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zumainthyfuture · 1 year

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Jim Kelly was a prominent African-American martial artist and actor, best known for his roles in the "blaxploitation" films of the 1970s.

Kelly was born on May 5, 1946, in Paris, Kentucky, and grew up in San Diego, California. He began studying martial arts as a teenager and quickly excelled, earning a black belt in karate. He became a popular tournament fighter in the 1960s and 1970s and won numerous championships.

Kelly's big break in film came in 1973 when he was cast in the lead role in "Enter the Dragon," a martial arts movie starring Bruce Lee. Kelly's performance as Williams, a wisecracking, afro-wearing martial artist, made him an instant icon and helped to popularize the blaxploitation genre.

In the years that followed, Kelly starred in a number of other martial arts and action movies, including "Black Belt Jones," "Three the Hard Way," and "One Down, Two to Go." He also continued to compete in martial arts tournaments and worked as a martial arts instructor.

After retiring from acting in the 1980s, Kelly remained involved in martial arts and was active in promoting the sport and encouraging young people to get involved. He passed away on June 29, 2013, at the age of 67. Jim Kelly's contributions to the martial arts and film industries continue to be celebrated today.

#Jim Kelly #African American #Martial Artist #Actor #Blaxploitation #Enter The Dragon #Bruce Lee #Black Belt Jones #Three The Hard Way #One Down Two To Go #May 5 1946 #June 29 2013 #Age 67 #Black History Month #Black History

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omercifulheaves · 3 months

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Black Belt Jones (1974)

#movies #posters #blaxploitation #black belt jones #jim kelly #gloria hendry #robert clouse

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oldshowbiz · 1 year

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A bad review for two classic Blaxploitation films

#black belt jones #willie dynamite #blaxploitation

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shibafoxyandme · 10 days

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#janell williams #malu trevejo #ravie loso #black exploitation #black movie fem #raven tracy #ai artwork #margot robbie #artists on tumblr #pam grier #Judy page #jayne kennedy #Diane Carolyn #Black belt Jones #Foxy Brown #Shiba baby #Friday Foster #three the hard way #cornbread Earl and me

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schlock-luster-video · 11 months

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On June 6, 2015, Black Belt Jones and Miami Connection were screened as a double-feature on TCM Underground.

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eclecticpjf · 1 year

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Now watching:

#black belt jones #jim kelly #scatman crothers

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aiiaiiiyo · 2 years

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#Black Belt Jones #Jim Kelly as - 1974 #SidewaysProceed #oldschool

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chaptertwo-thepacnw · 2 years

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1974

#gif #black belt jones #1974 #jim kelly #martial arts #robert clouse #film

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ferretfyre · 2 years

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#black belt jones #film #review #criterion channel #robert clouse #jum kelly

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visplay · 1 month

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Chris: Black Belt Jones is a 70s blaxploitation action film that has minor cult status but has not aged well at all, not particularly enjoyable to watch these days, Avoid.

#movie review #black belt jones

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3garcons · 1 month

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Empire Underground Ides of March Party with

The Hauntings, The Noncompliants, The Grandstand Jockeys, Black Belt Jones

2024

#downtown albany #empire underground #the hauntings #black belt jones #the noncompliants #the grandstand jockeys

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gotankgo · 3 months

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1974

#black belt jones #the deadly trackers #1974

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watching-pictures-move · 2 years

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Movie Review | Black Belt Jones (Clouse, 1974)

As I work my way through These Fists Break Bricks, Black Belt Jones caught my interest as it represents an intersection of a few strains in the book: Jim Kelly's career, the introduction of black stars into martial arts movies and the crossover with blaxploitation, and martial arts culture in the black community. This is a movie that Kelly and Robert Clouse made as a follow-up to Enter the Dragon. In the earlier movie, Kelly played a supporting character in that movie who loomed larger than his limited screentime, thanks to his immense charisma, martial arts prowess, and kinship with Lee's character as people of colour. ("Ghettos are the same all over the world. They stink.") Quite frankly, he should have been given more screentime than John Saxon, who turns in an engaging performance because he's a goddamned professional, but comes up short next to the actual martial artists in the cast. (Chuck Norris might have been a better choice, although he lacks Saxon's charisma.) So it's nice to see Kelly front and centre in his own movie.

He stars as a professional ass-kicker (for good) and trampoline instructor, who decides to help out his friends when the mob tries to seize their dojo. The dojo is run by famed karate expert, uh, Scatman Crothers, seen with a hairpiece that resembles a small animal. The mob sends after them a local drug dealer named Pinky, who repeatedly accuses everyone of being a Communist. (The movie's politics contrast with Friday Foster, which I watched the same weekend and which features a character extolling the virtues of "black capitalism".) Pinky and his gang mostly wear shirts with loud as hell prints, likely conducive to the kind of hallucinations that might be inspired by the product he's pushing. They contrast with Kelly's much more tasteful wardrobe, which includes a shirt with portofino (or "James Bond") cuffs, and a Canadian tuxedo (further proof that it's a good look in the right hands). Kelly gets some help from Gloria Hendry (who has a much better character here than the one she played in Live and Let Die) and his trampouline students, and takes down the bad guys once and for all in a climax set in a car wash where everyone ends up covered in soap and Hendry repeatedly hits people in the balls and throws them in the back of a dump truck.

This is a fun movie, but I do wish it was a bit better. Most of the problems can be traced to Clouse's direction, who lacks a feel for the story elements. The action here is largely played for comedic value, like the slapsticky opening sequence (accompanied by the amazing theme by Dennis Coffey and Luchi De Jesus) and the super soapy finale, which isn't a problem on its own but does mean the action lacks much tension. Kelly gets pitted largely against non-martial-artists, meaning that there's little doubt to the outcome of any given confrontation. As a result, the movie plays a bit like an early Steven Seagal vehicle, where Kelly shows up and kicks everybody's ass in an instant, but the direction lacks the streetwise swagger or brutality of an Out for Justice or Marked for Death.

In Enter the Dragon, Clouse's assignment was essentially to sell the genre, so much of the action has a demonstrative quality meant to wow the audience, and working with experienced Hong Kong crew likely contributed to the movie's success in this respect. In contrast, Clouse here is trying to stage his action in urban environments but isn't able to shape the action into forceful enough results or give it much grit, with a few exceptions (there's one scene with flickering lights I found pretty effective). And as I'm going through the movies in the Beyond Blaxploitation series on the Criterion Channel (my favourite so far has been Three the Hard Way, which features three of the genres biggest stars all getting to do a lot of fun stuff; also, Fred Williamson's shirt is unbuttoned down to his stomach and he's friends with some scary but sexy BDSM biker ladies), I found that this one dabbles in common genre elements but doesn't really give them much charge. We're told that this dojo is very important to the community, but I'm not sure how much we feel it.

All that being said, Kelly, whose Kiai sounds have a lot more bass than Lee's, is an extremely charismatic lead and watching him beat up bad guys is undeniably entertaining, so this is a pretty enjoyable hour and a half.

#film #movie review #black belt jones #robert clouse

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buggin-0ut · 2 days

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