Les 4 justiciers

During a martial arts tournament, fighter Chuck and his friend Ralph think there's something crooked going on behind the scenes. Chuck checks it out and discovers match fixing, but for his troubles he's shot. Ralph becomes worried when Chuck disappears, but they meet up and learn that they won't be getting the money they're owned by the tournament organisers, but become actual targets. Chuck is shot again, Ralph is knocked out cold and Chuck's girl gets raped and kidnapped. Before this had happened, Chuck got his gal to ring his buddies Cal and J to come down and help get their money. Their friends are missing, so Cal and J decide to start up their own investigation and get down to business.

Oh yeah, what a bang-up leading cast we got here! Fred "The Hammer" Williamson's laid-back, rough 'n' tumble late blaxpoitation piece goes on to team up influential 70s exploitation figures Jim Brown, Richard Roundtree, Jim Kelly and Fred Williamson. Hell, that's great! Well, you would like to think so, but the script never lets the four interact with each other too often. The straight-forward material isn't anything special and it might rely on its stars' presences, but there's no question about the sheer spirit and exciting raw beatings, shootouts and explosions interwoven into Williamson's rough-around-edges direction. Smothering proceedings is ultra-smooth dialogues packed stinging wisecracks and ripe humour. Roundtree and Kelly seem to be in supporting roles compared the likes of Brown and Williamson. Honestly when the latter two appeared, that's when the wham-bam attitude and hard-ass excitement seemed to break out. The opening ten minutes actually sets-up an authentic martial arts tournament for the film, where these guys are literally busting their guts for prize money. After some slow moments, it does take its time to find its groove. However the funked-up soundtrack is a real highlight and an atmospherically scorching score is filtered in nicely. Pulsating camera-work is lucidly leering and naturally fitting to the stark and gritty look of the film's locations. The four main men are great. A domineering Brown is excellent as the polite, but persuasively forceful J. The sensational Williamson chews it up with pure vigour and charm as Cal. Roundtree paints a macho awe to Ralph and what little time a solid Kelly gets is done with enough aplomb. Peter Dane and Tom Signorelli make for decent scummy villains and their dopey henchmen cop nothing but beatings. Joe Spinell makes for an amusing minor performance as a twitchy promoter who gets a visit by Roundtree. Warrington Winters injects some light humour as the random appearing sheriff, who just doesn't want trouble in the way of gunfire and explosions that seems to follow these men. The feisty Paula Sills and the endearing buxom Laura Loftus play the sweethearts.

Like the tag-line suggests, this blaxpoitation does pack four times the punch with its ass-whopping. Despite some splintered chemistry, there's still plenty there to offer the fans.

One Down, Two To Go is a later blaxsploitation/action movie that was directed/produced and acted by Fred Williamson. The Hammer brought along Richard Roundtree, Jim Brown and Jim Kelly to join the party. The film is in no way a bad movie, but the pacing and script don't do the high powered cast of 70's black tough guys justice. There is plenty of action and trash talking, but a lot of the film is boring and takes a while to get there. It picks up once Fred Williamson and Jim Brown show up. Richard Roundtree didn't get enough screentime to utilize his full potential and Jim Kelly gets hardly any screentime. This film was the last of three films that Fred Williamson, Jim Brown and Jim Kelly acted together in. I much prefer Three The Hard Way over this, but there were parts of this movie that I did find entertaining.

One Down, Two to Go (1982)

** (out of 4)

Chuck (Jim Kelly) and his crew enter a martial arts tournament, which they win but the mob decides not to pay them. Soon a friend is severely beaten so Cal (Fred Williamson) and J (Jim Brown) show up to show them who's the real boss.

ONE DOWN, TWO TO GO was directed by Williamson and it features four of the major stars from the 70's blaxploitation films. You've got SHAFT (Richard Roundtree), SLAUGHTER (Brown), HAMMER (Williamson) and BLACK BELT JONES (Kelly) all in one movie so what's not to like? Well, there's quite a bit not to like in this film, which is really too bad since you've got so many greats in one film.

Sadly, the screenplay itself is pretty much a mess for a number of reasons. The film starts off with a bunch of martial arts footage, which is fun to watch on its own but it probably shouldn't have been in this film. From here there are way too many boring dialogue sequences, which just don't go anywhere and especially when you'e got four masters of the genre on the screen. What you want to see them do is fight, blow stuff up and kill bad guys. We eventually get to that stuff and that's when the entertainment level goes way up.

The film suffers from a very low-budget, which prevents the action from looking the greatest but for this type of films it's okay. Of course, the best thing about the picture is getting to see the four stars in one picture. The majority of the film is based around the Williamson and Brown characters, which is fine as they add a lot to the picture. Both Kelly and Roundtree are basically extended cameos but it's still nice to see them. Fans of MANIAC will enjoy seeing Joe Spinell in a brief scene and we also get Tom Signorelli.

ONE DOWN, TWO TO GO isn't a masterpiece or even a good movie but it's mild entertainment, which should have been much better.

One Down, Two to Go (1982) is a movie I recently rewatched on Tubi for the first time in a long time. The storyline follows two police officers whose friend is shot and beat after he discovers a fixed fight tournament. The two cops track him down and also uncover who is behind the fixed fight tournament. Can they crack the case in time to save their friend? This movie is directed by and stars Fred Williamson (The Big Score) and also stars Jim Brown (Dirty Dozen), Jim Kelly (Enter the Dragon), Richard Roundtree (Shaft) and Tom Signorelli (Sleepers). The storyline for this is a bit cliché but fun to watch unfold. I really loved the fights and shootouts, even if at times they're a bit clunky and awkward. The acting and charisma by Williamson, Roundtree, Kelly and Brown are all on display in their unique and entertaining way. Overall this isn't the best blaxploitation film from the 70s but it is worth a viewing. I would score this a solid 6/10.

With this once-in-a-lifetime cast (reuniting the four greatest blaxploitation stars of the early seventies), this picture should be more fun than it is. Someone seems to have drained the life out of these performers; Jim Brown, in particular, comes off very badly (judging only from this movie, you'd come to the conclusion that he can't act). The film is also poorly structured, keeping the stars away from each other (and from any enjoyable interaction) for laaaaarge periods of time. And Williamson must have really had it in for Jim Kelly; he barely gives him 1/5 of the screen time devoted to the other leads, and he features him in only two brief fight scenes (he even loses in one of them!). Cool score, though. (*1/2)