The Human Tornado (1976, Cliff Roquemore) (Patreon)

34/100

Didn't really need to watch this prior to Dolemite Is My Name, as it turns out, since that ends with Dolemite's premiere; Alexander and Karaszewski just cheat and pretend that Human Tornado's ludicrous set-wrecking sex scene was in the first film, rather than let pointless accuracy preclude the inclusion of a scene they surely knew would kill. Odd that they didn't also relocate the hilarious sped-up kung fu fights that dominate this otherwise tedious sequel's final half hour. Moore appears to have recognized how feeble and slapdash he looked in the previous film and opted to solve the problem via technological overcompensation—a ploy that's actually somewhat effective, and not a million miles removed from the deliberate absurdity of Hong Kong wirework. Unfortunately, over an hour passes before we get to the first punch (and corresponding bizarro war cries and head shakes—another element I'm surprised A&K omitted), and there's no signifying here to pass the time; even when he's onstage at the outset, Dolemite performs what I assume was Moore's dismally unfunny basic stand-up routine, rather than the ultra-old-school yet innovative material that made him a black-underground comedy-album star. (Rhymed couplets are occasionally thrown into ordinary dialogue, but seem like afterthoughts.) Ineptitude reigns again, and Tornado never settles on a tone—I can only assume that Ernie Hudson (billed as Louis, for some reason) gets a big, incongruously earnest dramatic moment at the end because someone noticed that he can genuinely act and opted to take advantage of that. Overt attempts at humor mostly fall flat, with one joke (about sucking snake poison from a wound in the underwear region) nearly identical to a Bananas gag, except minus any timing whatsoever. Moore wasn't without talent, but movies clearly weren't a good showcase for what he did best. Not these movies, anyway.