Spoofing Around

I need to be up in a little less than five hours so this is going to be brief. I’ve just returned home from watching director Scott Sanders’ blaxploitation spoof Black Dynamite and I feel the need to relate a couple of immediate observations.

1. Films like this must be seen with an audience. I actually had the screener sitting here at home but decided to go to the midnight SIFF showing all the same. Good thing I did, because I doubt I’d have laughed all that much without the packed house almost egging me on. The best midnight schlock works whether you have people watching it with you or not, true, but a halfway decent one can seem even better than it actually is if the crowd continually goes nuts. Against my better sense of reasoning, I ended up catching the bug – if only partially – and had a lot more fun than I probably should have.

2. I can’t help but wonder why Michael Jai White, who stars as the title character and also co-wrote the screenplay, never became a star. I get that 1997’s Spawn wasn’t anything to write home about, but the guy has definite charisma and he kicks butt better than just about anyone. I’d sort of forgotten that, and it is more than a bit too bad he’s been relegated to throwaway supporting roles in forgettable motion pictures (save for his notable turn as Gamble in The Dark Knight) ever since that superhero spectacular bombed at the box office.

3. Spoofs, no matter how great some of the moments, good the performances or funny a few of the gags, need more than one joke to survive upon. You can only run on early momentum for so long, so by the time you’re suddenly cross-pollinating into multiple genres and throwing in Presidential kung fu nincompoops it’s more than a tiny bit too late.

4. Directors should introduce their films at SIFF screenings by reciting the trailer voiceover more often. It is hysterical, and gets things started on the absolute perfect tone.

That’s really it for now. From those four things I’m guessing you can take away the fact I was only moderately amused by Black Dynamite, but I did like the main character and, thanks to the audience, still managed to laugh a fair amount. In all honestly, as mezzo-mezzo I am with it all I’d much rather see a sequel to this than have Mike Meyers resurrect Austin Powers, and considering the latter’s fan base that’s probably saying one heck of a lot.

Night all. See you again sometime tomorrow.