Gli amici del drago

A routine action vehicle for Jim Kelly (ENTER THE DRAGON), directed without any flair whatsoever by Al Adamson, one of the kings of the "exploitation quickies" along with Andy Milligan and Larry Buchanan. This is deeply clichéd stuff which manages to get by through the interesting and funny characters, the upbeat groovy '70s music and the martial arts sequences, which make up for in quantity what they lack in finesse.

Enter Jim Kelly, fresh from his success and short-lived career as a martial artist, as a "mean and moody" cop who likes to wear red shell suits on occasion. Kelly spends most of the film fighting and little time acting, as he repeatedly finds himself attacked by lots of bad guys. These fight scenes are hardly what you would term "well-photographed" but they are very entertainingly done, complete with over-emphasised sound effects.

Now, you would think that a film containing plentiful action (plus a couple of topless women for exploitation purposes) would have to be pretty exciting, right? Wrong. Adamson's tacky and cheap direction is evident at all moments, sucking vitality from the movie; loads of scenes consist of people arguing whilst sitting around in darkened rooms, which is hardly what I would call fun.

Kelly is pretty athletic in the lead role, but gets no chance to act or develop a character. George Lazenby (ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE) co-stars as Kelly's chief; Harold Sakata plays the chief villain, the Pig, and his line readings are a hoot; it's a shame that it's impossible to take him seriously! Also around for good measure are a hulking black bodyguard with a nasty scar across his face who likes to break people's arms and necks, a couple of prostitutes who take their clothes off a lot, an incredibly evil-looking tortoise (the scariest tortoise I've ever seen in a film, actually) and lots of dumb criminal henchmen who appear from nowhere.

DEATH DIMENSIONis a bad film, to be sure, but quite an entertaining one, mainly for the interesting cast alone. I forgot to mention the Bruce Lee clone who actually ends up being called "Bruce Lee". Guess they had to throw in as many personalities as they could here. Lots of boredom is countered by lots of action, making a pretty fair movie in the end, which isn't that bad.

Death Dimension aka The Black Eliminator is one of two films that Jim Kelly made with infamous schockmeister Al Adamson. Both of these movies are really bad, this is the worst of the two. Black Samurai was the better of the two, it was just as poorly made as this. However, it was more over the top and entertaining. This has a lame plot that has Jim Kelly go after a villain named "The Pig" and has to save a woman from getting killed by a freeze bomb. The only reason to watch this movie is Jim Kelly, who really deserved better. There are a few decent karate fights and Jim Kelly still is a cool hero. I would have rather Jim Kelly fired his agent to get him better projects, but doing crap like this you can't really blame the guy for his exit from the film industry to pursue a career in tennis.

Death Dimension (1978)

** (out of 4)

A mad scientist known as The Pig creates a bomb that when it explodes it can freeze anything close to it. Detective J. Ash (Jim Kelly) is asked to try and track down the people behind it before it falls into the wrong hands.

Al Adamson was the master at creating ultra-cheap movies for the drive-in circuit. He could make just about any type of genre and more times than not he was able to mix the various genres into one crazy little film. He created some good movies like Dracula VS FRANKENSTEIN as well as countless really awful ones. DEATH DIMENSION is pretty much cheap non-sense that fans of the blaxploitation and martial arts genres should enjoy.

Obviously, if you're walking into an Adamson picture, you shouldn't be expecting high art or a quality picture. Basically what you want to do is just sit back, turn your brain off and just enjoy what's in front of you. Storywise the film is certainly a mess and it rarely makes too much sense but if you're a fan of Kelly and his martial arts style then there are plenty of fights here. The fights certainly aren't going to rival ENTER THE DRAGON but they're fun enough for this type of action picture.

There's obviously nothing ground-breaking here but for a cheap drive-in picture it at least has some energy and some charm.

Despite the ratings I found this to be the second best "Jim Kelly" movie I have watched. (And by that I mean one where he is top of the bill, so not the likes of "Enter The Dragon" or "Three The Hard Way"). In other words better than "Black Belt Jones", "Hot Potato" or "Black Samurai".

Why? Mainly because the action is for the most part competently choreographed and shot when compared with the others. The cutting and camera angles make for better movie action viewing.

The second thing which makes this more fun is the novelty cast, which include, George "James Bond" Lazenby, Harold "Odd Job" Sakata, Aldo Ray, the ever reliable Bob Minor and Myron "Bruce" Lee" (Myron? Really?). Lazenby, contrary to his reputation, can act quite adequately, but he can't fight convincingly in this company, which is where the competent use of cutting and camera angles come in. Sakata can't act, but he is the most iconic Bond villain of the Connery era, "Odd Job", so it doesn't really matter. Turns out he can't fight convincingly either and on this occasion the action Director doesn't come to his rescue for some reason, which is disappointing. Aldo Ray's career peaked early, around 1955 when he was in "We're No Angels" with Bogart and Ustinov, and his acting channels all the grumpy frustration that he must have been feeling by this time;- finding himself down among the B movie bottom feeders. Meanwhile Jim himself is in as good form as I've ever seen him.

The plot premise is ridiculous but barely explored, used merely as a "McGuffen" to set the ball rolling, the plot structure is routine but serviceable and the dialogue banal, but in the World of Jim Kelly movies that is all par for the course.

More than one dimension, possibly two dimensions, but not three.

Well, the cast of this movie certainly has great cult value: Jim Kelly, George Lazenby, Harold Sakata. The movie itself, however, is not as much fun as it could have been. Kelly still has the moves, but while some of his fighting isn't bad, it is spoiled by the unslick presentation (lighting, framing, etc.). Sakata is, for me and many others, an iconic presence: his Oddjob is arguably the best henchman in the entire Bond series. However, his role here adds nothing to his stature, in fact it probably detracts from it. Lazenby's participation is minor. The film is poorly directed, and obviously drawn-out at the climax. Worth a look for its cast, but don't expect too much. (*1/2)