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2009 | 2008 | 2004 | 2000

3 articles from 2009

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In Theaters: Black Dynamite

16 October 2009 12:00 PM, PDT | Movieline | See recent Movieline news »

Blaxploitation is the cinematic equivalent of blues -- American film's only indigenous genre, created by blacks for blacks and assimilated into white culture just as soon as it could figure out how to A) play it and B) sell it. Blaxploitation is barely middle-aged by comparison, however, having launched with a radioactive bang in 1970 by Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and having yielded a Cadillac trunk's worth of rangy classics during its virile '70s heyday. How fitting, then, that the genre perhaps finds itself in the prime of life today with the hilarious, high-spirited tribute Black Dynamite. »

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Exclusive Video: Michael Jai White Is Black Dynamite

12 October 2009 2:03 PM, PDT | MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news »

Blaxploitation is a term that was given to the '70s Hollywood trend of making and releasing films specifically targeting the urban black audience. Out of this wave of films came some extremely influential movies that caused repercussions in pop-culture that we still feel to this day. Some of these movies include Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Shaft, Coffy, The Mack and Superfly. Black Dynamite, opening in limited release on October 16th, takes a loving look and a long laugh at these films of the '70s, what made them cool and why they've lasted so long in our minds, in this funny and over-the-top new film. We spoke to the films star and co-writer Michael Jai White, director and co-writer Scott Sanders and actors Arsenio Hall and Tommy Davidson to get the lowdown on this hilarious new film spoof.

This is the story of 1970s African-American action legend Black Dynamite. »

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DVD Of The Week: Next Day Air

15 September 2009 3:03 PM, PDT | GreenCine Daily | See recent GreenCine Daily news »

Next Day Air

Directed by Benny Boom

2009, 84 minutes, USA

Summit Entertainment Scott Sanders' Black Dynamite (opening theatrically in the U.S. next month) meticulously spoofs the blaxploitation genre and all its pimps, dope pushers, martial artistry, noticeable boom mics, and funky bow-chicka-wowness, but while co-creator and star Michael Jai White's muscular comic charisma impresses, the film itself does not. The problem is that blaxploitation—unlike science-fiction, horror movies, and strangely for this argument, westerns—is so anchored to the music and mood of the grindhouse era that there's little place for reverent homage in 2009. That Black Dynamite deadpans like it came straight outta 1972 without addressing the flashback through contemporary hindsight, nor at any other time strives for the over-the-top giddiness of its climactic nunchaku showdown against Richard Nixon, underscores its irrelevance. We're better off watching Truck Turner again and appreciating that this kind of filmmaking back then was the real deal, »

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2009 | 2008 | 2004 | 2000

3 articles from 2009

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