Steineded How sad is this?

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Red-Barracuda The blaxploitation genre certainly produced some bizarre oddities that's for sure. Dolemite is firmly in this category. On a technical level its appalling, with bad camera work, acting, action and story. The boom mic is visible so often that it really deserves a mention in the credits. But these considerations are ultimately irrelevant. In fact, the sheer scale of the cinematic incompetence is certainly one of the actual joys of the movie. The film-makers just didn't care and seemingly knocked this one out with little concern for such matters.The rough and ready style of Dolemite kind of seems appropriate though, given the nature of the central character, who is a super-shady bad mutha in a pimp suit. This character, Dolemite, spends most of the film swearing in creative ways. His routines are like proto-rap and seem to have influenced hip-hop culture. The movie is really a superb time-capsule flick. The insane fashions and jive talk are all almost alien in their bizarreness now. While the movie sports various other strange characters such as Reverend Gibbs, the mayor and the Hamburger Pimp. The latter of which actually appears to be out of his head on something or other – I don't think this bloke was really acting! There's also an extended scene near the end in a nightclub that really has to be seen to be believed. It has a priceless performance from a soul act and a crazy dance routine with some guy battering hell out of a drum-kit, it then climaxes with Dolemite's swearing rap thing. It's strange, like the movie in general. This may be super-trashy but it's highly original. It's yet another example of why the 70's ruled when it came to movies.

MBunge As a time capsule from a particular social, cultural and economic era, Dolemite is remarkable. As a movie, it sucks very, very, very, very hard.This is one of those so-called "blaxsploitation" films from the 1970s and before you watch Dolemite or any of these films, you'd probably be well served to at least check out the Wikipedia entry on "blaxspoitation". If you don't, you could suffer a severe case of brain cramp trying to figure these things out.Dolemite (Rudy Ray Moore) is pimp/spoken word artist/night club owner/street avenger who starts out the movie in jail, where he may or may not have been framed by the cops for dealing in drugs and stolen furs. Yeah, I don't understand the stolen furs either. It must have been a 70s thing. Anyway, Dolemite is offered the chance to get out of jail if he'll go back to his old neighborhood and put a stop to the out of control crime and violence that's taken it over. Accepting the offer, Dolemite is picked up by a carful of his "ladies" and exchanges his prison-issued suit for his first of many pimptacular outfits. Returning to his neighborhood, Dolemite discovers that Willie Green (D'Urville Martin) has taken over his old night club. As Dolemite basically wanders from scenes of sex to scenes of violence and back again, we learn that Willie is connected to the mayor of the city and essentially runs Dolemite's old neighborhood to suit the mayor's agenda. Essentially, it's the story of the white power structure co-opting elements of the black community to "keep the black man down", with Dolemite being the returning hero spoiling that plan. It's a brutally primitive rendition of that story, but subtlety's not exactly a strong point of this movie. A couple of racist cops hassle Dolemite, a black FBI agent gets involved and Dolemite and his "ladies" use some amazingly bad 70s karate to defeat the forces of evil. I mean, seriously, there are 10 year olds in karate dojos all across America who could more convincingly kick people's butts.From almost every technical aspect, this is a laughably bad movie. It's poorly shot, poorly written, it looks cheap and the acting is almost uniformly terrible. Jerry Jones as the black FBI agent and D'Urville Martin are passable, I suppose, but Rudy Ray Moore's alleged acting consists of a "Can you dig it, baby?" nonchalance interspersed with overemphasis of the word "motherf****r"…and he still gives the third best performance of the film.For all of it's flaws, there are two things for which I can recommend this movie.1. This is a film made by 1970s urban black people, for 1970s urban black people, about the world of 1970s urban black people. I'm not saying this is some sort of documentary about the way the 70s actually were for African-Americans, but it does give you a theatrical view of how they looked at and felt about their world. I don't say that as some kind of excuse for how crappy this movie is, but this was the era when African-American filmmakers were getting their first meaningful chance to tell their stories their way. In a country where history is what happened last month and everything before that has vanished into the mists of time, this is a movie that slaps you in the face with how different things are today from how there were just a generation or so ago.2. For all the bad acting, bad camera-work, bad dialog and bad fight scenes, there's an infectious energy to Dolemite. Everything about this movie is raw and unpolished and unpretentious. If you ever got together and made movies with your friends when you were kids, the same honest joy that you can still see in those stories is the same thing you can see in Dolemite. These filmmakers and these performers are all so clearly caught up in what they're doing that they're extremely likable, no matter how awful they are. A great example of that is the clothing in this film. It is hilariously bizarre, but the performers AND the characters they play are so utterly at ease in these fashion disasters, so convinced that these fabricated atrocities are the greatest thing since sliced bread, that you'll end up wishing you could wear those sorts of outfits to work.If you want to watch a good movie, I really can't recommend Dolemite. There are just so many ways that it's truly terrible. But this is a fun movie, I enjoyed it and it's a reminder of how weird the 1970s actually were. So, if you ever are in the mood to watch a awful film about a pimp/spoken word artist/night club owner/street avenger and his army of karate chopping prostitutes, you now know where to look.

Doug Galecawitz Dolemite is awesome. Rudy Ray Moore's rhymin kung fu pimp with horrible choreographed action sequences is about as close as you can get to becoming a spoof of a genre without actually being spoof. Citizen Kane this may not be nor Les Infant Au Revoir, but this is undoubtedly genius in it's own right. The production values in this movie are so bad they could qualify as existential special effects. The plot drags a little in the middle but the power of such a cheap premise as kung fu hookers is enough to bring all but the snootiest film lovers through. The infamous ever present boom mike evokes shades of the gloriously incompetent Ed Wood and never grows unfunny. I sometimes wonder if the boom mike was left in on purpose as commentary on the ridiculous aspects of movies in general but i usually get distracted by erotic scenes that lack eroticism to the point of high art mundanacity. Everything is this movie is alive and breathing, dripping with desperate longing to be simultaneously loved and reviled. It works.9 out of 10

jinglehimer36 Dolemite is one of the best movies featuring a pimp as a hero, who takes down the man, meanwhile hooking up with all the finest women that the ghetto has to provide. Mind you that these women know karate, and are fine foxy ladies.SPOILER--the end fight scene is pretty crazy, with Dolemite ripping the heart out of Willy Green. Make sure your copy is unrated.Plus there are a cast full of innovative brilliant characters like the Hamburger Pimp, Reverend, Mayor, Queen Bee, and others. The apparel is great, and the sets are full of 70's style. There are a few mess-ups in the production, such as boom mikes accidentally appearing, among other things, but that adds to the charm and laughs.I would recommend drinking a 6-pack before and during this movie, and keeping squares and the man a far distance away.