Bullet Points: Death Dimension
When I think of Jim Kelly’s solo efforts movies like Black Belt Jones and Black Samurai immediately come to mind, so it probably doesn’t make much sense that instead of reviewing one of those movies, I went with the lesser known Death Dimension, which also didn’t make much sense at times…
- Freeze Frame: Crime boss Santo Massino aka The Pig, played by Harold Sakata of Goldfinger and Bruce Strikes Back fame, has coerced a brilliant scientist to develop a bomb with the power to freeze people to death. That scientist, Dr. Mason, has a change of heart as the project nears its completion and knows this decision will more than likely cost him his life, so he embeds a microdot that contains all of his freeze bomb research and specifications under the skin of the forehead of his assistant Felicia, Mason tells Felicia to find a General Jameson and then buys her some time so she can slip away. Felicia does just that, while Dr. Mason meets his demise.
- Undercover of the Night: Dr. Mason wasn’t the only one who found himself on the wrong side of The Pig or more specifically The Pig’s Haitian muscle, Tatoupa (Bob Minor, Action Jackson)… the authorities had an undercover cop inside The Pig’s operation and when he shows up dead, Captain Gallagher (George Lazenby, Never Too Young to Die) of the LAPD calls in his two best… Detective Nash (Jim Kelly, Enter the Dragon) and Li (Myron Bruce Lee in his one and only acting role). Nash and Li find themselves in Reno trying to track down The Pig, but The Pig isn’t in Reno anymore, he has made his way to Los Angeles looking for Felicia. But The Pig did leave some of his minions behind to deal with Nash and Li which culminates with a boat chase!
- Walking in LA: Felicia attempts to contact General Jameson like Dr. Mason advised her to… but he is unavailable, however she is told that Jameson is working with Captain Gallagher. But before she can do anything about it, Tatoupa shows up and nearly snatches her up. Felicia narrowly manages to get away and then the next time we see her she is just wandering the streets of Los Angeles. Why didn’t she go to the cops as soon as she avoided being kidnapped? She does eventually call Captain Gallagher, but only after she has checked into a cheap hotel. Nash goes to the hotel, but so does Tatoupa… we get a tease of what is to come between the two martial artists, but while Nash and Tatoupa are occupied with one another, Felicia slips out the fire escape, but as soon as she hits the sidewalk she is snatched up by The Pig’s men and things aren’t looking good for her.
- True Colors: Things look even worse for Felicia when we find out that Captain Gallagher is working WITH The Pig. But that’s about the time super cops Nash and Li show up and then the action goes into overdrive… Li handles the turncoat Gallagher, while Nash is in hot pursuit of The Pig/Tatoupa first in automobiles, then in a helicopter when the dastardly duo try to escape via tram!?! When The Pig and Tatoupa end up back on solid ground they find themselves in back to back fight scenes with Nash. But The Pig proves to be a slippery one and tries yet another escape, this time via Cessna… which (SPOILER ALERT) is shot out of the sky by Nash’s hand gun.
There was a lot to like about 1978’s Death Dimension, Jim Kelly evening the odds with a pair of nunchaku, multiple chase scenes involving a variety of modes of transportation, a young Bob Minor in a meaty role, a couple of James Bond alumni …but the movie and the plot was a mess more often than not making the overall experience less than enjoyable.
There’s nothing less than about these Bonus Bullet Points…
- AKA: Death Dimension was released as Freeze Bomb in several European countries, which quite frankly is a more fitting title.
- Buyer’s Remorse: Aldo Ray played Verde, a man who was interested in buying the freeze bomb from The Pig for his fledgling country. His country was never called out by name, nor was his full name but there’s a big part of me that hopes the answer to both is Val Verde.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Jim Kelly play the slots in Reno, then Death Dimension is the movie for you.
