This guy sports no mohawk, full beard, camouflage pants or 500 k in gold chains, and yet this Mr. T is just as supremely bad-ass as his more famous namesake. Over a decade before B.A. Baracus first pitied fools with the "A-Team", 'Trouble Man' Robert Hooks kicked asses through grindhouse cinemas in this highly entertaining blaxploitation flick of 1972. Mr T. (Robert Hooks) is a super-tough and super-cool player, private eye and basically the man for every business that calls for balls - the 'Trouble Man'. As one of the promotional lines promises: "He carries two guns, one to stop trouble and one to make trouble." If a job is dangerous and needs to be done, Mr. T is the man to do it. Trying to trick him, however, is not recommendable...
While "Trouble Man" is, as far as I am concerned, no highlight of 70s blaxploitation cinema (films like "Coffy", the original "Shaft" or "Truck Turner" come with my highest possible recommendations) it is a film that every fan of the black Exploitation sub-genre should appreciate. The story is not the most original ever, but good enough. The film is full of action and violent shootouts, the score by Marvin Gaye is cool (even if not quite as cool as the contemporary scores by Isaac Hayes), and Robert Hooks is great in the lead. Some more female eye-candy certainly wouldn't have bothered me, but overall the film shouldn't be missed by blaxploitation fans. Highly recommended to my fellow lovers of 70s cult-cinema.
