michael jai white Tagged Articles at Cinematical

By Scott Weinberg (reprinted from January 2009 -- Sundance Film Festival)

The spoof (aka broad parody) sub-genre is a schizophrenic beast. At its best, the spoof can treat you to something as sublime as Airplane!, as mindlessly amusing as the Scary Movie series, or as stunningly worthless as Epic Movie. But the spoof remains the comedy sub-genre for filmmakers who are also movie geeks. Basically, you need to have seen a lot of Airport movies to write Airplane!, and you need to have some solid experience with blaxploitation movies to produce something like Hollywood Shuffle, I'm Gonna Get You Sucka, or this newest arrival: The slightly overlong but consistently giggle-worthy Black Dynamite, which aims to do to Shaft and Superfly what The Naked Gun did to police procedurals.

And for the most part, the experiment works like a charm. What I found most appealing about Black Dynamite is that, while it will certainly strike a chord with the old-school blaxploitation fans, the flick also works on its own as a very broad, very goofy, and (yep) very clever little satire. Even if you wouldn't know Hammer from Blacula, there's a good deal of straightforward silliness to be found in Black Dynamite -- and it also feels like one of those eminently quotable comedies that frat guys and movie geeks will come back to time and again. Black Dynamite is to blaxploitation what Austin Powers is to '60s spy flicks -- and really, how many young comedy fans know anything about In Like Flint, Sweet Charity, or Modesty Blaise? Very few, I'd wager, but that didn't prevent Austin Powers from becoming a mega-popular franchise.

Director Scott Sanders and a team of screenwriters have concocted a '70s-era comedy that, to its credit, actually manages to evoke several of the sub-genres staples: Our hero is a noble ass-kicker who uses odd slang; women hang on his every gesture; villains quake at the sight of Black Dynamite's fighting stance; and of course the proceedings are coated with a colorful sheen of tacky clothes, crazy cars, and hilariously over-the-top fight scenes.

This week has already brought us the end of an era as we heard that our beloved B.A. Baracus is no longer solely played by the bling-wearing, mohawk-sporting icon Mr. T. But luckily we've got another tough guy on the way who should sooth the sting with his satirical blaxploitation ways -- Michael Jai White's Black Dynamite -- "the smoothest, baddest mother to ever hit the big screen."

We haven't heard anything from the butt-kicker since we shared an exclusive clip of the man's fighting action, but now as the film gears up for its October 16 release (bumped from September 4), a new trailer has been posted over at Yahoo. No surprise -- it's all sorts of bad/awesome. There's kung-fu action, heroic steps to stop drug dealers, and some Arsenio Hall if you look close enough. Watching this trailer, I'm already hoping for B.D. to rip into the folds of crappy spoofs like Epic Movie and kick some arse, before teaming up with The Hebrew Hammer for some kosher action.

But in the meantime, I've got a question for you: Watching this trailer, I can't help but wish that some of those tacky trailer voiceovers were delivered like this one. Imagine if the disappointing and somber voice in the My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done trailer was replaced with David Lynch, or anyone for that matter, giving the film's rundown blaxsploitation-style.

If you could add Black Dynamite's trailer voice over to any other film's trailer, which would it be?

Cinematical has received an exclusive clip from the upcoming blaxploitation spoof Black Dynamite, which played at Sundance a few months back and earned a lot of early fans in the process. I'll quote myself just a little:

"I grew up in the golden days of the spoof flick, and I've always had a soft spot for the oft-maligned sub-genre. So while it's true that a lot of lazy and generally talentless filmmakers rely on the spoof approach (probably because broad jokes seem easier to pull off?), there will always be room for new entries that poke fun at genre-specific trappings while maintaining a healthy respect for the films they're lampooning. Black Dynamite seems to really love the blaxploitation, but not enough to avoid mocking it within an inch of its life. So while it's certainly not the second coming of Airplane!, Black Dynamite is more than fast, funny, and likable enough to warrant a visit. Triply so if you happen to be a blaxploitation fan." (Full review here.)

Anchored by a drop-dead hilarious Michael Jai White performance, and presently 5 for 5 at Rotten Tomatoes, Black Dynamite is still strutting down the festival circuit (including Tribeca this weekend), but here's an amusing new clip to keep you interested. Release date is scheduled for September 4, which seems like a good time for a strange little comedy to make some noise.

You know, I was content with thinking that blax-ploitation send-up Black Dynamite was merely a very creative fake trailer (we've included the red-band version post-jump, just to stay safe). But every indication seems to suggest that Michael Jai White's funky fight against The Man is a feature-length affair -- and one that's been accepted to the next Sundance Film Fesitval to boot.

I don't care if Grindhouse didn't make much at the box office, because the world is still better off for having that film (or those films) in it, and I can't help but think there's room on our '70s throwback shelf for a little African-American TNT. Those feeling the vibe might want to check out the official website for a soulful theme that would do Isaac Hayes proud, some fittingly bad-ass posters and anything you might want to know about the film and its influences.

So, without further ado, help yourself to some NSFW goodness after the jump...

Having ranted my fingers off under a coffee high over some Jessica Simpson/Grease casting rumors, I'm going to try and calm down with some less-incendiary casting nibbles from Variety:

• Ugly Betty co-star Vanessa Williams has signed on for a role in Paramount Pictures' NowhereLand. Unfortunately, there's no word on who she will play, although IMDb says her character is called Lori Struthers, but that doesn't help too much. The film, which has Eddie Murphy dipping into his daughter's fantasy world to fix his work issues, already has Nicole Ari Parker signed on for his estranged wife. The flick is currently filming, so we'll probably hear lots more about it soon enough.
• He's been Spawn. He voiced Doomsday in one Justice League series, and the Green Lantern in another. He's currently taking a stab as Gamble in The Dark Night, and now Michael Jai White has also signed on to star in an indie action movie called Blood and Bone. While it's got a 2007 date over at IMDb, Variety says that it has just started lensing in LA. I guess he's already finished shooting his part of the latest Batman then. Whatever the case, he might just be an example how how you can do hero projects over and over without having to stick to just one.
• Finally, there's a new role on the way for Jordi Vilasuso, who you might have caught in his stint as Tony Santos on The Guiding Light, or Eddie Zarouvian in Fashion House. Now the actor has signed on to play Diablo in La Linea. That's the picture I told you about in September that already has guys like Danny Trejo, Joe Morton, and Ray Liotta. Centering on assassins, drug cartels, and Tijuana, Vilasuso's character is a "homosexual drug lord." That's gotta be tough with all the testosterone surrounding this pic.

Between the next Indiana Jones movie and the next Batman movie, location spies are really keeping busy. For the Batman pic, The Dark Knight, we've gotten cell phone photos from the unofficial Dark Knight blog, a report from JoBlo about the Joker, a report from Superhero Hype! about Scarecrow and a video from the Mancow radio show showing us footage of the Tumbler. MTV Movies Blog now has some further info for us regarding a new character named Gamble. The character is yet another villain, though certainly not as prominent a bad guy as The Joker. Cast in the role is an actor well-known to comic book fans: Michael Jai White, who played the title superhero in Spawn and who also has voiced characters in the Justice League cartoon. White won the part over rapper/actor David Banner, who MTV had previously reported as having excitedly auditioned back in May.

Many comic and movie fans may be worried that having another villain in The Dark Knight could make it too much like the crowded Batman and Robin or Spider-Man 3. According to MTV Movies Blog, however, Gamble is only a minor thug. The blog got the scoop directly from producers Emma Thomas and Charles Roven that Gamble is one of the crime bosses attempting to fill the place of Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson's character in Batman Begins). The plot of The Dark Knight will begin with Batman having to decide what criminal is a bigger priority, Gamble or The Joker, an dobviously he will choose The Joker. We also know that Scarecrow is in the film, and there are other characters who may later become villains, such as Harvey Dent (Two-Face) and possibly Edward Nygma (The Riddler).