Supposedly a follow-up to Jim Kelly's starring vehicle Black Belt Jones, but I only think that was an afterthought by the marketing department. Well, Kelly does play a guy named Jones. He's never once called "Black Belt". Maybe they were just unsure of whether Black Belt Jones was going to be a hit or not. Really, Hot Potato isn't even the same genre. It is a martial arts action flick, but there's not the smallest element of blaxploitation in it. Kelly's the only black person in the film. In it he hooks up with three other action heroes, Irene Tsu, Geoffrey Binney and George Memmoli to save a senator's daughter from her captors in Southeast Asia (the film was shot entirely in Thailand, and, while I don't think the name of the country is specifically mentioned in the film, the culture is most definitely Thai). Much like Black Belt Jones, the action is horribly directed, and the comedy bits are lame as all Hell (the film tries to force the doughy Memmoli on the unsuspecting audience as a comic action star, and his bits are particularly groan-inducing), but it's still amusing in the way the best bad movies are. Can't say I enjoy this nearly as much as Black Belt Jones, but it was worth seeing. I got this and BBJ in an awesome four pack of movies entitled "Urban Action Movies". One of the great buys! The other two movies, another of which stars Jim Kelly (along with Jim Brown and Fred Williamson!), look awesome, too.
Review of Hot Potato
