Review of The Dynamite Brothers (1974) by Alex S — 27 Dec 2009

It may seem difficult to believe that someone has managed to screw up a movie in which a character named Stud Brown is handcuffed to someone named Larry Chin and the duo fights druglords while also finding time for love, but it has been done.

Please pause and let this sink in for a second. Perhaps this is a bit unfair as the duo are only handcuffed together for about 20 minutes, and about 19 of those minutes are spent fighting "Deliverance" extras and running around aimlessly in the Californian-countryside.

Nevermind how our heroes crossed paths. It really doesn't matter. Larry is looking for his long-lost brother and Stud is trying to charm Sarah (complete with the ludicrous serenading of "Sarah and Stud" in Sarah's apartment and it is even worse than you can imagine, believe me).

Then we have this cop with a serious racial chip on his shoulder, a guy named "Smiling Man" who has connections and the presence of James Hong as a guy who has an endless supply of 70s henchmen (one of whom I think is punched out by another henchman during a climactic fight scene.

.. it's kind of hard to tell). None of it works and none of it approaches the coveted "so bad, it's good" level that really makes for an entertaining event. From the shoddy camera to the limited production values (good luck to anyone who can figure out what exactly is going on in the nighttime shootout on the street that was apparently taking place during an eclipse) and the sheer confusion of it all (apparently Betty just disappeared in the middle of this movie and was never seen again.

.. I choose to believe she ventured off the set and tried to find a better movie to "act" in), this is painful.