Review of Black Belt Jones (1974) by Stuart K — 06 Feb 2015

After the release of Enter The Dragon (1973), Warner Bros. hired it's director Robert Clouse, to do another kung-fu film immediately. Jim Kelly, who had made his film debut in Enter The Dragon, was given the lead role in this film.

Despite being very much a product of it's time, and the fact that it has become unintentionally hilarious in places, the action sequences done in the film are quite well fought out. The Los Angeles Mafia, led by Don Steffano (Andre Philippe), have bought up a large plot of land, and are wanting to develop on it, but they're unable to as there was one building they're having trouble buying, a karate school run by Pop Byrd (Scatman Crothers), whose best student is Black Belt Jones (Kelly).

To open the karate school, Pop Byrd had borrowed money from drug dealer Pinky (Malik Carter), who had in turn stolen the money from the Mafia. But it turns out the building belongs to Sydney (Gloria Hendry), not Pop Byrd.

So when the Mafia bring in more men to get the karate school, Black Belt Jones puts up a fight to put a stop to this. It is an incredibly silly film, but it does have it's moments, including an unbelievable finale in an out of control car wash which proves that this is definitely a 70's film.

Mixing Blaxploitation with the current Kung Fu craze that was sweeping cinemas at the time. Not all of it works, but it doesn't matter at all.