Movie Talk - Michael Jai White

Next up for the month is a more modern martial arts actor: Michael Jai White. There ain’t too many of us brothers out there doing these things, so Michael Jai White is kind of a rarity. He was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1967. The dude really knows his stuff.  He first started training martial arts at age 7. He’s trained in styles like Taekwondo, Tang Soo Do, Wushu, and Jujitsu over the years. He’s been in action movies with guys like Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Scott Adkins, and a few others. He even played Mike Tyson in the HBO biopic, Tyson, in the 90’s.

He’s been in all sorts of movies over the years, so martial arts isn’t his only thing. He’s been in some Tyler Perry movies and TV shows. In the geek realm, he was the voice for Doomsday on Justice League, he was in The Dark Knight, he was Jax in Mortal Kombat Legacy, and he was Bronze Tiger on Arrow. Unfortunately, he was Spawn in 1997’s Spawn, a movie I was going to talk about today, but decided not to for obvious reasons. Besides, I’m not a Spawn fan anyway. He kind of hit it big with Black Dynamite, one movie I’ll be talking about today. I’ll also be talking about Blood and Bone and Falcon Rising. I was going to add Skin Trade to this, but I’ll skip that for now. Besides, I can only take so much on the subject of human trafficking.

Blood and Bone

Blood and Bone was released direct-to-video in 2009. It also stars Eamonn Walker (Oz), Dante Basco (Zuko from Avatar), Nona Gaye (The Matrix movies), and Julian Sands (Warlock). It also features a few MMA fighters like Kimbo Slice and fighter-turned-actress Gina Careno. In the movie, Isaiah Bone (White) gets fresh out of prison and stays at a boarding house ran by Tamara (Gaye). His plan is to keep a promise to his old cell mate who was killed in prison. It turns out his old friend has a wife, Angela, who’s now the girlfriend of a former rival, James (Walker), and that rival runs illegal fights. Bone participates in these street fights and mops the floor with the opponents in order to get revenge, save Angela’s life, and help out the neighborhood.

I didn’t get to revisit this movie, but I’ve seen enough of it to say something about it. Besides, my dad loves this movie. As for me, it’s a nice one overall. White is the big star for this one and you see it when he beats the crap out of some prisoners. His skills are awesome and his acting is pretty decent here.  In fact, all of the fight scenes in this movie were pretty good. It was also nice to see Dante Basco ham it up as a fight promoter. While the story isn’t that great, you do kind of feel for the characters involved like Angela, her kid, and the folk in the neighborhood. I also thought Eamonn Walker was a fine villain. There isn’t anyone I know who can make Wang Chung’s “Dance Hall Days” sound threatening.

That being said, it’s not a perfect movie. With this being low-budget, it wears its issues. While the acting from some of the majors is fine, it’s mostly not that good from everyone else. Bone sometimes seems a little overpowered and kind of doesn’t get many big challenges. He just bulldozes through all his opponents. Also, the story is just there. It’s an action/revenge movie, so the story usually takes a backseat in these things. Also, I wasn’t exactly a fan of the credit scene. Let’s just say that while I didn’t like the main villain (he is the villain), I wouldn’t wish that on the dude. In the end, this is a pretty decent action flick.

Falcon Rising

Falcon Rising was released in 2014. It also stars Neal McDonough, former boxing champion Laila Ali, Jimmy Navvaro, and Lateef Crowder. In the movie, White is John Chapman, a former soldier with serious PSTD issues. When his sister, Cindy (Ali), is brutally attacked and left for dead, Chapman travels to Sao Paulo to see what happened. It turns out that his sister was a social worker in the city’s worst part, the Favela. As he does his snooping, he finds out that his sister was going to reveal that the Yakuza was doing some serious human trafficking in the favela. When the Yakuza try to strike at him, he lets them know how he got the call name “Falcon.”

So, we got Jax vs. Eddy Gordo... Sweet!

This was another fine movie. The story is actually not too bad. White plays a dude who clearly needs something to hit, and he does that well. It’s not too action-packed, but when it comes in the second half, it doesn’t let up. The fighting was good from beginning to end. I was also glad to see Lateef Crowder, the real-live Eddy Gordo, have a supporting role in something. You usually just see him being a bad mofo in one scene with most movies, so seeing him do more was cool. It was also kind of interesting to see Laila Ali in a movie. As usual, Neal McDonough does his usual side-character schtick.

As for the dislikes, I didn’t have too many. The acting is sometimes not that good. As usual, it’s a story that isn’t that interesting. It’s a revenge story, pure and simple. It seems like Chapman almost gets over his PSTD pretty easily. I don’t get the disorder, but I don’t know if hitting something cures it. The villains are also not that great. They’re just bad and that’s all they get to be. Other than those things and small nitpicks, I did like this movie. It’s not a perfect one, but it is pretty fun.

Black Dynamite

Finally, I got Black Dynamite which was also released in 2009. The movie is less of a kung fu movie and more a parody of Blaxploitation movies from the 70’s. It also stars Tommy Davidson, Phil Morris, Arsenio Hall, Kevin Chapman, Roger Yuan, and Salli Richardson-Whitfield. In the movie, Black Dynamite (White) goes on a rampage when he finds out his brother, Jimmy, was killed by “The Man.” During his fight, he finds out that the city’s kids are getting addicted to drugs. He ends up going after the drug dealers and pimp handlers. He and his team then uncover a plot to poison black folk with malt liquor that doesn’t just make you go “Ooooooooooou!” It all leads him all the way to the top where he has to fight the evil Richard Nixon!

This movie was a hoot! This movie is pretty much a love-letter to blaxploitation movies like Shaft, Black Belt Jones, The Mack, and Dolemite. Heck, the movie had a dude who was pretty much doing a Rudy Ray Moore impression. Black Dynamite is pretty much the bad mofo you tend to get with these movies. White pretty much rules every scene he’s in. With it being pretty much a parody, he just gets to let loose and… “green egg and ham it” up big time. IF you’re wondering, no that ain’t from the movie… it’s from a rap song by Shaq. Anyway, He’s not the only one who made me laugh. A lot of the characters got a laugh out of me too. The team took the aesthetic those movies had and applied them here. They also took the cheapness those movies had and that just made the movie funnier.

The fight scenes were fine for the most part. With this pretty much being a comedy, White doesn’t really get all “Blood and Bone” here, so you’ll have to find that somewhere else. Still, the fights were funny. The story was okay, but the movie did feel like someone put different vignettes together or something. I know I’m not supposed to take it seriously, but it could have been put together a little better. Also, the movie throws so much weirdness at ya, you sometimes need a break from it. Overall, this is a fun flick for someone who looking for a pretty funny and raunchy time. Oh yeah, it’s the only place where you’ll see a former President wield nunchakus.

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I think I’ll stop it there with the MJW fondness. I may need to look at more of his movies one of these days. Even though he’s still working, it would be nice to see him back on the big screen somewhere. The guy still has the skills, so someone could make that happen. Well, I’m out for the night. Next time, I wrap up the month with Season 2 of Iron Fist. Was it better than the first subpar season? Just Guess. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and don’t tick off the black dude in the corner who looks like Michael Jai White.