Review by Limara Salt
Stars Michael Jai White, Arsenio Hall, Tommy Davidson, Kevin Chapman, Richard Edson, Darrel Heath, Buddy Lewis, Pete Antico, Phyllis Applegate, Obba Babatunde
Written by Michael Jai White, Byron Minns & Scott Sanders
Certification UK 15 | US R
Runtime 84 minutes
Directed by Scott Sanders
Remember that scene in The Dark Knight when The Joker made that pencil disappear into some dude’s head? If you’ve been wondering what happened to that dude then Black Dynamite should go some way to answering that particular mystery.
Micheal Jai White stars as the eponymous hero in 1970s America where the n-word is still prevalent and it’s highly unlikely to go a day without someone calling you a ‘jive-talking sucka’. Black Dynamite is a Vietnam War vet, a former CIA agent and all round badass who has his own theme tune every time he enters a room. When his little brother Jimmy is killed by a shady gang he promises to rid the streets of a dangerous new designer drug called heroin being pushed in the local orphanages. His investigation (if you can call it that) leads him not only to the drug ring but to congress and eventually the White House.
If Black Dynamite achieves anything, it successfully wipes the horrid memory of whatever so called spoof The Wayans Brothers have recently unleashed onto the world. What this film has that recent spoofs don’t is a genuine love of the genre they’re lampooning teamed with a realistic authenticity that convinces you that you’re watching an actual film from that time and not just a bunch of 20 year olds with dodgy afros strapped to their head.
The gags don’t always come thick and fast but each pitch perfect delivery lands and causes not only a knowing smirk but embarrassingly loud guffaw. Black Dynamite has taken years to finally reach British screens and sadly most people will never have heard of it or get a chance to see it. That’s a shame made even worse by the fact that Black Dynamite is a very funny and loving tribute to the blaxploitation genre.