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Wednesday, September 12, 2018

BLACK BELT JONES 1974 (WARNERS)

Shortly after I started this blog I did a very short review of this film, and it has been 8 years since I saw this, so I figured I watch it and give it a much longer review.

Jim Kelly stars as Black Belt Jones, a man reluctantly drawn into a war with the Mafia. It seems the Mafia is buying most of the buildings and land in a downtown area, but the one place they don't have is a karate school owned by Papa Byrd (Scatman Crothers), and they will stop at nothing to get it.

Don Steffano (Andre Philippe) sends a representative to try and get the school one last time. When that fails, they kill Byrd accidentally. Jones is called in and has to deal with Byrd's death as well as Byrd's lovely daughter Sydney (Gloria Hendry) who actually owns the school much to the chagrin of the Mafia.

Sydney and Jones stop at nothing to rid the city of the Mafia and this sets up some great kung fu battles and a hell of a lot of fun. There is a classic scene where Sydney goes to visit a Mafia contact named Pinky (Malik Carter). They smart mouth her and she kicks the crap out of all of them. Her classic line as she takes off her shoes is "I'm gonna make you look like a sick faggot".

In today's insane PC world this would never be allowed now, but this movie at least lets you relive times when everyone wasn't a raving lunatic. The performances are very good, and there is some comedy thrown in the mix. Some of it works and some of it doesn't.

The rest of the cast includes Eric Laneuville, Alan Weeks, Vincent Barbi (as Big Tuna), Sonny Barnes and Earl Brown. Planty of fun for fans of this genre and as always, Hendry looks oh so fine.

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