MovieChat Forums > Black Dynamite (2010) Discussion > Black Dynamite vs Undercover Brother

Black Dynamite vs Undercover Brother


Which movie is better?

"I'm not saying that kiss was hot, but if the boner police are here, I'm gonna need a lawyer"

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I was JUST about to post the exact same discussion!

I really think it depends on what your preferences are for comedy. They both do the same thing (parody blacksploitation movies) in completely different ways, and they both did it very well.

I liked Undercover Brother a little more, because it was more "clever" and "good-natured". Parts of Black Dynamite had me in stitches, but overall it relied more on shock and "dick joke" humor to get the job done, which can get old really fast for me. Not to mention that BD essentially took the same plot as UB (The Man poisoning a stereotypically "black people" consumable to loosen the black populace's hold on America/the world).

I actually think that the differences in the main plot point are perfect for showcasing the differences between the two different approaches:

-Undercover Brother has the poison used for mind control, causing prominent black figures (with the hope of eventually all black people) to become more prone to "white" behavior (i.e. behavior the white establishment can be comfortable with).

-Black Dynamite has the poison shrink black males' dicks, causing them to lose the will to live.

I also liked the characters in UB more, as well as its portrayal of "The Man".

Black Dynamite is funny, while Undercover Brother is fun.

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That's a hard one, I just saw BD today and thought it was hilarious. In terms of blaxplotation I think BD did a better job.

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What happened happened and can't happen any other way

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Black Dynamite is far superior, although I had a blast with Undercover Brother too.

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[deleted]

Undercover Brother for damn sure... But Pootie Tang beats em both

A wrong decision is better than indecision

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Totally agree!

I had a film-marathon over the August long weekend with my wife who's from Ireland and hadn't any experience with blaxploitation pics at all. We were laughing as hard at some of the original genres movies as we were at the parodies e.g. The Black Gestapo starring the guy who played Sgt. Wilson on Barney Miller, is just so bad it's good, I had to get the VCR and VHS tape out of our storage unit to watch that one, and the poor tracking just added to the experience. She actually couldn't figure out if The Black Gestapo was an original genre pic from the 70s or if it was a really clever parody made to look like it.

Out of all of them she liked Across 110th Street the best, just as a straight-up great film. When we ran out of blaxploitation movies/parodies, we started on 90s gang-themed movies, and she wondered if the 90s films were considered a genre revival. I told her I didn't think so, but wasn't really sure, are they?

Here's what we watched, not in this order. It took almost 4 days straight with little sleep, but it was a great experience seeing them all in such a tight time frame. If anyone has the time and stamina to do it, I'd really highly recommend it, especially if you can get someone who's never seen any of them to join you.

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
The Mack
CB4
Pootie Tang
I'm Gonna Git You Sucker
Black Gestapo
Boyz n the Hood
Shaft
Fear of a Black Hat
Juice
New Jersey Drive
Superfly
Dead Presidents
Foxy Brown
South Central
Cleopatra Jones
Undercover Brother
Black Dynamite
Across 110th Street
Jackie Brown
Tales from the Hood
Menace II Society
Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

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Ahh cool

Never seen Across 11th Street but it's been on my watchlist for a while, seen most of the others you mentioned tho 

and she wondered if the 90s films were considered a genre revival.

Although there are some that could be considered that, the ones you mentioned I would not consider that though because blaxplotation movies was always intentionally over the top and made on a small budget... Where as for instance movies like Boyz N The Hood and Menace for instance were made on a big budget and kept a sense of realism

I'd consider more direct to vid hood flicks like Tha Eastsidaz (2000), Hot Boyz (2000), Tapped Out (2003) and 2 G's & a Key (2000) more blaxplotation-esque than them... I usually refer to those type of movies as Rapsplotation (cause 9 times out of 10 there's a rapper in them and if not they still boast a rap soundtrack)

It was FREE PIZZA! Free... *beep*... pizza!

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Undercover Brother is a good comedy but Black Dynamite is one of my all time favorites.

I like what was written above about them having similar plots, but very different approaches, yet many of the 70's films did pointlessly go into conspiracy theories so it fits.

My impressions of Undercover Brother is its very much in line with the first couple Austin Powers movies. A light broad and good natured style that takes in a great many elements from the period but is clearly a product of its own time and place. Dave Chappelle and Neal Patrick Harris to a large extent steal the show.

The thing that gets to me about Black Dynamite is that it never quite drops the disguise and really goes out to recreate the 70's exploitation movies, and most of the jokes are meta-humor. The incredibly obvious dialogue, and the score that verges on narration parody how many movies seem to think the audience can't follow the plot and they keep on that theme. There's the Big Lipped Alligator moment of the pointless sequence on Kung Fu Island where it becomes a Vietnam movies for a few minutes. But what is present the whole time is the entire film is something of a movie within a movie as the actors are not playing their characters, but rather particular actors from the period playing those characters. Watch for the guy who keeps messing up and reading his stage directions, or the people with the wrong accents, or Black Dynamite (or should I say Ferante Jones) in his habit of going blank after he says his lines.

Something that comes across really well in Black Dynamite is a 70's trope of the hero being actually pretty sadistic often pointlessly so.

There are surface tropes that are popular to make fun of, like really bad stunt doubles, especially for 70's exploitation films to the point that some mainstream works will take a moment to parody them (like the capture of the stunt doubles in Spaceballs). The thing that helps Black Dynamite hold up to repeated viewings is that they really studied those films, and others, to pick out the tropes that were not already routinely made fun of.

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Black Dynamite all the way, Undercover Brother was about a guy stuck in the 70's in a modern world...Black Dynamite was a parody of Blaxpoitation, but also had many easter eggs and hidden things you only notice with repeat watching.

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but also had many easter eggs and hidden things you only notice with repeat watching.


I totally agree. I just finished watching it, but on reading another thread, I found out how many jokes I either missed or they completely went over my head. I think I'll sit and watch a few Blaxploitation movies first and then get back to this after a few months.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

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Black Dynamite by far. Didn't care for Undercover Brother that much.

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