At the Movies: Black Dynamite…

Updated on October 19, 2009 By Ken Begg 12 Comments

OK, I might be slightly exaggerating when I say that Black Dynamite is the GREATEST MOVIE I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE, but not by much.  You know that very, very rare experience when a film is 100% of what you hoped it would be?  That’s Black Dynamite.

The fact that this film is in theaters is a miracle, and since like most recent geek-oriented movies (Grindhouse, Snakes on a Plane, etc.) it’s not being supported by the demographics it aims at, it won’t be there long.  If you can get out to see it before Friday, when it quite possibly will leave most or all theaters, DO SO.  You’ll thank me.  Don’t wait, though.  The film’s per screen average of $2,000 is sadly pretty dreadful.

I won’t talk a lot about the movie, because why blow the gags?  Even so, this is far more like Grindhouse than, say, Undercover Brother (which was funny) or I’m Gonna Get You Sucka (ditto), in that it aims to really replicate a ’70s blaxploitation film rather than just spoof them.

This isn’t to say that BD isn’t a comedy, just that it generates laughs–lots of them–less through outright gags and more in incredibly knowing and sly knowledge of the source films.  Which doesn’t mean you need to be a blaxploitation buff to think it funny; my friends Paul and Holly went with me, and they’ve seen nary a Cleopatra Jones between them, and they enjoyed it greatly too.  Holly, in fact, was pretty bummed out that it wouldn”t be on DVD in time to show it after B-Fest.

Again, this is film buff heaven.  Yes, there are lots of overt laughs, but that ones that REALLY tickled me were the more sly ones.  When the hero’s brother Jimmy gets shot (the revenge plot being all but mandatory), he’s standing about four feet from the guy shooting him.  Despite this, they go to split screen during this, even though you’d see the shot the same way if they didn’t.

And while it’s fun to keep an eye out for the ‘inadvertent’ boom mikes dropping into the shot, I laughed far harder at the incredibly precise handle they had on clunky bad exposition, like how everyone keeps tell the hero that Jimmy was “your only brother,” as if he wouldn’t know that.  And when the hero’s own aunt kept calling him Black Dynamite I about peed my pants.

Definitely my favorite movie of the year.

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  • Ericb

    The tv add is great. I loved the horrible matte shot of the hero falling in fron of an explosion

  • My favorite line of dialogue is at Jimmy’s funeral, when BD’s aunt says “Your momma would roll over in her grave if she was here today to see this!”

  • ProfessorKettlewell

    Have to say, Ken, it’s a nice to experience to read you givin’ love to films you think are good. I know that your site has always been about earnest love for Bad movies, but just recently, there’s been some hate creeping in there. I could actually see black bile dripping down my monitor when I was reading that “Klansman” review.

    Anyway, this movie does look great.

  • Well, I’d like to think that it was because Klansman was a particularly vile film. I count on your guys to keep me honest, though.

    So thanks.

  • kerii

    I agree… I’d like to see you go back to reviewing more “fun” bad movies. All your reviews are great, but that Klansman review was pretty acidic in places.

  • Ericb

    Richard Burton is no Tom Laughlin.

  • The irony is that I wrote the Klansman review like six or seven years ago, but just had never posted it. So it’s not a case of me having just gotten more jaded.

  • Loki

    I want to see this so badly. Unfortunately, it’s not getting a run here in Madison, WI…which is greatly disappointing. I loved Grindhouse and Snakes on a Plane, so this is right up my alley. The sad thing is…the fans say they want movies like this, but like you said…they don’t support them.

    I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it makes it’s way this way…otherwise I’ll just hafta wait for DVD. And that’s a damn shame.

  • ProfessorKettlewell

    Ken: I never meant to infer that you were being dishonest or affecting jadedness. But what’s delightful about your writing is when you get to work on something like ‘The Trial of Billy Jack’ or ‘Superman 4’ – which obviously chafe at every single political or sociological opinion you have – and obviously have a world of fun doing so.

    And since someone dared to invoke Count Von Burton, a little aside: I read on another (more TV=related) board that Dwight Shultz based his ‘A-Team’ performance on Richie B’s worst excesses. I wondered whether this is (a) common knowledge (b) plain wrong or (c) unstated but with some mileage.

    Oh, and for the record, the line “The problem with the Soviet Union wasn’t that it was breeding a super-race of boxers to come here and snap the necks of our boxers.” is still the funniest thing ever written. I want a T-shirt with that on it.

  • Prof: I didn’t take it that way at all. Sorry, I think I expressed myself poorly. Still, if I’m not having fun, I doubt you guys will be having any fun, and then what’s the point? And if I ever start being a drag, I’d want people to let me know.

    (Not that watching me occasionally getting my cinematic ass kicked doesn’t provide some amusement.)

  • ProfessorKettlewell

    Well: there it is. We have fun when you have fun ;)

  • Rock Baker

    There is something to be said for your reviews of GOOD movies, Ken. I think my favorite piece is your in depth look at Jaws. When you take note of how something works in a picture, you seem to show more delight than when you rend a pic for the humor it provides. I like those occasional bits of praise that pop up in your takes on Destination Inner-Space, Beach Girls and the Monster, and Horror of Party Beach. Granted, I also loved the skewering Trial of Billy Jack took, but my delight there does have some political and logical bias.