Nobody fu**s with Black Dynamite(Michael Jai White). With good reason. Blaxploitation films of the 1970s were almost always a form of wish fulfillment, featuring the hardest, toughest alpha male(or alpha female in some cases) capable of doing pretty much anything and anybody he wanted. Black Dynamite is no exception. He's packing so much machismo he makes Shaft look like Olive Oyl. Not only is a war veteran, but he's ex-CIA, a kung fu master, urban vigilante, part time pimp, and I hear he's a wiz in the kitchen. Upon hearing of the death of his brother at the hands of one of those nefarious secret organizations, Black Dynamite discovers a sinister plot to...ahem...shrink black men's penises via malt liquor. Kinda makes you wonder why Billy Dee kept pimpin' that crap to us so hard, doesn't it?
Director Scott Sanders perfectly recreates the feel of the old blaxploitation genre, from the zoot suits and overt rage at "The Man", to the oversexualized portrayals of women. With a wink, Sanders pokes a little fun at it all, without going overboard in a I'm Gonna Git You Sucka kinda way. Whereas that film's sole purpose is to mine comedy through the exaggeration of the genre, Black Dynamite manages to find bigger laughs by expertly recreating the limitations inherent in these low budget flicks. These planned mistakes aren't used as comedy fodder by the actors, either. A boom mic clearly visible over Michael Jai White's head during an impassioned speech isn't an excuse to break character, but to show his resolve in staying true to the process. White, who also helped write the script, is on point as the never smiling brute of an action hero. Some of the supporting cast devolves into parody a little too easily, but White stays solid the entire way.
Those looking for a straight up spoof might not get what all the fuss is about, but Black Dynamite is one bad mutha....shut yo mouth.
Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball
Smokin' Aces 2 is a stupid movie, full of stupid characters, each of whom carrying tons of stupid guns spraying bullets at stupid times and for the stupidest of reasons. But I'll be damned if it ain't better than Smokin' Aces. There's something to be said about a movie that knows exactly what it was created for, and if there's anything that can be said about Assassin's Ball is that it's self aware. Unlike the original, where director Joe Carnahan seemed all too pleased with his impressive motley crew of B-list stars that he forgot the film needed a plot, here the stars are pretty much unrecognizable and so are free to ham it up with reckless abandon.
The plot is thankfully simple: a low level FBI analyst(Tom Berenger) suddenly finds himself the target of an unknown enemy, who puts a hefty bounty out on his head. This forces the world's most lethal assassins to all converge in an attempt to cash in, and as in the original, the bullets start flying and the holes start getting ripped open in people's guts. A few references to characters from Smokin' Aces are thrown in as a nod to those who actually took time to memorize their names(how could you hear 'em over all the gunshots?), but this pretty much has zero to do with anything. It's an exercise in comic violence, shaded in a style that's decidedly more UK gangster flick than high octane American actioner, thanks to new director PJ Pesce and the presence of Brit gangster mainstay Vinnie Jones.
Fans of Smokin' Aces will have some fun with the gun toting, cartoonish characters, just don't go in expecting a true sequel. For me, I like this film's simplicity more than anything else. Just ignore the lousy attempt at the end to add some real word viability to the zany blood-letting, and focus on the ultra violence.
Next up on The Queue: 2007's The Tournament
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