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.

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

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!!

Who said sequels suck? Not Rudy Ray Moore who IS the human tornado! You better hope you never meet Dolemite just before he drops one of his ass kickin', head beatin' rap soliloquay's, as this would warrant a reversed film jump onto a rooftop with a sloppy slap to the mouth, while his topless beauties sit in the background laughing it up in what must be the (intentionally) funniest Blacksploitation film ever (yes funnier than the original Dolemite film!)

You will not only laugh at the fight scenes, but the dialogue is hilarious! Forget competent filmmaking as that adds for all the enjoyment!. All serious expectations should be left at the front door when watching this.

A true gem that will never be recreated except in the music video's of Snoop dogg. (and thats a good thing!)

As a lover of bad movies, I definitely hit paydirt with this one. The plot isn't really that bad, but there are a few instances where you really have to ask yourself "what the heck is going on here?"

There are many many things that make this the funniest bad movie ever. First off, Rudy Ray Moore had gotten so fat and slow when this movie was filmed that the special effects consist of speeding up the fight scenes to double time. There are also scenes where there is a slow-motion instant replay, jumping onto a ten foot high wall (by playing falling off of it backwards), naked men walking out of huge letters, and sex that literally brings down the roof (with the cable holding up the roof catching on fire).

Of course, no Rudy Ray Moore movie would be complete without a completely gratuitous and random comedy club scene where Rudy makes fun of all the customers, interposed with people doing some odd dance. There are so many things bad about this movie, but they're bad in an entertaining way, and if you take your eyes off the movie, you might miss another mistake.

Rating: 1/10 for actual value, 10/10 for cheese factor, 10/10 for picking out mistakes and goofs, averages out to 7/10.