I've seen alot of Blaxploitation movies from the 70's Grindhouse, to the Spike Lee Generation. I can honestly say that BLACK DYNAMITE is one of the cooliest, funniest, and action packed form of entertainment shoved into 90min of pure fun.
Black Dynamite, a former CIA agent, vows to clean up the streets after his brother is killed by a shady organization. O' Leary, Blacks old CIA partner, reinstates Dynamite back into the agency because they don't want him to seek vengeance on his own. Trying to get to the bottom od his brother's death, he finds out that his brother actually worked for the CIA. Dynamite also finds out the shady organization is filling orphanages with Herion. He declares war on local drug dealers and trys to successfully clean up the streets.
The film really goes back to the roots of grindhouse exploitation. The shots are sometimes out of focus, and shakey camera work. Everytime Dynamite enters a room, a 70's Soul ballad comes on that has a sound of old school James Brown and screams: DYNAMITE... DYNAMITE!
The fight scenes are made to make you laugh, with old school black guys all geared out looking like 70's pimps doing hardcore Kung Fu. This film exploders with loads of good fun.
Michael Jai White, who plays Black Dynamite delievers every line with a punch, and makes sure that Black Dynamite will be remembered like John McMillcam in Die Hard, and Dirty Harry in the Dirty Harry series. Pulling all the stops, and cracking all the drug dealers in the face.
What really makes this film interesting, for me is the fact that they thought of the idea aroudn April 2006, while listening to James Brown's, Superbad. Michael Jai, used to host blaxpoitation movie parties where he picked up the "funny inconsistencies" in the films. White would rent costumes, photographed himself to show Scott Sanders (the director) who was attached to the idea.
The orignal trailer was recorded even before the film went into Production in order to raise money. It incorporated scenes from old blaxploitation movies with old voice overs from Adolph Caesar. The trailer was shot on Super 8mm film for around $ 500. White and Sanders showed it to Jon Steingart who said right away, "Oh My God! Okay, we can raise the money for this.
After it was financed, the script took 3 weeks. With Sanders getting a bit off track, he was able to hlep more in the re- write. With Byron Minns knowledge of blaxploitation, he was able to write the script faster, and faster.
The production was shot on Super 1`6 reversal Kodak Film Stock to get the high contrast and saturated look. It would be later converted to digital for editing. It was shot in 20 years in LA wuth several green screen days and one re-shoot. Considering its low budget of 2.9 Million, they really had to think in the older blaxploitation movies. They did have a difficult time removing the modern world out of the film. Sanders was worried anything modern, could destroy the film , while White worked individually with actors to keep their tone correct.
Black Dynamite permired at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival where Sony Worldwide Asquisitions picked it up for distributation for nearly 2 Million. In June it went on and won the Golden Space Needle Audience Award for Best Film at the Seattle International Film Festival, beating out THE HURT LOCKER, among other films.
Go see BLACK DYNAMITE its funny as hell for the Frat House drinking buddies, a riot of a film for stoners alike, and cleaver enough for the film buffs.
Street Trash Ratin: 8/10
Street Trash: Some people won't get it, if you love bad movies you'll love what its trying to do. Movies that try to look bad always turn out to be a hit.
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