Street Smart (1987) Morgan Freeman and Christopher Reeve break typecast

“Superman IV” is not a good movie, but if there’s one good thing it did it was allowing this film to exist. When the rights to Superman were bought by Cannon, Christopher Reeve agreed to do the fourth film if Cannon would help greenlight this film.

The story about a journalist named Jonathan (Reeve) who makes up an interview with a pimp named Tyrone. Unfortunately a real-life pimp named Smalls (Freeman) and a prosecuting attorney (Jay Patterson) are both convinced that Tyrone is a pseudonym for Smalls, and a game of cat and mouse develops.

Bear in mind at the time he was mostly doing small movie roles and theater. If someone said Morgan Freeman, your first thought might’ve been “that guy from the Electric Company?” It’s funny that Freeman considered this his big break because it’s not like many of the roles he was typecast in later in life. When you hear “Morgan Freeman” the first characters that come to mind are the sage, old black characters he’s played since the 90s. So seeing him play a violent criminal is really engaging.

Overall it’s a good crime thriller which is guided by its performances. Christopher Reeve playing an opportunistic reporter and Morgan Freeman playing a violent pimp are not roles you see every day and watching them break typecast is fantastic.

Would definitely recommend. It’s got an interesting plot, a brilliant satiric eye on journalism, and some great performances.