Latest DVD Releases Films: Black Dynamite [Blu-ray]

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Black Dynamite [Blu-ray]

Black Dynamite [Blu-ray] Review

Somewhere out there Rudy Ray Moore is smiling down on us all. I have to admit first that 70's kung fu and blaxploitation films rank 1A&1B in my fave type of movie. This movie is so much more than I could have hoped for. I was expecting something like the Wayans would make (Usually a waste of perfectly good film). This movie is to the genre what Kung Fu Hustle is to the martial arts genre. It is almost perfect in its portrayal. Michael Jai White plays it seriously, but you always know he is in on the joke. His throw away lines had me laughing out loud; especially a line delivered to a doctor after the nurse walks out. I won't belabor the point, but this is must-see for fans of the blaxploitation genre.

Black Dynamite [Blu-ray] Overview

An all-star cast led by Michael Jai White is featured in this 1970's-style blaxploitation action fiilm about the legendary super crime fighter "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 [Blu-ray] Specifications

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)