When drug dealers take out his kid brother, ex-CIA agent Black Dynamite (Spawn‘s Michael Jai White) makes like a karate-chopping dynamo to track them down. Armed with a .44 Magnum, a set of nunchucks, and a sexy ‘stache, Big D starts out in the City of Angels, where his buddies Cream Corn (In Living Color‘s Tommy Davidson), a hustler, and Bullhorn (co-writer Byron Minns), a club owner, offer to lend a hand. The deeper Dynamite digs, the more endangered his life becomes as he uncovers a conspiracy to keep the black man down by flooding the streets with malt liquor and filling the country’s orphanages with smack. Since the smooth operator has a way with the ladies, he also enlists Gloria (I Am Legend‘s Salli Richardson-Whitfield), a socially-conscious soul sister, to aid in his clean-up campaign. Director Scott Sanders and White, who co-wrote the script, collaborated on 1998′s Thick as Thieves, and their chemistry shines through. If the supporting cast can be a little wooden, White gives Shaft‘s Richard Roundtree a run for the money with his cool-cat charisma. Set in 1972, Black Dynamite doesn’t just act like a movie from the Superfly era, it looks and sounds like one, too, courtesy Adrian Younge’s old-school funk score, Shawn Maurer’s 16mm cinematography, a cartoon credit sequence, and some carefully choreographed boom mic appearances. And dig those crazy cameos: Arsenio Hall as Tasty Freeze, Brian McKnight as Sweet Meat, and NBA veteran John Salley as Kotex. –Kathleen C. Fennessy
Stills from Black Dynamite (Click for larger image)
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Buy “Black Dynamite “ For Only $21.99
January 5, 2006
#1
I’m a big fan of 70′s Blaxploitation films, but you don’t have to be to hate this. It was one of the most idiotic movies I have seen in a long time.
African action legend Black Dynamite goes after ‘The Man’ for killing his brother Jimmy, for pumping heroin into local orphanages and for flooding the ghetto with hopped-up malt liquor.
It’s just so cliched and dumb. So it’s acceptable for a black person to use racial slurs against white people as long as its in a comedy huh? And to shoot honkeys in the [blank]? There was no moment in this movie where I completely lost my serious face.
I didn’t laugh once in the theater, maybe just once but that was at a fat lady who had fallen out of her chair in the theater.
Pretty awful movie and it’s a shame you can watch this film in Germany.
January 5, 2006
#2
I fail to see why people say that this movie was funny. It wasn’t. Sure it was a 100% spot on portrayal of a 70′s blaxplotation movie. The costumes, dialect, style and original music was excellent.
I just did not find this funny at all. It seems people found the humor in the fact that it just mimmicked an old movie. However, the movie didn’t have anything funny.
Let see: Wow, was it hilarious that a boom mike appears in while MJW was filming. No.
Was the whole Richard Nixon scene at the end funny because he knows kung fu. Not really. Nor
was it funny when a ghost of Lincoln appears.
The cut scene while driving on the highway. Nope no hilarious.
The pimp scene with Arsenio, Tommy Davidson, Brian McNight, no humor there either.
Did I watch a different movie? All the slight gags in this movie have been done before in more recent movies. If you never saw them then maybe I can see why you laughed.
This movie was totally flat. The best part of this movie was the Original Music.
This movie was released in 70 theatres and had buzz created from those screens. I can tell why the studio did this, because if it was released wider you’d see more reactions like mine.
I guess some people will laugh at anything.
The funniest movie of 2009 was “The Hangover”. How anyone found this movie funny is beyond me.
January 5, 2006
#3
I pre-ordered “Black Dynamite” back in September. I patiently waited to receive the disc which should have been released on 11/17/2009. You can imagine how P.O.’d I was to open my package from Amazon on 11/19/2009 to find I’d been shipped “Black Soul Dynamite” a 3 disc collection of marginal 70′s/80′s exploitation films instead! Evidently the DVD release has been pushed back until early 2010 with not specific date given as of yet.
Amazon’s customer support explained their shipping error. However no explanation was given as to why customers who pre-ordered the “Black Dynamite” DVD were not informed of the change in the release date or why the original orders were not put on hold. Anyone else have this experience? Two big thumbs down to Amazon’s customer support for not being on point informing it’s customers about the pre-order status for this title.
Update 02/17/2009: I’ve finally viewed the DVD (courtesy of Redbox). Very Funny film overall. No real complaints here. However I was hoping that the DVD extras would be more extensive. It would have also have been nice to included the alternate cut of the film that’s circulating on the net for some time now. A no-brainer purchase for those who enjoy the “Blacksploitation” genre this film is such a loving and hilarious homage to.
January 5, 2006
#4
I agree with reviewer R.Tubbs. In my opinion this movie was horrible! I anticipated it’s release for Blue ray weeks before it was released to video. Now usually I’ll rent a blue ray movie before I buy it (I have a large collection of dvd’s that don’t get watched often), but in this case I just knew I’d enjoy this movie, so I bought it. I love the 70′s and most things about it, clothes, music,slang etc., so I figured that I couldn’t go wrong with this purchase……man was I wrong!
This movie is very “corny” the laughs were few and far between (I loved the clothes, the slang, and other homages to the 70′s though),no wonder it didn’t get much advertisement when it was in the theaters.
Yeah, different strokes for different folks. Some of you may find it funny, but I say watch it first and be sure, so you don’t waste your money on another dvd that wont get much air play at home. For you Blue ray owners, they put an old 1970′s look to this movie with the camera, so the colors aren’t very vivid, kind of toned down, doesn’t do justice for blue ray.
January 5, 2006
#5
This movie is just fun all around. It never takes itself seriously, but doesn’t come across as being self-righteous. The script is fantastic, and I’d put it on the level of The Big Lebowski as far as being able to quote it all day long. The music is great too and really captures the funky ass-kicking throughout the movie.
I have to admit, the theatrical version was not my favorite. I saw a leaked version on the web that included all of the deleted scenes plus a few changes. Personally I liked that version more, and I was hoping it would be included in the DVD.
A few lines to whet your whistle:
“Your knowledge of biological scientific transmogrification is outmatched only by your zest for kung fu treachery!” – Black Dynamite
“Donuts don’t wear alligator shoes” – BD
“So you’re of them Tom Slick fellas that gets by on his good looks, a wink, and smile?”
“Well I appreciate the compliment” – BD (with a wink)
“And the smile?”
“I am smiling” – BD (with a stern look)