11/22/2024

JIM KELLY RETURNS AS BLACK BELT JONES HANDLING 'HOT POTATO'

Title: HOT POTATO Year: 1976 Rating: ***

No one could fathom why the urban blaxploitation BLACK BELT JONES would have a pulpy-adventure sequel set in the Thailand jungle, so it's often regarded as basically, not a sequel: but it definitely is given that ENTER THE DRAGON icon Jim Kelly's name is, once again, Jones, and the original film's writer is now both writer and director...

The plot has Judy Brown as a politician's daughter being kidnapped, and Kelly and his cohorts traipse through the bulwark-laden jungles to bring her safely home... the first problem being that Jim's got too many sidekicks...

From HOT POTATO

While Geoffrey Binney's a pretty decent second, MEAN STREETS actor George Memmoli (the same year as timing the ice-skating-rink first-date in ROCKY) is downright horrible... not so much his performance but the character desperately attempting comic relief in a movie that's too comical to begin and end with... 

One scene involves Memmoli having an eating contest with an equally overweight woman who, the reverse of what would later occur in the RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK drinking duel, falls over backwards in defeat...

From HOT POTATO

Yet there are some pretty good karate fights involving eclectic groups of native antagonists, all choreographed by Kelly and making up for Oscar William's rather sluggish direction (Rupert Clouse was very needed)...

But the best thing going for HOT POTATO is leading lady Irene Tsu, not only a pretty Asian but a pretty great fighter and, had she been Kelly's sole cohort, there might just be something here.

Jim Kelly, Geoffrey Binney, Irene Tsu and Judy Brown in HOT POTATO
Jim Kelly and Judy Brown in HOT POTATO
Jim Kelly and Geoffrey Binney in HOT POTATO
Jim Kelly in HOT POTATO
Jim Kelly, Geoffrey Binney and Irene Tsu in HOT POTATO
Jim Kelly in HOT POTATO
Judy Brown in HOT POTATO
Women in Chains cinema starlet Judy Brown in HOT POTATO
Irene Tsu in HOT POTATO
Jim Kelly in HOT POTATO
Jim Kelly and George Memmoli in HOT POTATO
Double Feature poster for ENTER THE DRAGON and HOT POTATO
from HOT POTATO
Judy Brown (as Judith Brown) in HOT POTATO
Jim Kelly in HOT POTATO

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