Product Details

• Actors: Michael Jai White
• Directors: Scott Sanders
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: February 16, 2010
• Run Time: 84 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002BWP3WA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,506 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Black Dynamite [Blu-ray]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

BLACK DYNAMITE - Blu-Ray Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and clever take on the '70s blaxploitation film, July 25, 2009

By 

Nathan Andersen "film lover, philosophy profe... (Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Length:: 0:53 Mins

I saw this during its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival - and was lucky enough to run into the director, Scott Sanders and the incredibly talented composer and editor Adrian Younge in line at another screening. This video combines moments from the trailer with bits from my conversation with the filmmakers - all captured on a handy Flip Mino Camcorder.

Back in the day, films like Shaft, Foxy Brown and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song styled funkalicious jazzy soundtracks, tough black heroes and heroines and corrupt white cops and politicians. A new genre was born, both celebrating and exploiting black culture, targeting urban African-American audiences with its style and subject matter. Some of the best of these films have become cult favorites, and have influenced new filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, whose Jackie Brown paid explicit homage to the genre he'd grown up on and loved. Shaft was recently remade in slick Hollywood style by John Singleton; but for the original low budget style and campy flair you had to go to the bargain bin dvd versions, until now.

Created by Scott Sanders and Michael Jai White, Black Dynamite tells the tale of a righteous brother, who's got kung fu skills and knows just how to please the ladies. What he can't do is what he promised his mother on her death bed: protect his brother from the drug lords that are destroying the inner city. Upon hearing that his brother was killed, he swears revenge and sets out on a quest to discover those responsible. It turns out this was no simple hit - his brother's assassination was part of a vast conspiracy to disempower blacks by hitting them where it hurts the worst, and the conspiracy goes all the way to the top: President Richard Nixon himself, who, it turns out, has some sweet kung fu moves all his own.

The film is hilarious, taking all of the absurd, campy, raunchy and cool elements of traditional 70's blaxploitation films like Superfly and Dolemite, and tying them together into an absurdly funny epic revenge and save-the-world flick.

Part of the appeal is that the film mimics the on-the-fly imperfection of the old B-movie style Blaxploitation. Boom mikes occasionally appear in the shot, distracting the actor; obvious continuity problems (a woman whose tear of sadness appears and then disappears and reappears as the camera cuts back and forth between her and the big BD; an actor is suddenly replaced by a stand-in mid-scuffle, after he is obviously injured by a punch) add to the overall lightheartedness of the endeavor.

What impressed me, though, was that the film was not mocking blaxploitation, but rather paying homage. The filmmakers clearly know and love these films. Best of all, though, is Michael Jai White's absolute immersion in character as a tough-as-nails crusader whose soft heart and shy demeanor only occasionally surfaces. I haven't laughed out loud this much during a film in a very long time. Highly recommended, but not for the timid.

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funniest movie in 5 years!, November 15, 2009

By 

Jose Shaffernafferquez "Hulk Smash!!" (Washington DC - United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Dynamite (DVD)

Wow. All i can say is Wow. This movie was so damn funny that I started crying in the theater. I had to wipe my eyes of the tears of laughter because I was missing the next scene. If you like the Naked Gun film series, or "I'm gonna git U sucka!" Then Black Dynamite should be right up your alley. So impeccably made to resemble the 1970's Blacksploitation films while incredibly tongue-in-cheek, Black Dynamite is just a non-stop laugh fest of obscure sight gags & goofy dialogue. When the boom mic hits Black in the afro in the 1st 10 minutes I knew we were in for a good time!

It's really a damn shame that this movie fell on deaf ears, after 1 week in the theaters you couldn't even find local showtimes b/c it was bumped out but it is more than worth the little attention it received nationally. I'll be buying copies of this movie on DVD for all my friends for Christmas without a doubt. I predict that Black Dynamite will go down in film history as a great cult classic. Ten years from now every college kid will have Black Dynamite in their Blu-Ray collection. From the opening scene with Black Dynamite's brother Jimmy being found out as a rat, Black Dynamite hits the ground running & the audience hits the floor laughing.

I really can't say enough about Black Dynamite. It is undeniably the most fun I've had in theaters in the last 5 years! "Main Man Black Dynamite!" - "But Black Dynamite, I SELL DRUGS IN THE COMMUNITY!" - Classic comedy gold!

Buy Black Dynamite on DVD without a doubt that you will be entertained. Fans of the Simpsons, Mr. Show, Always Sunny in Philadelphia will all enjoy Black Dynamite.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious Blaxploitation Satire, October 17, 2009

By 

Terence Allen (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

"Black Dynamite," starring actor, martial artist, and former stuntman Michael Jai White, is a riproaring but affectionate sendup of "blaxploitation" films, action films with black stars that started with "Shaft" in 1971 starring Richard Roundtree, and grew to be the greatest burst of black participation in Hollywood history. Black actors, writers, and directors worked as never before, and created films that drew massive black audiences. These films created heroes out of private eyes, pimps, Vietnam veterans, drug dealers, hustlers, and black revolutionaries. These films were cheaply made, and were often derided by film critics and scholars, but black audiences saw a Hollywood fantasy spin put on character types they knew, frustration they had being voiced, and perhaps most importantly, black people fighting and beating the system.

The plot involves White as Black Dynamite, a neighborhood enforcer whose brother gets killed by a unsavory alliance between drug dealers and the mob. Black Dynamite begins a rampage of vengeance, beating up the bad guys, and loving and charming women as he goes. The movie uses both broad and subtle humor to point out the silliness inherent in these films, but it is all done with love and affection.

Black Dynamite is a very funny film that harkens back to another place and time - when there wasn't huge blockbusters starring Will Smith and Jamie Foxx, and when the best entertainment in town was a film showing black people "sticking it to the man."