"Hell Up in Harlem has the right title as a slaughter pile-up... There is a quietly vivid performance by Julius W. Harris, as a kind of unwilling Harlem godfather. Mr. Williamson himself, who also had another movie, That Man Bolt, opening yesterday, certainly gets around New York in this one murderously trying to 'make it a decent place to live for everybody.' He must have meant every survivor. The line got a hearty laugh one morning last week at the midtown Cinerama Theater."
Howard Thompson, The New York Times

"BOMB...Extremely violent, poorly filmed sequel to Black Caesar as Fred makes NYC a decent place to live by annihilating all who stand in his way."
Leonard Maltin Movie Guide

"Even though he died in Black Caesar, Fred Williamson returns as gangster Tommy Gibbs in this quickly made sequel... This AIP release ends with a setup for another sequel, which never happened."
Michael Weldon, The Psychotronic Video Guide

"The film as a whole has an air of having been hurriedly thrown together, and is altogether inferior to its predecessor. Indeed, it doesn't even look like a Cohen film. The narrative is oddly disjointed... A few sequences are powerfully realized, however, in particular a violent affray in an airport baggage-collection area."
The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: The Gangster Film

"(Black Caesar's)... absolutely off-the-f**n'-wall sequel..."
Steve Puchalski, Slimetime

"This sequel to Black Caesar sparks from a marked tension between blaxploitation conventions and Cohen's maintenance of an ironic distance from his 'hero', who survives an opening semi-reprise of the earlier film's ending (having Harlem Hospital commandeered at gunpoint) to rise/fall/resurrect himself as underworld overlord of New York. The jerkily episodic narrative loosens its tremendous pace about half-way in, even if Cohen keeps jostling the formula with inventive story loops and staccato bursts of action, but it's the overall evidence of a film shot literally 'on the run' that makes this such a delight. Action constantly erupts to general bewilderment and brilliant effect on unsanctioned New York streets, while tourist trap monuments to American democracy serve as hit-and-run locations for conspiracy or corruption... Black maids force-feeding soul food to Mafiosi, a colour-reverse lynching, and a ludicrous foot-plane-foot chase sequence constitute just a few of the sly energies emitted en route to a characteristically ambivalent ending."
Time Out

"The frenetic pace is filled with mucho gunplay and vulgar scenes that are used as sources of low-brow social awareness comedy..."
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

"This fast-paced sequel... delivers twice the action... yet is only half as satisfying because it lacks the hard-hitting drama and balanced tone of its predecessor. The key problem is its script, which manages to be underwritten and over-plotted all at once... On the plus side, Hell Up in Harlem benefits from a slick funk score by Motown producers Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell. Also, writer/director Larry Cohen does maintain a snappy pace (an action scene occurs about every five to ten minutes in this film), and works in plenty of odd, witty touches like a chase scene that involves its participants boarding separate planes to pursue each other across the country. However, the constant flow of bullets and fisticuffs becomes numbing after a while... It's fun while it lasts, but is ultimately unsatisfying."
Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide

"An implausible and near-uninteresting follow-up to Cohen's superior Black Caesar."
Aaron Hills, Premiere

"The film is hokey, filled with exposition, and exploits black audiences by replacing one stereotype (black faced, watermelon eating minstrels) with another (gun toting, arrogant, morally bankrupt men)-an insipid characteristic of the genre that ultimately led to its demise. Nonetheless, there are some memorable scenes (even if they are contrived), and a small infusion of acerbic satire that lifts the film several degrees above mediocrity."
Jon Lap, Apollo Guide

"The action is halfway reasonable, with Cohen's camera hiding the seams in the weak stuntwork. There are plenty of iffy gags as when cel animation is used for a laughable wound effect... Besides that, Hell Up in Harlem is unusually tidy for a genre movie. There's hardly any swearing, and only a bit of nudity."
Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant

"For this, Larry Cohen should've caught hell up in Harlem."
Darius James, That's Blaxploitation

"Hell Up in Harlem barely touches upon American racial injustice. Just as problematic a shortcoming, however, is Cohen's graceless scene construction, full of crummy cinematography and mismatched edits. Nonetheless, it's somewhat amusing to see former NFL giant Williamson running, dodging and leaping his way through an airport terminal and parking lot like an early, more menacing version of Mr. Hertz himself, O.J. Simpson."
Nick Schager, The Nick Schager Film Project

"We wrote the script as we went along and the picture sure looks like it."
Larry Cohen

Compiled by Richard Harland Smith