Black Dynamite
by Scott Sanders
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DVD details
Actor: Michael Jai WhiteDirector: Scott Sanders
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 84 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2010-02-16
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of Black Dynamite
DVD Review: Incredible parody of 70s blaxploitation is the best comedy of the last several years
Summary: 5 Stars
Who the hell is interrupting my kung-fu?
How do you parody a genre that is already on the edge of self-parody? Why, to play it deadpan "straight" - or rather, to play it just - so - slightly - bent that manages to come off as both a top-notch example (if there is such a thing) of the genre itself and a loving and affectionate spoof of it. This is what Keenan Ivory Wayans' I'M GONNA GET YOU SUCKA attempted - and didn't quite succeed in doing - just a few years after the original craze had died down; this is what director Scott Sanders' BLACK DYNAMITE, co-written by Sanders and stars Michael Jai White (Black Dynamite) and Byron Minns (Bullhorn), succeeds in - well beyond my wildest expectations.
Just about everything in BLACK DYNAMITE is perfectly calibrated, starting with the plot, which starts out as a revenge story as our hero (always referred to as Black Dynamite, his real name never revealed) sets out to avenge the death of his younger brother but quickly gets involved in uncovering a drug conspiracy that proves to involved the new Anaconda Malt Liquor, which does just something I won't spoil for you that results in one of the best lines in the film (which I can't quote here unfortunately). Along the way he terrorizes a gay-acting pimp who happens to own a beauty parlor (have we seen this before?), busts up a pool hall with some kung fu action, gets involved with a militant black power sista, and gets the license to kill he used to have as a member of the CIA in 'Nam back - though he loses it again well before he traces the conspiracy to a secret island laboratory ("Kung Fu Island") off the coast of LA run Dr. Wu, and eventually all the way to the top - the very top. Of course there's a car chase - actually a couple, with the footage very obviously reused - and a really excellent chase on foot that is one of the very few scenes you could lift out and put into a serious action film.
But it doesn't stop there. The characters all play off old blaxploitation stereotypes, but the bigger roles go beyond mere mimicry. White's super-buff Black Dynamite has the coolness and fashion sensibility of Richard Roundtree, the toughness of Fred Williamson, and the kung fu skills of Jim Kelly all rolled into one, but with just a little bit of sardonic sauciness that's all his own; Minns' Bullhorn is a rhyming Rudy Ray Moore replica - except he's also got something of a Mr. T vibe going and he's a little smoother with the ladies than he ought to be. Most of the other characters are pretty broad stereotypes, and you can find echoes of blaxploitation stalwarts like Pam Grier or Bernie Casey without looking too hard.
The dialogue kicks it all up a notch, or a flying kung-fu kick. Black Dynamite to Pat Nixon after smacking her down: "First Lady, I'm sorry I pimp slapped you into that china cabinet." To fiendish Dr. Wu: "Your knowledge of scientific biological transmogrification is only outmatched by your zest for kung-fu treachery!" There's hardly a line in the film that comes off entirely straight or normal - but also hardly any that wouldn't seem at home in some of the more outlandish original blaxploitationers of 1974-76 or so. And then there's the pitch-perfect cheapness of the look; filmed in 16mm with a lot of grain and often significant changes in contrast and color balance from scene to scene, with a lot of deliberately poor editing or outright mistakes (actors reading stage directions at one point; a stunt double replacing an actor who doesn't look anything at all like him in the middle of a fight scene) which always seem to happen just when the action is flagging. Again very few of these are really over-the-top and when they are they're brief; Sanders and company know not to overdue things, at least not until the utterly outlandish ending in the White House. But that, too, seems to fit the whole context of the film, which all adds up to something like a summation of and pinnacle of the genre as much as an homage.
DVD note: The commentary by Sanders, White and Minns is icing on the cake - they seem to have memorized every blaxplo flick and are totally aware of which moment of what film every moment of BLACK DYNAMITE hommages, and they've got some great making-of stories. The making-of featurette is fun, and there's a huge treasure-trove of deleted scenes which, while generally pretty funny, make pretty clear that the filmmakers really knew how to put this film together and what the best stuff they had was.
It's probably too much to ask that we'll get a sequel to BLACK DYNAMITE, given that it got practically no theatrical release, and how much work went into it - but I'll sure be looking forward to future projects from these guys. I hope they get to do something else soon; I don't laugh easily, but BLACK DYNAMITE just about killed me, and I could use more of it. Can you dig it, mama?
Description of Black Dynamite
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