Black Dynamite is the greatest African-American action star of the 1970s. When his only brother is killed by The Man it's up to him to find justice. This is the story of 1970s African-American action legend Black Dynamite. The Man killed his brother, pumped heroin into local orphanages, and flooded the ghetto with adulterated malt liquor. Black Dynamite was the one hero willing to fight The Man all the way from the blood-soaked city streets to the hallowed halls of the Honky House.. Black Dynamite is nonsense, but then again of course it's nonsense. Films like Black Dynamite are of those rare breed wherein labelling it anything else OTHER than nonsense is, in a way, derogatory. If the film makers have set out to make a winking, nudging exploitation film chock full of everything inside of Black Dynamite that we get, then it's hardly complimentary to then come away and speak of how much the plot made sense; how much the character stuff was bang-on and how 'non' nonsensical it all was. True, there is the odd misstep in Scott Sanders' on-the-whole-pretty-darned-good self-referential, self-aware-stab at one of those predominantly African American 70's exploitation films; jokes about the sizes of genitalia and some less than pleasant moments involving unnecessarily gory violence dampen the experience, but it's a worthwhile experience all-the-same. It's better than Death Proof, which is what those behind the production will want to hear while it's also better than something like Michel Hazanavicius' quite awful "OSS: Nest of Spies", a French film toying with the espionage genre where these other examples have been more inclined towards horror and grindhouse movements.<br/><br/>The film begins with an amusing sequence wherein a well-spoken black individual, who's well out of his depth in being undercover, is caught as not being on the criminally minded level of those in his immediate vicinity. Black and whites are in the process of doing a shady deal involving hard drugs, but brother Jimmy (Vaughn) is found as a fake and mercilessly eradicated. Big mistake, for this man's brother is the titular Black Dynamite, played by Michael Jai White; an ex-CIA veteran of the Vietnam War who's a Hell of a ladies man and will kick down the front doors of most residences if it means garnering access, regardless of threat levels or apparent ease of access. For Black Dynamite, the case of finding out the truth behind the deal and his brother's killers offers the meekest of character arcs in that he always promised their mother he'd keep young Jimmy on the straight and narrow and away from the likes of drugs, et al. Thus, when his corpse turns up with all this drug related content surrounding him, not only is there a lust for payback to be quenched but for a sense of self correction to be attained. Later on, the lead will have to venture to a very Vietnam-like secluded jungle locale where the chief hostilities lie and the confrontation of his wartime demons must be vanquished if he is to succeed.<br/><br/>There is no discernible narrative to proceedings, just a series of scenes with their own self-referential guile wherein double takes; poorly implemented stock footage and outtakes which have infiltrated their way into the final cut are the norm. Characters and would-be villains come and go; maybe the film is incomprehensible on purpose, maybe scenes are in the wrong order – perhaps some are even missing but you go along with madness incarnate approach to plot on its energy and often amusing moments. For all the references and general content leaning so heavily toward exploitative African American cinema of yester-decade, it is 1971 British film Get Carter to which it seems to doff its hat most. Like Mike Hodges' sensitive and yet all-at-once explosively brutal crime masterpiece, we observe someone out to avenge the death of their brother before further still unravel a plot to do with tight-lipped higher ups of a dominant hierarchy running a racket for their sordid thirsts and business-like gains: the difference being there's a bit of kung-fu here.<br/><br/>I know little of exploitation cinema myself, but I image it was a process of liberation to be able to go to a cinema specialising in stuff that you knew, deep down, you weren't supposed to be watching and/or liking. Whether it was violence; sexual content; bad language or crass gender and racial politics, I suppose there was a sense of the whole exercise being a rising up against the authority embedded in the roots of opting to tune in to one of these films. One's parents, or guardians, would frown upon such things while academics would, I'm sure, almost invariable dismiss said nights out engaging with said pictures as the "lesser" of several cinematic options. Whatever the reality, the film maintains a sense of going up against administrative figures or figures of authority: the people in charge. In Black Dynamite, the enemy for a long while appear to be these suit-clad politicians whose idea to solve problems through words and talk instead of the "old fashioned" way of violence and dishing out a bit of retribution. This rubs the lead the wrong way and I think the film captures that sense of going up against a sort of moral physicality. It doesn't glorify these things, but it does well to, I think, capture the essence of how one might have arrived at watching the film, now, on top of everything that once was. Sanders' film is in the spirit of things, and it does this instead of feeding off petty indulgences alá Death Proof. The film is by no means a masterpiece - it's a bit better than the usual fare of this sort, although does pale in comparison to another one of Tarantino's from this field: From Dusk 'til Dawn. Even so, it's a short, sharp burst of titillation and shenanigans with only a couple of false steps that worked more than it had any right to. This is a funny film. <br/><br/>A very funny film.<br/><br/>Possibly one of the funniest films I've ever seen.<br/><br/>This 2009 film is worryingly convincing as a low-fi, roughly made, poorly acted Blaxploitation film (a genre that grew in popularity in the 1970s USA, Shaft being one of the more well known results).<br/><br/>Starring Michael Jai White (Universal Soldier, Spawn) as the eponymous superman Black Dynamite, this film tells the tale of corruption, drugs and crime and Dynamite's quest to rid his streets of drugs and crime, from the lowliest gangster, right up to the White House (The Honky House, complete with nunchaka wielding Richard Nixon).<br/><br/>White has pretty good comic timing and a lot of the humour is resting on his chiseled shoulders, but the film overall is perfect in its tone. Seemingly very fond of the films it is based on whilst simultaneously being aware of the low production values and bad actors (intentional in this case) are a source of great amusement. So you have booms lowered into shot, forgotten lines, recycled effects, cameras unable to zoom or focus in correctly. I doubt I've laughed as hard as much at a film for a long, long time.<br/><br/>Another pleasant surprise of the film is that it doesn't drag on, or have long patches of weaker material between the funny bits. A sudden plot change 80% of the way through the film seems gratuitous but why shouldn't it be. Almost everything else in the film is over the top in much the same way. <br/><br/>The action scenes are also a nice addition. Jai White, being a very good martial artist himself creates the most professional looking scenes in the film when he's punching, kicking, nunchaka-ing people in the face. <br/><br/>It is still (at the time of writing) a little known film, something that I have been trying very hard to change one viewer at a time. I do urge you to watch this, you won't regret it. Less deadpan spoof than loving act of possession, Black Dynamite near-fully channels the look and feel of its blaxploitation ancestors, warts and all.
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