Force Four

The soundtrack is kicking. The biggest drawback Sydney Folsom, the female antagonist, did not have a bigger role. If you like kicking soundtrack with a decent musical performance this is your movie. Don't think to hard and don't expect much.

Worst movie I've ever seen. The production values on this movie are almost non existent. Everything looks to have been shot in one or two takes, and all the dialogue is dubbed...badly. At one point two men were talking to each other, but one had the voice of a woman. Not that it matters though, because the porno music soundtrack is turned up so high, you can't make out what anyone is saying.

Watching this movie gave me a headache.

VERY obscure blaxploitation exercise that makes up in funky spirit and do-it-yourself enthusiasm what it lacks in studio polish. I'd love to know the story behind it--did a karate studio raise funds to make its own action movie? Nearly every single actor is listed with their black-belt rating attribution, both at the beginning AND end of the movie! The plot revolves around a priceless African statue sought after by various underworld figures, unscrupulous collectors, evil honkies, and the titular three-guys-one-girl foursome. The latter are a ghetto quartet of freelance detectives who invariably get to demonstrate their karate skills--amazingly, almost none of the criminals they face ever seem to be carrying guns!

There's a whole lotta fighting here, as well as post-synch dialogue dubbing, vintage funk & tribal sounds (performed by "Life, U.S.A."), wild 70s fashion, amusingly amateurish acting, and so on. This movie is not to be confused with the following year's "Gang Wars" aka "Devil's Express," another blaxploitation cheapie which also features toughguy Warhawk Tanzania, and which occasionally has been called (mistakenly?) "Black Force" as well. Throwing a monster into the equation, it's a little slicker than "Black Force," and perhaps even sillier.

WOW! They don't come more incompetent than this. A Blaxploitation flick where four karate experts are hired to retrieve a stolen African witchdoctor fetish doll. The entire movie consists of them getting the job, asking people where it is, kicking people when they don't know, locating it at crime boss Z's house, Z getting away, them finding Z at his other house and taking it back. This is absolutely amazing film-making because nearly every scene is dubbed with actors just laying down the lines regardless of whether their mouths are moving or not. The film features real martial artists with credits stating their black belt degree. It boasts that no effects outside of slow motion were used but this looks like something Rudy Ray Moore choreographed. Fans of Warhawk Tanzania (DEVIL'S EXPRESS) might want to check this out because he is the second lead Adam. He delivers the film's one (yes, one!) awesome slo-mo kick. Tanzania's EXPRESS co-star Wilfredo Roldan also appears sporting the same Rodan moniker but this time he is a thug. Amazingly, director Michael Fink got one more film out the following year called VELVET SMOOTH. Even more amazing, he went on to become a top of the line visual effects supervisor on films such as TANGO & CASH, BRAVEHEART, X2 and CONSTANTINE (I am not kidding!). Platinum Pictures' VHS release has a guy on the front holding a machine gun and the back claims a team "armed to the teeth" recover the idol. Not a single gun is in film. Such a scrupulous company they then released the unrelated BROTHER ON THE RUN (1973) as BLACK FORCE 2!

I have seen Force Four (aka Black Force) about 15 times. Admittedly it has been a couple of years since I last watched it, but I still love it to bits. It's not the type of movie you would watch for realistic, or even entertaining martial arts - it's more of an example of how funny a C -grade movie can be!

I honestly find Force Four's main entertainment value to be it's complete lack of professionalism. It looks like it was filmed in one take and the cinematography is down right ugly, but that's what makes it so much fun to watch! The story line is terrible but that's not important when you have so many other things to keep an eye out for. Scenes like Billy (the girl) fighting about 12 bad guys - one minute she is wearing her orange hat, but the very next camera angle shows her without a hat at all! Pretty damn funny because it's pretty damn obvious. Basically, the film is riddled with errors and dodgy camera work. In my opinion, it has the perfect recipe for a great movie.

So if you're looking for a good laugh, give Force Four a go. I'm sure Warhawk Tanzenia wouldn't agree, but it has some of the lamest acting and fighting you'll ever see! Keep an eye out for it - it's the video (I REALLY doubt it's on DVD) with three guys on the cover (Billy is on the back).

Enjoy!