... and it certainly shows.
(edited for grammar)
Now, I'm not going to be harsh and say this was a terrible movie, it certainly has its appeal as the "so bad it's good" type. I bought this and the sequel while browsing movies at Walmart (totally random find, btw). I had heard about it after having seen Black Dynamite. Now I can truly understand why and what they were spoofing in that movie.
I think what really makes this interesting is that it has a lot of the same things as a traditional kung-fu movie. You have lots of martial arts (though not nearly as good), bad lip-syncing (singers aren't singing... or trying to look like they are), visible equipment (not enough boom mics!), terrible audio (asphinctersayswhut?), and just very over the top acting (sometimes coming from dubbing Asian movies to English, but still). The fact that nearly everyone in this movie delivers their lines like they're reading from queue cards just off camera makes the dialogue absolutely hilarious, Dolemite especially. I also love the use of such colorful language in ways that make me feel as if they only did it "because we can". Some of the dialogue just comes off so grammatically incorrect that anyone that understands proper English will cringe. Again, it's all fun!
Any and all fight scenes are actually very boring and badly choreographed, I equate it to a high-school play that don't really understand how to pull punches... oh, but they pull punches. Boy, do they pull punches. I wish I could knock someone out with my fist a full foot away from their face. A tap on the shoulder can send a man to the ground. Raising my leg like I'm going to get on a bike will send anyone reeling backwards from the hit. The fight scenes are just so bad that you can't help but love every moment of them.
Sound quality is not the greatest. For a movie known for its extensive boom mic reveals, I don't think they had a single one plugged in. There's one whole scene where Dolemite picks up 'Hamburger Pimp/Creeper' and drives back to his apartment. After getting out of the car, you can clearly hear the background noise and the Creeper saying to some other drugged out guy about watching the car... or maybe it was "wash the car"? I can't be sure because the camera and mic are so far away that all you literally hear are the cars and birds in the world. Camera position will often change the volume of someone's voice, long shots making their voice echo in a room while a close up in the same room makes their voice sound fine. Some of the background noise will drown out dialogue, so you may find yourself backing up to hear what they said at times (yes, I caught the Dr. Feelgood message in the hospital, strangely enough".
The camera work is fine, nothing super special or anything to write home about, but they at least kept the camera still and things were in focus, so I give them bonus points for that. Using a camera is easy. Using a camera very well and effectively is a skill. The old VHS "straight from print" and VHS to DVD was not cut to the proper ratio, which is where you get all the boom mics showing, however the Bluray release recuts the movie to the proper ratio to hide the mics. It also includes a DVD of the original VHS copy uncut and (possibly) un-retouched. The Bluray quality is much better than the DVD, but I am uncertain if that is because it was directly pulled from the original print or if they actually tried to clean it up or both.
One thing that I absolutely enjoyed was Dolemite's outfits. Nearly every single scene he had a new outfit. Every. Single. One. They certainly worked hard to make the man a fly MF-er. Every outfit is just as over the top as the rest of the movie. All his girls are very pleasing to see and compliment the style very well.
So, sit down for an hour and a half and enjoy this look at some hilariously 'so bad it's good' cinema history.
(edited for grammar)
Now, I'm not going to be harsh and say this was a terrible movie, it certainly has its appeal as the "so bad it's good" type. I bought this and the sequel while browsing movies at Walmart (totally random find, btw). I had heard about it after having seen Black Dynamite. Now I can truly understand why and what they were spoofing in that movie.
I think what really makes this interesting is that it has a lot of the same things as a traditional kung-fu movie. You have lots of martial arts (though not nearly as good), bad lip-syncing (singers aren't singing... or trying to look like they are), visible equipment (not enough boom mics!), terrible audio (asphinctersayswhut?), and just very over the top acting (sometimes coming from dubbing Asian movies to English, but still). The fact that nearly everyone in this movie delivers their lines like they're reading from queue cards just off camera makes the dialogue absolutely hilarious, Dolemite especially. I also love the use of such colorful language in ways that make me feel as if they only did it "because we can". Some of the dialogue just comes off so grammatically incorrect that anyone that understands proper English will cringe. Again, it's all fun!
Any and all fight scenes are actually very boring and badly choreographed, I equate it to a high-school play that don't really understand how to pull punches... oh, but they pull punches. Boy, do they pull punches. I wish I could knock someone out with my fist a full foot away from their face. A tap on the shoulder can send a man to the ground. Raising my leg like I'm going to get on a bike will send anyone reeling backwards from the hit. The fight scenes are just so bad that you can't help but love every moment of them.
Sound quality is not the greatest. For a movie known for its extensive boom mic reveals, I don't think they had a single one plugged in. There's one whole scene where Dolemite picks up 'Hamburger Pimp/Creeper' and drives back to his apartment. After getting out of the car, you can clearly hear the background noise and the Creeper saying to some other drugged out guy about watching the car... or maybe it was "wash the car"? I can't be sure because the camera and mic are so far away that all you literally hear are the cars and birds in the world. Camera position will often change the volume of someone's voice, long shots making their voice echo in a room while a close up in the same room makes their voice sound fine. Some of the background noise will drown out dialogue, so you may find yourself backing up to hear what they said at times (yes, I caught the Dr. Feelgood message in the hospital, strangely enough".
The camera work is fine, nothing super special or anything to write home about, but they at least kept the camera still and things were in focus, so I give them bonus points for that. Using a camera is easy. Using a camera very well and effectively is a skill. The old VHS "straight from print" and VHS to DVD was not cut to the proper ratio, which is where you get all the boom mics showing, however the Bluray release recuts the movie to the proper ratio to hide the mics. It also includes a DVD of the original VHS copy uncut and (possibly) un-retouched. The Bluray quality is much better than the DVD, but I am uncertain if that is because it was directly pulled from the original print or if they actually tried to clean it up or both.
One thing that I absolutely enjoyed was Dolemite's outfits. Nearly every single scene he had a new outfit. Every. Single. One. They certainly worked hard to make the man a fly MF-er. Every outfit is just as over the top as the rest of the movie. All his girls are very pleasing to see and compliment the style very well.
So, sit down for an hour and a half and enjoy this look at some hilariously 'so bad it's good' cinema history.