“Black Dynamite”: The Greatest Movie Ever?

Laying off the blogging and politics this weekend because it’s just been beautiful here in Brooklyn, but wanted to jump in and ask how in the hell is it that I didn’t find out about Black Dynamite until today? This looks unbelievably fantastic. From the inventive Fight Smack in the Orphanage viral campaign to pitch-perfect and hilarious fight scenes like this, Black Dynamite looks like a total ass-kicker.

Consider this an open thread about films. Seen anything you’ve liked lately (The Informant!, Inglourious Basterds, Extract, etc.)? Excited about anything on its way? Want to recommend a criminally underrated film on DVD? Have at it.

[Uncensored trailer here]

MORE: Speaking of underrated films, I just found out that American Movie, one of my favorite documentaries of all time (I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve watched it) and a total hoot, is available for free on YouTube now.

Posted by Kevin K. on 09/20/09 at 12:51 PM • Permalink

Categories: Movies • Movie News • YouTubidity •

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I just picked up The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T on DVD. Let’s see—little-boy protagonist named “Bart” takes on fey power-hungry dude who sings “See My Vest,” er, “Doe Me Doe Duds.” Yeah, I think The Simpsons writers memorized this one. Hans Conried is so fantastic in that number. Which is the gayest thing ever committed to film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8TQOzyCu8Q

Comment by Oblomova on 09/20/09 at 01:25 PM

And I share your love for American Movie. However, you do know that posting this blaxploitation clip will only further fuel your critics’ cries of “misogyny!” ;)

Comment by Oblomova on 09/20/09 at 04:52 PM

What I’ve seen this year, ranked and with a rating:

1) District 9 (4.5/5)
2) The Hurt Locker (4.5/5)
3) Star Trek (4/5)
4) The Hangover (4/5)
5) Up! (4/5)
6) The Wrestler (3.5/5)
7) Watchmen (3.5/5)
8) Funny People (3/5)
9) Inglorious Basterds (3/5)

I’ll be happy to defend my rankings if anybody wishes to attack them, especially Basterds, which good, but still a let-down, because it was Tarantino.

Comment by Pumalicious! on 09/20/09 at 04:54 PM

Will also say that I’ve been eagerly awaiting Black Dynamite since I first saw the trailer last spring. Also looking forward to The Road and Where the Wild Things Are.

Comment by Pumalicious! on 09/20/09 at 04:56 PM

ZOMG, other than Jackie Brown nobody’s captured the sheer wackiness of the blaxploitation era. This one definitely has a shot. What’s not to love about the character names?

Cream Corn
Tasty Freeze
Mo Bitches
Chocolate Giddy-Up
Afrodity
and John Salley as Kotex

Comment by trollhattan on 09/20/09 at 05:02 PM

I’ll be happy to defend my rankings if anybody wishes to attack them, especially Basterds, which good, but still a let-down, because it was Tarantino.

TS from Instaputz didn’t much care for it, but I’m pretty sure he’s not a big Tarantino fan to begin with. I recall him telling me he only liked Reservoir Dogs, but since it was in-person, there was probably whiskey involved, so I could be totally wrong about that.

Comment by Kevin K. on 09/20/09 at 05:02 PM

I remember going to see Black Dynamite on a dare back in ‘72, in a downtown theater with a mostly-black audience.

For a 17-year-old white kid in Ohio, it was both an exhilarating and intimidating first glimpse of authentic urban black culture. More than anything, I recall the reaction of the audience, which seemed suspended somewhere between tent-revival ecstasy and soccer-mob blood-lust. And I remember thinking to myself, in a weirdly numb and matter-of-fact sort of way, “Someday, there’s going to be a black President.”

Just as a side-note, I believe that Black Dynamite was the first film to merge standard blaxploitation elements with the “Chop-Suey Western” genre epitomized by the Hong Kong studio output of filmmakers like Run Run Shaw. Or maybe I’m thinking of Jim Cameron’s Titanic. After 50, it all kind of smears together.

This is 1980, isn’t it?

Comment by StrangeAppar8us on 09/20/09 at 06:10 PM

We just watched the original Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. My son must have wanted to watch the new one and my husband rented the old one instead. Loved it. Don’t have any desire to watch the new one now.

Comment by terry on 09/20/09 at 06:56 PM

@terry—And by all means, take a pass on the 1998 made-for-TV Pelham redo with Vincent Donofrio.

It’s like watching a remake of The Warriors featuring the cast of “Friends.”

Comment by StrangeAppar8us on 09/20/09 at 07:07 PM

One of my favorite movies is an ode to paranoia called the Stuntman, with Peter O’Toole at his most deliciously louche, playing a movie director shooting an elaborate WW I flick. He storms and overwhelms a seaside California resort with gory bullet-riddled landings, biplane dogfights, explosions, and tin-helmeted Germans clambering giddily over its peaked red turrets.

The protagonist, an escaped prisoner played by Steve Railsback, is driven almost to distraction by O’Toole, who drops into the shot on his crane when you least expect him, like the duck from You Bet Your Life. And the score reenforces the action with a particular tune that, whenever it’s played, lets us know that the game is afoot.

Another film I really liked that shares that characteristic is Angels And Insects, which has been described as a combination of Merchant-Ivory and Tennessee Williams. It’s from a novel by A.S. Byatt, and all I can tell you is that it is a gorgeous, iridescent film, and a sly one. There is a recurrent mating waltz that starts up whenever the characters are being drawn into ever hotter water. And I do mean drawn in. The female of the species is a rather terrifying force in this story, which would have your usual misogyny-hunters nodding and clucking, but A.S. Byatt is a woman. With a wicked sense of humor.

Comment by Mrs. Polly on 09/21/09 at 03:28 AM