It is, quite probably, the single greatest throwback/genre spoof ever made, I'd say perhaps even beating out Tarantino's Deathproof for single minded devotion to genre conventions.
Of course, both films stray in their own ways- Black Dynamite by playing for laughs, and Deathproof by being tremendously self-indulgent- though, that never stopped me from enjoying it.
But I don't mean to even remotely suggest that you have to be a scholar of blaxploitation or 70's cinema to enjoy Black Dynamite- far from it.
The film is hilarious. Michael Jai White, who also co-wrote the script, absolutely owns the roll of 'Black Dynamite,' a jive-talkin' street-walkin' badass who becomes embroiled in a war against drug pushers, corrupt governmental officials, the 'Man', and other increasingly ridiculous foes.Far too often these types of films are all about winking and nodding at the camera and saying 'look, we made a zombie film!' or ' hey, we're making a kung-fu movie!!' then they are about actually trying to make a film. They take away all the stereotypes, all the commonalites and mistakes that plague genre flicks...but they don't take away the parts that make them entertaining.
Black Dynamite skirts that trap nicely, for most of the film, though I won't deny there were some things that were probably a bit much.
But still, all the weirdness we love from blaxploitation and 70's action flicks is beautiful recreated- the silly plots, the constant dramatic reveal of characters histories that make no sense, the gratuitous sexuality, the wildly varying acting, the terrible editing, camera work, sound design, the scripts that have probably been recut and rewritten so many times, or so hastily, the swaths of the film make no sense and don't relate- it's all more or less here, and generally done subtly enough that it doesn't just become a gimmick, but a part of the film.
Black Dynamite is the most sincere genre throwback ever made. And it's also the most awesome mutha-fuckin' movie ever made.
Probably.