Black Dynamite

Brilliant! Unbelievably funny throughout. Some of the line delivery is just so epic, especally the boomerang bit. Cannot recommend this enough

A really well studied homage and satire of the 1970s blaxploitation genre. The music, wardrobe, camerawork and editing all show that the filmmakers have a clear love of the genre and know exactly what they’re doing. The script’s also well written, it effortlessly finds the right level of camp in every scene and knows how to present jokes in a way that feels clever. If it’s your sense of humour, you might just find one of your new favourite comedies here. They made the story a bit too convoluted in order to keep it engaging, but I can already tell that I’ll remember a lot of scenes because the acting and directing choices are so strong. It’s just one of those films where you can tell everyone involved had a lot of fun making it, and while that doesn’t always result in the best movies, this one is a blast from start to finish.

8/10

Wish I could have a Black Dynamite in my life. 

Surprisingly good. It is a very well made movie with a lot of character and doesn't take itself too seriously. I can easily recommend this movie.

Think Kung Fury but blaxploitation and a little less "silly". That is what you get with Black Dynamite.

There is no "i" in "revolut- team."

(434-word review) At long last: my ultra-extended film hiatus, beginning at the end of October and was supposed to end near the end of December, is over. It's been a minute; I got lazy, not to mention intimidated at the length of films compared to the shorter/easier/easily consumable duration of TV episodes.

So, to get back in the groove of films (and also my first film of 2023), I decided to go with one that's short. And for some reason, I thought of this; well, I thought of _Napoleon Dynamite_ first, then the word 'dynamite' made me remember this. I went with this one, and it was a good choice. It was a shorter film, which I was looking for, so that was a pleasant surprise. I didn't know what to expect; I didn't even attempt to do so. I went straight in.

What came at me was a concoction of epic proportions. Some ingredients were good: the cinematography/editing, a good script/dialogue (particularly the dialogue; so many good one-liners), and a good soundtrack.

It's a fair assumption that most of my enjoyment stemmed from those things; they were very effective, so much so that my rating should be higher, except for one problem: an element of confusion, which presented itself in two ways.

One.) The plot. It was all over the place; hard to follow. While I'm 99% sure it was intentional (to an extent; there may have been a cut scene or two), it's not enjoyable in a 'so-bad-it's-good' way because the film itself is not in that category in the first place. Take _The Room_, for example: bad, through-and-through, yet in a bad-but-good way. You can't say this film follows that example, and having the plot all over the place drags it down instead.

Two.) The characters, particularly Dynamite's "crew." They felt dangling instead of attached, dangled to different places instead of being grounded in coherence: no proper connection to the film. In a way, this is an extension of the first point. My point is that this sowed more confusion, building upon the same from the erratic plot. Again, this, too, was likely intentional. But for me, it missed the mark.

Unfortunately, those two things dragged the film down a bit. Michael Jai White/Black Dynamite was the undisputed highlight, along with individual scenes; Tommy Davidson/Cream Corn was also a highlight. But aspects like the ones mentioned in the third paragraph, on top of Michael and Tommy's performances, couldn't overcome the impact.

The remaining result was still sufficient/sufficiently enjoyable, only not to the point it could've been.

A wickedly funny parody of the Blaxploitation action genre of the 1970s. Shot on era-appropriate film with matching wardrobe, transportation, window dressings and hairstyles (oh, the hair in this movie), if I didn't know any better I'd have sworn it was an authentic gem from the heyday of Sweet Sweetback and Superfly TNT.

Despite paying homage to an era that wasn't exactly known for its realistic portrayal of the world, Black Dynamite somehow manages to be even campier than its forefathers, to great effect. It's amazingly successful at taking every aspect of the genre to task, from acting to editing to photography to the trainwreck of clicheés that defined the decade, yet the story still manages to effectively one-up itself dozens of times before the climax. Genuine buried treasure.

Well made movie, funny where it's not meant to be funny