Review of Black Dynamite (2009) by Whryne R — 03 Jul 2011

"Is that Anaconda Malt Liquor? The only malt liquor to be approved by the United States government?" Black Dynamite is only time you'll ever hear the line "because doughnuts don't wear alligator shoes." It's such a quotable and fun movie.

Black Dynamite is a mock "blaxploitation" film and is almost flawlessly done. EVERYTHING from the poor editing to the horrible acting, and even the super-cheesy dialogue is present and done to near perfection. It gives all of the grindhouse movies that have been coming out a bar to reach for. Black Dynamite is one of the most underwatched movies of 2009. It was very well received by the critics, but didn't make much of a splash at the box office.

Even with Black Dynamite being pretty much a one joke movie, it manages to keep itself going until they start getting carried away with story. That's the only flaw to the film. If it would have been kept more simple it would have become one of my favorite comedies.

Michael Jai White is Black Dynamite and co-writer. The rest of the cast is a who's who of smaller actors, porn stars, and where-are-they now actors. Obba Babatunde, Tommy Davidwon, Arsenio Hall, Kym Whitley, John Salley..... I could go on and on. Smaller roles, larger ones, the movie is full of small-time and obsolete powerhouses.

This is Michael Jai White and Byron Minns' first and only attempt at writing a feature film. With the style of Black Dynamite it would be interesting to see what else they could do. They wanted to call it Superbad, but obviously that name was taken.

If you see a boom microphone on-screen, know it's meant to be there. Make sure you have everything you're going to want and evacuate your bladder before starting this, because you won't want to get up during the film.