4 Film Favorites: Urban Action Collection (Black Belt Jones / Black Samson / Hot Potato / Three the Hard Way)

(Black Belt Jones)

The Mob want to buy a local karate studio in a city area planned for re-development. They enlist the aide of a local thug named "Pinky" and his henchmen to force the owner into selling. After they accidentally kill him, the karate students call on their number one kung-fu expert "Black Belt Jones" to even the score.

(Hot Potato)

A really weak sequel to 1974's "Black Belt" Jones. Jim Kelly reprises his role as a US government agent named Jones. This time around Jones travels to Thailand to rescue the daughter of a southern U.S. senator, who is being held by a ruthless crime lord named Rangoon.

(Black Samson)

These streets belong to Samson! A local nightclub owner Samson does everything he can to keep his neighborhood clean of crime, corruption and drugs. When a local mobster named Johnny Nappa played by William Smith tries to take over Samson's turf, Samson the staff wielding hero takes a stand against Nappa and his hoods to save his girl and the neighborhood.

(Three the Hard Way)

A white supremist named Monroe Feather plots to taint the United States water supply in several US cities with a toxin that is harmless to white people but lethal to black people. Standing in Monroe Feathers way are Jimmy Lait, Jagger Daniels and Mister Keyes, who'll stop at nothing to bring down Monroe Feathers and his supremist organization for good.

Whether you're a fan of Jim Brown, Jim Kelly, Fred "The Hammer" Williamson or Blaxploitation films in general; the Urban Action Collection has something for everyone. The 1970's gave rise to the Blaxploitation film genre and thanks to Warner Home Video we can now enjoy some of these classic films through the first legitimate DVD release from a major studio like Warner Home Video.

Fans of "Black Belt Jones" and "Three the Hard Way" can finally throw away those crappy bootlegs because the film prints used by Warner Home Video in this collection are outstanding to say the least. Either the prints were in excellent condition to begin with or Warner Bros spent some money to clean them up, because I've never seen these films look and sound so good.

The Urban Action Collection consists of 4 films on two single sided discs, that's right no double sided discs to fumble with. You get two movies per disc and all four films are in their 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio and the picture and sound quality are excellent. Fans of these films will rejoice in what they see and hear the moment they press the play button on their remote.

I expected these films would be riddled with tons of grain and plagued with sound problems, but that definitely wasn't the case. The prints used are fantastic, the picture is sharp and the colors are really vibrant. These films looked and sounded great on my 50" Panasonic Plasma, the only thing I would have changed would be the sound options. Three of the four films should have been in 5.1 Digital Dolby or at least stereo given their funky soundtracks.

So glad to add legit, non-bootleg versions of "Black Belt Jones" & "Three The Hard Way" - two of the pantheons of Blaxploitation Cinema - to my DVD collection. I saw "Hot Potato" over 20 years ago and thought it was dumb. I didn't know that "Hot Potato" was a sequel of sorts to "Black Belt Jones" - I'll bear that in mind when I watch that one again. I had never seen "Black Samson" before and, after checking it out, I thought it was easily forgettable. I was expecting the hero of that flick to unleash his pet lion on the mobsters in the final action sequence but, alas, no luck.

Picture looks great on my 55 inch Sony HDTV. I expected to see tons of grain in the picture given the fact that these are obscure 1970's titles, but the picture quality on all 4 films is FANTASTIC! The sound is mono - wish they did a stereo mix of these flicks so the memorable theme from "Black Belt Jones" and those classic songs from "Three The Hard Way" would really come alive - but that's a minor complaint.

Hopefully WB will do a sequel to this 4 film collection soon and release some other Blaxploitation titles - most notably the sequel to Cleopatra Jones and others from the pre-1986 MGM library including "Cool Breeze", "Melinda", and "Hit Man" (yeah, those are "on DVD" already, but they're BOOTLEGS copied from crappy VHS tapes!). All in all, I will gladly spend my MLK weekend soaking up all the Jim Kelly action I can muster!

Thankfully none of these films star Keith Urban, but are instead some previously unavailable Blaxploitation films. Coz as we all know now, "Urban" means "Black". I found this out years ago working at a video store when reading the monthly business catalogues that advertised "urban" films like Phat Beach and Belly as being very profitable in "urban neighborhoods".
But anyhow, there are fewer Blaxploitation fans as big as I(in loyalty, not body mass), and I've been waiting to get my mitts on two of these titles for some time now. Three of the four films feature martial artist, Jim Kelly, who we all remember from Enter the Dragon as John Saxon's buddy. First on the bill is Black Belt Jones, directed by Enter the Dragon's director, Robert Clouse. Jones is an all around butt kicker who works for a karate school run by Scatman "How'd you like some ice cream, Doc?" Crothers. He's also working with the feds or something. Some mafiosos employ their "urban" man, Pinky, to try and gain possession of the karate school by any means possible to expand their evil real estate project. Well, after Pinky's goons start roughing up Jones' pals, it's all out war with Jones slapping the snot out of everyone and winning over Gloria Hendry(who does some snot slapping herself). Tongue in cheek, and as Ronnie Dawson would say, "ACTION PACKED!"
Next up is Hot Potato, and this is the odd film out of the four. A sort of semi-sequel to Black Belt Jones, it's directed by the writer of that film......and it's rather lousy. Kelly is an agent names Jones(which is why we can assume this is some sort of sequel) in Thailand on a mission to rescue a senator's daughter or something(I ceased to care about plot details rather early on here) from an evil Thai crime lord guy. He gangs up with his white partner and an obese comic relief brawler(who has sandwiches fall from his shirt every time he removes it) to carry out the mission. This film is lots and lots of stumbling around in the jungle and getting into little adventures and fights along the way. It's done as flat out zany comedy, but it's extremely unfunny and boring. Definitely the least "Urban" of the four films. Best left in the vaults.
Things look up in Black Samson. Samson's one tough dude who runs a bar, carries a staff and owns a lion. He runs the neighborhood and tries to keep it drug and crime free. Once again the crime syndicate is after the property coz it's an essential piece to their plan. All around tough and evil looking villain, William Smith is given the task of breaking Samson down. But we all know what happens to evil white folks, especially William Smith, in these kinds of films. Good film that benefits from some good performances, especially the two leads.
Finally it's Three The Hard Way, with a great "urban" cast of Jim Kelly, Fred Williamson and Jim Brown. It's dircted by Gordon Parks, jr, who did Superfly. A white supremacist whack job plans on wiping out the "urban" race by poisoning the water supply, and it's up to three bad dudes to put a stop to it. Oddly enough, considering the cast and the director, this film is kind of a letdown. It's not bad, but certainly not as fun as it could have been. It's a lot better than Hot Potato, I'll tell you that. Three The Hard Way has been available, but in very lousy public domain versions, like many of Williamson's films. It's nice to see it get a proper release.
Considering the price, this package isn't bad at all. Two good films, one decent and one forgettable isn't bad for the low asking price. And the films are on two one-sided discs, which is very welcome. The quality is good. it's not painstakingly remastered or anything, but very acceptable. Worth it if you like the Blaxploitation genre, for sure.