A brazen band of no-count thieves rob roughly $400,000 in money and valuable merchandise from a political fund-raiser being held by ambitious black congressman Aubrey Clayton (a perfectly smarmy Rudy Challenger). It's up to suave black Sargeant Jesse Williams (the super smooth Hari Rhodes) and slobby, cynical white Lieutenant Daniel Bassett (a fine performance by the ever-funny and engaging Alex Rocco; Moe Greene in "The Godfather") to get to the bottom of things before the whole city erupts into chaos and racial violence.Director Arthur ("Bucktown") Marks keeps the pace speeding along at a steady breakneck clip and stages the thrilling action scenes with considerable rip-snorting brio, further enhancing this already fun and entertaining crime caper picture with amusing amounts of his trademark dark humor (my two all-time favorite moments are when hooker Vonetta McGee complains to her pimp that a john treated her like a piece of meat and the positively gut-busting scene where a hoodlum exclaims "Mother*beep*er!" after taking a fatal bullet to the chest). The uneasy give-and-take relationship between Williams and Bassett adds greatly to the tension, leading to a wonderfully ambiguous and genuinely startling climax that packs a substantial punch because of its marvelously up-in-the-air moral ambivalence and uncertainty. This isn't your garden variety simplistic cops and robbers yarn where there's a fine line between the good guys and the bad guys. Instead almost everyone in this movie is either on the make or on the take, creating a stark and brutal world where morals are decidedly gray at best and such sterling virtues as honor, honesty and loyalty are hard to come by. It's the powerfully vivid way Marks depicts this sense of pervasive corruption which in turn makes "Detroit 9000" a superior crime thriller. Luchi DeJesus supplies a fine, funky-throbbing score while Harry May's rough cinematography gives the film an appropriately raw and gritty look. Popping up in nifty bit parts are the ubiquitous Bob Minor as a cop-killing criminal, Marilyn Joi as a prostitute dancing in a bordello, and the great Scatman Crothers in an especially lively cameo as a fiery hell-and-brimstone bible-banging priest. A real solid and satisfying little winner.

I noticed with some amusement that in the end credits, the Detroit PD is thanked for their participation. The Chief of Police even has one speaking line playing himself (and boy, can you tell he can't act). The reason for the amusement is that in this movie the police shoot first and ask questions later. Not the kind of PR, I would think a police force would want. Other than that, this is your standard cops and robbers film dressed up for the '70's with a racial angle. Alex Rocco is given a thankless role of a lifer cop that can't get ahead and is saddled with a mentally ill wife. He makes up for this by hanging out at the local whorehouse. Hari Rhodes is his dashing partner that has a groovy wardrobe and likes to chase after suspects while wearing a trenchcoat. The movie moves along until the penultimate shootout that makes absolutely no sense (why do people that are only guilty of a robbery, take on a whole police force?). Not only do we see one shootout but since there are four bad guys, we get to see four. Then there is a twist ending that is supposed to leave one guessing what really would have happened but only left me thinking how stupid it was. Seeing that director Arthur Marks was also behind the braindead "Friday Foster" and "Bucktown", I shouldn't have wondered.

Not your typical Blaxploitation movie. I rented it because Vonetta McGee is in it but was pleasantly surprised. You should see the top tier Blaxploitaion movies (Fred,Pam,Jim,Isaac) first to appreciate this one. Definitely a sleeper.

I saw this movie because of Quentin Tarantino's initiative to bring back classics like this to the video stores. This movie is just terrific. First of all the story is very well done and it is still original today. This is remarkable considering that this movie is 26 years old! The actors might be a little weak at times but the cool dialogs and the raw action scenes are the best ones I've ever seen. There aint no special effects here but it still is pretty spectacular. Of course, this movie is not an Hollywood super production but it still is an excellent movie that one should see at least once. The music is also fantastic, seeing those guys shoot each others and thoses cars explode with some 70's era funk music is just too entertaining.I recommend this movie to any action or thriller movie fans. Tarantino fans might also be surprised..this movie obviously influenced Tarantino a lot. See for yourself.