The B Movie Blog: Black Dynamite

Sometimes watching a man get punched isn't enough. Sometimes you need to see the shit get punched out of him in a way that only an old style Kung Fu movie can deliver. A swift chop accompanied by a loud muffled crack that has so much force the receiver flies back with such velocity it appears that he is jumping backwards. Black Dynamite delivers such blows by the dozen.

Michael Jai White (Spawn, Batman Begins) and Scott Sanders (Thick as Thieves) reteam after a 10-year separation to deliver a 70's blaxploitation homage/satire that's destined to become at the very least a cult classic.

The film was picked up by Sony (whom they purchased most of their stock footage from) at Sundance for $2 million and is bound to reignite the carears of Sanders and White.

Black Dynamite (White) the title character is a complex figure, a loner haunted by dark memories from his past as an ex-CIA operative or in his words "I was the best CIA agent that the CIA ever had in the CIA." He is so alpha male he makes Chuck Norris seem like a wrist cutting anorexic emo teenage girl. When drug dealers enter his community, kill his brother and pump heroin into the orphanage it's time for Mr. Dynamite to put on his best leisure suit and deliver a serious beatdown to anyone messing with his community.

White delivers a truly intertextual performance, as he's not simply playing Dynamite but rather a pro-athlete turned actor playing Dyanmite. With 7 black belts to his name White has no problems selling the violence and for a guy who's built a career playing the tough guy has slamtastic comedic timing.

Sanders and his crew have put in a great deal of effort to make the movie seem as authentic as possible. The film is aged and full of grain. They've also gone out of their way to find shooting locations that haven't changed since the 70's. Sanders says that many of the houses they shot in were homes of older residents who haven't decorated in 40 years. 

The film plays the first two-thirds almost completely straight essentially getting its laughs from the staples of the genre (Uber-masculinity, un-pc racial and gender portrayals, cold dialogue, over the top Kung Fu fights and just generally being pretty badass) throw in a few boom slips, bad stunt double replacement and archive footage from 70's films and TV shows and you've got yourself a film so dead on that a channel surfer would have a hard time working out that this is not real blaxploitation.

However Sanders, White and Byron Minns (co-writers) realize that there is a limit to how far they can push this formulae (there's only so many similar Kung Fu fights the average audience member can take) and thankfully as it begins to tire they change gears and accelaerate to a climax at ludicris speed.

Who will like it: Action junkies, Kung Fu fans and admirers of other satires like Anchorman and Tropic Thunder.

Who won't: Apparently the film tested poorly with older black church groups. 

Interesting fact: The original title for the film was Superbad but apparently some other film with that name came out recently and caused quite the ruckus.

Quote of the movie: "I do two things well: Take money from bitches and sell drugs to the community." - Pimp

Unfortunately the film is getting a very limited release this weekend (Oct 16 – 18, 2009) in only 70 locations across the US hopefully it will be popular enough to warrant an expansion but if not look out for it on DVD, Blu-Ray, iTunes or wherever you kids are getting your entertainment these days.

While you’re waiting why not sit back and here what Bite TV’s Professor Kuling has to say about pimps and hos cause that’s just good recessionomics.

This review is based on a screening at the 2009 Toronto After Dark Film Festival: http://torontoafterdark.com