MonsterPerfect Good idea lost in the noise

Konterr Brilliant and touching

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

zardoz-13 "New Jack City" director Mario Van Peebles and scenarists Sy Richardson and Dario Scardapane pay homage to virtually every memorable Hollywood western with "Posse," an elegant inventory of clichés ranging from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" to "Once Upon a Time in the West." Derivative as all get-out, this R-rated horse opera delivers a little bit of everything, from a search for gold in Cuba to a desperate flight across the mountainous badlands of the American west. Although it borrows from every iconic oater, "Posse" qualifies as one of the best African-American westerns, with a distinguished cast. "White Sands" lenser Peter Menzies Jr.'s stylistic cinematography endows this adventure a mythic, larger-than-life grandeur. Aside from the atmospheric settings, "Posse" benefits from Van Peebles's muscular helming and charismatic performance as the protagonist. He wears a flat-brimmed black hat, has a couple of six-guns holstered in belts crisscrossing his waist. Of course, he can brandish them like chained lightning and plug his adversaries dead-center with every shot. Peebles surrounds himself with a first-rate cast, including Woody Strode, Stephen Baldwin, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Blair Underwood, Billy Zane, and Richard Jordan. This rugged, hard-riding horse opera unfolds initially in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in the 1890s. Arrogant U.S. Army Colonel Graham (Billy Zane of "Titanic") orders Jesse Lee (Mario Van Peebles of "Heartbreak Ridge") to take a group of predominantly African-Americans in civilian clothes, infiltrate enemy lines, and bring back whatever he can find. Jesse Lee, Jimmy J. 'Little J' Teeters (Stephen Baldwin of "The Usual Suspects"), and Obobo (Tommy Lister of "Friday") stumble upon a chest of gold coins. When Colonel Graham happens upon them-prepared to shoot them as deserters and confiscate the loot for himself-Jesse shoots him in the eye and escapes with the loot. One of Graham's disgraced African-American troopers, Weezie (Charles Lane of "True Identity") turns against Graham and helps Jesse and company get away from Cuba. They are shipped out in coffins and taken to the mainland in Florida. From there our heroes light out for the Wild West. Graham follows them in hot pursuit with a patch over one eye and greed pumping through his veins. Graham is every inch a dastard, and he maintains his own 'posse' that has earned the name 'the Iron Brigade.' Tirelessly, they track our heroes across the west to an African-American town, Freemanville, fears the angry, racist whites in the nearby town of Cutterstown. Sheriff Bates (Richard Jordan of "Lawman") is one of several men who killed Jesse's father, King David (Robert Hooks of "Trouble Man"), and Jesse has vengeance loaded into his six-shooters. Incredibly enough, the scene that sticks in the memory is the death of Jimmy J. 'Little J' Teeters (Stephen Baldwin) because a gang of angry whites beat 'Little J' to death in front of a crowd of African-Americans. The irony here is revelatory. "Posse" proclaims proudly the exploits of African-Americans on the frontier. Specifically, Jesse's unit Buffalo Soldiers of the U.S. Army's 10th Cavalry Regiment. Similarly, the legendary but largely forgotten Hollywood actor Woody Strode serves as the anonymous narrator who introduces and concludes the movie. Much of what he utters is designed to challenge audiences with a limited acquaintance with African-American history. Indeed, the other thing that sets "Posse" apart from every other western is its theatrical celebration of African-Americans and African-American History. Van Peebles orchestrates some slam-bang action scenes with lots of gunplay and explosions. The explosion that destroys the Gatlin gun in town looks like a napalm strike. As symbols of rank and authority, Zane and Jordan constitute two truly slimy villains. Zane's creepy Graham howls "rewards and retributions" throughout "Posse." Rounding out the cast are Pam Grier, Isaac Hayes, and his own father Melvin Van Peebles. Although its message gets heavy-handed at time, "Posse" ranks as a landmark African-American movie, a solid western, and an entertaining shoot'em up with a touch of inevitable romance.

Prismark10 Posse is a stylish but messy modern yet revisionist black western from actor/director Mario Van Peebles which does suffer from a flabby middle part.Billy Zane relishes as the sadistic yet curiously camp Colonel Graham who sends some of his men on a mission to rob Spanish gold but intends to kill them all afterwards.Some of these men are black including Jessie (Van Peebles) and they manage to escape but Graham and his gang are behind them. However Jessie has demons from the past and rides to a town to avenge the death of his preacher father which includes the nasty sheriff (Richard Jordan.)The film is bold, brash, anachronistic as well as a history lesson on the impact of African Americans on the western genre which has been swept under the carpet of history.Van Peebles is doing too much and loses focus on the narrative of this film hence why the middle sags before picking up again. Some of the acting is broad The script is uneven, its over directed but Van Peebles manages to still fire the film with enough mischief and helped out by his actors such as Blair Underwood, Woody Strode, Paul Bartel, Richard Jordan and Billy Zane.

Phil Hubbs Interesting idea to focus on the forgotten black cowboys of the west but unfortunately Peebles doesn't do this age any justice with this bad embarrassing wannabe mess.The problem here is Peebles has gone down the silly shoot 'em up route where maybe a more sensible approach could of worked wonders. The other problem is the film is pretty close to B-movie territory with a very average D-list cast and poor looking action sequences. Plus every single western cliché has been thrown in alongside every single modern action flick cliché too, its like a John Woo movie in the wild west.Its a clichéd western of course as you would expect but it all looks slightly cheap with bad editing. Other things spoil its potential such as certain moments where characters use the swear word motherf*cker which I doubt is accurate for the time methinks. Also the way Peebles has clearly tried to make himself look as super cool as possible is cringeworthy. His costume looks like its from a graphic novel of a dark brooding anti-hero whilst everyone else looks relatively accurate for the era. Talk about giving yourself the best role with the best looking duds. Billy Zane does add some class and laughs into the situation but his character is so stupid. He basically plays a regular out n out villain, with redneck tendencies naturally, who just happens to be wearing civil war era attire. This character could be placed in any action movie in any setting and it wouldn't make any difference, he would still be exactly the same and the film would be exactly the same. He's just a plain villain, he has nothing to do with the era he's placed in other than the fact he's wearing civil war uniform. A good evil turn from Zane sure but the character is such a stereotypical Hollywood bad guy.Basically Peebles has gone for the slick rock n roll 'Young Guns' approach mixed with silly action movie clichés...but has failed on both counts. A more realistic film could have been a winner as this subject hasn't been touched upon much in Hollywood. Nail in the coffin for me was the quite hideously out of place rap track over the end credits, errr...no.4/10

Martialartsfanatic I'm not the biggest fan of westerns. My two personal favorites though are Unforgiven, and Tombstone. This movie though, I loved! It was great! The plot was well done, and it was a fun movie. Everybody who had a part in this movie did excellent! I even think it beat out both movies in someway. Well, not really Unforgiven because that was a superb movie that these two can't compare with in the long run. I do think it beat out Tombstone though. Both had its strong points. For instance, they both had excellent well known casts, very good plots, and very good filming. But Posse beat out Tombstone in four ways in my opinion. First, the characters were more unique in Posse. The music was better in Posse. The idea was original in Posse, unlike Wyatt Earp. And the biggest difference, the action sequences! Oh my gosh! Posse was a western with really good action sequences. I mean really good! The action was fast paced. Like modern day based shoot'em up movies. The action had big budget explosions too! The fistfights were pretty good also. Mario Van Pebbles was great in this movie! I suggest buying this excellent movie!