I never thought afros were cool until i saw you.
RIP Jim Kelly
You can tell this guy had class by looking at himā¦ You rarely see that anymore.
Edit?
nigga, donāt be mad cause ppl aint lining up to wipe your ass kid, buu
Flareās avatar suddenly poignant.
god damn! RIP he is cool and class made flesh even when he is standing beside bruce lee
Goddamnā¦I remember first seeing him in Enter The Dragon. There was another movie called, āBlack Belt Jonesā that Iāve been meaning to look into for the longest time. RIP.
I always wanted Kellyās shoes from Enter The Dragon. I still fucking do. Martial arts fans everywhere
are missing you mang.
~K.
Sadly, Netflix did not seem to have Black Belt Jones. After a quick search I as only able to find One Down, Two to Go and gave it a first-time viewing to honor Mr. Kelly. As a film, it is purely average and held together by good action scenes, a solid soundtrack of the era, and several segments of ālook at how totally cool the protagonists are.ā Thatās fine; I was expecting nothing else from a 1970s action movie and had a good time! To note up front, while martial arts does factor in and is fairly well doneā¦ the majority of the heroes and villains fight using guns; know what youāre in for.
However, it does not make as much use of Jim Kelly as you might expect. He gets a few good scenes, including a creative segment where he only fights with one arm (because his character has a serious side-torso injury making the other arm virtually useless), but this is not a āJim Kelly film.ā It is a 1970s action film that happens to have Jim Kelly as one of numerous protagonists doing cool stuff, so he ends up ceding some of his screen-time to other stars such as Richard Roundtree. Itās fair to say the other stars get the lionās share of the action, but he always delivers an enjoyable performance when he is on-screen.
Still a fun watch, though it ultimately reminded me that Jim Kelly had a presence all his own that is hard to emulate or replace; he will be missed.
His death has made front page on the BBC website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23125488
67 is too young, itās weird a lot of Bruce Leeās circle of friends have died of cancer.
Han (Shih Kien) died about 5 years ago but lived till he was about 96
R.I.P.
ā¦ Jim Kelly.
RIP
The worst part is how little has changed. In hollywood - that āIā can think of there are only TWO black guys who can do what he did (MJW & Wesley). Couple in Rudy Ray passing a couple years ago, and even the āspoofā of black karate is gone. All my history books have now is LEEROY!!
But mmuch respect. Iām going ot have to carve out some time to watch a couple of his moviesā¦and an episode of Boondocks heh. Aint no one kidnapping Oprah.
Side noteā¦Iām actually still worried about Gordon Liu too. Not a great year to be a Kung-Fu movie fan/buff.
- :bluu:
Damn. Another one of the greats who left us too soon. R.I.P. Mr. Williams. :sad:
-Starhammer-
too bad Butt isnāt model after Mr. Williams. Heās modeled after a separate guy that was involved in one of Bruceās many live demonstrations. Heās from the one inch punch and two finger push up demo.
I think the guy is try to match Bruceās speed but fails a lot.
Maybe Boondocks will somehow resurrect Bushido Brown?
Did you ever watch No Retreat No Surrender? The kid gets trained by Bruce Leeās ghost lol
Actually I think Butt was based of this dude, Willie Williams.
Well, not trying to be technical,
but just about every action star in Asia has been fighting Bruce Leeās ghost since he passed away.
(Hearing about movie where a kid getting trained by Bruce Leeās ghost is a new one for me! See, you do learn some interesting facts on SRK! Itās not all about punching-and-kicking! LOL
(Poor Bruce, unfortunately, became a bigger victim of stock footage than the space ships in Star Trek and Battlestar Galacticaā¦
(There are worse ways to be remembered than the film, āThey Call Me Bruce!ā)
Itās very hard to top Leeās actā¦
Itās kind of a deranged quest (Don Quixote) to be or try to be better than Lee at any rateā¦
Closest comparison I can think of now is how many action films have tried to be Raiders of the Lost Ark since 1981. Itās just not happening ā even with the Indiana Jones sequels.
Jackie Chan and Jet Li got it rightā¦ You canāt be Bruce Lee ā you just have to carve out your niche and play with what works for you.
Uniqueness is what people really remember, not just slavishly copying another guyās act or movie.
(Although come to think of it Jet Li did play a character, Black Mask, who was visually patterned after the character of Kato played by Bruce Lee in the 1960s āGreen Hornetā TV series.)
Jet Li has also played Chen Zhen on the TV version of Fists of Fury.
āMan, you come straight out of a comic book!ā
RIP, I loved Jim Kelly. Sad to see stars of that era fading off.
How has nobody posted this yet?