2024 will probably go down for me as the year where the TV listings just DID NOT relent in trying to make up to me for years of crappy scheduling. ‘Black Dynamite’ comes courtesy of ITV this year…for some reason. and it’s been on my ‘to watch’ list for years…free is the best price in my book, so I settled down and I was NOT dissapointed.

‘Black Dynamite’ is essentially a parody of blacksploitation films styalized to the 1970s and occasionally using ACTUAL cutaway footage from blacksploitation films. But its greatest strength at times can be its biggest weakness.

The plot follows ‘Black Dynamite’ an ex-CIA agent whos essentially an amalgamation of Dolemite, Shaft and a bevvy of other Blacksploitation heros. who’s dragged into ‘one last mission’ when his brother Jimmy ends up killed by drug dealers, leading him to recruit a chapter of the black panthers, some local pimps and pushers and even members of the CIA to track down the killers and get the steady supply of smack off the street and out of the hands of the poor unfortunate orphan children!

And I wont go as far as to say this thing was a laugh riot, but it was absolutely a lot of fun! the plot is barely coherent (on purpose) and utilises the old trick of ‘its a fake bad movie, so we get to do on set goofs like leave the boom mic in and its funny because of that!’ Which, im usually kind of against, but here they make it so effortless, a personal favourite being a scene where gangsters turn up at a coffee shop and start to open fire, only for one of the ‘gang’ members to realise they hadnt put the parking break on their car, which slowly starts to roll away, before jumpcutting back into place.

Theres TONS of in jokes and references to real life blacksploitation films. But that, in a way becomes its achilles heel. Because the blacksploitation genre in and of itself is SO over the top and ludicrous in places. ‘Black Dynamite’ at times feels like its trying to out-comedy ACTUAL movies accidental comedy. Which is a bit of a perilous place to put your movie as, from my own experience, natural accidental comedy almost always trumps carefully planned comedy.

Films like ‘The Human Tornado’ or ‘Supersoul brother’ thrive on the fact they’re being made for a budget of 20 cents and a dream and its the little moments that cemented it into film history. Black dynamite had a budget, and is *trying* to recapture that lightning in a bottle…and I feel it does so with mixed success…When it hits, its hilarious…But when it misses, you really feel it.

as for the script itself, its fun! maybe about 10-15 minutes longer than I would have liked, but they nail the tone and theming they’re aiming for, at times it genuinely looks like a 70s exploitation flick. the pacings a little stop/start, particularly in the back end of the film where it seems the script fully derails as we enter multiple absurdist subplots involving storming a kung fu island compound, and fighting several VERY unexpected historical figures.

The characters are all purposfully vague, which is genius honestly because it means that Black Dynamite himself can basically literally do anything, leading to several genuinely funny out of pocket moments I wasnt expecting. and giving the supporting cast the perfect foil to either play it straight, or go along with the madness to great effect.

Direction is about as authentic to these kind of low budget 70s exploitation flicks as it can get, with only a couple of CGI effects dotted throughout pulling me out of the action, the micro mistakes embedded in the film are a nice touch, and I feel like this was a clear vision, translated fairly effortlessly to the screen.

Same goes for the cine, barring one or two moments that feel a bit ‘too’ modern for the time, this is fairly period authentic and the edit reflects that, I do feel like the edit itself needed one more pass through to really get it bought down to a consistantly nippy runtime…But thats really only a minor quibble.

Performance wise, Michael Jai White revels in this role and absolutely nails it for what its worth. Dolemite eat your heart out, Black Dynamite is the blacksploitation amalgamation we didnt know we needed. White chews the scenery good and proper and delivers some of the biggest belly laughs of the production. its almost certainly a career high and Im delighted to hear he reprised the role for an animated series shortly after this films release.

Byron Minns and Tommy Davidson as Bullhorn and Creamcorn are also just wonderful and gave me a few good chuckles too…What really works in this films favour is everyone involved KNOWS what kind of movie this is, but they seldom lean INTO the hokeiness of it all, its played sincerely, and THAT is what I think endears me to this production so much.

Throw in a soundtrack thats a mixture of new compositions and library tracks from old 70s exploitation films, and you’ve got a power packed punch of a movie that, if you have ANY love for the blacksploitation genre, should be on your watch list.

‘Black Dynamite’ is a flawed film in a sense, it overstays its welcome ever so slightly and by aping an already kind of ludicrous genre it, at times finds itself failing to be funnier than the real life films that inspired it. But I have a real soft spot for this one. I really do need to try and grab a physical copy of it asap, and I absolutely encourage you to seek this one out if you havent already.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/black-dynamite/