Black Dynamite

Seen at: Lyric Cinema Cafe at 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 16.

I thought I was going to enjoy this movie, an over-the-top spoof of 1970's blaxploitation movies. It was fun for the first twenty minutes, until a scene in which the protagonist is distracted by a microphone from an overhead boom. At that point I realized that the film makers were not going to take this movie seriously. Instead, they were going to use to make a Saturday Night Live skit that lasted for two hours.

What a stupid way to ruin an otherwise good movie. Yeah, yeah, we get it. Productions in that era were slap-dash. But why ruin your own movie that way. Still I suffered through it until the story itself went haywire. Somehow they decided that they could cease telling a coherent narrative towards the end, introducing new plotlines and new characters almost at random, as if to slamdunk their point about the quality of movies from that era. Big BIG mistake. NEVER FSCK WITH THE STORY MUTHAFSCKA! Do I need to repeat that? I hope not.

Whatever you do---you can have crummy direction, lousy acting, half-ass lighting, but always always always tell a coherent story.

Verdict: almost could have been an entertaining spoof, but decided to drink its own kool-aid.