One Down, Two to Go (1982) Almi Pictures/Action RT: 84 minutes Rated R (language, violence, suggestive material) Director: Fred Williamson Screenplay: Fred Williamson Music: Joe Trunzo and Herb Hetzer Cinematography: James Lemmo Release date: November 11, 1982 (US) Cast: Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly, Richard Roundtree, Paula Sills, Laura Loftus, Tom Signorelli, Joe Spinell, John Guitz, Richard Noyce, Peter Dane, Victoria Hale, Warrington Winters, Louis Neglia. Box Office: $1M (US)
Rating: ***
According to writer-director-producer-co-star Fred Williamson, One Down, Two to Go is a “true sequel” to 1974’s Three the Hard Way, the 1974 blaxploitation actioner co-starring the two Jims, Brown and Kelly. The three tough guys return for another outing, this time joined by Richard Roundtree. The truth it’s a sequel only in spirit. The actors play entirely different characters. I like to think of it as more of a follow-up. It’s a matter of semantics, but still.
I didn’t get to see One Down, Two to Go at the movies because it only opened in the city and the parentals were funny about allowing me to go to Philly alone. I saw it about a decade later when I picked up a used VHS copy. I liked it even though I hadn’t yet seen its predecessor.
The plot, this time, concerns a rigged martial arts tournament and the $400,000 prize promised to the winner. When martial arts studio owner Chuck (Kelly, Black Belt Jones) learns of the fix, mobster Mario (Signorelli, Thief) sends his goons to kill him. They don’t succeed. When one of his fighters wins the tournament, partner Ralph (Roundtree, Shaft) tries to collect the prize only for Mario to renege. An injured Chuck, fearing that something will happen to him, asks his girlfriend, foxy bartender Teri (Sills), to contact his two friends, J (Brown, Slaughter) and Cal (Williamson, Vigilante). When they show up to look for their pal, all hell breaks loose.
Okay, it’s a rather slender plot, but One Down, Two to Go is less about story than it is bringing together four blaxploitation legends. Sadly, we never get to see all four fight side by side by side by side. Kelly, wearing a smaller version of his trademark Afro, is in it for only a short time and he’s out of commission for most of it. He fights only once; it’s fun but hardly enough. Most of the time, it’s Brown and Williamson punching and shooting their way through New York’s underworld. Fortunately, they do a lot of both things, the latter without ever stopping to reload their guns. This was actually spoofed in 1988’s I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.
The opening scenes at the martial arts tournament ring with authenticity. Williamson did something quite brilliant here. He hired martial artists and told them to fight for real promising the winner of each match $500 (the losers got $100). The warm-up scenes of the artists breaking boards with their fists and feet are a great way to kick things off. Once One Down, Two to Go begins its story, it becomes rather routine and predictable. It has a few pacing issues as well with the amount of filler between violent action scenes.
One Down, Two to Go really kicks into full gear when Brown and Williamson finally arrive on the scene in limos. They waste no time in pissing off the local sheriff (Winters), an old guy who looks like he joined the force during the Hoover administration. I don’t know what’s up with this guy, but he literally lets our heroes get away with murder. Shouldn’t he be busting them? I’m a little disappointed Joe Spinell (Maniac) gets only one scene as a sleazy fight promoter. Question, did Spinell ever play a character that wasn’t sleazy?
There’s not a lot to be said about the acting in One Down, Two to Go. The four leads simply do their thing. They kick ass, fire guns and beat down white a**holes. Of the four, Williamson is the true stand-out. Chomping on stogies like Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name, he gets to say lines like, “I may not know kung fu, but I’m an expert in gun fu.” His little dog is cool too. Brown gets a good scene in a bank with an uncooperative manager. Roundtree is his usual smooth self. The lead actors have easy chemistry with each other which is not surprising.
Blaxploitation was pretty much a done deal when One Down, Two to Go came out. The hope was that it would revive the genre. It didn’t. Maybe if it Williamson gave audiences what they really wanted, a four-man team, it would have struck gold at the box office. As it is, it’s a pretty good albeit unremarkable action flick. It’s enjoyable, but it could have been epic.
