Al Adamson movies often mean slapdash editing, piss-poor blocking and lots of offscreen overdubs. Black Samurai has all that, plus Enter the Dragon’s Jim Kelly as the most-certainly-black-but-to-be-honest-technically-not-a-samurai Black Samurai.
As an agent of D.R.A.G.O.N. (which could refer to Adamson’s pacing problems: “drag on,” see?), Kelly ends his Mexico vacation early when fellow agents inform him of the kidnapping of his Asian girlfriend Toki (as in “token,” I guess). She’s been nabbed by an evil white guy who’s deeply into the occult and the black arts. Kelly seeks to infiltrate this dude’s immense castle fortress, and his move of choice seems to be inflicting pain on other people’s scrotums. Seriously, I haven’t seen this much ball-kicking since Sly Stallone made that soccer movie with Pelé.
Strangely, the occult guy has a high dwarf population among his teams of henchmen. I counted six of the little guys. And while it’s not fair, politically correct or even logical, it sure is funny! To infuse a bit of Bond-age, Kelly gets a great scene where he jetpacks through the sky. He also romances the ladies, like the mean prostitute named Synne (subtle!) and gets his own theme song, although this one sounds created at a piano bar.
Black Samurai gets so ludicrous, Kelly ends up trading punches with a giant bird! And then there’s some rattlesnakes thrown in for good measure, as well as vintage Adamson touches like the sound effects of an owl in a scene of broad daylight. All the while, you’ll be laughing and scratching your head, asking yourself, “Wait, this was based on a novel?” —Rod Lott