Review: Black Dynamite

To quote Bad Boys II, "Shit just got real." Welcome to Black Dynamite, a beautifully over-the-top movie about jive-ass turkeys, kung fu, and enough bitches to fill a shopping mall, can ya dig? Ok, enough blaxploitation jokes, I would hate for you to think I am biased. Honestly, I wasn't looking forward to this movie. When I saw the trailer I thought it was just another lame parody in the style of Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, etc. Thankfully, I was surprised at the high quality of the film.

The plot is as follows: after a deal gone bad, a mafia kingpin guns down an inner-city drug-dealer. It turns out the drug-dealer just happened to be Black Dynamite's brother. While the F.B.I. tries to contain the one-man army/sex-god/jive brother, Black Dynamite beats down everyone stupid enough to get in the way of his awesome kung fu action. Along the way he finds tough sister who is being hunted down by the Man, and begins to unravel a fiendish plot to take down all brothers.

While the plot seems simple enough the writing is nothing short of brilliant and it goes far beyond the supposed blaxploitation spoof. The story ranges from hilariously stupid (in a good way) to surprisingly intelligent. Through the course of the film, Black Dynamite witnesses a civil rights movement in which a soulful civil rights activist fights against a fiery African-American bureaucrat as the two fight for the hearts of their inner-city audience. In another scene he encounters a militant black power organization and discusses a possible revolution. Thankfully, the writers seem to realize that character development in a comedy should only serve to set-up for another joke, and all of the "deep" parts of the movie give way to someone getting shot, laid or both.

The pacing of the film is also one of its strong points. This movie is about as fast paced as Shoot 'Em Up, but instead of constant crazy action (although there is enough of that) the movie has a surprising amount of hilarious dialogue. In one notable scene, Black Dynamite and his fellow brothers unravel a Da Vinci Code-esque mystery through their extensive knowledge of ancient Greek culture.   

Visually, the film is spot on: the settings are of a 1970s poverty stricken major city (which is never named) and are beautiful in their depiction of a ghetto. The film quality is also quite good, and the close-ups of the characters show the above-average (for a low-budget film) quality. So why is this important? Director Scott Sanders seems to get what most people don't: comedies should make people laugh! I had seen so many awful spoofs recently that I forgot what good spoofs were. Good spoofs don't have grainy unwatchable sequences with spots, scratchy sound and cut out during sex scenes (a.k.a. Grindhouse). Part of a good spoof is making sure that the viewer knows that when it's shitty, it's that way for a reason. In the first few minutes of the movie, Black Dynamite goes on a rant about justice and taking on the man (can ya dig?) when he stands up and a microphone is clearly visible in the shot. He rants for half a minute before bumping his head against the microphone, turns in surprise to look at it, but then tries in vain to act seriously despite the mishap. In addition to the microphone incident, there are a few stock scenes, a.k.a. every time a car is about to crash, regardless of the type of car, the film cuts to a blue mustang rolling down a hill on fire. This attention to detail and the only occasional "bad quality" shows that this film is serious in its attempts to make fun of blaxploitation films, yet it isn't so pretentious that it won't make fun of itself.

The acting in this movie is definitely above expectations. Michael Jai White (Gambol in The Dark Knight) is brilliant as Black Dynamite and brings both depth and flair to his role. While the actors and actresses in the film are mostly B-listers they each bring distinct character to their roles.

Finally, can you watch this movie and laugh without feeling guilty? Without getting into the issue of white guilt and how many films in the recent past have capitalized on over-used racial stereotypes, does Black Dynamite steer clear of racist humor and manage to make fun of race relations without resorting to uncomfortable race jokes? Answer: yes. When you leave this film you get a sense that it is making fun of a movie genre, our perceptions of race, and its own unique style, not African-Americans. In fact, the n-word is used extremely sparingly throughout the entire movie, practically unheard of in a lot of comedy films today. Despite resorting to a lot of lowbrow humor, even at its lowest, Black Dynamite manages to keep the high ground. In short, this movie is nothing short of brilliant.