[Movie Reviews] Black Dynamite

Black Dynamite

Directed by Scott Sanders

Written by Michael Jai White, Scott Sanders, and Byron Minns

Starring Michael Jai White, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Bookem Woodbine, Chris Spencer, Arsenio Hall, Mike Starr, Kym Whitley, Nicole Ari-Parker, Miguel Nunez, Obba Babatunde, and Tommy Davidson

While Black Dynamite may not mark the resurgence of the Blaxploitation genre nor the Black film satire, it is a much-appreciated step in a different direction.

Michael Jai White plays Black Dynamite (First name “Black,” last name “Dynamite”) a pimp/vigilante/ex-Black Ops/ex-Viet Nam vet whose brother is killed in a CIA undercover operation. Dynamite swears to find those responsible for his baby brother’s death, fortunately for the film’s amusing revenge plot, Dynamite’s convictions are as confused as his origin, resulting in one misadventure after another.

Michael Jai White (Spawn, The Dark Knight) has shown glimmers of comedic stamina in other films (Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?, for example), but he has never been better than he is here as the title’s Kung-Fu Cracker killer. He’s supported by a cast filled with comedians, but also filled with dramatic black performers (IS THAT BUBBA GUMP?!) who have obviously been itching to do something outside of the current Hollywood wheelhouse. Accompanied by the hilariously clumsy action scenes, it’s their straight-faced delivery of the chuckling dialogue that allows the film to get by with a wink and a smile, even during its’ slow points.

The satire genre has been disappointingly absent from black film. Nowadays, it is very rare to get films like Hollywood Shuffle, Undercover Brother, and I’m Gonna Get You, Sucka. They’ve all been too quickly replaced by an overabundance of ghetto tragedies and heavy-handed Tyler Perry vehicles. That’s what makes Black Dynamite such a kick, it is paying homage to not just the films of the 70s, but also recognizes the spoofs what followed in the wake of Blaxploitation’s platform shoes.