On the run from a vengeful and racist sheriff whose wife he has been sleeping with, the reformed gangster Dolemite heads for California and his old ally Queen Bee. Little does he know that he's walking into yet more danger, as the Queen and her Kung Fu Ladies are now under the thumb of a mobbed up nightclub owner and his entourage of mafioso thugs.
On the other hand, little does the mob know that Dolemite is a Human Tornado. He's soon bringing his two-fisted martial arts and smack-talking skills to bear on these new enemies, while staying one step ahead of the sheriff.
This is the second of Rudy Ray Moore's Dolemite films, based on the crass gangster character he created for his stand-up routine. The movie actually begins with several excerpts from his live performances, which I found painfully unfunny. Apparently "You're fat, fatso" was considered hilarious stuff in 1976.
Fortunately, after that's done we're mostly just subjected to comical displays of Dolemite's alleged combat skills, which principally involves Moore waving his arms in the air and making weird noises, before they speed up the footage for the 'fighting' itself. This seems a good use of screen time when you have actual kickboxing and karate champion Howard Jackson on set, right? Well, it's better than the time spent on cringe-inducing homosexual stereotypes, I guess.
Human Tornado does occasionally bust out some funny moments - there's a stunt that gets a literal 'action replay' for instance, and some of Moore's mock martial arts antics will likely draw a chuckle since they're so clearly meant to be absurd - but you definitely have to be willing to put up with the tiresome, lowest common denominator 'jokes' to find them.
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