Movies.ie

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• Currently 4/5 Stars.

Movies.ie Critic Review

When his only brother is killed, Black Dynamite (White) sets out for revenge. As luck would have it, his brother was killed by The Man – a shady individual who has also been pumping heroin into the local orphanage. And is setting out to emasculate African American men with some malt liquor. Being reinstated into the CIA helps, but our boy knows that this is one fight where he will eventually have to go it alone. Given that everyone in government is corrupt. And intent on keeping the black man down.

THE VERDICT:

A deeply affectionate, and pretty hilarious, tribute to the blaxploitation genre, writer/star Michael Jai White gets the tone just right, never slipping into mere farce or trying to offer up a pale imitation. How can you not love a movie where the hero ends up battling Dr. Wu on Kung Fu Island? White was inspired here whilst listening to James Brown's Super Bad. Hopefully, he'll be inspired to write a sequel too.

Review By Paul Byrne

• Avg User rating
• Currently 4/5 Stars.

User Reviews

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  maircc

  

• • Currently 5/5 Stars.

  razorblade_kiss

  

  I wasn't too sure it would work as a movie but I was wrong, its brilliant and very funny. The movie's continuity errors and flashback scenes are great.

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  vu1999uk

  

  This film is great fun. A wondeful tribute to blaxplotation films of the 70's. While not filled with huge laugh out loud moments, its just the type of film, that has you grinning thoughout.

• • Currently 5/5 Stars.

  ssconnolly

  

  This year we have been subjected to more dull rom-coms and apparent comedies than anyone deserves and not only were they critically mauled but very few performed at the box office. and this raises the very important question; what were the Hollywood studios thinking when they decided to make this a straight to DVD feature? Black Dynamite is hands down the funniest film I've seen this year, and I can't actually remember the last time I laughed as much during a film. Sure we've had some gems. Hot Tub Time Machine hugely impressed and I quite enjoyed She's out of my League. But this film easily eclipses them both and hopefully the worldwide audiences will appreciate it more than the Americans did. The story follows 1970's African-American action legend and titular character Black Dynamite. When his brother is killed by The Man Black Dynamite takes to the street to seek his revenge, getting caught up in a conspiracy involving tainted malt liquor and heroin being pumped into the Ghetto and even the orphanages. Black Dynamite, collaborating with his like-minded team acts as the only hero willing to take on The Man and start the revolution. There are very few people out there who would disagree that the spoof genre in recent years have drastically been getting worse. The days of Hot Shots and Leslie Nielsen are long gone and for me Scary Movie and Walk Hard have been the only memorable spoofs since the 90's. Well now we also have Black Dynamite as silver lining number 3. And there is a simple reason why Black Dynamite is a successful spoof and that is because its very well made. All recent spoofs such as the appropriately named Disaster Movie, Epic Movie and basically everything with movie in the title have been terrible, but the blame lies with the filmmakers. They always have no sense of plot progression, they are brutally directed and endless amounts of stupid childish jokes are thrown around in the hope that some will raise a laugh. But Black Dynamite is brilliantly made. Every aspect of the film makes you laugh at some stage. The story is silly and ludicrous but gives the film the perfect tone, the characters are smart, hilarious spoofs on action heroes of the 80's, the fight scenes are hysterically elaborate and even the brilliant soundtrack raised some laughs in the cinema. It got loads of quality one-liners and has already become the most quoted thing among my friends. It never needs to resort to being rude, crude or just plain sick to stir laughs, this is comedy at it's finest. Unlike most spoofs it isn't all stupid. Sure there are some silly gags but there's also far more clever jokes to strike the right balance. And thats just what the spoof genre needed, some smarts. Some of the gags such as the boom mic coming into the frame somewhat cheapen the film as that is probably the most basic spoof joke and this film is original enough not to require it. So all in all Black Dynamite is hands down the funniest film of this year and the best spoof film I've seen since the 90's. I didn't really except much from this, just a silly moderately funny film. But it is comedy gold and though it won't be some peoples kind of humour I can say that myself and all my mates loved it. No matter what is happening in the film, whether it be an action scene or the death of a beloved character Black Dynamite keeps you laughing. It's not juvenile, sick or dumb it is what comedy films are meant to be and I highly recommend it. Basically if you like the classic spoofs such as Duck Soup, Airplane, Naked Gun, or the genius but horribly underrated T.V show Darkplace then this is the must see film of the year for you.

• • Currently 5/5 Stars.

  masonica

  

  This film is a note perfect riff on the 70's blaxpoitation films of that era. The only difference is that this is amped-up to INSANE. Tremendously funny and kick-ass at the same time. Cracking good music too.