Death Dimension

This film begins with a scientist by the name of "Dr. Mason" (T. E. Foreman) implanting a microdot containing top-secret information related to some environmental research into the forehead of his attractive assistant "Felicia" (Patch McKenzie). Immediately afterward he is then summoned by a ruthless man named "Santo 'the Pig' Massino" (Harold Sakata) who has essentially been holding both Dr. Mason and Felicia as hostages and forcing them into misusing their knowledge of the environment to construct a devasting weapon known as a freeze bomb. Fortunately, while Dr. Mason is reporting to Santo, Felicia has taken the opportunity to escape from the fortified compound without being detected. Not only that, but anticipating Santo's wrath, Dr. Mason also injects some poison into his body so that Santo has no ability to retrieve the valuable information he possesses as well. Needless to say, this infuriates Santo who immediately sends his Haitian hitman "Tatoupa" (Bob Minor) to find Felicia and bring her back at all costs. Meanwhile, upon learning of the death of one of their agents investigating Santo's operation, "Captain Gallagher" (George Lazenby) sends "Lt. Detective I. J. Ash" (Jim Kelly) to find Felicia before Santo and his men manage to catch up to her. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film certainly had some potential as it contained a fairly decent plot and several good actors to carry it to fruition. What it didn't have, however, was capable direction as most of the action scenes looked poorly stages and extremely cheap. Not only that, but the scenes involving Jim Kelly's martial arts abilities could have used serious improvement as well. That being said, considering the actors involved, I was rather disappointed with this movie and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Afro-tastic! When Odd Jobb from Goldfinger forces a scientist to create a freeze bomb to sell to the arms community, the scientist implants the instructions for the bomb into the head of his assistant, sends her off, then kills himself. Odd Job is miffed at this turn of events and sends his cronies off to track her down. Meanwhile, Big Jim Kelly is investigating the murder of a cop (by Odd Job's right hand man) and sets out to find the killer and the assistant, but Odd Job's men are out to get him too. What's a brother to do?

Get out them lightening fast fists and beat them turkeys, that's what! Jim visits one of Odd Job's brothels for no reason, but after that he's kicking heads in left and right and centre, sometimes with the help of a sidekick. You get fights on boats, car chases, punch ups, a gunfight between a cable car and a helicopter, Odd Job threatening a woman with a turtle (I mean he's brandishing a turtle at a woman rather than threatening a woman in possession of a turtle), loads of hookers and Aldo Ray (Psychic Killer, Haunts) shouting at the top of his voice.

What more do you want? George Lazenby? Well, he's here too! Throw in a very funky soundtrack, non-stop action and that's pure entertainment. Sure, it's all done on the cheap and some of the fights are a bit hokey (especially between Kelly and Odd Job, but that ain't Big Jim's fault), but this is pure seventies gold.

The freeze frame of Kelly's triumphant flying kick at the end seals the deal. RIP big man – you'll be missed.

Despite the ratings I found this to be the second best "Jim Kelly" movie I have watched. (And by that I mean one where he is top of the bill, so not the likes of "Enter The Dragon" or "Three The Hard Way"). In other words better than "Black Belt Jones", "Hot Potato" or "Black Samurai".

Why? Mainly because the action is for the most part competently choreographed and shot when compared with the others. The cutting and camera angles make for better movie action viewing.

The second thing which makes this more fun is the novelty cast, which include, George "James Bond" Lazenby, Harold "Odd Job" Sakata, Aldo Ray, the ever reliable Bob Minor and Myron "Bruce" Lee" (Myron? Really?). Lazenby, contrary to his reputation, can act quite adequately, but he can't fight convincingly in this company, which is where the competent use of cutting and camera angles come in. Sakata can't act, but he is the most iconic Bond villain of the Connery era, "Odd Job", so it doesn't really matter. Turns out he can't fight convincingly either and on this occasion the action Director doesn't come to his rescue for some reason, which is disappointing. Aldo Ray's career peaked early, around 1955 when he was in "We're No Angels" with Bogart and Ustinov, and his acting channels all the grumpy frustration that he must have been feeling by this time;- finding himself down among the B movie bottom feeders. Meanwhile Jim himself is in as good form as I've ever seen him.

The plot premise is ridiculous but barely explored, used merely as a "McGuffen" to set the ball rolling, the plot structure is routine but serviceable and the dialogue banal, but in the World of Jim Kelly movies that is all par for the course.

More than one dimension, possibly two dimensions, but not three.

Death Dimension (1978)

** (out of 4)

A mad scientist known as The Pig creates a bomb that when it explodes it can freeze anything close to it. Detective J. Ash (Jim Kelly) is asked to try and track down the people behind it before it falls into the wrong hands.

Al Adamson was the master at creating ultra-cheap movies for the drive-in circuit. He could make just about any type of genre and more times than not he was able to mix the various genres into one crazy little film. He created some good movies like Dracula VS FRANKENSTEIN as well as countless really awful ones. DEATH DIMENSION is pretty much cheap non-sense that fans of the blaxploitation and martial arts genres should enjoy.

Obviously, if you're walking into an Adamson picture, you shouldn't be expecting high art or a quality picture. Basically what you want to do is just sit back, turn your brain off and just enjoy what's in front of you. Storywise the film is certainly a mess and it rarely makes too much sense but if you're a fan of Kelly and his martial arts style then there are plenty of fights here. The fights certainly aren't going to rival ENTER THE DRAGON but they're fun enough for this type of action picture.

There's obviously nothing ground-breaking here but for a cheap drive-in picture it at least has some energy and some charm.

I think anyone studying film making should be required to watch this film, and learn how NOT to make a film! This is just plain stupid!! I can see why the "Goldfinger" director had OddJob mute. Because Sakata's line readings are so bad, they might as well have dubbed in his voice. Why was poor George Lazenby cast to play in such trashy films? Was he really that bad in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"? Did the director of this film think that by casting two Bondian actors in this film that he would be raising the production value of such a horrible script? The action scenes are so tame and unexciting, that you can't believe why Jim Kelly would allow this to be vehicle in his career after the success of "Enter The Dragon". The only one aspect of this film worth viewing (with the exception of the Bondian actors) is the soundtrack. Not that it's completely brilliant, but it definately has a Rare Groove edge to it (if that's your bag), but I doubt a Soundtrack album ever accompanied this "drive-in" "B-" movie. Oh, and Jim Kelly has a cool red jump suit to wear. But that's about it. If the opening scene (with a woman getting stitched up in a nauseating slow pace) doesn't get you to turn the video off, the action will slowly put you to sleep. Only interesting if you were ever curious to see what George Lazenby got up to after his turn at James Bond.