Day 044 || Black Dynamite

Black Dynamite, 2009

Dir. Scott Sanders

"Who the hell is interrupting my kung fu?!"

Black Dynamite is a clever and often downright hilarious tribute to 70's blaxploitation films that conforms completely to the genre by meticulously pinning down all the faults and highpoints of that era. But Black Dynamite does this knowingly and purposefully and it's a better film for it.

I've compared several other films to the grindhouse style of cinema before, but none of them really come as close to perfection as Black Dynamite. The only contenders to the thrown would be Tarantino's and Rodriguez' Grindhouse double feature, also filled with all the flaws and charms.

Black Dynamite is the story of Black Dynamite (that's his name, honest), who is an ex-CIA hitman, who just got back from Vietnam only to find that the ghetto is being overrun by a problem involving little orphans on smack, and a grim premise involving a spiked malt liquor being released to take the black man down. In fact, you could say Black Dynamite closely resembles Undercover Brother, but it takes the parody of the blaxploitation film even further by using washed out film effects and a grainy and dirty cinematic look that mirrors that era of film perfectly.

It's also helped by a stellar lead performance by Michael Jai White who has the strong, black, powerful lead down to a tee, and does it all so deadpan that it grounds the film and keeps it hilarious at the same time. The rest of the cast is charismatic and they all have their moments, but without Michael Jai White this film wouldn't work nearly as well as it does now.

My only problem is a third act twist that asks entirely too much from the audience in terms of believability, and seems like the director and writers (script was also penned by Michael Jai White) were winking a little too hard at the audience. And for such a grounded feeling film, the twist is so tonally different and is similar to the twist in Undercover Brother, where The Man was going to try to brainwash black people with fried chicken. Whereas that worked in Undercover Brother sense that film in over-the-top entirely throughout, it seems out of place here for some reason.

Overall Black Dynamite is great fun, and I've seen it made some top lists of 2009, and rightfully so. It's worth the viewing for fans of cinema both good and bad, especially if you could remember watching some of these types of exploitation flicks in your youth. It's hilarious and clever, even if sometimes the jokes run a tad too long. Altogether it's a film I highly recommend.

4 out of 5