Dynamite Brothers (1974)

Sorry, this movie sucks

From my favorite movies..

The acting in this movie is really good.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I agree with the other reviewer who wrote that there's a good movie buried here, but with Al Adamson at the helm, it was never going to appear on screen. His incompetency as a filmmaker is astounding. How can you make so many mistakes? For example, you have a good set of kung-fu actors who know how to stage a fight, but you'd never know it watching East Meets Watts or Dynamite Brothers or whatever you want to call it. The fight scenes are horribly shot. Add to that a plot that makes absolutely no sense, ridiculous dialogue, stilted delivery, and a lack of any technical acumen, and you've got one very poor movie. I think one of my favorite bits in the movie might have been the character named Stud Brown - how awesome is that!One of the things that amazed me as I watched East Meets Watts was how in God's name did Adamson convince Aldo Ray and James Hong to be in this pile of dung? Both are very accomplished actors who deserved way better than this.

But sadly, we'll never get to see it. Adamson once again demonstrates that he doesn't know how to pace a dramatic scene, frame a fight scene (featuring some pretty good stunt men) or a shootout, get a rookie actor to deliver a decent line of dialog, write dialog, or even tell a story that makes sense. There's a lot of potential to this one (a kung fu flick AND a blaxploitation flick), but about 30 seconds into the opening credits you know it'll never come together.The kung fu guy really doesn't have any personality on camera to speak of (I blame a lot of this on his ESL skills and the lines he's given to work with). The black guy (tellingly named "Stud Brown", what a giveaway) is reasonably smooth and presentable, but his character is just a cardboard stand-in for the Jim Brown flavor of the month. The movie tries for a soul vibe (most obviously with the character of "Smiling Man") and a bohemian hipster vibe and several other changes of pace, but it's all just going through the motions. Watch for the scene where the kung fu guy leaps out through a 2nd story window when a henchman pulls a gun (actually a pretty good idea) shattering glass and wood, and then lands outside without a mark on him. Watch for the stunt scene where the two handcuffed protagonists jump off a supposedly moving truck and one of them rolls in the wrong direction as they land. Also look for the scene where the kung fu guy is tossed into a cave and a rattlesnake is tossed in after him, and the movie tries to ignore the fact that there is obviously plenty of room for the guy to get out of the cave without ever going near the snake. And that's just the stunts, mind you. The whole movie has that characteristic "I just point the cameras and let them roll" feel, and it doesn't look as if there were a whole lot of 2nd takes or unused footage. On the other hand, this is still way better than "Brain Of Blood" and actually has better performances (Aldo Ray is actually pretty decent in a thankless part), so from now on I will remember this director as an "incompetent hack" rather than "an idiot behind a camera".

My second Al Adamson film and compared to "Brain of Blood" this is a masterpiece.Some terrible acting, atrocious camera work and some truly amazingly bad dialogue combine to make this a bad film.By far not the worst film I've seen however.One scene to look out for is when Stud serenades the mute girl with a song. A scene so awful I very much doubt you can avoid cringing or laughing.Still there's something here for HK action fans as basically its a bad 70's Kung Fu film.4/10 about sums it up. Watchable but equally miss-able.

This is a very cheap 1973 actioner which pits a black man (Brown) with an Asian man (Tang) who is searching for his brother in LA. The two spend a period cuffed together and dealing with racist morons before they eventually meet up with the main villain. Tang, an Asian martial arts star, has no real personality and the fight scenes have obvious sound effects added on which doesn't help. Other stunts in the movie look obviously fake and are almost amusing. The film was originally titled "Stud Brown" (after Brown's character) and was billed as a blaxploitation film but that was misleading as Tang has more screen time and deals with most of the action. Ray,a former big name star, plays a corrupt cop. He appeared in scores of cheap features throughout the 70s but at least here, he has a half decent character and actually gets to emote a little. As expected, there are some amusing hairstyles, sideburns, sunglasses, funky instrumental music and slang like "That's where it's at baby!" The video box tries to convince that the 1998 big budget actioner Rush Hour was derived from this film but that's like comparing a penny to a quarter.