Black Dynamite

When drug dealers take out his kid brother, ex-CIA agent Black Dynamite (Michael Jai White) makes like a karate-chopping dynamo to track them down. Armed with a .44 Magnum, a set of nunchucks, and a sizable afro, Big D starts out in the City of Angels, where his buddies Cream Corn (Tommy Davidson) and Bullhorn (Byron Minns) offer to lend a hand. The deeper Dynamite digs, the more endangered his life becomes as he uncovers a conspiracy to keep the black man down by flooding the streets with malt liquor and filling the country's orphanages with smack. Since the smooth operator has a way with the ladies, he also enlists Gloria (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), a socially conscious soul sister, to aid in his clean-up campaign. White (who co-wrote the script with Minns) and director Scott Sanders previously worked together on 1998's Thick as Thieves, and their chemistry shines through. Although the supporting cast can be a bit wooden, White gives Shaft's Richard Roundtree a run for the money with his cool-cat charisma. Set in 1972, Black Dynamite doesn't just act like a movie from the Super Fly era, it looks and sounds like one, thanks to Adrian Younge's old-school funk score, Shawn Maurer's 16mm cinematography, a cartoon credit sequence, and some carefully choreographed boom mic appearances. And dig those crazy cameos: former talk-show host Arsenio Hall as Tasty Freeze, R&B vocalist Brian McKnight as Sweetmeat, and NBA veteran John Salley as Kotex. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary (by director/co-writer Scott Sanders, costar/co-writer Michael Jai White, and costar/co-writer Byron Minns), deleted/alternate scenes (25 min.), a “Lighting the Fuse” production featurette (23 min.), “The Comic-Con Experience” discussion with cast and crew (18 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray version is “The ‘70s: Back in Action” featurette with the cast and crew (14 min.), and the BD-Live and “movieIQ” trivia functions. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an amusing retro spoof.] (K. Fennessy)