Black Belt Jones Review

Interest: 8/10

Acting: 5/10

Storyline: 4/10

Intensity: 2/10

Fights Guns or Otherwise: 7/10

Nudity: 0/10

Humor: 8/10

Crime: 6/10

Production Value: 4/10

Logic: 8/10

Black Belt Jones is a 1974 film. It is an action comedy film, and while I’m no expert I’d probably consider this a blaxplotation film. The movies run time is one hour and twenty-five minutes. The three stars of the film are Jim Kelly (Known for Enter the Dragon, Black Belt Jones, Black Samurai, and Death Dimension) Gloria Hendry ( Known for Live and Let Die, Freaky Deaky, Black Belt Jones, and Savage Sisters) and Scatman Crothers (Known for The Shining, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Aristocats, and Twilight Zone: The Movie) A quick summary of the film is “ A mafia buyout of a karate dojo goes awry, killing the owner. His daughter refuses to sell, and convinces the kids to get revenge, and fights with Jones and the kids against the mafia.” Let’s see how this film shakes out shall we?

Interest: Black Belt Jones is a very interesting movie. I partially have a soft spot for Blaxplotation films, but it’s interesting that they mix with kung fu, the one liners, the whole underworld of black culture that exists, it’s a great movie and I turned it off once for a potty break. Otherwise, this film keeps you hooked from the beginning until the very end.

Acting: Acting in these films typically are always cheesy, and Black Belt Jones is no exception. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t fun and entertaining, just not believable. This all being said, no one was out of character, and held on to their archetypes to the end.

Storyline: The storyline in the film is definitely not perfect. But it is there enough to keep the movie flowing though the one liners and action that is the good majority of the film. I mean in my quick summary, that is about it, some scenes to smooth over the rough edges to some extent, but nothing mind blowing or crazy, just a storyline that tries to give you a foundation. I don’t think it quite pulls it off, but it still works.

Intensity: If there was any intensity, I missed it somehow. Maybe I wasn’t engrossed in the movie, but I saw the spots that there should have been intensity, and they blew right through it and it was honestly a shock at first, then it was just normal and seemed alright, but was definitely strange because there are a lot of fights, and they almost always seemed goofy.

Fights, Guns or Otherwise: There are a ton of fights in Black Belt Jones, and the one liners are also pretty fantastic. The fights as I spoke about earlier are a little goofy, you can most definitely tell that they aren’t landing their blows, which is sad, but I mean I’m sure the film was low budget, so they did what they could. Also if you’re a fan of nut shots, I think every fight has a nut shot in it which makes me laugh and wince simultaneously. The one liners were great, and the one that made me laugh the most was after a nut shot someone says “Alright, who else wants to sing soprano?” I had to pause it to laugh about it.

Nudity: There was no nudity in Black Belt Jones. Typically in these types of films, there is nudity, and sometimes whole scenes based around it. Would it of been out of place in the movie? I don’t believe so, but it honestly didn’t get hurt by not having it either.

Humor: I found the movie to be quite a hilarious affair. I laughed through the whole thing. Some of my laughing even came from just poor quality of how the movie was. But it was enjoyable type of bad, and would gladly watch and laugh again.

Crime: Well the mafia was involved, so there was crime bound to be happening. They try to take a guys dojo for gods sake, all to repay a bigger fish than him. Really though the crime is bad, but they only bring it up for plot point reference, it almost doesn’t seem that necessary, but it is the thing that is focused on most.

Production Value: This is where the film stumbles and falls down to the depths bellow. I can’t find any budget amounts for the film, but I’m assuming they’re low, and this is exactly why the film, while is okay, has glitches in the film and audio fluctuates in quality and loudness, It is a definite problem, and mayb e the film just wasn’t kept well, I'm not sure, but something is up.

Logic: I mean for the 70’s, the logic makes total sense, no cops called, all vigilante justice, and just action. No one did anything like invent a new explosive or something that the actual real world would say no to, besides maybe a punch or two that were comically too powerful.

Did I enjoy the movie? Yes I did. Would I suggest it? If you like Blaxplotation, something funny, or bad kung fu movies, or a movie you can rip on with friends, then yes! Otherwise this movie probably isn’t for you. But I had a good time, and enjoyed the film as it was. The technical side of things are a little bad but in the end, it was good to me. The total score is 52%, and that may be a very correct score, I just had fun with it and it had fun, and was unrelenting as to what the movie was. If I had to wager, I’d call this a hidden gem. If you like these films, and a fun film, go watch it! Until Next Time!