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.]

What do you think of Black Dynamite?

Django Unchained (2012) - Tarantino's gutsy, colorful 'Southern'

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Western of the Year

The potent, black-white-and-red poster for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained

Django is a slave, who has been sold away from his wife Broomhilda. He is now bought free from a strange, German bounty hunter; together they are to kill wanted men and find and rescue Broomhilda!

Django Unchained is not quite like any other film. It is like a modern piece of blaxploitation, but in epic length (165 minutes), which is justified by the film having a mission which the majority of the old spaghetti westerns it pays homage to didn't: Unchained entertains while exposing slavery as the epitome of depravity that it was.
The film is technically astute, with unusual musical choices and first-class performances from several cast members: Oscar-winning Christoph Waltz (Carnage (2011)), who, however, is perhaps just being himself, more or less; Kerry Washington (Scandal (2012-15)) is stunning; Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wold of Wall Street (2013)) is formidable; Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction (1994)) has probably never been better than he is here as the ultra-low slave handler Stephen; and Jamie Foxx (Ray (2004)) just is Django!
The film also has fun cameos and overly bloody shoot-outs, which may appeal more to some than master writer-director Quentin Tarantino's (Reservoir Dogs (1992)) beautiful dialogs that also elevate the film. He won the Best Screenplay Oscar for his work here.
Django Unchained is a filthy, undeniably still a bit overlong raised middle finger to racism and slavery.

Related posts:

Quentin Tarantino: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Death Proof (2007) - Tarantino's awesome, rubber-burning Grindhouse homage 
Desperado (1995) - Rodriguez' second Mexico actioner is a sexy, latino fireball (actor)

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 100 mil. $
Box office: 425.4 mil. $
= Big hit
[Unchained is Tarantino's highest-grossing film to date. It was shot in 130 days in California, Wyoming and Louisiana. Its premiere was moved a couple of weeks due to the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting, so Unchained came out on Christmas Day. It was criticized for its violence, handling of slavery and use of the f-word, but became a huge crowd-pleaser anyway, grossing 162.8 mil. $ (38 % of the total gross) in North America, following a 30.6 mil. $ first weekend. It is Tarantino's first film that was approved by the Chinese authorities for release in the country. Besides the two Oscars for Tarantino and Waltz, Unchained was also nominated for Best Picture, Cinematography and Sound Editing. Additionally, the sale of DVD and Blurays of the film has accrued more than 62.2 mil. $ in North America alone.]

What do you think of Django Unchained?