Petey Wheatstraw (1977)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Years ago, I wrote a hostile review of Petey Wheatstraw for IMDb. What can I possibly say to justify that? I was young, and foolish. And the greatness of this film had not yet revealed itself to me.Well, "greatness" is too strong a word. Petey Wheatstraw is not great, but rather "amusing" and somewhat "crazy." If you permit yourself to be drawn into the film's wacky universe, you may have a thoroughly enjoyable viewing experience.Petey Wheatstraw, in short, is about a kung-fu fighting stand-up comedian who makes an unwise bargain with Lucifer. It's part comedy movie, part horror movie, part gangster movie, part sex movie, and part kung-fu epic with intentionally (I hope) bad choreography. The film bounces breathlessly between these genres, especially in the early scenes, which are disorienting and seem totally unconnected. But soon enough, the story settles into a kind of weird rhythm.Needless to say, the production values are poor (Lucifer's demon minions are men in ballet tights and Halloween masks), the editing is choppy, and the acting is of highly variable quality. The script, however, has a weird poetry to it. The comedy dialog, though extremely crass, is sometimes really funny, and some of the "character" scenes when Petey and Lucifer get together are bizarrely effective.Now I feel all weird, because I'm trying to defend what is, in essence, an extremely tacky bad movie. But it's a *witty* bad movie, and I can appreciate the effort that went into its production. And the film undeniably captures a time -- a place -- a bizarreness. It's sort of hypnotic.Let me put it this way: I bought Petey Wheatstraw as a bargain DVD years ago, hated it on the initial viewing, and almost pawned it. But I never did get rid of that DVD. It survived several years of DVD trading-in, numerous changes of address on my part, and other seismic events in my life that might easily have caused Petey Wheatstraw's demise. But that DVD survived through it all; I still have the movie, still think about it sometimes, still smirk when I see it on my shelf. And that's the best endorsement I can give it.

As another review once said, "The written word cannot do justice to the comedic stylings and kung-fu antics of Rudy Ray Moore movies." I agree. Petey Wheatstraw is a movie that must (and should) be seen to be believed. The opening is the birth of Petey. After his mother first passes a watermelon(!), the child is born and the good doctor gives him a few smacks on the butt to get him started. However, Petey is no infant, he's an eleven year old boy, even born with underwear. He proceeds to give the doc a beating until his dad steps in. Young Petey lips off to his father about "disturbing" him for the past nine months (get it?) and then goes after him! Such is Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil's Son-In-Law, and it only gets worse (or better?) from here. Full of offensive comedy, horrible kung fu, Moore's rhymes (the original rapper!), and cheap, crazy scenes (Satan's demons have glued on horns, wear red tights, and move like robots), this is a great cult flick not to be missed. FYI, the movie was actually influenced by the real blues artist, Peetie Wheatstraw.

I had trouble watching Dolemite (horrible acting) one month ago and Disco Godfather (crazy-a** halucination scenes, going on very long!) today!!! BUT!!! - Petey Wheatstraw had me laughing pretty much through the entire thing - watermelons, Petey's magical gift he recieved from the Devil, and Leroy & Skillet - hahahaha!!! Great actors, funny as hell! If you want to check out a Rudy Ray Moore film, check out this one! It's got a GREAT soundtrack, and the acting is better than his others (although I haven't seen Human Tornado in a while, very funny Kung-Fu moves by Rudy).

some of the most racially offensive acts on film, beautiful! see this movie, and everything else rudy ray did in the 70s, you won't be disappointed. (spoiler) the opening scene has petey being born (as a 7 or 8 year old boy) following a watermelon. then he gets p***ed at his daddy for being hit in the head when ever his parents got busy. unflinchingly ridiculously over the top hilarity. the theme song is great also!