Panther

This simple-minded account of the Black Panther Party is insulting to anybody who ever admired the positive qualities of the organization or at the very least took their militancy seriously. Melvin Van Peebles wrote the thin script, and son Mario directs it with little of the penetrating and expansive sensibility necessary to understand the subject in its broadest context. The presence of a big cast with a lot of familiar names and faces--including real-life Panther contemporaries Jerry Rubin and Dick Gregory--give the project a false air of importance. --Tom Keogh