Black Belt Jones (1974)

Pretty Good

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Following the phenomenonal success of "Enter the Dragon," director Robert Clouse and co-star Jim Kelly teamed up for this more tongue in cheek martial arts flick, "Black Belt Jones." Released in 1974 and distributed by "Warner Bros," Jim Kelly was given his first and best leading role. He becomes reluctantly embroiled in a war between local businessmen and a Mafia family, after the latter threaten his martial arts school with closure. It has been said that not all martial artists can "sell" their moves on the big screen by being more larger than life. As a result, it doesn't pave the way for a successful movie career. In the case of Jim Kelly however, he can certainly put on a good show and he does in "Black Belt Jones." One of the best examples of this, is when he takes on a group of corrupt police officers at a car park. Some neat moves are on display. The ending I found to be a bit too silly for words. Robert Clouse does a good enough job in the directing but Bruce Lee is sorely missed when it comes to the fight choreography. A pretty good film on the whole.

Although he has a lucrative business dealing in counterfeit dollars, a Mafia godfather by the name of "Don Steffano" (Andre Philippe) decides that he wants to purchase some land where a huge civic center is about to be built so that he can make a hefty profit. The problem is that on this land is a karate school run by a man named "Papa Byrd" (Scatman Crothers) who has no interest in selling it to anybody. So Don Steffano gives the task of obtaining this parcel of land to a black mobster named "Pinky" (Malik Carter) who doesn't dare to cross him. Unfortunately, Pinky goes a bit too far one night and accidentally kills Papa Byrd and this results in the karate school going directly to Papa Byrd's daughter "Sydney" (Gloria Hendry) who not only wants to keep the school but also wants to find out who killed her father. And one of the few people who can help her do both is a student of Papa Byrd named "Black Belt Jones" (Jim Kelly). Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I was slightly disappointed in this movie for a couple of reasons. First, although I didn't mind the fact that this martial arts movie also doubled as a Blaxploitation film, I thought the romantic scene between Sydney and Black Belt Jones was rather clumsy and the fight scene at the very end was much too long and boring. Likewise, most of the humor throughout the movie needed some serious improvement as well. Having said all of that I suppose this movie was still somewhat entertaining and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

After appearing in Bruce Lee's blockbuster hit Enter The Dragon, Jim Kelly(who had a bit part as the ultra cool Williams)returns with ETD director Robert Clouse in Black Belt Jones. Black Belt Jones is 70's action camp at its best. Jim Kelly(RIP)was not the most talented actor, but more than made up for it by having a good build, great karate moves and one amazing afro. Jim Kelly was definitely one cool cat and in this film totally invincible against out of shape Italian mobsters and Pinky's gang of goofballs who are after Papa Byrd's(Scatman Crothers)karate school. BBJ has great colorful and entertaining characters, hilarious quotable dialogue and an awesome score by Luchi DeJesus. Black Belt Jones is a great blaxsploitation film that turns the camp to eleven. No matter how many times I watch this classic, it always makes me laugh and puts me in a better mood no matter how crappy my day was up to that point. So do yourself a favor and watch Black Belt Jones and have yourself a great time.

There's no way on earth I'm gonna argue that 'Black Belt Jones' is a great movie, even a very good one, but no matter how silly and cheesy it gets it's a hell of a ride and lots of fun! Let's face it this is b-grade exploitation fare deliberately designed to cash in on both the mid-70s blaxploitation boom and the success of Bruce Lee's martial arts classic 'Enter The Dragon'. Dragon's director Robert Clouse (who also made the hugely enjoyable post-apocalyptic potboiler 'The Ultimate Warrior') took karate champion Jim Kelly, who co-starred with Lee and John Saxon in that film, and tried to start a spin-off franchise with him. The big problem was that Kelly certainly had the fighting chops but his acting was only so-so and he was one of the least charismatic of all the blaxploitation leading men. Just compare him to Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Richard Roundtree or Ron O'Neal and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, for one movie at least it didn't really matter. Kelly stars as Black Belt Jones who returns to the inner city karate school where he got his start after the death of his mentor Pop Byrd (the wonderful Scatman Crothers, who yes, kicks some butt before he is killed, a sight you'll never forget!). Jones teams up with Pop's estranged daughter Sydney (Gloria Hendry of 'Black Caesar' and 'Savage Sisters'), also a fighter, and his peeps to avenge Pop's death. The rest of the cast includes Eric Laneuville ('The Omega Man'), Earl Brown (Whisper from 'Live And Let Die'), and even Isaac the bartender from 'The Love Boat' as a Black Panther! This is a silly movie, but still loads of fun, with some very entertaining fight sequences, and some laughs, intentional and unintentional. 'Black Belt Jones' is mandatory viewing for all 1970s trash buffs.