Thanks to the miracle of Netflix, the other night I watched Black Dynamite.
It was fun; a light-hearted spoof of the old blaxploitation flicks. Our hero is a pimp (of course) and an ex-CIA man with righteous kung-fu skills! His quest to find out who killed his little brother Jimmy takes him all the way to the top, as he uncovers a sinister plot!
The grand finale is a kung-fu battle between Black Dynamite and Tricky Dick Nixon.
…with pauses along the way for a fun scene in which he and his bros deduce the nature of the plot, a discussion of the eternal nature of pimping, and a hilariously stiff romantic montage with a Righteous Sister.
My favorite thing about that movie was the sheer, loving detail they took with it. The clothes, the acting, the visible boom mike, the messed up continuity in certain scenes - I’ve watched a lot of actual blacksploitation flicks, and Black Dynamite did an absolutely amazing job of being both homage and parody.
Speaking of the things like the visible boom mike:
There’s a scene outside the (chili and donuts?) place where some bad guys pull up, get out and start shooting. The car starts to roll off and one guy has to jump back in and set the brake.
According to the DVD special features, the driver actually neglected to set the parking brake and the scene wasn’t staged to happen like that. They loved it though and kept it in the final product.
I figured Dopers would be tuned into this awesomeness.
Doctor examines Black Dynamite’s gunshot wound… Doctor: You’re lucky, Black Dynamite. Three inches to the left and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Black Dynamite: Three inches to the right and he would’ve missed my black ass.
Just watched it maybe 3 or 4 weeks ago for the first time, after hearing about it from some podcast or another (maybe it was The Morning Show?) (ETA: No, it was on the Nerdist podcast.) Anyhow, fucking golden. Loved it.
That is a brilliant phrase and the bit with the camera view centered on the one guy trying to get away to the right, then to the left, then to the right again and being stopped each time is funny, funny stuff.
This is a great movie, but I’d say that there’s almost too much stuff in it. I’m saying almost though – there’s not a way you can do a blaxploitation parody and not overstuff it with all the things that make those films the way there are/were.
Yup yup, I saw this in the theater and agree with all about the awesome awesomeness of the movie. I hear there’s rumblings of a sequel, and I’d like to see it. Michael Jai White nails the role and I want to see more.
[off topic]I thought of this movie the other night when I was at the theater to see The Troll Hunter (for an insanely fun double feature with Attack The Block) and I saw a preview of what I thought was a satire/parody/homage to the '70’s. I thought to myself “Wow, they did an even better job than Black Dynamite getting the look and the feel right, even the film stock!”
Turns out it was the original preview to a movie called Skatetown, U.S.A. which was released in 1979. I thought that one guy looked like Scott Baio, but thing is, Black Dynamite and Super 8 has me primed now to look for current movies made to look like movies of that era.
