We feel guilt-ridden that we're having to post Dolemite in XviD, but we busted our ass looking for the untouched DVD, and failed to find it. Hopefully we can upgrade in the future, but for now, this is what we can offer. Enjoy!
From David Michael Brown at Digital Retribution:
Rudy Ray Moore, the jive talking, ass kicking self proclaimed mother fucker, made his name with a series of lightening fast stand up routines and foul mouthed comedy records. Quick witted he may be, but as an actor there is something sorely lacking. Add to that his obvious lack of ability at the ancient art of kung fu and his less than trim physic and its obvious that this is not your average action hero. The fact that he made over five movies may astound many but watching his most famous creation, Dolemite, it doesn't take long to see why he had audiences flocking to the theatres at the height of the blaxploitation fad, Rudy Ray Moore had mother fucking attitude.
Superfly may have had a plan to stick it to the man, and Shaft was the bad apple in NYC, but Dolemite was a different entity entirely. Fusing his comedy persona into a supposedly hard hitting thriller about a criminal trying to get on with his life after being released from the slammer, Moore became the antithesis of all the macho posturing of many films of the genre. Whatever film he was in, whatever character he played, he was always just the right side of ridiculous. Sure he wore the pimp clothes, spoke the lingo and wooed the women, but he was just completely unbelievable as a hard man. Much of that is due to the terrible fighting choreography which is embarrassing at best. Over half of the 'brutal' fight scenes feature punches so obviously pulled it looks like people just fall over whenever Dolemite is near them, let alone punching them. Moore may have been throwing the punches, but the actors opposite him are terrible, even the writer and director take a turn. It's even worse when they try and deliver scripted dialogue. The risible discourse is hilarious and the stilted delivery embarrassing.
This seeming diatribe may seem like an assassination but in the blaxploitation genre acting ability, sharply honed scripts and expertly choreographed action set pieces are a rarity. These films aren't going to win any Oscars but let's be fair, I'm sure the filmmakers weren't expecting any. The films are a snapshot of a time when film's played to specific audiences and the blaxploitation films played to packed houses in the black neighbourhoods of America. Dolemite's ass kicking female killer squad are fabulous collection of afros, bikini's and upper cuts aplenty and the film frequently gives Moore a chance to show off his vocal pyrotechnics, usually with an appreciative crowd laughing as he announces "Dolemite is my name and fucking up mother fuckers is my game!" His African themed stage show in particular is a kitsch delight.
Technical Information:
Title: Dolemite
Year: 1975
Country: USA
Director: D'Urville Martin
Source: DVD Retail
Video Codec: XviD
Container: .avi
Size: 701 MB
Length: 1:29:42
Programs used: Unknown
Resolution: 640x480
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Video: MPEG4 @ ~900 kb/s
Frame Rate: 23.97 fps
Audio: MP3 Stereo @ 128 kb/s
Subtitles: None
Dolemite Megaupload Link