Dolemite (1975)

One might think that if you've seen one blaxploitation flick you've seen 'em all, but you still gotta see "Dolemite". This story of a pimp taking revenge on those who wronged him has everything that a person could love about these movies. In a couple of scenes, the protagonist even spouts out some proto-rap!It's one movie that they must've had a lot of fun filming (as a lot of these movies are). This genre is one of a kind, and it must've been a great pleasure to get to see these flicks when they first got released. "Dolemite" is one movie that you're sure to love.

Thanks to the persistence of Queen Bee, Dolemite is proved innocent of a crime he was framed for (possession of stolen furs and a cool half mil of drugs). Back on the streets he finds that his "normal" activities have been overtaken by a much more deadly and aggressive crime wave, with drugs, guns and murder on the streets where pimping and simple old fashioned hustling should be. The ringmaster is Willie Green and his political backers. Dolemite is targeted as soon as he walks free and, with his staple of martial-arts-trainer hunnies, attempts to push back against the crooked cops, the violent criminals and, generally, the man.I have not ever seen any of the Dolemite films beyond the same experience the majority of other white people have had – as part of ODB's video, so I decided to watch this film recently as part of dipping into many genres to make my viewing habits more interesting than whatever rubbish is spat out as that weekend's "big" movie (although I still do that too). Anyway, Dolemite delivers what I expected it to deliver but tha is not particularly a good thing. In terms of the genre it seems to have seized on the elements of blaxploitation that are superficial and appeal to the audience rather than what makes for a "good" film. As a result the plot is rather a slapdash affair with anything that really moves things beyond setting up a basic scene.These basic scenes are mostly quite fun in a very dated way. They are scenes of out of shape men with beautiful and slim black and white women, scenes of unconvincing martial arts "action" and others of Dolemite talking tough to anyone around him. None of it is any "good" but in the context of the genre it does enough to provide what the majority of viewers will have come in the door expecting to see. In this regard it is trashy stuff but still nothing that makes me understand why this film is so famous even within the genre. Sure, it is solid and trashy like many others but it certainly doesn't compare to the stronger films (ie that are actually stronger as films, not just blaxploitation films) in the genre.The cast match the "genre basics" feel. Moore looks half-awake at times, only really coming strong to bark some swear words at white men (albeit a crowd pleaser). He is an OK lead but didn't have the charisma to make me really get into his funky character. Martin is nicely slimy as Green. The lead women is solid in Reed's Queen Bee but it will be the many attractive women that stick in the mind – if only any of them had been allowed to act a bit or be used better in the plot then maybe they would have helped the film somewhat. The soundtrack is pretty good (although not brilliant) while the direction is kindly described as "serviceable", with nothing special and far too many "goofs" (like the many booms in shot for example).Dolemite is a solid genre film but nothing special outside of home turf. It is reasonably funky with lots of pimps, attractive women, sex and "action" – all of which is basic but again nothing special. Not sure what about this film made it stick in the mind for so long as, although it is quite good as a genre film, there are much better films to be had in the blaxploitation field.

Oh, Dolemite, where have you gone? Sure, you're getting a revamp/parody done by Black Dynamite in 2009, but in your own time and place you were quite the bad-mother-f***er! So many bad movies, so so bad...In Dolemite, played by Rudy Ray Moore, he is about the baddest mofo around the way. He gets an early release from jail in order to take down an arch-rival, only to still have the fuzz after him on top of a whole gang of... well, anyone willing to take him on, frankly. But Dolamite's got back-up in the form of an all-girl army of kung-fu killers, and the mob, frankly my dears, don't stand a motherf***ing chance... sorry for the mother****** it comes up so much in the movie you'll loose count (certainly it would make one of the deadliest drinking games ever, or perhaps a match-up with Samuel L. Jackson).Dolamite is hardcore blaxsploitation, black to the bone and proud of it, and it even features its star, (sometimes) comedian Rudy Ray Moore, reciting poetry- not rap, *poetry*- on the streets in order to prove to folks, in true bad-ass fashion, that he is, indeed, Mr. Dolamite Esq. He's such a strange, raw screen presence that one can kind of forgive that he's not a very good actor - he reads his lines like each one is meant to make its mark on-every-step-like-THIS-motherf***er, and when he goes into martial arts mode, watch out (especially those kicks that, erm, don't connect)! Maybe it is all meant to be one big gag on Moore's part, and maybe in some backwards-ass way maybe he succeeded. Or, perhaps, not at all. It's a sight to see him at work, either way, and he's missed today.Adding to this is the direction by Mr D'Urville Martin, someone I am not familiar with and am perhaps glad to keep it that way. His work here makes Jack Hill, a competent director, look like Orson Welles; he can barely frame or light in most scenes, and the big gag (one that has been repeated uproariously, if obviously, in Black Dynamite) of the boom Mic coming into shot is one that has to be seen to be believed. Whatever sense of action or comedy he has is usually off-center, or pushed to such a trashy degree that you can't help but laugh - at it, of course, and it is on this level that Dolamite succeeds best today. It's like opening up a time capsule and instead of having a face melt ala the ark of the covenant it just hangs with jaw open, wondering how this thing even exists, or how the action works or how anything actually plays out well.And yet, it would be hard-pressed for me to find a more quotable line than the following: "When I see a ghost, I cut the mutha-f***a." That's gotta be worth something...

Dolemite is awesome. Rudy Ray Moore's rhymin kung fu pimp with horrible choreographed action sequences is about as close as you can get to becoming a spoof of a genre without actually being spoof. Citizen Kane this may not be nor Les Infant Au Revoir, but this is undoubtedly genius in it's own right. The production values in this movie are so bad they could qualify as existential special effects. The plot drags a little in the middle but the power of such a cheap premise as kung fu hookers is enough to bring all but the snootiest film lovers through. The infamous ever present boom mike evokes shades of the gloriously incompetent Ed Wood and never grows unfunny. I sometimes wonder if the boom mike was left in on purpose as commentary on the ridiculous aspects of movies in general but i usually get distracted by erotic scenes that lack eroticism to the point of high art mundanacity. Everything is this movie is alive and breathing, dripping with desperate longing to be simultaneously loved and reviled. It works.9 out of 10