Black Belt Jones 2: The Tattoo Connection Review

Interest: 3/10

Acting: 6/10

Storyline: 7/10

Intensity: 5/10

Fights Guns or Otherwise: 7/10

Nudity: 8/10

Crime: 6.5/10

Drama: 6/10

Production Value: 6.5/10

Logic: 5/10

Black Belt Jones 2: The Tattoo Connection is a 1978 sequel for The original Black Belt Jones. Its Run time is one hour and thirty minutes. It takes a more serious tone being an action, crime, drama film. The three stars of the film are Jim Kelly (Known for Enter the Dragon, Black Belt Jones, Black Samurai, and Death Dimension), Sing Chen (Known for Double Impact, Fan Dau Mui, Shanghai 13, and Xiao Sha Xing), and Tao-Liang Tan (Known for Shao Lin men, Breathing Fire, Tornado of Pearl River, and Zui hou yi kou qi). A quick summary of the film is “ An American insurance investigator goes to China to retrieve a near perfect, famous diamond by a local crime organization.” I’m excited about the sequel, to see if it has the same magic the first one did. So let’s give it a watch shall we?

Interest: The interest of this film is not quite as good as the original, mostly because they aren’t a direct sequel, and was actually a Chinese film that just starred Jim Kelly. That being said, it just doesn’t grab me quite like the first one. It tries to do well, but it doesn’t quite pull it off.

Acting: Acting in this film is okay. Nothing fantastic, but nothing bad either. Almost everyone seemed like regular people besides they knew some sort of martial arts, and Jim Kelly’s character Lucas is a CIA agent. I can only say this, the films acting passed.

Storyline: The storyline gets is a much better story than the original movie. Someone steals a diamond and then the whole movie is about getting it back. But you feel more of the story in the film than the first movie by a mile. I was actually interested in the story, but it also suffers from not knowing what to do with a story.

Intensity: Intensity in this flick was better than it’s predecessor. This being said, it isn’t high intensity, or like an edge of your seat type intensity, you feel the intensity, but aren’t enveloped in it. You aren’t going “Oh Yeah! GET’EM!” or anything, you just at least understand that it is intense.

Fights, Guns or Otherwise: Fights are just everywhere, they keep coming and coming and it’s fantastic. Some verbal lashings happen as well, but no lasting mental anguish as far as the movie alludes to. Fights are all your martial arts staples. Mostly punching kicking, some grapples, and even some blood. It was fairly action packed. The verbal lashings are from some lovers quarrel, as well as just crime organizations being well, crime organizations. Also, there is some gore in the film, especially compared to the first one, but nothing outrageous.

Nudity: There is nudity in the film, and mostly in the sense that China is apparently filled with prostitution. It helps set a landscape for the film and how things are. All you see is some boob, so no worries about having to explain to your kids what that is below on the ladies.

Crime: Crime in the film is a relevant part to the film, and moves the story along well, while everyone hunts for a diamond. There is also lots of fighting, and in theory some international conflict. But all that really happens is lots of fights, and a chase for a very perfect diamond that some Americans, and a Chinese mob is looking for.

Drama: Drama in the film is okay as a whole. It isn’t a strong motivator, but it is interesting, with an interracial sex scene, people growing and falling for people, and just growing in general.

Production Value: I realize that I used the wrong terms for what I was conveying in my last review. I meant just audio and video quality. It was bad in the first film, and it is slightly better in this film. Audio is better and worse, better because for the natural English speaking is consistent, good sounding and the audio doesn’t drop off. And it is worse because the dubbed over audio is the same as the original film. And the video is a bit better than the original, but nothing fantastic.

Logic: Logic in the film is pretty okay. CIA is involved, but only very briefly, Lucas is the agent from the CIA, but almost never is mentioned after the one scene he’s mentioned as their operative. Otherwise, I think the laws of physics are obeyed and everything else I can see shaking down.

Was the movie good? No not really. Would I recommend it? Perhaps, and I’ll explain why. So I think this movie is actually much worse than the first movie, the problem is it’s first off an unofficial sequel, secondly while the action is indeed more fluid and fun, and even more realistic, it just wasn’t interesting. It actually did everything better, it just couldn’t hold my interest, and that truly affected the rest of the film, and viewing for me. I think you could probably rip on it to make it more interesting, but that would be the only thing to save it, and you can totally watch it without watching the original. All in all I give this film a 60%, which is higher than the original film, but the lack of interest really hurts the film as a whole. It doesn’t grab you, doesn’t do anything to even really grab your eye, it is just there. I’d say watch it if you’re into budget films that do kung-fu alright, and also want to rip on it with friends otherwise steer clear.