Black Dynamite (2009) on Netflix

R20091h 24mAction Comedy

After his younger brother Jimmy is killed, Black Dynamite, a kung fu expert and former CIA officer, vows to clean up the streets. His partner O'Leary pulls him back into the agency.

Netflix3.7/5
IMDb7.4/1054,815 votes
Rotten Tomatoes83%

Trailer

Plot summary

In the early 1970s, Black Dynamite is a kung fu expert who served in Vietnam and worked for the CIA. When his younger brother Jimmy is killed, he sets out to clean up the drug dealers and gangsters in his neighborhood. O'Leary, his partner from the army and the CIA, brings him back into the agency so he does not go after the killers alone. While looking into the murder, Black Dynamite learns that a shady organization is filling orphanages for black children with heroin. He declares war on the local dealers and clears the streets, and wins the regard of Gloria, an activist for Black Power who works at the orphanage.

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Black Dynamite (2009)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

As an homage to the low production values of blaxploitation films, many filming errors were done on purpose: a red boom microphone appears above Black Dynamite's head, and one actor recites the stage direction "the militants turn startled" before his scripted line.
Michael Jai White thought of the idea for Black Dynamite around April 2006 while listening to James Brown's "Super Bad"; he had also held blaxploitation movie parties where he picked up the genre's "funny inconsistencies".
The trailer was shot before the film went into production, purely to raise money: made on Super 8 mm film for around $500, it spliced scenes from old blaxploitation movies together with old voice overs from Adolph Caesar.
During casting, Michael Jai White sent Arsenio Hall the script, and "when he read that there's a Captain Kangaroo pimp in this thing," he accepted the role.
Black Dynamite was originally set to be named Super Bad after the song, but the title was changed after the release of the 2007 film Superbad.
Black Dynamite beat The Hurt Locker, among other films, to win the Golden Space Needle Audience Award for Best Film at the Seattle International Film Festival.