To watch the two "Super Fly" movies back to back is like watching two unrelated films. Certainly Ron O'Neal is playing the exact same character, and he has moved on from cocaine selling in Harlem to being retired in Italy with girlfriend Sheila Frazier, living a quiet life. But encounters with Robert Guillaume and Roscoe Lee Browne gets him involved in another type of criminal activity, aiding revolutionaries by smuggling guns into a fictional African country called Umbria.
So we're supposed to believe that Priest has gone from a life of crime which could kill his clients to a man aiding people in a country he's probably never heard of, and for the concept is interesting, it's much more serious and lacks the fun of the first film which while not entirely believable was often funny where this is extremely serious in every way. But O'Neal is a good actor even though there's a lack of consistency. Guillaume gets to sing a beautiful rendition of "O Solo Mio" (the music of which is known to be the Elvis song, "It's Now or Never") and Browne (a truly great character actor) is sensational. Some good location footage makes this interesting, but it's ambition is far too great for what ends up on screen even though it was written by Alex Haley of "Roots" fame.
So we're supposed to believe that Priest has gone from a life of crime which could kill his clients to a man aiding people in a country he's probably never heard of, and for the concept is interesting, it's much more serious and lacks the fun of the first film which while not entirely believable was often funny where this is extremely serious in every way. But O'Neal is a good actor even though there's a lack of consistency. Guillaume gets to sing a beautiful rendition of "O Solo Mio" (the music of which is known to be the Elvis song, "It's Now or Never") and Browne (a truly great character actor) is sensational. Some good location footage makes this interesting, but it's ambition is far too great for what ends up on screen even though it was written by Alex Haley of "Roots" fame.