Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Black Dynamite (2009) - Sanders, White and Minns' funny, enthusiastic, imperfect blaxploitation spoof

6/16/2017

Black Dynamite (2009) - Sanders, White and Minns' funny, enthusiastic, imperfect blaxploitation spoof

♥♥♥

An expertly 1970s-styled poster for Scott Sanders's Black Dynamite

Black Dynamite is out to clean up his neighborhood and punish the ones who are responsible for the killing of his brother. Clues lead him all the way to the highest office in society!

Black Dynamite is a funny blaxpoitation spoof action comedy, which presents a probable plot from one of the 1970s films it pokes fun at (such as Super Fly (1972) and Black Caesar (1973)) slightly eschewed, amping up the effects, character types and technical defects in the filmmaking. It is done with enthusiasm, and especially the dialog is often hilarious. Michael Jai White (Chocolate City (2015)) is a perfect, and very handsome, fit as the title hero.
The story is thrown together in a slipshod manner, and from around the middle of the movie going forward, it really doesn't have much left in its bag for us, regrettably.
Black Dynamite is written by star-co-writer White, Byron Minns (Death Merchants (1991), actor) and co-writer-director Scott Sanders (Aztec Warrior (2016)).

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.9 mil. $
Box office: 296k $
= Mega-flop
[Black Dynamite premiered 18 January (Sundance) and runs 84 minutes. The film is based on an idea White got in 2006 while watching blaxploitation films. The film was shot on 16 mm Kodak stock, later converted digitally for editing, in 20 days in June 2008. Sony bought the distribution rights for, reportedly, nearly 2 mil. $ - a poor bargain for them. The film opened #35 in 70 theaters to a 131k $ first weekend in North America, closing after its second week there with a 242k $ gross (81.8 % of the total gross). It was released in only 3 other markets. The 2nd and 3rd biggest were France with 33k $ (11.1 %) and United Arab Emirates with 17k $ (5.7 %). Despite counting as a mega-flop theatrically, the movie likely made money on TV rights, DVD sales and through VoD. Roger Ebert awarded the film 3/4 stars, equal to a notch better than this review. A spin-off animated series with a same title was created for Adult Swim, which ran in 2 seasons from 2011-15. Black Dynamite is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

6/16/2017

Black Dynamite (2009) - Sanders, White and Minns' funny, enthusiastic, imperfect blaxploitation spoof

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