The Human Tornado

Dolemite (Rudy Ray Moore) opens this movie with his stand-up. He donates to a boys' home. White hillbillies call up bumbling sheriff to take care of their problem. He raises up a posse to clear out Dolemite's party. He finds his wife in bed with Dolemite. There's a shoot out. Dolemite and his boys go on the run to California. Queen Bee and her Kung Fu fighting hoes battle a local white crime-lord with Dolemite's help.

It is utterly ridiculous and fun. It's weird and silly. It's also a bit of black cultural blaxploitation. After watch Eddie Murphy and then Dolemite, I had to check this one out. It does not disappoint. In many ways, it's better than Dolemite. Rudy Ray Moore is fully committed to the character. After a great start, it does get bogged down while trying to make the story work with way too many filler musical interludes. The movie is still at its best with Dolemite on the screen. Every time he shows up. He brings a smile to my face. He is a surprisingly charismatic performer in only his second movie.

Dolemite, you heard me!!! That's right he's back, and meaner than ever as the Human Tornado. The Human Tornado doesn't have anything on the original Dolemite, although I don't really see how this is a sequel. How is Dolemite all of sudden a rich pillar of the black community? Why does Blakeley the cop from the original (he's credited as Detective Pete, but they call him Blakeley) not know who Dolemite is? Other than that, all of the new characters are instant classics, from the gay guy on down to the sheriff, and even the new "creeper" wanna-be. But no one can ever replace Mitchell and White. They should have escaped from prison and helped the sheriff hunt down Dolemite. Now can you dig that? The best part of the movie has got to be Ernie Hudson's dramatic scene when his brother is shot. "He's just playin'! He's just playin'!" Other greats include the intro and Rudy's theme song, and the brief second Dolemite is shown eating chicken during sex. Hilarious Blaxploitation. So all you no business baring, insecure, rat soup eating motha's better watch out for Dolemite!!

The Human Tornado (1976)

*** (out of 4)

Comedian Dolemite (Rudy Ray Moore) has to defend his black people when a racist white sheriff starts trouble. Soon Dolemite and his clan are on the run and going after a white gangster who is taking black women are selling them.

This sequel to DOLEMITE is actually a better movie. Well, let me put that another way. The first film was a fun and somewhat well-made movie that became a box office hit so a sequel had to follow. This sequel is incredibly silly from the opening credit sequence to the final moment and everything in between is just rather nutty and over-the-top. There's not a single second where anything you're watching should be taken serious and as long as you're in for a good time then you're bound to have one here.

To me THE HUMAN TORNADO is just one of those films where the director, writer and producers just throw everything on the screen and hope that something sticks. The great thing for fans is that quite a bit sticks here and the end result is a campy but fun action picture. I mean, just check out the opening sequences, which catches Dolemite doing a stand up routine where he throws countless jokes at the crowd ala Don Rickles. From here we're treated to non-stop big-breasted women, crazy kung fu fights and one of the craziest sex scenes that you're ever going to witness.

Rudy Ray Moore was certainly a personality and that leaps off the screen here. I'm not going to call him a brilliant actor but there's no question that the camera loved him and his spirit just makes it impossible to take your eyes off of him. The supporting cast of players are fun but special mentions needs to go to J.B. Baron who plays the redneck sheriff. You've even got a young Ernie Hudson playing a small role.

THE HUMAN TORNADO is a wild little gem that fans of blaxploitation should enjoy.

Rudy Ray Moore reprises his comic character creation, Dolemite, the hyperbolic, Mohammed Ali-jive-talking, rhythmic discoursing, man of the people. The sequel to 1975's Dolemite, the film offers nothing new to the series, or to blaxploitation cinema, but simply adheres to the generic signifiers, such as female nudity, car chases, and the ubiquitous kung-fu cross-over. But significantly for the stylistic variations of the sub-genre, the subject of racism is the most evident theme - despite the fact that blaxploitation is readily accused of reverse racism (a term I have never understood, as this would suggest that racism is a purely white condition - it's all xenophobia).

Dolemite is caught in bed with the local red-neck sheriff Beaty (J. B. Baron)'s wife, who is then shot dead by his deputy. Escaping this situation, Dolemite flees to California, and the sheriff's crew follow, pinning the crime upon Dolemite. Lady Reed also reprises her role as Queen Bee, and she along with "her girls" have their club shut down by the mob, and it is up to Dolemite to settle the score.

Undoubtedly taking into account the failings of Dolemite, the sequel increases much of what makes exploitation cinema exciting. The violence is more nuanced, there is a lot more naked flesh on display, but more significantly, the comedy is far more indulgently silly, over the top ridiculousness. It's those rhythmic one-liners that Moore produces that increase the enjoyability of the film. And of course (as previously stated), no blaxploitation film would be complete without that other ethnic sub-genre, kung-fu, and here we are enthralled by the ferocious work of the Central American Nunchuck Champion, plus an early role for future Ghostbuster, Ernie Hudson. Marginally better than its predecessor, it has a strange ability to be both dull and exciting.

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Picked this up with Dolemite on Bluray and gotta say, both movies were very entertaining. Yeah, the acting is wooden, the fight scenes are ridiculous, and there's almost no plot, but it's all part of the fun. It still has the kung-fu, scantily clad girls and of course, plenty of Dolemite rap.

However, the movie is severely lacking a lot of the things that made the first movie what it is. I keep seeing things stating that Dolemite is back with his army of kung-fu girls, but never once do we ever get to see any of that. Most of the girls are just around for looking at, save for a couple like Java. Dolemite himself seems to have lost his many wonderful outfits and even more of his quirky one-liners. Literally only one "rat soup eatin' MF-er" in the entire movie.

The plot is really slow to move in this one too. They end up with two separate plots that actually come together about half way through the movie and neither of which are really sure what they want to do. You have the ultra racsist Alabama sheriff who caught Dolemite in bed with his wife and the second plot of Queen Bee and her girls being taken by another club owner, mob boss type character. Most of the action doesn't come until nearly two thirds of the way through the movie, which is kind of a bummer because you come to expect a lot of over the top action like the first one.

Speaking of action, more badly choreographed fights, but this time they (mostly) look like they're actually hitting someone with punches and kicks looking like they actually have some power behind them. The problem is that some of the fights are sped up and it makes it hard to see anything. Not sure why they decided to do that, but they could have done without it. The only car chase scene is also sped up and doesn't really do anything except drive down a dirt road, a mud puddle and eventually a cave... which just so happens to be the entrance to the Adam West Batcave.

All of the acting is just as you would expect. If they aren't talking like they're reading their lines off the back of their hands, they're acting so over dramatic that it somehow balances it all out. The sheriff alone is just a hoot to watch, it makes you wonder how someone like him even got to be a sheriff... maybe that's how they do things in Alabama?

So, not nearly as good as the first film, but to be able to see both films only days apart was a great experience and I highly recommend you do the same if you can!