Black Belt Jones Lacks Punch, Needs More Kicks Here

The reputation of Blaxploitation films had previously started to wane by 1974, just three brief a long time right after Shaft made a box place of work splash. The genre essential a kick and producer Fred Weintraub hoped to provide that--virtually--with his urban martial arts film Black Belt Jones. Weintraub and director Robert Clouse have been responsible for the preceding year's intercontinental strike Enter the Dragon, which sealed Bruce Lee's superstardom. Their concept to mix Blaxploitation and kung fu need to have appeared like a organic fusion. To guarantee a smooth changeover, they solid American African karate champion Jim Kelly, who appeared in Enter the Dragon, in Black Belt Jones.

Kelly performs the title character, a streetwise kung fu learn, who happens to the help of his mentor Pop Byrd (Scatman Crothers). Pop's interior metropolis Black Bird Karate Faculty has attracted the interest of a neighborhood Mafioso with inside of knowledge of the real estate's potential price. When Pop refuses to promote, Don Steffano sends some thugs (led by Pinky...wonderful name!) more than to rough him up. During the combat, Pop has a coronary heart assault and dies. Belt Belt is identified to avenge Pop, conserve the faculty, and assist out the Feds--with some unexpected aid from Pop's black black belt daughter Sydney (Gloria Hendry).

Kelly in fight mode as Black Belt Jones.

There are several superb action movies--Enter the Dragon and In which Eagles Dare spring to thoughts--that solid credibility apart. If the motion scenes are well-staged and repeated adequate, the viewer will not have time to dwell on plot flaws. It helps, as well, if the performers are charismatic. Unfortunately, Black Belt Jones falls flat in these regions. The title sequence, consisting of freeze frames that interrupt Kelly's swift punches and potent kicks, is indicative of the film's difficulties. It robs a probably thrilling battle scene of its speed and rhythm. As the movie progresses, the pacing dilemma worsens and the a lot more time we have to dwell on its plot, the a lot more incredulous Black Belt Jones becomes. A toupeed Scatman Crothers as a kung fu master?

With John Saxon in Enter the Dragon.

Kelly was wonderful as a supporting participant in Enter the Dragon (particularly contemplating he was a final moment substitution for Rockne Tarrington). It helped, of program, that the screenwriters gave him numerous of the film's memorable quips ("Guy, you are correct out of a comic guide!"). Also, if you add up his monitor time, Kelly wasn't in significantly of Enter the Dragon, which was intended as a star vehicle for Lee. In Black Belt Jones, Kelly is anticipated to carry considerably of the load. He manages nicely in the combat scenes (even though, even there, his martial arts style is not as fluidly cinematic as Lee's). In his "acting" scenes, he tries to exude interesting--even though his awesome quotient  is relatively minimal when compared to charismatic actors these kinds of as Richard Roundtree in Shaft.

Remarkably, Black Belt Jones has its admirers, which I attribute to its karate scenes and camp factor. I suppose one could argue that it was constantly meant as camp, creating my criticisms pointless. My belief is Weintraub and Clouse wanted to make a mindless genre film mixing motion and humor. Reaching that correct volume of equilibrium (as Jackie Chan did in several of his films) can be demanding and which is exactly where Black Belt Jones fails for me. Nonetheless, it did well adequate at the box workplace to garner a sequel, 1976's Hot Potato, which sends Black Belt to an Asian region to rescue a senator's daughter.

Kelly labored steadily during the late seventies and early 1980s, with lead roles in films like Black Samurai. He also appeared in a few films with Jim Brown and Fred Williamson: A few the Difficult Way the unusual Blaxploitation-Spaghetti Western Get a Difficult Trip and A single Down, Two to Go (also with Richard Roundtree). Apart from for occasional movie appearances, he retired from acting in 1982. He subsequently became a professional tennis player and appeared on the USTA Senior Men's Circuit.

It will not even search like a
Jackie Chan movie.

Filmmakers Fred Weintraub and Robert Clouse ongoing to make occasional martial arts movies with splashes of humor. They launched Jackie Chan to American audiences with The Big Brawl in 1980. However, it veered as well a lot from Jackie's natural persona and in no way discovered an audience. Jackie Chan wouldn't strike it huge in the U.S. right up until fifteen decades later when Rumble in the Bronx became a sleeper strike.