Poing d'acier

Leeroy Fisk is a hard case street fighter with a mighty afro, a pregnant wife, a mistress and no money at all. What's a brother who doesn't want to work for the white man to do? Except work for the white man as a street fighter. Leeroy starts working for mid-level gangster Logan, and after a quick training montage is out dealing knuckle suppers to other street fighters in return for a load of the green, which he either gives to his wife or his mistress if his wife isn't talking to him. I also thought he had a kid but then I'm not sure because to be honest the editing in this film is a bit choppy to say the least.

Anyway, Leeroy's finally getting some cash, so of course a crooked (white) cop turns up to put the squeeze on him. This guy was named after a brand of beer so that was cool. Leeroy's not cool with this, especially when he discovers that the cop is giving the money back to Logan. Working for the white man is a compromise Leeroy's had to make, but discovering that the white man he's working for is getting more money from the white cop that's taking the other white man's money off of Leeroy is too much, so he plots to get the once over on the lot of them, involving blackmail, fedora hats, funk and afros.

This doesn't work out too well for Leeroy, because the mob go all Tony Arzenta on his arse. Scratch one pregnant wife and finally the film takes off a bit as Leeroy goes nuts and decides to take down the mob and everyone involved with them.

Filled with so many uses of the N word you'd swear Tarantino wrote the script and sent it back in time, Black Fist is an ultra low budget film that kind of ticks along for a while before the revenge plot takes off. Although it looks as if it cost about twelve dollars to make, this is one of those films where every white guy is evil, all the women get slapped around or killed, and the soundrack is totally funky and enjoyable (probably the best part to be honest). As I said the editing is choppy as hell, the sound varies depending on where the characters are (one scene takes place in a toilet and the reverb makes it hard as hell to understand what's being said), and one main character kind of just disappears towards the end.

It was slow to get going, but it was good enough.

I got this movie in a bargain bin, hoping for an amusingly bad flick. Boy was I disappointed. (except for avon.) You see, the movie is indeed horrible, but so horrible, it isn't even laughable. The plot, oh wait, there is no plot. I suppose you could say it's about the main character rising up in the ranks of street fighting. At the end of the movie, the directors decided to either not make any more sense, or, more likely, died and had a monkey finish directing the movie. DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT THE ENDING SPOILED! although the ending doesn't really spoil anything. The main character somehow ends up in a room filled with mirrors, a la Enter The Dragon, and then gets real angry, has stupid flashback, and hits a mirror. The end. Wheeee.

The only redeeming factor of this movie was Avon's scene. He's talking to the rival street fighting boss and says something along these lines, completely deadpan: "Do not worry about him anymore sir. I have killed him in a sophisticated manner. I wined him, I dined hm, we went to a disco. We was havin a lot of fun. And then I killed him." at which point the boss says "good work avon. You're number 1." And avon says "Number 1! Alllriiiiight! Alriiight!" The scene continues with avon continuing to say "alllrriiiight!" over and over. The next scene is of a dead Avon floating in a pool. Intelligent? I think not.

Lastly, I own the "Homeboy" version of this movie, meaning the title on the box I own is "Homeboy." It shows a huge guy holding a giant gun and screaming. This never happens in the movie. This man is never in the movie. High quality.

Note--I am new to this reviewing, but hell yes I am going to keep it up.

A black guy from L.A. becomes a prize fighter for the mob. After an initial good working relationship, he becomes unhappy when he learns they are exploiting him. He leaves their organisation but the gangsters kill his wife in retaliation, resulting in him seeking violent revenge.

This Blaxploitation movie seems to have two different versions. The original version, entitled Bogard, was seemingly so ram packed with sex and violence that it attained an X rating, however, the version most readily available nowadays goes under the Black Fist moniker and this one was re-edited down to an R rating and does not seem to contain overly much salacious material. This is the one I myself saw. It seems only fair to say that the original must be the more entertaining of the two versions, as Black Fist is fairly underwhelming stuff on the whole. The story-line is strictly by-the-by and certainly could have done with an injection of more sex and violence! It does have a certain period charm though and will no doubt still be of interest to Blaxploitation aficionados but it's certainly limited stuff. It does have a somewhat unusual and rushed ending too, which posed more questions than it answered but was at the very least distinctive. Of additional note this film featured a bent cop played by Dabney Coleman, who would later become quite well known for playing the nefarious boss in the comedy film 9 to 5 (1980).

I bought this as a clearance video for $3. This movie certainly has a certain charm about it. Richard Lawson's portrayal of Fisk reminds me a lot of Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules in Pulp Fiction. Dabney Coleman is also excellent as the scummy, corrupt cop. Some of the violent scenes are rather realistic and unsettling without resorting to gore. Production values are a little weak in spots but if you're a fan of 'blaxploitation' films or the '70's you'll enjoy this flick.

To make money, a Los Angeles street-fighter goes to work for gangsters.

Wow. Porn music. Porn Direction. And originally rated X.

This is some real obscure blaxpoltation flick. With Dabney Coleman no less!!!!

The movie is VERY 70s. The homes they shoot in a re so 70s.

The movie starts with a white mobster getting his haircut in a black barbershop!

Leroy becomes a street fighter fighter for money in junk yards roof tops, etc. Nuts. How are they making money off this The lemon aid stand?

Not really sure why this movie was rated X when it came out. Not much blood or nudity.

Anyway...surprisingly, it's a watchable movie. I was very surprised.