Black Dynamite - this is a movie that keeps you laughing for quite a few minutes after it ends (my wife ended up going into a laughing fit just on remembeing some scenes) and it means business. It's a spoof that shouldn't work, but does; it takes off on what was already a parody of itself, a black-exploitation flick, Dolamite, that starred the inimitable (late) Rudy Ray Moore who couldn't act much but had such a bad-ass aura that it got him through the movie kicking ass and taking names and putting forward expletive platitudes. It was also a bad-movie, but fun bad, sometimes hilarious bad, and it was something I was wondering how it could work in Black Dynamite as a full-fledged comedy take-off on the material. It turns out it works smashingly.
Plot - who needs a mofo plot? It's all about Black Dynamite (singing: "Black Dynamite"!) and how he fights against the man, against drug pushers, against nefarious Vietnamese/Chinese (yeah, Chinamen in Vietnam) pushing Anaconda malt liquor, hell, he even fights Richard Nixon if he has to! He's Black Dynamite, a brother who doesn't f*** around when it comes to the ladies (give him a nurse with big breasts and he'll be a making' guy) or to his enemies as he kung-fu fights or does amazing stunts with his helicopter all the time. There perhaps is an actual "plot" in watching Black Dynamite, but as with Mel Brooks, or even Hot Fuzz to a certain extent, you don't need it. What's up on the screen is quite enough without having to get too much into story... well, then again, the Orphanage counts as story, I guess.
This isn't to say Black Dynamite is a perfect comedy, and it won't end up on my top ten list at year's end. But for every one or two gags or liners that don't work ten others work better than any comedy I've seen this year. Did I mention that orphanage gag already? Or Tommy Davidson as Creamed Corn? Or the dastardly plot involving the Anaconda Malt Liquor and how Black Dynamite and his crack team of Greek scholars opens the case wide open? Or how about that one scene where he... you know, it's hard, really, not to spoil too much. There's not one scene in this film that isn't at least funny or amusing, and there are many where it is gut-bustingly hilarious.
Some of this is just simply credited to Michael Jai White, an actor who I never thought would be one to be adept at comedy (he also was co-writer), who channels the spirit of Rudy Ray Moore to a tee while creating his own iconic 'mofo' whose reputation precedes him everywhere he goes- including when he just goes to a park and a two kids come up to him: "Black Dynamite, you're my Daddy" "Yeah, me too, that's what Mommy said." "Oh no, there's someone else named that..." He is a big comedic stroke of genius here, but everyone around him gets the tone down so well. This is grind-house meets comedy house, and for all of the in-jokes for fans of Dolamite and other flicks like the Dr. Wu series (those scenes alone are worth the price of admission), for the "boom-mic" gag or a random mention of Captain Kangaroo as one of a group of pimps, it still works for any audience looking for solid comedy.
Matter of fact, this is best to be experience with some buddies at a midnight screening jam-packed with people ready to get in on some Black Dynamite action. On everything it attempts to do it succeeds, and it aims to be a completely over-the-top and wonderfully tasteless salute to 1970s low-budget black cinema. It's done out of love though, I think, even for movies that have not aged well, at all. But it's a kind of comedy beacon of light at the end of a tunnel loaded with Hollywood crap or the occasional Judd Apatow chuckle. It's BLACK DYNAMITE!
Plot - who needs a mofo plot? It's all about Black Dynamite (singing: "Black Dynamite"!) and how he fights against the man, against drug pushers, against nefarious Vietnamese/Chinese (yeah, Chinamen in Vietnam) pushing Anaconda malt liquor, hell, he even fights Richard Nixon if he has to! He's Black Dynamite, a brother who doesn't f*** around when it comes to the ladies (give him a nurse with big breasts and he'll be a making' guy) or to his enemies as he kung-fu fights or does amazing stunts with his helicopter all the time. There perhaps is an actual "plot" in watching Black Dynamite, but as with Mel Brooks, or even Hot Fuzz to a certain extent, you don't need it. What's up on the screen is quite enough without having to get too much into story... well, then again, the Orphanage counts as story, I guess.
This isn't to say Black Dynamite is a perfect comedy, and it won't end up on my top ten list at year's end. But for every one or two gags or liners that don't work ten others work better than any comedy I've seen this year. Did I mention that orphanage gag already? Or Tommy Davidson as Creamed Corn? Or the dastardly plot involving the Anaconda Malt Liquor and how Black Dynamite and his crack team of Greek scholars opens the case wide open? Or how about that one scene where he... you know, it's hard, really, not to spoil too much. There's not one scene in this film that isn't at least funny or amusing, and there are many where it is gut-bustingly hilarious.
Some of this is just simply credited to Michael Jai White, an actor who I never thought would be one to be adept at comedy (he also was co-writer), who channels the spirit of Rudy Ray Moore to a tee while creating his own iconic 'mofo' whose reputation precedes him everywhere he goes- including when he just goes to a park and a two kids come up to him: "Black Dynamite, you're my Daddy" "Yeah, me too, that's what Mommy said." "Oh no, there's someone else named that..." He is a big comedic stroke of genius here, but everyone around him gets the tone down so well. This is grind-house meets comedy house, and for all of the in-jokes for fans of Dolamite and other flicks like the Dr. Wu series (those scenes alone are worth the price of admission), for the "boom-mic" gag or a random mention of Captain Kangaroo as one of a group of pimps, it still works for any audience looking for solid comedy.
Matter of fact, this is best to be experience with some buddies at a midnight screening jam-packed with people ready to get in on some Black Dynamite action. On everything it attempts to do it succeeds, and it aims to be a completely over-the-top and wonderfully tasteless salute to 1970s low-budget black cinema. It's done out of love though, I think, even for movies that have not aged well, at all. But it's a kind of comedy beacon of light at the end of a tunnel loaded with Hollywood crap or the occasional Judd Apatow chuckle. It's BLACK DYNAMITE!