Fontaine (“Star Wars” star John Boyega) struggles through life with various criminal activities, especially drug dealing, and dreams of great success. But when Fontaine has just collected debts from pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx) and prostitute YoYo (Teyonah Parris), he can’t enjoy the money in his pocket for long. Because on his way home he is attacked by a rival gang and kills him.
But the next morning he wakes up in his bed not knowing what happened the day before – and to the surprise of YoYo and Slick Charles, who actually witnessed his murder and saw his body, he shows up again to collect debts from them. While wondering what the hell is going on, the trio together stumble upon a mysterious lab and creepy experiments in their neighborhood.
Of course they’re going to fight – although it soon turns out to be an advantage that Fontaine clearly continues to rise from the dead and is therefore the best cannon fodder…
“They Cloned Tyrone”: Blaxploitation Meets “The Body Snatchers Are Coming”
“They cloned Tyrone‘ is available worldwide and exclusively on Netflix starting today, July 21, 2023. In the US, the sci-fi horror satire was shown in some cinemas a week in advance and was very well received.
The review aggregator site RottenTomatoes has such excellent values: 97 percent of the reviews are positive, even 100 percent of the (albeit very few) ratings.
Directed by writer-director Juel Taylor, who previously worked on the scripts for Creed II and Space Jam 2, the film is intended to pay homage to 1970s blaxploitation cinema such as Coffy. However, this is mixed with elements of the horror cinema of the time – the classic “The Body Eaters are Coming” with Donald Sutherland is of course a great source of inspiration. His son, “24” star Kiefer Sutherland, also plays a supporting role.