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It’s the summer of “Blaxploitation, Baby!,” the latest festival hosted by Film Forum.

The indie theater announced the upcoming festival which will take place August 16 through August 22. The program celebrates the early ‘70s genre of Black cinema, and features films wth iconic movie stars Pam Grier, Richard Roundtree, Ron O’Neal, Tamara Dobson, Jim Brown, Vonetta McGee, Fred Williamson, Isaac Hayes, and more.

“Blaxploitation, Baby!” is dedicated to author and pioneering film historian Donald Bogle, who collaborated on Film Forum’s first Blaxploitation festival in 1995. Bogle credited Melvin Van Peebles’ filmography for helping to establish the genre. “Blaxploitation, Baby!” additionally ranges from works from directors such as Ossie Davis, Gordon Parks, and Gordon Parks Jr.

As well as the screenings, the festival will include the sales of critic and historian Odie Henderson’s “Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation” and Donald Bogle’s acclaimed TCM book “Hollywood Black” at concessions.

Black cowboy movies, while not as common as traditional Western films, have a diverse and exciting history dating back to the 1920s. From silent pictures to the Blaxploitation era, Black actors made their mark in the Western genre, leading to a new generation today. Films like "The Harder They Fall" on Netflix have ushered in a new era of Black cowboy movies, blending action, history, and star-studded casts.

Black cowboy movies aren't as common as traditional Western movies, but they are some of the most exciting and diverse installments in the beloved genre. Stretching as far back as the 1920s, Black actors began making their way into the predominantly White genre, and many of the earliest films featuring Black cowboys were silent pictures. As the Western genre grew, so too did Black involvement in them. By the 1970s, a subgenre within the Blaxploitation sphere was dedicated to Black Western movies.

What would Hollywood be without a good ole Blaxploitation film? And now that “They Cloned Tyrone” has hit Netflix screens, conversations about the Blaxploitation movies that crawled so that “They Cloned Tyrone” could pimp walk have come to the forefront.

Juel Taylor’s film welcomes watchers to The Glen, a normal, everyday neighborhood where its predominately Black residents live out their lives shopping, going to church and enjoying the fruits of their labor. However, beneath the surface, but right in front of their eyes, the government is executing a plot to keep the community in an endless cycle of unhealthy behavior that ultimately blocks them from mental and financial wellness.

Like many Blaxploitation films, “They Cloned Tyrone” creatively calls out and highlights the systemic issues Black community faces while also celebrating Black culture and Black people’s perseverance.

When “They Cloned Tyrone” hit Netflix, people online began discussing the films that influenced it,...

Tubi offers a surprising variety of hidden gems and fantastic flicks in addition to its popular horror movies. Sukiyaki Western Django is a Japanese twist on spaghetti westerns, starring Quentin Tarantino and paying tribute to Sergio Leone. Buffalo Boys is an Indonesian-Singaporean action flick that combines cowboy shootouts and martial arts for a unique viewing experience.

The end of summer is approaching, and there's no better time to brace for the upcoming storms and cooler weather than by retreating inside and slipping away into a typical streaming binge. However, if you find yourself yearning for the return of the scorching sun, you can always turn back time and travel to the wonderful world of the Western genre, where you'll also find spurred boots and big irons in ample measure.

Tubi is tailored to such an occasion. Aside from featuring plenty of vintage classics and hidden gems, you may be surprised...

In 2021, Wesley Snipes used an Esquire "What I've Learned" column to make a fascinating confession: "I've got to learn how to be a movie star."

Snipes was 58 at the time of the article's publication, and enjoying a career renaissance due to his portrayal of actor-director D'Urville Martin in Craig Brewster's uproarious "Dolemite Is My Name." Though he'd officially made his comeback as an aging gang leader in Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq" four years prior, Martin was the perfect vehicle through which Snipes could examine the frustration of an ambitious artist shunted from A-list roles to low-aiming exploitation flicks.

Snipes' Martin is a bitter, alcoholic filmmaker trying, and failing miserably, to make nightclub comic Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) look like a Blaxploitation action star on par with Richard Roundtree. Martin is a defeated man, and it's hard not to sense Snipes reckoning with the sun setting on his own action-hero stardom.

May on the Criterion Channel will be good to the auteurs. In fact they’re giving Richard Linklater better treatment than the distributor of his last film, with a 13-title retrospective mixing usual suspects—the Before trilogy, Boyhood, Slacker—with some truly off the beaten track. There’s a few shorts I haven’t seen but most intriguing is Heads I Win/Tails You Lose, the only available description of which calls it a four-hour (!) piece “edited together by Richard Linklater in 1991 from film countdowns and tail leaders from films submitted to the Austin Film Society in Austin, Texas from 1987 to 1990. It is Linklater’s tribute to the film countdown, used by many projectionists over the years to cue one reel of film after another when switching to another reel on another projector during projection.” Pair that with 2008’s Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach and your completionism will be on-track.

Eddie Murphy’s Prince Akeem left his prospective queen to go to America in Coming to America. And he didn’t even have the good grace to leave her at the altar either. Rather she was dismissed while still barking like a dog (under the prince’s orders). The princess and her brother, General Izzi (Wesley Snipes) never forgot. And in Coming 2 America, he’s prepared to go to war over it.

Snipes may be most beloved to certain audiences as the half-vampire martial arts master in the Blade superhero movies. But his comic chops are supernatural. From 1989’s Major League through White Men Can’t Jump, and To Wong Foo, and Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, his choices are fearless and his timing is fierce.

This coalesced in his impatiently poignant turn as D’Urville Martin, who directed Murphy’s Rudy Ray Moore in the film within the film Dolemite is My Name.

By Todd Garbarini

One of the most frustrating things that I find true of lackluster movies is that following the passage of time, usually several decades, a film that was initially, and often rightfully, considered a stinker is then later touted as “the original classic!” Generally, these accolades are tied-in with advertising to promote and ultimately sell product and give the uninitiated and the curious a reason to buy the film sight-unseen. Efren C. Piñon’s Blind Rage (1976) isn’t necessarily a bad film, it just isn’t a particularly good one. Despite its 82-minute running time, the film feels twice as long and that’s never a good sign.

Blind Rage is a good example of an interesting premise executed in a fashion that can best be described as pedestrian. A product of 1970’s “chopsocky” cinema, the opening credits play over the vocals of Helen Gamboa singing the title track,...

From superheroes to real life heroes, to tales of Hollywood and voyages to the Moon, the year that was 2019 had much to offer to audiences flocking to theaters for a few hours of escapism from the world.

Filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Sam Mendes, Celine Sciamma, Quentin Tarantino, Olivia Wilde, Taika Waititi and Bong Joon-Ho brought a wealth of stories to the silver screen.

We saw the culmination of the Marvel phase 3 story arc, the culmination of the Skywalker Saga and the still in progress, groundbreaking John Wick series, as well as a host of other interesting, quality movies unleashed into cinemas.

Wamg presents its list for the Top 10 films of 2019.

1. Martin Scorsese reminds us why he is still a master movie maker with The Irishman, a compelling foray into familiar territory, making use of new tech to complete the “mob trilogy’ he began nearly thirty years ago with Goodfellas.

Exclusive: The Craig Brewer-directed Dolemite Is My Name stars Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore, the unsung filmmaking hero who would eventually help define the Blaxploitation era of cinema.

Written by Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski, Dolemite is essentially a story about the American Dream and a sense of community for those in the margins in Hollywood. Moore was a comedian who had more failures than successes until he assumed the persona of Dolemite. Many saw the alter ego as crude, and his blatantly explicit album covers and songs were too racy for radio, so they began selling bootlegs of his albums.

Wanting to elevate and expand the character, Moore went to socially minded playwright Jerry Jones (played in the film by Keegan-Michael Key) to make a film, helped by his new comedic partner in crime Lady Reed (Da’Vine Joy Randolph...

Almost 45 years after the original, a new look at the blaxploitation film “Dolemite” is making its way to Netflix. Featuring a star-studded cast including Eddie Murphy, Wesley Snipes, and Chris Rock, “Dolemite is My Name” follows the story of the original “Dolemite” star Rudy Ray Moore, whose stagnant entertainment career suddenly skyrocketed into blaxploitation fame after he appeared in the film.

Directed by D’Urville Martin, the 1975 “Dolemite” tells the story of a one-time pimp who, after his release from jail, seeks revenge on the drug dealers and corrupt cops who framed him by using a team of martial arts-skilled prostitutes called Dolemite Girls.

The action-packed blaxploitation genre spawned a number of reboot films and parodies, such as the late John Singleton’s reimagined version of “Shaft” starring Samuel L. Jackson and Keenan Ivory Wayans Jr.’s “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.” Much like Rudy Ray Moore’s Dolemite, characters like...

Let's take a second to give props to Netflix for rounding up such an amazing cast for Dolemite Is My Name. Not only does Eddie Murphy star in the upcoming comedy, but he'll be joined by Wesley Snipes, Tituss Burgess, Keegan-Michael Key, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Craig Robinson, T.I., and more in bringing the true story to life.

The film, which will debut in select theaters and on the streaming giant this Fall, follows struggling comedian Rudy Ray Moore (Murphy) as he decides to create an outrageous onstage alter ego - Dolemite - to put an end to his long string of failures in show business. The creation of the obscene pimp character eventually leads him to cross paths with pretentious and skeptical director D'Urville Martin (Snipes), who agrees to helm his movie. Against all odds, Moore's Dolemite becomes a box-office smash and one of the most memorable films from the '70s blaxploitation era.

Netflix has dropped the first trailer for Eddie Murphy’s new film, Dolemite is My Name, which is a biopic that will tell the story of the life of Rudy Ray Moore, “a comedy and rap pioneer who proved naysayers wrong when his hilarious, obscene, kung-fu fighting alter ego, Dolemite, became a 1970s Blaxploitation phenomenon.”

The movie looks fantastic, and it’s awesome to see Eddie Murphy in a great movie role again! It looks like he’s going to give a hell of a performance! He’s in the zone! I missed this Eddie Murphy!

The movie comes from director Craig Brewer, and it has an impressive supporting cast that includes Wesley Snipes, Keegan-Michael Key, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chris Rock, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess, Mike Epps, T.I., and Chelsea Gilson.

Here’s the synopsis that was released for the film:

Stung by a string of showbiz failures, floundering comedian Rudy...

Eddie Murphy's upcoming Netflix film, Dolemite Is My Name!, just added a great ensemble cast! Murphy will be joined by Wesley Snipes, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess and Da'Vine Joy Randolph.

The film is a biopic that will tell the story of the life of Rudy Ray Moore, the star of the blaxploitation Dolemite films. 

Moore worked in a Hollywood record store in 1970 when he began hearing obscene stories of a pimp and hustler named Dolemite. He started a club act where he became Dolemite. He then began generating records that mixed humor and a ghetto fantasy character, burnishing the legend. While too racy to be put on display in record stores, the records became a big inner city underground hit. The proceeds allowed Moore to finance the 1975 film Dolemite, which he starred in as a kung fu-capable pimp ghetto hero who stuck it to The Man. Moore followed with three sequels.

Just days after Eddie Murphy signed on to star in Dolemite Is My Name, as Dolemite star Rudy Ray Moore, the rest of the cast is coming together for this Netflix biopic. Wesley Snipes has come aboard to star as Dolemite director and co-star D'Urville Martin, who is described as an, "arrogant actor and alcoholic." Also joining the cast is Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, although no details have been given about the characters they're playing. Production is slated to begin this week in Los Angeles.

Rudy Ray Moore came from humble beginnings, born the son of a sharecropper in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1927. He lived in Cleveland and Milwaukee, Wisconsin holding a variety of jobs before joining the U.S. Army, serving in an entertainment unit where he first developed his love of comedy. Upon his discharge, he relocated to Seattle then Los Angeles, where...

In the immediate aftermath of Rudy Ray Moore's Dolemite and its surprise success, it was decided that the team needed to keep the momentum going and a sequel was green lit almost immediately. Jerry Jones, who wrote the screenplay for Dolemite, was brought back to write this new film, The Human Tornado, but one gentleman who wasn't brought back was director D'Urville Martin. After a lackluster directing job on the first film, Moore and his team decided to bring in some new blood, and a young theater director named Cliff Roquemore. It was Cliff Roquemore who shaped Rudy Ray Moore's screen legacy perhaps more than anyone outside of Moore himself. Roquemore was determined to make The Human Tornado something completely out of this world, and with...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Cult movie star Rudy Ray Moore has died due to complications from diabetes.

Born in Arkansas in 1937, Moore began his career as a singer and comedian but really made his mark as an icon of the blaxploitation movie genre.

He starred as fast-talking hustler Dolemite in director D'Urville Martin's 1975 classic, and the character went on to inspire hip-hop stars like Snoop Dogg and Big Daddy Kane.

Moore embraced hip-hop culture and even collaborated with artists like Snoop Dogg and 2 Live Crew. He became known as the Godfather of Rap.

He released more than 30 controversial comedy albums and appeared in 18 movies. He recently completed his final film, It Came From Trafalgar.