Bullet Points: Black Belt Jones
Black Belt Jones celebrated a milestone anniversary earlier this year when it turned 50 on January 28th,
It had easily been 40 years since I last watched Jim Kelly’s leading man debut, after making a splash a year earlier as Williams in Enter the Dragon. Thanks to Netflix, I was able to celebrate Black Belt Jones’ 50th Anniversary and share my thoughts in this edition of Bullet Points…
- The Godfather: As the movie begins we see an undercover agent attempting to infiltrate the Steffano crime family before he is eliminated by Don Steffano’s right hand men, Big Tuna and Blue Eyes (Mel Novak, Expert Weapon). Apparently this was not the first agent that has been lost attempting to get the goods on Don Steffano, so the government can bring him down. This looks like a job for Black Belt Jones! Cue the funky jazzy theme and the introduction of Jim Kelly’s Black Belt Jones as he funks up some dudes in a parking lot during the opening credits. When Jones meets with his boss to discuss the Steffano case, Jones flat out refuses the assignment as he has no interest in the suicide mission.
- The Destruction Crew: Don Steffano knows a lot of powerful politicians and because of his connections, Steffano learns of the plans to build a new civic center… so he starts buying up all of the land where the proposed construction will take place. Steffano gets all but one property, the karate dojo that belongs to Pop Byrd (Scatman Crothers, Friday Foster), so he turns to local drug dealer/bookie/pool hall operator Pinky (Malik Carter, Penitentiary II) to take care of his Pop Byrd problem. So Pinky sends some of his guys over to the dojo to find Pop and all they find is their asses being kicked by Pop’s students. Afterwards, Jones gets a call about what just went down and he makes his way down to see if he can find out what kind of trouble his old friend Pop has gotten himself into. Pop ends up sneaking out the backdoor before Jones can talk to him, but Jones sticks around knowing Pinky will likely strike again… which sets up a great lights on/lights off brawl, with Black Belt Jones sending the bad guys packing once again.
- Enter the Sydney: Pinky and his guys try a different approach and find Pop playing some backroom blackjack at a local bar and Pinky mentions he will forgive Pop from all the gambling debt he owes him if he just signs over the property to him… Pop tells Pinky he couldn’t do it, even if he wanted to, the property belongs to Sydney. Then the roughing up of Pop goes too far and Pop dies…. And shortly after we meet the Sydney that Pop was referring to at Pop’s funeral. Sydney (Gloria Hendry, Live and Let Die) is Pop’s estranged daughter who moved east with her mother twenty years prior. She had no idea that Pop put his property in her name, but she’d like to continue the work that he was doing. Jones has one of Pop’s students, Quincy (Eric Laneuville, A Force of One) take Sydney back to her hotel, but Sydney wants to see the guys responsible for Pop’s demise and ends up kicking everyone’s ass at Pinky’s pool hall! After this incident, Pinky hires some out of town heavies to help and they end up snatching up Quincy and Pinky now has a major bargaining chip.
- Car Wash: When he finds out that Pinky was doing the bidding of Don Steffano, Black Belt Jones assembles a team that includes his new found partner/lover Sydney, his buddy Toppy from the dojo and the trampoline enthusiasts who hang out at the beach to infiltrate Steffano’s winery… so I guess it really was a job for Black Belt Jones after all. Jones uses the money they stole from the winery to pay the ransom for Quincy in an effort to drive a wedge between Steffano and Pinky and give us a pretty awesome train battle. When the bad guys get back on the same page, they are out for revenge… which leads to a car chase that ends at a car wash, followed by a lengthy (and bubbly battle) with Black Belt Jones taking out the mob and Sydney disposing of the trash!
Jim Kelly’s Black Belt Jones is the coolest Kung Fu cat of them all and getting to revisit this one after decades was a wonderful trip down memory lane.
Black Belt Jones came along at the perfect time, it was in the middle of the Blaxploitation and at the start of the Kung Fu movie craze that really caught fire after the untimely death of Bruce Lee. And the movie perfectly balances the two genres.
Let’s balance out this review with some Bonus Bullet Points…
- Reunited: Black Belt Jones reunited Jim Kelly with Director Robert Clouse, who had directed Kelly in Enter the Dragon.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Jim Kelly throw a pair of panties at the windshield of a car pursuing his, Black Belt Jones is the movie for you.
- Familiar Faces: Don Steffano’s driver was played by Bob Wall of The Way of the Dragon and Blood and Bone fame… Pinky’s goon, Jelly, was played by Earl Jolly Brown, who will always be Whisper from Live and Let Die to me… And classic TV fans would no doubt recognize Ted Lange (Isaac the Bartender from The Love Boat) as a militant not happy with Pinky’s business practices and Marla Gibbs (aka Florence from The Jeffersons) as Betty the Bartender.
- Bastard Count: I counted only two “bastards” in Black Belt Jones… I feel like this would have been much higher if this was a Hong Kong produced martial arts movie that required dubbing.
- Black Belt Jones Returns: Kelly would reprise the Jones character in 1976’s Hot Potato and 1978’s The Tattoo Connection was released as Black Belt Jones 2 in some territories, ignoring that it would actually be Black Belt Jones 3 and more importantly that Jim Kelly didn’t play Black Belt Jones in the movie.
