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Jamie Foxx, Teyonah Parris, John Boyega in They Cloned Tyrone Photo: Netflix At first glance, They Cloned Tyrone is a silly satire of early ’70s blaxploitation flicks like Super Fly or Willie Dynamite that adds what writer-director Juel Taylor and writer Tony Rettenmaier call a “... dash of Scooby Doo.” Fortunately,...

Jamie Foxx, Teyonah Parris, John Boyega in They Cloned TyronePhoto: Netflix

At first glance, They Cloned Tyrone is a silly satire of early ’70s blaxploitation flicks like Super Fly or Willie Dynamite that adds what writer-director Juel Taylor and writer Tony Rettenmaier call a “... dash of Scooby Doo.” Fortunately, the...

The comedian and former The Daily Show correspondent talks about his favorite Blaxploitation movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Casablanca (1942) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Castle (1997)

The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973) – Bill Duke’s trailer commentary

Pressure (1976)

Robinson Crusoe On Mars (1964) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary

Boss (1975)

Django Unchained (2012) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

The Thing With Two Heads (1972) – Stuart Gordon’s trailer commentary

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971)

The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970)

Black Samurai (1977)

Truck Turner (1974)

Schindler’s List (1993)

Black Caesar (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Hell Up In Harlem (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Judas And The Black Messiah (2021)

Friday Foster (1975)

That Man Bolt (1973)

Blacula (1972)

Foxy Brown (1974) – Jack Hill’s trailer commentary

Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976)

Willie Dynamite (1973) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Billy Jack (1971)

John Wick (2014)

The Matrix (1999)

Cleopatra Jones...

The writer/director returns to talk about his favorite Blaxploitation movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Man Bites Dog (1992)

Trick Baby (1972)

The Exorcist (1973) – Oren Pelli’s trailer commentary

The Untouchables (1987)

Predator (1987)

Purple Rain (1984) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Loved One (1965) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Live And Let Die (1973)

Enter The Dragon (1973) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

The Green Hornet (1974)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

The Last Dragon (1985) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Dead Presidents (1995)

Hell Up In Harlem (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Black Caesar (1973) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Shaft (1971) – Bill Duke’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

Coffy (1973) – Jack Hill’s trailer commentary

Midnight Cowboy (1969) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Taxi Driver (1976) – Rod Lurie’s trailer commentary

Boxcar Bertha (1972) – Julie Corman...

Nathaniel Taylor, the actor best known for playing smooth-talking sidekick Rollo Lawson on 1970s sitcom Sanford and Son, died Feb. 27 at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after suffering a heart attack. He was 80.

His death was announced on social media by his friend, the music promoter Alonzo Williams. According to Williams, the actor was hospitalized on Feb. 23 after suffering a heart attack.

Although Taylor had a few small guest roles on television in the early ’70s – credited as Jita Hadi on The Bold Ones and The Bill Cosby Show – it was his recurring role on the 1972-77 Sanford and Son that brought lasting fame among the show’s still-considerable fan base. His Rollo, a streetwise character typically dressed in the snazziest of hip clothes, was the best friend of Demond Wilson’s Lamont Sanford and forever the target of often-justified scorn and mistrust of Redd Foxx’s Fred Sanford.

Nathaniel Taylor, the actor who played Rollo Lawson on the 1970s sitcom “Sanford and Son,” died Feb. 27 at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after suffering a heart attack. He was 80.

As part of the recurring cast on “Sanford and Son,” Taylor appeared in 32 episodes from 1972 through 1977. Taylor’s character, Rollo Lawson, was Lamont Sanford’s best friend and often a target of Fred Sanford’s ire, who believed Rollo was a criminal since he had spent time in jail. Taylor went on to have a role as part of the main cast in season one of the short-lived “Sanford and Son” spinoff “Sanford,” which aired from March 1980 to June 1981.

Taylor also appeared in “Sanford and Son” star Redd Foxx’s eponymous sitcom, “The Redd Foxx Show,” as the first version of Jim-Jam. The series was canceled after 12 episodes due to low ratings.

In addition to his work in the “Sanford” universe,...

Apr 28, 2017

Lucio Fulci, Frankenhooker and more in our round up of new horror Blu-rays and DVDs...

So, what’s your personal idea of hell? For this writer, it would almost certainly involve being chained down in the audience of an eternal live filming of Loose Women as Donald Trump waves a slice of tiger bread, forever just out of reach. Yours is likely to be similar, though it would have to be pretty grim indeed to come anywhere near Lucio Fulci’s 1981 career-best infernal vision and perhaps the definitive (obviously other than Little Nicky) cinematic depiction of eternal damnation, The Beyond.

See related Better Call Saul season 3 episode 3 review: Sunk Costs Better Call Saul season 3 episode 2 review: Witness Better Call Saul season 3 episode 1 review: Mabel

The Italian gore icon behind such genre classics as Zombie Flesh Eaters and The House By The Cemetery offers ostensibly a zombie film set in...

Stars: Roscoe Orman, Diana Sands, Thalmus Rasulala, Joyce Walker, Roger Robinson, George Murdock, Albert Hall, Norma Donaldson, Juanita Brown, Royce Wallace, Judith Brown | Written by Ron Cutler | Directed by Gilbert Moses

Blaxploitation movies have a strange place in movie history. Often nostalgically looked at as being cool and oozing in style, they also have an exploitative feel to them, hence the name. Willie Dynamite is a so-called Blaxploitation movie that looked to do something different, which in some regard puts it at conflict with itself…

Willie Dynamite (Roscoe Orman) is a pimp at the height of his success. Making money and having a successful group of ladies under his control he is living the dream. When crooked cops start to take down his empire and the other pimps start to steal his territory, is it time for him to change his ways?

When you think of good Blaxploitation movies you...

To celebrate the release of Willie Dynamite – out Dual Format 6th Feb. 2017 – we are giving away a copy courtesy of Arrow Video!

He’S Tight, Together, And Mean. “The hands-down winner of the all-out best blaxploitation movie of the seventies,” declares author and artist Darius James in That’s Blaxploitation! Willie Dynamite may not be as well-known as John Shaft, Sweet Sweetback or Super Fly’s Youngblood Priest, but he certainly deserves to be.

Who is Willie Dynamite? He’s the flashiest pimp in New York – he drives a personalised purple-and-gold Cadillac and wears some of the most eye-catching outfits ever seen on a cinema screen. He wants to be number one, but with the police, the D.A., fellow pimps and a tough-talking social worker on his tail, can a man as arrogant and amoral as Willie D avoid a downfall?

Willie Dynamite competes with the best of blaxploitation on all levels.

[Press Release] Los Angeles -- Universal Music Enterprises has announced a rollout of 26 individual soundtrack albums on vinyl – including John Williams’ scores to E.T. and Jaws; Blaxploitation classics like Willie Hutch’s The Mack, J.J. Johnson’s Willie Dynamite, Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man and the hip-hop-flavored Juice; Oscar® winners such as The Godfather, Silence of the Lambs, Rocky and Good Will Hunting; and cult movies like Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Knights, John Landis’ Animal House, Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, Amy Heckerling’s Clueless and Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. The rollout got underway on January 20, with the release of Willie Hutch’s classic, much-sampled soundtrack to the 1973 movie The Mack, starring Max Julien and Richard Pryor, which was originally released on...

What is it about some movies that no matter how badly scripted, acted, shot or directed they still possess a certain charm? We’ve all at some point, caught ourselves enjoying the visual equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries, gulping down every corny line, transfixed by ever dodgy special effect and blissfully ignoring the gaping plot holes.

Today, we take a look at some so bad they’re good movies that you’ve probably never seen, but definitely should take a look at.

5. Willie Dynamite (1973)

From the producers who brought you Jaws, The Sting and Driving Miss Daisy and the man who directed The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh comes this cinematic “classic.” Like the movie poster says, “Ain’t no one crosses Willie D. He’s tight, he’s together, and he’s mean. Chicks, Chumps, he uses them all. He’s got to be number-One.”

Willie Dynamite is...

There is a fine line between stereo-typing and the honest portrayal of criminals in cinema. Films such as Public Enemy (1931), Goodfellas, and both versions of Scarface (1932 and 1983) are examples of films both under attack and praised for its portrayal of criminals. Brian De Palma’s version of Scarface especially divides audiences and critics as to whether the character of Cuban import Tony Montana is a racial caricature or an honest look at greed and corruption. Blaxploitation cinema’s portrayal of criminals is no different drawing criticism from the African-American community, especially Rev. Jesse Jackson and the NAACP. The pimps and drug pushers in Blaxploitation cinema are considered just the same, walking the line of stereo-type and being socially conscious.

#5 The Candy Tangerine Man (1975)

Written by Mikel Angel

Directed by Matt Cimber

“Your cash ain’t nothin’ but trash.”

The Baron is a Sunset Blvd pimp that pushes his women to...