Review of Dolemite Is My Name (2019) by Ajzeg01 — 10 Jan 2020

This is a very fun and enjoyable movie about an interesting person. This is a biopic about Rudy Ray Moore, a black comedian from the 70s best known for playing the profane, rhyming pimp character, Dolemite.

Now, I went into this movie not knowing much about it. I watched the original movie of Dolemite before watching the biopic so from that I was expecting something along the lines of Black Dynamite or Grindhouse.

What I actually got was more similar to Ed Wood or The Disaster Artist, a movie about making a movie, which I really liked! It was cool to see all the recreations of actual scenes from the movie Dolemite and all the trouble they had to go through to get it made.

It gives me a new appreciation for the original film, even if it’s technically not very good. The filmmaking on display here isn’t really anything special, but the lead performance from Eddie Murphy is pretty great! I totally believed he was the real Rudy Ray Moore, he totally looked and sounded the part.

The supporting cast all did a great job too! Overall, if you just want a solid, fun, feel-good, easy-to-watch movie that also has some history behind it, this is definitely worth a watch! It’s a Netflix original, but I’d actually recommend watching the original Dolemite first like I did.

It is available on TubiTV, a free ad-supported streaming platform. It will give you a little more context for what this movie is about and what it’s going for. It makes for a great double-feature.