Black Dynamite (2010) review

It’s been absolutely ages coming so let’s talk Black Dynamite.

This incredible film came out at the beginning of 2010 in the states and I was fortunate to see an early copy of it. At first I thought it was a re-issue of an old 70’s Blaxploitation picture I just hadn’t heard of, similar to that of Shaft and Superfly. It is in fact, a comedy spoof which plays homage to the 70’s genre from start to end.

This is written, directed by the incredibly talented Michael Jai White who also stars in the lead role. Some may notice him as one of the mob bosses in The Dark Knight. The rest of the cast are fairly unknown with the exception of Arsenio Hall (Trading Places) but don’t let that put you off.

Here’s a great scene featuring the "righteous" Pimpin’ Council.



Black Dynamite had me in stitches throughout. The comedy comes in the form of the ridiculous story, shoddy dialogue, awful acting, laughable stunts/SFX and poor direction but all done with intention and in the best possible way.

For those that have seen Blaxploitation films you will really appreciate the attention to detail shown in this, it’s phenomenal! The cast and crew were really passionate in making the film look and sound right.


The film features a completely original soundtrack, full of rich 70’s esque funk and soul tunes, all produced using original 70’s recording equipment (yes, good old analogue) and instruments! I’ve never seen a film with this much attention to detail.

I don’t want to spoil this for anyone that hasn’t seen it so won’t reveal the story, but all you need to know is it’s fantastic fun to watch. Repeat viewing only seems to make this better, I’ve seen it 6 times and it still makes me laugh and I occasionally notice new things.

Once you watch this you will have a plethora of decent quotes to keep you going well into 2011.

This is, without a doubt, the BEST comedy I have seen this year and I highly recommend it to all that appreciate films of the 70’s. It's a shame it had such a limited cinema release in the UK. Black Dynamite has the UK release date of 24th January 2011 for DVD/Blu-ray so please look out for it.

I’m hoping the cast/crew will make a sequel, I would love to see that! A new Black Dynamie cartoon series should be starting fairly soon on Adult Swim from the sounds of things, I look forward to checking that out.

Drive Angry 3D (2010)

Ha ha... it looks like Nick Cage is back on "top" form!

The Social Network - new trailer

The Expendables (2010)

The Expendables is an amazing movie, mostly because of the impressive cast of action stars from past to present. The general idea was to make a really cool action film to reflect those from the 80’s and Stallone’s glory days.

The story isn’t really that important, you’ll be watching this to see the incredible cast kick ass and blow shit up! It’s a lot of fun to watch and you can tell that making the film was even more enjoyable.

The violence is very similar to Rambo 4, another recent Stallone film which was utterly brilliant in my opinion. There’s a huge body count with gallons of CGI blood spraying everywhere. One of the characters wields a massive gun that rips people apart – that has to be seen!!! There’s also tonnes of explosions which would satisfy the likes of Michael Bay.

Both Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger have cameos, and at the same time. My only criticism is that Arnies bit part isn’t much longer than the clip shown in the trailer. I know he’s a busy guy these days but it would have been nice to see more of him especially in a short flashback action scene. Arnie actually looks like he popped onto the set whilst on the way to pick up his morning paper!

To be honest, Expendables reminds me of the Hulk Hogan/Carl Weathers/Shannon Tweed “Shadow Warriors” action films from the late 90’s more than any one 80’s film. I quite liked the Shadow Warrior films despite them being low budget, cheesy, straight to video productions. Click here for a trailer.

I doubt another film with a similar cast like this will ever happen again so make the most of the opportunity and check Expendables out. If you like action movies you will love this!

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

Film of the year!

Predatots (2010) IGN review

This review from IGN nicely sums up what I thought of the movie. Go check 'Predators' out for some familiar but fun entertainment.

Ray Harryhausen opens new exhibtion

On June 29th, the godfather of special effects, Ray Harryhausen, was honoured at the London Film Museum by opening an exhibition all about his life's work (it also marked his 90th birthday).

Myths & Legends features original creatures from his films and shows people how he was inspired to create some of the most memorable moments in film history.

For more information visit the London Film Museum website.

I probably won't be able to make it to the exhibition but if anyone goes, please let me know what you thought. Harryhausen is awesome!

The Expendables (new poster)

I can't wait to see this!

The Social Network : 1st trailer

Still sounds pretty good!

Predators - Trailer

This looks interesting and with Robert Rodriguez producing it, it should hopefully be better than Paul Anderson's crappy Aliens Vs. Predator movies.

Oh yeah, Danny Trejo's in it... awesome!

The Ricky Gervais Show

This looks interesting!

EDIT 22/02/2010: I've watched the first episode and it's brilliant! The show is basically an animated podcast but don't let that put you off. It's available to watch/download on Ninja Video.

A-Team (2010) trailer

"I ain't gettin' on no plane, Fool!"

Its finally here...

Its the first fricken EXPENDABLES trailer... woo hoo!!!

Tron Legacy (2010)

Unfortunately I couldn't post the Tron Legacy teaser trailer on this page but here's a link to watch it on YouTube. It looks really good, especially the awesome lightcycles!

It will be shown in glorious 3D when released in 2010.

'Futurama' to return 2010!!!

20th Century Fox TV plans to produce 26 new episodes of Futurama!

Comedy Central will begin airing the new episodes in mid-2010. Voice actors Billy West (who played Philip Fry), Katey Sagal (Leela) and John DiMaggio (Bender) have all signed on to return.

Click here for the full story.


This is music to my ears! Futurama is one of my most favourite animated shows and I thought the recent DVD movies were excellent. I can't wait to see the new episodes!

The Expendables - first photo

CRAW!!!

Eric Roberts and Steve Austin. Its gonna be good!

Films of 2009

Its been a while since I've written anything about the many many films I've seen so I thought I'd write a quick update.


Best of 2009 (so far)

So far my two most favourite films of 2009 are 'The Wrestler' with Mickey Rourke and 'Gran Turino' with Clint Eastwood. Its really hard to decide which out of the two I enjoyed the most.

I won't insult you by describing what The Wrestler was about since the title gives it away, you just need to know Mickey Rourke gave an incredible performance, good enough to kick start his movie career again. He's going to be in Iron Man 2 and even Rambo 5!


Gran Turino was a totally different film to the one I expected from watching the trailer. Although the car (a Gran Turino) is featured in the film, its real purpose was just to bring Walt, a grumpy old Korean War veteran and his neighbour Thao, a Hmong teenager together. Neither enjoy the others company to start with, but over a stretch of time and through some truly awful events they gain respect for each other and later form a strong friendship. This friendship is honoured to the bitter end. This is possibly Clint's last on screen appearance, he's apparently going to spend more time behind the camera directing. The guy is almost 79 so I can't blame him for taking the back seat.


Future greats of 2009


I am really looking forward to the new Star Trek film. Directed by the great J.J.Abrams of Lost/M:I3/Cloverfield fame I'm expecting big things from this. Recently Leonard Nimoy gave unsuspecting fans an advance preview of the new movie in Texas, the fans were at the theatre to watch a special presentation of The Wrath of Khan. Apparently the film was so good fans were reported to be drawn to tears out of shear joy! That type of thing doesn't happen that often so my hopes are high that this won't disappoint.

Terminator Salvation looks incredibly fun. Christian Bale has had his fair share of flack after the highly publicized argument on set and I understand things haven't gone entirely to plan with the shooting but from the awesome trailers I've seen this looks set to bust box office records. McG, one of the guys behind the brilliant Supernatural show is directing the film.

X-Men Origins - Wolverine, who hasn't already seen this film? I guess I'm aloud to talk about it since I'm not employed by the press or with any movie company. Just to make things clear, I didn't download it, I just saw the first half streamed on MegaVideo before it was pulled. A half finished version of the film was leaked onto the internet a few weeks ago. It had missing CGI. It was a really unique experience seeing an FX heavy film stripped down like this. To be honest, I don't think this leak will harm the film at all. Someone at the studio mentioned that those who had downloaded it were either people that would illegally download any film or fans of the comic book series who would watch it at the cinema anyway. I for one would really like to see it on the big screen to compare with the unfinished version.


Transformers 2 looks to be CRAW-tastic! For those not familiar with the word 'CRAW', watch the South Park Imagination Land trilogy. I'm guessing this film will be darker than the first, with the Decepticons winning the battle between the Autobots. The third film would be the Autobots regaining power, similar to the Jedi in 'Return of the Jedi', minus the Muppets (although a Muppets version of Transformers would be interesting!).


2010


Is it too early to start talking about 2010? Anyway, the one and only film you need to look out for in 2010 will be the much talked about Sly Stallone movie, 'The Expendables'. Take a look at the amazing cast! Stallone just needs to get Chuck Norris on board and the film would simply explode with awesomeness!!! If the fans get it their way like with 'Snakes on a Plane', it'll happen. Rumours suggest that The Expendables may actually be a code name for Rambo 5, hmm....?

Ridley Scott to remake The A-Team

Director Ridley Scott has signed up to produce the big screen remake of 1980s TV show The A-Team, according to industry paper Variety.

The film, due out in 2010, will be updated so that the army veterans will have fought in the Middle East and not in Vietnam, Variety adds.

It says Joe Carnahan (Smokin' Aces, Narc) will direct and hopes to make a "popcorn movie" that "reflects on the real world".

The cult TV show starred George Peppard as Hannibal and Mr T as BA Baracus.

Dirk Benedict, as Face, and Dwight Schultz, as Murdoch, completed the quartet of mercenaries "accused of a crime they didn't commit".

Carnahan said 20th Century Fox had asked him "to make it as emotional, real and accessible as possible without cheesing it up", Variety added.

Actors including Bruce Willis and Ice Cube have been rumoured to be on board but no names have been confirmed.


*Pinched from BBC News Entertainment, 28/01/2009

Thundercats (2010)

'Thundercats' is a long way off (planned 2010 release) but thanks to a report on the Variety website earlier in the week the reason why is a bit clearer.

I originally thought this was going to be a live action representation of the classic (and awesome) children's 80's cartoon series, mixed together with CGI effects but it was revealed that the entire film will be made in CGI. It will take quite some time to produce!


This however may be no bad thing in my book. We hopefully will be able to have some very believable looking characters/environments and I've heard the art director, Jerry O'Flaherty from the stunning video game 'Gears of War' (GoW) is on board to direct this film. Hopefully it will adopt a similar dark and gritty look which made GoW look so amazing.


I'm really excited about this project. I think a lot of praise has to be given to the recent Transformers film, if that had flopped this film (and a few other future projects) would have never been given the go ahead.