Any fans of Death Dimension (1978) with Jim Kelly?

[saltysam]

Jim Kelly is a cop on the trail of evil Harold Sakata ,who is trying to sell a freeze bomb that will destroy the world,problem being it's sown into the deceased doctor's assistant forehead. Hack director Al Adamson manages to round up a stronger cast than his previous Black Samurai (George Lazenby, Terry Moore, Aldo Ray feature here) but manages to create an even worse movie. While Samurai was funny in it's  badness this one is quite dull, flatly directed and poorly lit. Kelly still has his trademark charisma here but, like i've mentioned before what a quick fall from grace, a mere few years after his star making showing in Bruce's classic ,he's now reduced to buddying up with Myron Bruce Lee in this el cheapo actioner. No wonder he became disillusioned with the movies. By the way, who exactly is Myron Bruce Lee and does anyone have info on him? I never hear him mentioned when Bruceploitation imitators are discussed.

[Killer Meteor]

Al Adamson ended up getting killed by his handyman and buried under the hot tub.

[saltysam]

15 minutes ago, Killer Meteor said:

Al Adamson ended up getting killed by his handyman and buried under the hot tub.

Yeah, i remember that. Really sad, i think his wife died young as well (Regina Carroll) his legacy was to give us Zander Vorkov as Dracula in Dracula Vs Frankenstein. Jaw Dropping 😃

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

Kelly had a chance to play the Kung Fu guy that Steve James wound up playing in "I'm Gonna Get You Sucka!". He turned it down. I don't think the guy was real crafty when it came to his career. My understanding, from what I read (I may have even spoke to someone in LA, it's been 30 years!) was that he took himself a little too serious or did not want to make himself or the genre look bad. Fred Williamson was the same, he was still making grade Z movies in Italy, so he backed out. Fred was a nice guy though, I meet him in Oakland in the 80's-

Me (say something stupid) "I loved your movies, though they were kind of violent!"

Fred the Hammer "That's not violence! That's action!HAHAHAHAHA!"

Big smile, really cool, seeing as I was a waiter he could have told me to piss off just as easily.

[Josh Baker]

Death Dimension (1978) definitely counts as a Bruceploitation film in my book as it stars "Myron Bruce Lee" as an undercover martial artist cop, and features George Lazenby, which alludes to George being casted in Game of Death just before Lee passes away.

The film is terrible.

I suppose you could argue Dorian Tan is a Lee-like figure in Tattoo Connection as he was proposed as a replacement for Lee by Golden Harvest in the mid 70s, but along with others like Don Wong Tao, Jimmy Wang Yu and George Lazenby it didn't work out.

The title of the film also obviously alludes to the Chinese Connection, the American title of Fist of Fury.

[CaldoTheKid]

Love that film, I guess I'm a sucker for a few Al Adamson films.

[TheFlyingPanda]

Enough of a fan that I purchased The Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection Blu-rays back when it  was released over 2 years ago. It also includes Black Samurai (with Jim Kelly) and Dynamite Brothers. I loved watching it  looking so good. 

[dionbrother]

If you love scenes of cars parking in lots, this film does an amazing job of padding the running time those images.

[Bruce]

On 5/20/2023 at 1:55 PM, Josh Baker said:

Death Dimension (1978) definitely counts as a Bruceploitation film in my book as it stars "Myron Bruce Lee" as an undercover martial artist cop, and features George Lazenby, which alludes to George being casted in Game of Death just before Lee passes away.

The film is terrible.

I suppose you could argue Dorian Tan is a Lee-like figure in Tattoo Connection as he was proposed as a replacement for Lee by Golden Harvest in the mid 70s, but along with others like Don Wong Tao, Jimmy Wang Yu and George Lazenby it didn't work out.

The title of the film also obviously alludes to the Chinese Connection, the American title of Fist of Fury.

"The film is terrible"; yep, that pretty much honestly sums it up. To me Death Dimension is a good example (& there's no shortage of examples of this in Jim's film career) of why Jim Kelly's movie career stuttered, stalled, & died; because Jim clearly didn't care about the quality of his films, he was mostly out to make some quick money. Think about it, when Bruce Lee died Jim was the lucky recipient of the 3 (or was it 4?) picture deal with Warner Bros, one of Hollywood's biggest film studios ever. Who was the next martial arts guy to get a multi picture contract with a major Hollywood studio? Steven Seagal in the late 80s? I remember a Fighting Stars magazine Jim Kelly cover story in the early 70s, in it Jim talked about how he could beat Muhammad Ali  & Joe Frazier in back to back fights in the same evening, & about how he should be able to make a lot of money making movies. The quality of his movies only serves to verify his priorities. 

     I mean, what was his "best" movie, Black Belt Jones? Jim's movies made Chuck Norris' movies (even most of the Cannon ones) look Oscar worthy! 

[Josh Baker]

7 hours ago, Bruce said:

"The film is terrible"; yep, that pretty much honestly sums it up. To me Death Dimension is a good example (& there's no shortage of examples of this in Jim's film career) of why Jim Kelly's movie career stuttered, stalled, & died; because Jim clearly didn't care about the quality of his films, he was mostly out to make some quick money. Think about it, when Bruce Lee died Jim was the lucky recipient of the 3 (or was it 4?) picture deal with Warner Bros, one of Hollywood's biggest film studios ever. Who was the next martial arts guy to get a multi picture contract with a major Hollywood studio? Steven Seagal in the late 80s? I remember a Fighting Stars magazine Jim Kelly cover story in the early 70s, in it Jim talked about how he could beat Muhammad Ali  & Joe Frazier in back to back fights in the same evening, & about how he should be able to make a lot of money making movies. The quality of his movies only serves to verify his priorities. 

     I mean, what was his "best" movie, Black Belt Jones? Jim's movies made Chuck Norris' movies (even most of the Cannon ones) look Oscar worthy! 

I haven't seen Jim Kelly's American films but I have watched Tattoo Connection and I enjoyed that a lot. Could be because it was directed by Lee Tso Nam, a filmmaker who knew what he was doing.

[saltysam]

I like Jim but imo his best non Enter role was in Three The Hard Way. Played an interesting character in Take A Hard Ride as well. Probably better when he wasn't the star of the movie.