Force Four

VERY obscure blaxploitation exercise that makes up in funky spirit and do-it-yourself enthusiasm what it lacks in studio polish. I'd love to know the story behind it--did a karate studio raise funds to make its own action movie? Nearly every single actor is listed with their black-belt rating attribution, both at the beginning AND end of the movie! The plot revolves around a priceless African statue sought after by various underworld figures, unscrupulous collectors, evil honkies, and the titular three-guys-one-girl foursome. The latter are a ghetto quartet of freelance detectives who invariably get to demonstrate their karate skills--amazingly, almost none of the criminals they face ever seem to be carrying guns!

There's a whole lotta fighting here, as well as post-synch dialogue dubbing, vintage funk & tribal sounds (performed by "Life, U.S.A."), wild 70s fashion, amusingly amateurish acting, and so on. This movie is not to be confused with the following year's "Gang Wars" aka "Devil's Express," another blaxploitation cheapie which also features toughguy Warhawk Tanzania, and which occasionally has been called (mistakenly?) "Black Force" as well. Throwing a monster into the equation, it's a little slicker than "Black Force," and perhaps even sillier.