Black Dynamite

The Blaxploitation genre has always been ripe for parody, and Black Dynamite shows no mercy in successfully skewering this popular style of film from the 70's. Star and co-writer Michael Jai White would have made a perfect leading man of an actual film of this type, if he only he'd been born about 30 years earlier than he was. As it is, he plays it straight, and lets the cheesy, over-the-top, and quite funny script provide the laughs. The film does it right by placing the action in the 70's, as this is no fish out of water tale. Some of the films that have spoofed the genre have updated the action to the current day, with less than optimum effect. The original films were funny enough to begin with, no need to take this one out of the era to which it belongs. Here, big fat sideburns and polyester shirts with huge collars are the norm. The plot is strictly Blaxploitation 101, "whitey", or "the man", whichever you prefer, has hatched a plot to sell tainted malt liquor in the ghetto, and it's up to Black Dynamite to foil the plans. BD has all of the elements you'd expect, kung fu action with high decibel sound effects, awkward musical introductions, jive talkin' supporting players, and yes, even Richard Nixon. The audience I saw it with enjoyed it as much as I did, and whether you've seen many of the originals or like myself have not, you should definitely get a lot of fun out of this one. See it my man.

Rating - 3 Stars