Michael_Elliott Dynamite Brothers (1974) * 1/2 (out of 4)A Chinese man (Alan Tang) sneaks into America to locate his missing brother and ends up meeting a black man (Timothy Brown) who decides to help him. The two head to Los Angeles where they run into various drug dealers as well as a crooked cop (Aldo Ray) who is in with them.You know, I love watching bad movies and there's really no one worse than Al Adamson. With that said, I really do love Adamson as a filmmaker because no matter how awful his movies are you can at least spot them from a mile away. As with most of the director's films, this one here is pretty darn bad in regards to quality but at the same time you can't help but be mildly entertained just because of how much craziness one person can pack into a single movie.Adamson was certainly the type of director that would just throw everything on the screen and hope that it would work in the end. By doing this, movies such as this one are technically very poorly made and the storyline itself makes very little to no sense. However, you've got crazy stuff happening throughout the picture from car chases to bar fights to one of the dumbest scenes ever using a snake as a deadly weapon. The bad guys are downright silly to say the least and you're certainly never threatened by them.Then there's the cast. Brown is okay in his part of the duo but Tang is pretty boring and never brings any energy to the picture. Carol Speed, best remembered for her role in ABBY, is good as a deaf woman and Don Oliver is rather memorable as a character known as The Smiling Man. Ray, a good actor in his own right, is clearly just picking up a paycheck here as there are a few times where it's obvious he forgot his lines and is looking off screen for some help. We also have James Hong in a small role.DYNAMITE BROTHERS mixes elements of THE DEFIANT ONES with every other blaxploitation and martial arts film from this period. Heck, Ray even gets a brief scene in a mirror that appears to be mimicking the Marlon Brando "contender" speech from ON THE WATERFRONT. Still, this Adamson picture is very poorly made and gets boring after a while but as you can see, there's still a lot of crazy stuff going on.

lemon_magic But sadly, we'll never get to see it. Adamson once again demonstrates that he doesn't know how to pace a dramatic scene, frame a fight scene (featuring some pretty good stunt men) or a shootout, get a rookie actor to deliver a decent line of dialog, write dialog, or even tell a story that makes sense. There's a lot of potential to this one (a kung fu flick AND a blaxploitation flick), but about 30 seconds into the opening credits you know it'll never come together.The kung fu guy really doesn't have any personality on camera to speak of (I blame a lot of this on his ESL skills and the lines he's given to work with). The black guy (tellingly named "Stud Brown", what a giveaway) is reasonably smooth and presentable, but his character is just a cardboard stand-in for the Jim Brown flavor of the month. The movie tries for a soul vibe (most obviously with the character of "Smiling Man") and a bohemian hipster vibe and several other changes of pace, but it's all just going through the motions. Watch for the scene where the kung fu guy leaps out through a 2nd story window when a henchman pulls a gun (actually a pretty good idea) shattering glass and wood, and then lands outside without a mark on him. Watch for the stunt scene where the two handcuffed protagonists jump off a supposedly moving truck and one of them rolls in the wrong direction as they land. Also look for the scene where the kung fu guy is tossed into a cave and a rattlesnake is tossed in after him, and the movie tries to ignore the fact that there is obviously plenty of room for the guy to get out of the cave without ever going near the snake. And that's just the stunts, mind you. The whole movie has that characteristic "I just point the cameras and let them roll" feel, and it doesn't look as if there were a whole lot of 2nd takes or unused footage. On the other hand, this is still way better than "Brain Of Blood" and actually has better performances (Aldo Ray is actually pretty decent in a thankless part), so from now on I will remember this director as an "incompetent hack" rather than "an idiot behind a camera".

Chris Pollard My second Al Adamson film and compared to "Brain of Blood" this is a masterpiece.Some terrible acting, atrocious camera work and some truly amazingly bad dialogue combine to make this a bad film.By far not the worst film I've seen however.One scene to look out for is when Stud serenades the mute girl with a song. A scene so awful I very much doubt you can avoid cringing or laughing.Still there's something here for HK action fans as basically its a bad 70's Kung Fu film.4/10 about sums it up. Watchable but equally miss-able.

Joseph P. Ulibas Al Adamson was one of the first US directors to use a Hong Kong Stunt team in America. He was a trendsetter for once. The Dynamite Brothers is a real low budget film that has a sleazy feel to it. Alan Tang (former 70's Golden Harvest matinee kung-fu star) stars as a F.O.T.B. chinese looking for his long lost brother. But trouble awaits for him as he "leaps" off the boat. A group of martial Artist led by "MR. Vampire" Ching-Ying Lam attack him on the docks. After dispatching his opponents, Alan heads off to find his brother. He eventually crosses pathes with Stud Brown and the two become the Defiant Ones. What keeps this movie from being great is the bad directing by Al Adamson and his lousy cameraman. They obviously don't know how to film or correctally frame a fight scene. This is sad becuase the action scenes (directed by Ching-Ying Lam) are remarkable. A lot of familiar faces pop up uncredited such as future Sammo Hung Stunt team Members Peter Chan Lung, Philip Ko and Mars can be seen in the back ground. If there was a budget, Al Adamson must have spent it on flying these guys out to California. Besides the cheap feel to the movie, it's not that bad. I enjoyed very much. Alan Tang only got the lead becuase he's the only one that can speak english fluently, Ching-Ying Lam didn't know how to speak english and the others spoke very little. After watching Alan Tang in action, you'll be wanting to watch his older, H.K. work. He's one bad dude. Recommended for historical purposes. B+