The late, great Jim Kelly's spiritual successor to Enter the Dragon (reuniting w/director Robert Clouse) from 1974. Kelly is a punching/kicking agent who is being recruited by the government to investigate some shenanigans the mob is cooking up (a new civic center is being constructed & the cosa nostra owns much of the land except for a lone lot). Enter Scatman Crothers' kung fu dojo which the mob wants so much they send in a local crime lord, Malik Carter, who Crothers, a gambling junkie who he owes money to, to come collecting (inflating the IOU to favor him). What the mob & Carter don't know is that Kelly is good friends w/Crothers & other members of the school, which include Eric Laneuville (who I remember from St. Elsewhere & is still a prolific TV director), prompting Kelly & his fists/feet to say otherwise. It's always great to see Kelly in his prime kicking ass w/a wistful sadness since Kelly should've been a bigger star than he was but this film moves in fits & starts w/a lot of kung fu fighting but not much energy or creativity put into the fight sequences w/an ending that has a fighting horde amid soap suds (?) doesn't inspire much excitement. Also starring actors of the period like Gloria Hendry, playing Kelly's love interest & Earl Jolly Brown, both from Live & Let Die, playing one of Carter's thugs w/brief cameos from Ted Lange (from the Love Boat) as a revolutionary & Marla Gibbs (from The Jeffersons) as a neighbor from the hood.
Review of Black Belt Jones
