Dolemite

The blaxploitation genre certainly produced some bizarre oddities that's for sure. Dolemite is firmly in this category. On a technical level its appalling, with bad camera work, acting, action and story. The boom mic is visible so often that it really deserves a mention in the credits. But these considerations are ultimately irrelevant. In fact, the sheer scale of the cinematic incompetence is certainly one of the actual joys of the movie. The film-makers just didn't care and seemingly knocked this one out with little concern for such matters.

The rough and ready style of Dolemite kind of seems appropriate though, given the nature of the central character, who is a super-shady bad mutha in a pimp suit. This character, Dolemite, spends most of the film swearing in creative ways. His routines are like proto-rap and seem to have influenced hip-hop culture. The movie is really a superb time-capsule flick. The insane fashions and jive talk are all almost alien in their bizarreness now. While the movie sports various other strange characters such as Reverend Gibbs, the mayor and the Hamburger Pimp. The latter of which actually appears to be out of his head on something or other – I don't think this bloke was really acting! There's also an extended scene near the end in a nightclub that really has to be seen to be believed. It has a priceless performance from a soul act and a crazy dance routine with some guy battering hell out of a drum-kit, it then climaxes with Dolemite's swearing rap thing. It's strange, like the movie in general. This may be super-trashy but it's highly original. It's yet another example of why the 70's ruled when it came to movies.

Dolemite (Rudy Ray Moore) is a pimp and a pusher. He gets set up by the FBI and his rival Willie Green. In prison, he is given a second chance by the warden with mutual friends Queen Bee and the governor. Crime has risen despite Dolemite's incarceration. He is to go back into the community to root out the real crime lord.

After watching Eddie Murphy's Dolemite biopic, I had to see the real thing. The production is better than I expected. The acting is surely amateurish. Moore himself is a bit stiff on the screen but has some genuine charisma. Best of all, he knows who he is. The writing gets messier in the second half. There is fun in this blaxploitation. I love his rap comedy on the streets. It has a purity to the scene. I also love watching the real thing after watching the Eddie Murphy recreations. This is fun.

Blaxploitation "classic" that introduced the movie-going public to Rudy Ray Moore. The plot, such as it is, has pimp Dolemite (Moore) being framed and sent to prison. A friendly warden believes Dolemite is innocent, so he lets him out of prison to prove it (!). Dolemite sets out to take back control of his pimp business and get revenge against the man who set him up: Willie Greene (D'Urville Martin, also the director).

If you're unfamiliar with Rudy Ray Moore, this is as good a place to start as any. Dolemite features the standards of every Moore film: inept direction, unintentionally hilarious fight scenes, and the worst excuse for acting you'll ever see. Not to mention more colorful ways to fit the word 'mothereffer' into a sentence than I ever thought possible. A fun game to play while watching this cheapie is "spot the boom mic."

Stand up comedian Rudy Ray Moore stars as the hip, badass, styling m.f.er pimp hero of the title. He's set up by conniving hoodlum Willie Green (D'Urville Martin, who doubles as director) for possession of drugs and stolen furs. Dolemite is subsequently released from prison so he can dig up the dirt on Willie and his associates. Fortunately for Dolemite, he has people like the formidable Queen Bee (Lady Reed) and his stable of karate chopping hookers at his disposal.

"Dolemite" wins no awards for quality filmmaking. For one thing, a lot of its action is pretty inept, even if the production supposedly had the services of Chuck Norris' karate school. But it IS quality entertainment. It's often hilariously crude and dumb, with some priceless dialogue. It's also pretty damn violent, and there's occasional flashes of female skin to attract viewer interest. The main attraction, though, is Mr. Moore himself, who's given two opportunities on screen to launch into two of his routines, one about a black named Shine who was on board the Titanic, and another about a monkey who attempts revenge on a bullying lion. The script by co-star Jerry Jones (who plays the lawman Blakeley) is deliciously profane.

The performances by all are unceasingly amusing. Moore is much more of a personality than an actor, but he does have a certain charisma about him. Martin is fun as his nemesis. Be on the lookout for hambone thespian Hy Pyke as the corrupt mayor Daley; as can be expected, he tears into the scenery in his typical fashion.

Definitely a blaxploitation classic, even if it's not for all the "right" reasons.

Seven out of 10.

Every bit as crude and poorly made as I had hoped. It could serve as a "how not to make films 101" in the sheer amount of continuity errors, poor audio, bad acting, bad writing, bad camera cuts and even an instance of bad lip-syncing.

But you can tell the sheer amount of heart and passion that is at the core of this movie, to the point that even with all the violence, gratuitous nudity, and coarse language, there is this odd sense of wholesomeness that occupied the whole picture. There's something about a bunch of friends coming together and making a film with absolutely no clue how to do it, and now given the backstory thanks to Dolemite Is My Name, and knowing the challenges the crew went through as well as their ultimate triumph, I found myself really respecting everything about this hilariously bad film.

That was one hell of a run-on sentence.