BLACK DYNAMITE is Out of Sight, Ya Dig?

A few years back I watched Baaaadaaass! the semi-documentary about Melvin van Peebles‘ (GCDB) seminal blaxploitation film Sweet Sweetback’s Badass song. While it was certainly not my first blaxploitation film experience, it was a nice demonstration about how much of an impact that genre had and how relevant it still is in today’s culture. And while many of the kids “out on the street” today may no longer know who in the hell Shaft was, or why you’re not talking about the Sam Jackson movie, much of what blaxploitation cinema had to offer we find everywhere in modern culture. This genre is especially full of characteristics – many of them shared with exploitation films across the board – that lend themselves for jokes and parodies. Michael Jay White, who unfortunately ended up on the cutting room floor of Kill Bill, took matters into his own hands and brought us Black Dynamite, the ultimate parody of blaxploitation films.

Black Dynamite (White) is the meanest motherfucker in town, and The Man better watch out. He is actually a retired CIA agent, and part time lover of multiple women at once, kung fu master and general awesome human being. But someone shot his brother, and it turns out they’re dealing smack out on the streets and hooking up the kids. That’s enough for Black Dynamite to come out of retirement and declare war on the evil men. Ya Dig? What unfolds is a hilarious, over-the-top, filled-with-references, repetitive until almost not funny any more but somewhat too clever romp that leads from the streets to the white house, looks through and through like a blaxploitation film and will make fans of the genre go nuts. It’s outa sight!!

Fact is, my friends, Black Dynamite is a hilarious parody that might at times seem a little shallow, but the devil is in the details, and you gotta love the attention for detail in the film. Knowing your way around blaxploitation will certainly help, and then you will love the world of Black Dynamite immediately, and his big…. gun, and the naked women, and the music, and the hilarity that ensues…

The movie is out on DVD and BluRay. If you can, go for the BluRay.