Black Belt Jones

Summary

“You must be crazy talking all that communist shit…I work hard for my money…” 

A year after Enter the Dragon was released, filmmaker Robert Clouse teamed up with Jim Kelly again to make a picture with him in the lead role. Anyone who saw Enter the Dragon knows that Jim Kelly had delivered a good amount of swagger, a great head of hair with his sideburns and Afro, and that he had a few karate moves under his belt. Bruce Lee had sadly perished before Enter the Dragon had been released, so Hollywood  it made great sense that Hollywood would want to capitalize on Jim Kelly’s newfound popularity. With Black Belt Jones, Jim Kelly was given his best opportunity to seize the mantle. I had been curious about this picture for years, because I adore Enter the Dragon. Warner Archive has been kind enough to bring this film to Blu-ray from a 4K restoration from the original camera negatives. Fans of Blaxploitation and martial arts films of the Seventies will probably find a good amount to enjoy, but if you are expecting this film to come close to the heights of Robert Clouse’s Enter the Dragon, you need to adjust your expectations dramatically. 

In Black Belt Jones, Jones (Jim Kelly) is contacted by his old friend Pop (Scatman Carothers) to help him defend his karate dojo from a hostile takeover by a drug dealer named Pinky. Pinky had loaned Don the money to open the dojo and buy the building. Pinky owes a significant amount to the mafia, and needs the money from the dojo’s sale for collateral. When he confronts Pop about needing the cash or the building, Pop explains that is impossible because the building is actually in the name of his daughter Sidney. Pop is killed by the gangsters. Sidney returns, and with the help of Black Belt Jones, they take on Pinky and the mafia.

Let’s get one thing out of the way in terms of your expectations of the film: This movie’s fight choreography does not come close to the fight choreography in Enter the Dragon. This is simply because the Hong Kong based stuntmen and fight choreographers were so much faster than their American counterparts at that time. If you expect to see similar action to what you saw in Enter the Dragon, you will likely feel somewhat let down. It is better to take in this picture as a medium-size budget blaxploitation film. With Robert Crouse directing, the movie still has style, but the script by Oscar Williams and Fred Weintraub was not going to win any awards. This film is best enjoyed as a silly and mindless affair. Once you commit to that, there is plenty to enjoy on that level. I mean, the film ends in a fight that takes place in and around a car wash that is spewing foam everywhere. It is as silly as that description would make you believe. The whole film follows a similarly braindead logic that keeps it from joining the ranks of the best blaxploitation films, but still left a grin on my face for the most part.

Jim Kelly showed in Black Belt Jones that he definitely could perform some martial arts, but he also showed why Enter the Dragon only used him onscreen sparingly. He doesn’t have the star power of a Richard Roundtree, Jim Brown, or Fred Williamson, which explains why his career didn’t explode after this picture. He just does not have the chops of those other guys, but he can be a great supporting player when used well in films like Three the Hard Way. Gloria Hendry plays the karate kicking love interest for him in the film. She handles the role pretty capably, and there are some really fun scenes between them (including a love making/fight scene that is pretty hilarious.) Scatman Carothers is a lot of fun to watch in the film. Scatman is probably best known for his enduring performance in The Shining, but in Black Belt Jones he dons a combover and plays his role with aplomb. His character is ridiculous but that did not cause him to phone it in. All of the bad guys in the picture are caricatures. I would not say that this film is that well directed by Robert Clouse. The action scenes are somewhat sloppy, and he does not draw convincing performances from anyone in particular. It is interesting to think that just a year prior he directed one of the most influential martial arts pictures ever made. As it stands, Black Belt Jones is not a very good film, but it is an entertaining mess of a movie. I had fun watching it despite (or possibly because of) its tremendous shortcomings.

Video

Warner continue to do first class restoration work with Black Belt Jones. Working from a brand new 4K scan from the original camera negatives and presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio in 1080p with an MPEG-4 AVC encode, the film looks very good on Blu-ray. This film is somewhat sloppily directed, but it still shines on the format. Warner’s team did a fantastic job of bringing the best out of the elements of the film.

Audio

Black Belt Jones is given a DTS-HD MA 2.0 track that presents the original Mono track in split channels. Dialogue is very clear. I did not take notice of any hiss or distortion. The score sounds crisp and clean. Overall, it is another winning track from Warner.

Supplements:

Theatrical Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – .5/5

Overall – 3.5/5

Black Belt Jones had long been on my list of films I wanted to check out. I love blaxploitation pictures, and the idea of Robert Crouse teaming back up with Jim Kelly just a year after the martial arts genre defining Enter the Dragon made this picture very desirable to me. Unfortunately, the movie is honestly pretty silly and not all that well done. Jim Kelly is great in supporting roles, but given the task of holding a full picture together, he just does not stack up against greats like Jim Kelly or Fred Williamson. Most disappointing is that the fight choreography pales in comparison to the action in Enter the Dragon. For those like myself who love this genre, I am still very pleased to be able to own Warner’s excellent Blu-ray of the picture despite its limitations. Fans of the genre will want to adjust their expectations, but if you are looking for a ridiculous and very silly blaxploitation film, this checks that box.

The film can be purchased at www.moviezyng.com.