Hot Potato

Hot Potato (1976)

Runtime: 87 minutes

Directed by: Oscar Williams

Starring: Jim Kelly, George Memmoli, Geoffrey Binney, Irene Tsu

From: Warner Brothers

I was stumped as to what I should watch today; I had some ideas in mind. Then, I noticed a DVD I had and as I'll explain in the Letterboxd review I picked that one to see, and I heard it was bad. Spoiler warning: it is bad. Sure, characters known as Johnny Chicago and White Rhino was amusing, but there aren't too many laughs to be had. Onto the review:

For awhile now I have had the DVD 4-pack of “Urban Action Collection” from Warner Brothers, which is the blaxploitation films Black Belt Jones, Black Samson, Three the Hard Way and what is technically a sequel to BBJ (it's from the same producers and Jim Kelly's in it & he's known as “Jones”), an action/comedy filmed in Thailand known as Hot Potato that actually isn't blaxploitation at all. Although, maybe it should be “comedy” instead of comedy.

The plot isn't terribly complex: the daughter of a U.S. Senator is kidnapped in a fictional Southeast Asian country by some bad guys who want her dad to withdraw something that would be to their disadvantage. Several people rescue her, including Jones, a white dude named Johnny Chicago, a lady who's a member of local law enforcement and a big fat slob known as White Rhino.

Someone else here on Letterboxd described the movie as if Hanna-Barbera made a live action cartoon, except that it sucked, and that was true. It has a lot of humor; problem is, most of it is incredibly juvenile and not amusing in the least. You're annoyed instead of entertained by the constant bickering between Mr. Chicago and Mr. Rhino, for example. The plot doesn't make a lot of logical sense and not even most of the action stuff is worth seeing. It's painful, painfully unfunny and a slog more than anything else. Maybe if you're a 6 year old it'd be great, but I wouldn't even have them watch this when there's much better options out there for those tykes.

The only compliments I can give it is that the Thai scenery (a lot of it is rural) is rather scenic and much of the cast was Thai people instead of other Asians cast to be the natives of a country that not supposed to be Thailand but actually is. While it's not a plus as derogatory terms were used, but apparently even back then the concept of “ladyboys” was known in the Western world, so I learned something today; other than that, never see this movie and watch Black Belt Jones instead as it will be a much better 90 minutes spent.

I'll return tomorrow night.