Black Dynamite

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

The city streets explode into violence when "The Man" kills Black Dynamite's (Michael Jai White) brother in this seamless recreation of the blaxploitation classics of the 1970s. He was the best agent that the CIA ever had, but these days Black Dynamite only answers to one boss -- himself. When "The Man" ices Black Dynamite's brother, starts pumping heroin into the local orphanage, and floods the ghetto with a secret weapon disguised as common malt liquor, the car chases, gunfights, and shirtless brawls that follow prove wild enough to make even Dolemite green with envy. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Features:
  • Fimmaker & cast commentary
  • Making-of featurette
  • The Comic-Con Experience
  • Deleted & animated scenes

AWARDS

• CineVegas International Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2009

• Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2009

• Los Angeles Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2009

• Seattle International Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2009

• Sundance Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2009

• Tribeca Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2009

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Michael Jai White - Black Dynamite
       Kym E. Whitley - Honey Bee
       Tommy Davidson - Cream Corn
       Kevin Chapman - O'Leary
       Byron Minns - Bullhorn
       Salli Richardson - Whitfield - Gloria
       Cedric Yarbrough - Chocolate Giddy-Up
       Mykelti Williamson - Chicago Wind
       Nicole Sullivan - Patricia Nixon
       Brian McKnight - Sweet Meat
       Arsenio Hall - Tasty Freeze
       Obba Babatunde - Osiris
       Buddy Lewis - Gunsmoke
       Bokeem Woodbine - Back Hand Jack
       Miguel A. Nunez - Mo Bitches
       Tucker Smallwood - Congressman James
       Phil Morris - Saheed
       Mike Starr - Rafelli
       Richard Edson - Dino
       Dde Dionne - Afroditey
       John Salley - Kotex
       James McManus - Richard Nixon
       Roger Yuan - Fiendish Dr. Wu
       Charlotte Stokely - Lady of Leisure
       Chris Spencer - Militant 1
       Darrell M. Heath - Militant 2

• Director:

  Scott Sanders

• Producer:

  Jon Steingart, Jenny Wiener Steingart

• Screen Story:

  Byron Minns

• Screenwriter:

  Byron Minns

• Screen Story:

  Michael Jai White

• Screenwriter:

  Michael Jai White, Scott Sanders

• Cinematographer:

  Shawn Maurer

• Composer (Music Score):

  Adrian Younge

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  David Hollander

• Editor:

  Adrian Younge

• Production Designer:

  Denise Pizzini

• Co-producer:

  Nathan Funk, Jillian Apfelbaum, Ailson Engel, Trevor Funk, Seth Harrison, Jenna Segal, Paul Segal, Matt Richards

• Associate Producer:

  Intesar Haider

• Executive Producer:

  Deanna Berkeley, James Berkeley

• Costume Designer:

  Ruth E. Carter

• Animator:

  Six Point Harness

• Casting:

  Rick Montgomery

• Second Unit Director:

  Ron Yuan

• Stunts Coordinator:

  Ron Yuan

• Action Director:

  Ron Yuan

• Line Producer:

  Charla Driver

• Visual Effects Supervisor:

  Brian Adler

REVIEW:

• Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was released in 1971. By 1975, filmmakers were already making spoofs like Darktown Strutters. While artists like Van Peebles and Curtis Mayfield (whose soundtrack for Superfly easily outshines the film itself) were serious in their aims, most of the Hollywood output was more about outrageous street fashion, funk, and jive talk than anything truly subversive. That makes the films ripe for parody, and with a new entry coming out every couple of years, blaxploitation parody has seemingly become its own genre.
  
  Scott Sanders' Black Dynamite works surprisingly well, primarily because it maintains a genuine affection for the films it's mocking. Michael Jai White (who also co-wrote the script) stars as the title character, a former CIA agent who returns to crime fighting when his brother is murdered. The movie displays a self-consciously low-budget style, with visible boom mikes and action sequences cut to hide missing effects. It's beefs, babes, and braggadocio as White winds his way through the underworld, protecting orphans from the scourge of drugs ("This orphanage used to be alive with laughter," he laments) and teaching kung fu to prostitutes. The goofy plot owes a bit to the aforementioned Darktown Strutters, with a capitalist conspiracy to sell black America its own destruction, and winds up with its hero in the White House battling a surprisingly spry Richard Nixon (James McManus).
  
  Black Dynamite is pretty funny, in that self-conscious, inside-jokey way of film parodies. It's successful in large part due to White's wonderfully straight-faced performance. While White has never shown this kind of comic ability as an actor, he has displayed his martial arts skills, and, like his deadpan delivery, they lend the film an authenticity that grounds the comedy. It needs that grounding. The more outrageous Sanders lets it get -- as when he graphically depicts the horrifying effects of "Anaconda Malt Liquor" -- the more Black Dynamite verges into mere silliness, along the lines of something produced by the Wayans brothers (whose fitfully amusing I'm Gonna Git You Sucka! this easily surpasses). Black Dynamite should play especially well to aficionados of the genre, because one can sense the filmmakers' love for those old films, which imparts surprising warmth to the comedy. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi