Zane, kill most of his men and flee back to America as wanted men. (By the way, the method they use to get out of Cuba and back to America is original, but very creepy).The middle part of the film is spent showing Lee and his men (rapper Tone Loc, Baldwin, a whiny aide and a few spares) heading to New Orleans, where they meet up with Big Daddy Kane. They also run into Zane, who has been tracking them. The whole tracking plotline is hard to believe (remember how long it took John Wayne to track down Natalie Wood in "The Searchers"?), but it makes for good shootouts.Eventually, Lee and his men make it back to Lee's hometown, a black township full of freedmen. Such townships were numerous in the Old West, but survived only at the whim of white county officials (watch "Rosewood" for an example of what they often suffered from). The town is run by Richard Jordan as a greedy sheriff in cahoots with some crooked county officials. Throw in Zane and his own posse, along with a Gatling gun and you get the rousing climax.Mario Van Peebles is not much of an actor, but he has enough range and skill to carry the burden of being Jesse Lee. Baldwin is not quite up to par with brothers Alec and Daniel, but he holds his own, especially when he meets his demise at the hands of fellow whites. I liked Big Daddy Kane's soft-spoken, but proud and defiant, role as Father Time and the way he kept looking at his pocket watch before doing anything. Tone Loc was a waste, though, since he kept rapping like it was 1998 instead of 1898.The town basically had one purpose and that was to show off an impressive cast of black stars -- Melvin Van Peebles, Pam Grier, Reginald Vel Johnson and Nipsey Russell, among others. Of course, having a cameo meant biting the bullet (literally) in the finale.By the way, another problem for "Posse" was its setting. Many contributions and accomplishments by African-Americans came during the years following the Civil War, from 1865-1890. Black soldiers became the vaunted Buffalo Soldiers who protected white settlers and tracked down Geronimo. Freed blacks moved west in droves as homesteaders and as cowboys on cattle drives because many white men had been killed or maimed during the war. Black townships sprang up in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Black lawmen like the legendary Bass Reeves were in abundance, especially in Oklahoma and Texas. By 1898, blacks were in a decline (despite their bravery in the Spanish-American War) that would not be reversed until World War I. Surely, Van Peebles could have drawn up a storyline set between 1865 and 1890."Posse" has a lot going for it. It's too bad Mario Van Peebles went for cliches, shootouts and tired storylines meant to sell tickets rather than tell a good story. "Unforgiven" and "Tombstone" showed you can do both.

So a great concept, such great actors, and what do we get nada, zip, zippo, caput, no more, out the door, so long, good bye, mierda. This film has its good points but the script just did not go anywhere. Alot of the characters just went back and forth in their personalities, others just never really made a difference. Some talked like they were time travelers from the future (hint, hint Tone Loc). Others just wouldnt shut up (Weezie). One thing i just couldnt wrap my mind around was this if in the future the old man is holding a picture of the cast. How could that be possible if most of them died before they could all meet? Its like one of those time paradoxes that gives you a head ache. Not to mention the ending was a bit melodramatic to say the least. All in all i give Posse a "A" for effort but "F" on delivery.