Hot Potato

This "sort of" a sequel to "Black Belt Jones" (Jim Kelly's character is referred to merely as "Jones") is far inferior. The comedy is lame, the acting mediocre and the dialogue often very bad. But there is a continuous stream of action running through the film, and Kelly shows once again that he had the stuff to be a martial-arts star (although his career was fairly brief). Plus, there are the colorful exotic locations that help you keep watching even the worst scenes. (**)

After a Senator's daughter by the name of "June Dunbar" (Judith Brown) is kidnapped by an Asian warlord named "Carter Rangoon" (Sam Hiona) and scheduled to be executed if the United States doesn't comply with his demands, two agents "Jones" (Jim Kelly) and "Johnny Chicago" (Geoffery Binney) are sent in to rescue her. To do this they need the assistance of the local police and "Detective Sergeant Pam Varaje" (Irene Tsu) is assigned this important task. However, what none of them take into consideration is how crafty Carter Rangoon can be when necessary. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I thought that Jim Kelly performed adequately enough for the most part. Unfortunately, the rather weak attempts at comedy involving a particular character nicknamed "Rhino" (George Memmoli) and the poor script proved too much and ruined what could have been a decent film. That said, I don't consider this to be a good martial arts film by any standard and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Jim Kelly was super cool in 'Enter The Dragon' fighting alongside Bruce Lee and John Saxon. He was even enjoyable in his first starring vehicle 'Black Belt Jones' directed by Robert Clouse, who also directed E.T.D. But 'Hot Potato', supposedly the sequel to 'Black Belt Jones', is the pits. Clouse was no fool, he jumped ship. The direction is handled instead by screenwriter Oscar Williams who wrote Jones and the Isaac Hayes vehicle 'Truck Turner'. Well the script stinks on this one and Williams shows little talent as a director, so Kelly is behind the eight ball from the word go. The plot, which is very thin and basically just an excuse for some okay fights and lots of painfully unfunny gags, see Jones enlisted to free the daughter of an American Senator (Judith Brown) who has been kidnapped by a Thai criminal mastermind (Sam Hiona). He is helped by his buddy Chicago (Geoffrey Binney), a local female cop (Irene Tsu), and overweight buffoon "the white Rhino" (George Memmoli). Rhino is responsible for almost all the so-called comedy which really drags the movie down. He plays an obnoxious fat guy ala John Belushi/Chris Farley. And just so we know it's supposed to be funny the soundtrack is full of "amusing" music and sound effects. The sad thing is that Rhino is played by the late Memmoli, an actor who worked with Scorsese, De Palma and Schrader and showed a lot of comic (and dramatic) talent in their movies. But he's just awful in 'Hot Potato'. In fact EVERYTHING is just awful in 'Hot Potato! It's absolute garbage that is a chore to sit through. Steer clear of this one!

I'm sorry. Maybe I just expected too much after seeing Black Belt Jones. Maybe I expected there to be less of what the filmmakers call "comedy". I could barely stand to watch it. I would have to say that I think this movie is on the top ten of my least favorite films ever.

This film isn't as good as earlier Kelly flicks like ENTER THE DRAGON and THREE THE HARD WAY and also not as deliriously bad as later films like Al Adamson's BLACK SAMURAI and DEATH DIMENSION. This film does have some good fight choreography but is bogged down by slapstick comedy and goofy sound effects. Was this film meant to be a parody or was it an accident?