Truck Turner
Truck Turner
R | 26 June 1974 (USA)
Truck Turner Trailers

Truck Turner and his partner Jerry, who make their living as bounty hunters in Los Angeles, are hired to hunt down Gator, a pimp who has skipped bail.

Reviews
GamerTab That was an excellent one.
RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
tomgillespie2002 Blaxploitation films are so frequently ridiculed and parodied (much of it with reason) these days, that it's easy to forget that some of them were actually pretty good. Shaft (1971) paved the way for the sub-genre with its strutting bad-ass lead who's a sex-machine to all the chicks, and Isaac Hayes' Oscar-winning score (for what he will forever be best remembered for). Hayes himself steps into the lead role here as ex- American football star and bail bondsman Mac 'Truck' Turner, who according to Yaphet Kotto's bad-guy pimp Blue, is "like a bulldog with eyes up his ass!", and displays some surprisingly charismatic qualities that makes it quite a shame he didn't appear in more.Greasy lawyer Fogarty (the great Dick Miller) employs bounty-hunters 'Truck' Turner and his partner Jerry (Alan Weeks - with the best grin in cinema) to track down a low-down pusher and pimp named Gator (Paul Harris). After an extended chase scene, Turner and Jerry manage to kill Gator, much to the dismay of Gator's lady Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols - Uhura!). Dorinda rounds up the big pimps and offers her valuable collection of whores in exchange for Turner's head, a deal in which Blue accepts. Wanting to settle down with his girlfriend Annie (Annazette Chase), Turner finds his life turned upside when Blue employs a gang of hired killers.Beginning almost as a buddy-comedy, the witty script and some genuine chemistry serve up some amusing early scenes, showing off Hayes' natural screen presence. But this turns into pure police procedural blaxploitation as the main plot kicks in, with jive-talk, pimps in some of the most delightfully ludicrous dress I've ever seen, car-chases, slow-motion shoot-outs, cocaine, hookers, and of course a tragically neglected soundtrack from Hayes himself. The action scenes are surprisingly good, and Corman protégé Jonathan Kaplan (director of fellow Grindhouse Project feature Night Call Nurses (1972) - review #443) makes sure he includes as much slow-motion men falling off rooftops and gushing fake blood as possible. Bloody good fun, and probably better than Shaft.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com
Lee Eisenberg The string of blaxploitation movies continued with Jonathan Kaplan's "Truck Turner", starring Isaac Hayes as a football player looking for a bail-jumping pimp. The trailer proclaims HE MAKES A HEALTHY LIVING...BY MAKING LIVING UNHEALTHY! The movie has everything that you might expect in such a movie. What I thought was really neat was the cast. Aside from Hayes (known to later generations as Chef on "South Park"), there's Nichelle Nichols (Uhura on "Star Trek"), Scatman Crothers (Dick Hallorann in "The Shining"), and character actor Dick Miller, who often plays a character named Walter Paisley, but has also appeared in every one of Joe Dante's movies.All in all, a really fun flick.
Witchfinder General 666 A fan of 70s Blaxploitation cinema, I've had "Truck Turner" of 1974 sitting on my DVD shelf for some time now, always eager to watch it, and the recent death of Isaac Hayes (R.I.P. big man) was reason enough to finally do so. And I was not disappointed. Isaac Hayes is probably most prominent in Blaxploitation cinema for composing and performing the theme song for the sub-genre's most famous film, Gordon Parks' "Shaft" of 1971, and he also starred as the super-tough and super-cool eponymous hero in a flick that ranges among the most entertaining of its kind - namely this, "Truck Turner". The bald and bearded Mac 'Truck' Turner is a former football player turned bounty hunter and Hayes is supremely bad-ass in the role. Inbetween crime-busting and drinking sessions with his colleague Jerry (Alan Weeks), Truck, who sleeps with his holster on and whose mere name makes the bad guys shake in fear, pays visits to his sexy girlfriend who tends to get jailed for her quick temper...The film basically has everything good blaxploitation cinema needs: A super-tough bad-ass of a hero as you will only see them in 70s cinema, a cool sidekick, eccentric villains, violent shootouts, funky music, delightfully vulgar slang dialogue including many unforgettable lines and, last but definitely not least, dozens of sexy and dangerous women. None other than Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols plays the beautiful and lethal crime-madame and prostitution-mastermind Dorinda, and Yaphet Kotto (Alien) makes a perfect crime-boss in his role of Harvard Blue. Alan Weeks makes a good sidekick for Truck Turner and beautiful Annazette Chase fits greatly in the role of Truck's girlfriend. Isaac Hayes himself is great, simply the definition of Bad-Ass in his role. Every line he says is the epitome of coolness, and so is everything he does. The funky theme-song, which was, of course, composed and sung by Hayes himself, is great and contributes a lot to the unique blaxploitation feeling. The film furthermore profits from great camera work - Truck blows them baddies away from some very cool angles. All in all, "Truck Turner" should not be missed by a fan of 70s Exploitation cinema. Highly Recommended!
MartinHafer This is a better than average so-called "blaxploitation" film about a bounty hunter named Truck Turner (Isaac Hayes). When he and his partner are trying to bring in a pimp after he jumped bail, the pimp tries to shoot Turner and Turner has no choice but to shoot him. However, he never anticipated that the pimp's woman (Nichelle Nichols) was a total psycho and she put a contract out on Turner. The rest of the film consists of various hoods (most notably Yahpet Kotto) trying to kill Turner.This is a pretty exciting film and is well directed, written and acted--making this very unusual for the genre. Most blaxploitation films have horrible production values and are best seen as "guilty pleasures"--this film stands well on its own and doesn't suffer from many of the clichés you'd normally find in one of these films.One of the more interesting reasons to see the movie is to see Nichols in a non-Star Trek role. Here, she is 100% different from Lt. Uruhu, as she's a very filthy mouthed and angry lady indeed!! She's intensely nasty--and one of the most despicable women you'd ever see in a blaxploitation film! While this film is far from high art and not exactly subtle, if you are looking for a 1970s Black-American themed action picture, it's hard to do much better than this one.