Black Dynamite (Michael Jai White) is the baddest motherfucker in town. When he's not spreading his love amongst hordes of women (usually at the same time), he's kicking the ass of all the scum in town. After hearing about the murder of his brother over a drug deal, he stops at nothing to bring the guilty to justice. He joins forces with old friends Bullhorn (Byron Minns) and Cream Corn (Tommy Davidson) and soon uncovers a massive conspiracy involving smack-addicted orphans, spiked malt liquor, and general deceitfulness by The Man. As he goes deeper, he realises that the conspiracy may stretch higher than he could have possibly imagined.
The blaxpolitation genre is something of an easy target for a spoof - the films, though generally enjoyable, featured terrible acting, cheap cinematography and clunky scripts that are funny on their own. But Black Dynamite manages to pull off the trick of being funny while at the same time displaying a real love for the genre. It's fun to pick out the homages, especially replaying an infamous scene from cult movie Disco Godfather (1979) (which if you haven't scene, please watch instantly). It also has some killer one-liners, such as 'how many times have I told you not to call here and interrupt my kung-fu?' and 'I'm declaring war against anyone who sells drugs in the community'/'but Black Dynamite, I sell drugs in the community!'. For all its positives, the film unfortunately runs out of steam near the end and seems to look like it's clutching at straws and running out of jokes. However, I do hope for a sequel as there is a lot of promise here.
Directed by: Scott Sanders
Country: USA
Rating: ***
Tom Gillespie
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