Black Belt Jones (1974)
Jones is a secret agent who has gone into semi-retirement, concentrating instead on teaching the martial arts to inner city youths. The karate school is run by a kindly old coot named Pops ,played by Scatman Crothers. His gambling debts, however, bring the local thug, Pinky, down on him. To make matters worse, Pinky is then hired by some white thugs who want to get a hold of the property Pops' school occupies so they can build a shopping mall. When things get heavy, Black Belt Jones leaps into action. Only he's not alone. Pops' daughter, Sidney, shows up to lend a hand, proving herself every bit as agile and powerful a martial artist as Jones.
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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.
Jim Kelly, "introduced" first in MELINDA in 1972 and then again in ENTER THE DRAGON the following year, was one of the more personable of the "point karate" players to try to make it big on The Big Screen. Unfortunately, Kelly put his fate in the hands of director Robert Clouse, who seemed determined to be remembered as a maker of Grade-Z motion pictures. While Kelly was no great acting talent, he DID have enough personality to carry a B-movie like this one- provided the director was on his game (which, in this case, he wasn't). Kelly's limited kicking skills made for some often uninteresting fight scenes (in MELINDA, for instance, he literally had to jump up on the hood of a car to kick a man in the head), especially when he was paired with a real kicker like Dorian Tan (THE TATTOO CONNECTION)- who had no trouble whatsoever outshining his co-star. (Kelly also seemed to have trouble grasping the difference between Reality and Fantasy: at one point, he challenged former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier to a no-holds-barred fight. Kelly lucked out when Frazier laughed off the challenge.) (And it's interesting to note that very few of the "point" karate players went on to full-contact careers when full-contact karate became a reality...) The most glaring example of Kelly's limitations comes in BLACK BELT JONES when he faces off against a bunch of bad guys in a car wash: knee-deep in suds (which are very slippery), his kicking is even less impressive than normal; he literally seems afraid to lose his balance (which is understandable)- and the skinny stunt-double with the outrageously ridiculous afro wig is yet another example of Clouse's misdirection. I saw this one at a walk-in theater when it was first released, and later at a drive-in, and the one constant through all of my viewings has been the realization that this is NOT a good movie- it never was and it ain't NOW.
Jim Kelly first time seeing this cat after searching for blaxploitation films i don't know i liked the 70's from the Jacksons and shows and stuff like that like TV shows and i grew up off all the old school artist Marvin Gaye Barry white all those cats plus watched nick at night and crap so i was looking for some 70's movie found a list and i was looking for some black ones.I've already seen some good ones so i have to find more black belt Jones came up downloaded it via torrent burned it i saw it man that movie was the Best music was superb Dennis Coffey is n=know one of my favorite artist luchi de Jesus god bless you even though i never seen him before or heard any other of his music i looked cant find him maybe one single man Jim Kelly is the top black martial artist of the century he made it look so cool good looking guy he just look the best doing it intro black belt Jones and the when him and the girl where on the beach playing she was running from him favorite 2 songs in the beach was my favorite intro second favorite great movie a must have for all times a must
Okay, let me give you the recipe for a brilliant film. Take a whole bunch of bad dudes with afros, take one bad dude who knows karate and has one of the best afros ever, find a bunch of silly girls to jump on a trampoline, add one suds filled automatic car wash surrounded by garbage trucks. Stir and season with incredible soul music and terrible dialogue. Oh yeah. Black Belt freakin' Jones. A masterpiece of blaxpoitation that deserves to be shelved directly between "Shaft" and "Enter the Dragon." Attempts to blend funk, kung fu, and James Bond. Does a thing get cooler than that? I doubt it. Will it change your life? No, probably not. Will it brighten your day when you see how the suds cling tenaciously to Jim's afro. Oh yeah.