Who's the baddest motherf****r to blow onto blaxploitation screens? Forget Shaft and just ask X-rated comic and "godfather of rap" Rudy Ray Moore. He'll give you the gospel of Dolemite. Street hustler, pimp, and all-around ghetto superhero Dolemite began life as a character in Moore's nightclub act and was a natural character for his self-financed film debut, a revenge tale set on the corrupt streets of L.A.
Dolemite is sprung from prison by an impossibly understanding warden so he can find the drug-dealing, gun-smuggling crooks who framed him. With the help of his all-girl army of kung fu killers and the most flamboyant wardrobe this side of Cher, he lays waste to dozens of bad guys while spouting his funky raps. Thick, slow and sleepy, Moore is neither a natural actor not a convincing martial arts action hero, but his lazy line deliveries are great, lyrical cascades of four-letter words and "ghetto expressions," and he performs two of his most famous stand-up raps, "Shine and the Great Titanic" and "The Signifying Monkey."
Dolemite is not a particularly competent movie--the direction (by costar D'Urville Martin) is clumsy, the performances flat, and microphones peek in from time to time (get that video letterboxed, Xenon!)--but the outrageous mix of nightclub rap, kung-fu action, and Moore's four-letter dialogue turned it into an instant urban hit and has kept it alive as a cult classic. Dolemite returns in The Human Tornado. The DVD also features clips from the documentary The Legend of Dolemite and the complete lyrics to his raps. --Sean Axmaker
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Legendary comedian and rap forefather Rudy Ray Moore turns in a dynamic and hilarious performance as the meanest, rhyme-spouting mack of them all in this revered underground spoof of 70s blaxploitation flicks. After being framed by some evil white cops, Dolemite emerges from the slammer ready for revenge with his old friends (including Queen Bee and her loyal pleasure girls) rallied behind him. But this is no NAKED GUN style send-up- it's played straight, which is why it's stood the test of time. Followed by THE HUMAN TORNADO (aka DOLEMITE 2).
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The Original, Uncut Motion Picture.
Rudy Ray Moore stars as the famous nightclub entertainer Dolemite, sent to prison on a frame-up by some crooked cops and his arch rival, the notorious Willy Green. Dolemite is offered an early release from prison on the condition that he help the FBI bring down Green and his henchmen, who are terrorizing the city.
Meanwhile, Queen Bee has transformed Dolemite's beautiful street girls into an All-Girl Army of Kung Fu killers. Joining Dolemite, they take on the mob in one of the greatest martial arts rumbles ever filmed. Dolemite is the epitome of the "blaxploitation" genre, and the film that defined the cultural icon" the mack". You can find evidence of Dolemite's influence in the work of contemporary directors such as the Hudlin Brothers and Quentin Tarantino, and of rappers Ice Cube and Easy-E.
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