Jim Kelly was super cool in 'Enter The Dragon' fighting alongside Bruce Lee and John Saxon. He was even enjoyable in his first starring vehicle 'Black Belt Jones' directed by Robert Clouse, who also directed E.T.D. But 'Hot Potato', supposedly the sequel to 'Black Belt Jones', is the pits. Clouse was no fool, he jumped ship. The direction is handled instead by screenwriter Oscar Williams who wrote Jones and the Isaac Hayes vehicle 'Truck Turner'. Well the script stinks on this one and Williams shows little talent as a director, so Kelly is behind the eight ball from the word go. The plot, which is very thin and basically just an excuse for some okay fights and lots of painfully unfunny gags, see Jones enlisted to free the daughter of an American Senator (Judith Brown) who has been kidnapped by a Thai criminal mastermind (Sam Hiona). He is helped by his buddy Chicago (Geoffrey Binney), a local female cop (Irene Tsu), and overweight buffoon "the white Rhino" (George Memmoli). Rhino is responsible for almost all the so-called comedy which really drags the movie down. He plays an obnoxious fat guy ala John Belushi/Chris Farley. And just so we know it's supposed to be funny the soundtrack is full of "amusing" music and sound effects. The sad thing is that Rhino is played by the late Memmoli, an actor who worked with Scorsese, De Palma and Schrader and showed a lot of comic (and dramatic) talent in their movies. But he's just awful in 'Hot Potato'. In fact EVERYTHING is just awful in 'Hot Potato! It's absolute garbage that is a chore to sit through. Steer clear of this one!
Review of Hot Potato
