A review of Black Belt Jones

Black Belt Jones was an American Blaxploitation action film that came out in 1974. This article looks at the plot and the critical reception of the film.

The plot

The basic plot of the film went as follows. The Mafia learns that a new civic centre will be built and to prevent it going through, they buy all of the land for the site of the building except for one place, a karate school owned by Pop Byrd who is Black Belt Jones' old friend. Prior to the movie's events, Pop Byrd had borrowed money from a local drug dealer, Pinky, in order to open his karate school. Pinky had been stealing money from the mafia and was forced to pay them $250,000 or get Pop's building for them. Pinky inflated the debt with a ridiculous amount of interest with the intent of offering Pop the deal of trading his building in exchange for the debt being cleared. However, things do not go as planned as Pop is accidentally killed by Pinky's men during an intimidation attempt. However, before Pop dies, he states that he couldn't give them the building to settle his debt because it did not belong to him but instead to someone named Sydney. Pinky then decides to send his men to the karate school to inform them of Pop's debt and attempt the same scheme. However, the thugs are beaten up by Black Belt Jones and the students. All the while, a woman arrives to attend Pop's funeral who is none other than Sydney. After demanding to know what happened to her father, she is informed of the mafia's activities as well as her father's debt but she refuses to sell the building. Angered, she is determined to punish the people who caused her father's death. Informed of Sydney's martial arts prowess by Quincy (hence the immortal line, "Oh Black Belt she is good man, she is BAD!"), Black Belt Jones joins forces with her to extract revenge on the mob.

Critical reception

Upon its release, the film received a mixed reception but in the documentary, 'The 50 worst movies ever made,' the film was ranked as the thirty eighth worst film ever made.