Michael Jai White has been in a lot of film and TV projects over the last 35 years or so. But probably most beloved amongst his fans is “Black Dynamite,” the 2009 sendup of 1970s blaxploitation movies he conceived, co-wrote and starred in. That it remains a favorite for him too is made obvious by “Trouble Man,” which isn’t a spoof but a relatively straight-faced replay of that vintage genre’s conventions, with White (also directing now) as the supercool hero constantly besting bad guys via martial arts and gunplay, while simultaneously fending off the attentions of various beautiful women.
Bearing no formal relation to the actual 1972 blaxploitation feature of the same title, which is best remembered for its Marvin Gaye score, White’s “Trouble Man” is full of such winking references to vintage African-American pop culture. But referentiality is as far as this semi-tongue-in-cheek endeavor goes; it does a lot of in-joke name-dropping without edging into “Dynamite’s” parody. Nor does it take itself very seriously in the realms where perhaps it should, like attention to plotting, pace and style.
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The new “Trouble Man” ends up resembling its inspirational antecedents all too closely, in both good and bad ways. Like most of the original blaxploitation wave, it feels hastily and somewhat carelessly assembled. You suspect everyone had a good time making it, though, and that fun is contagious. This is disposable entertainment with no pretensions to being anything more, whose 90-odd minutes may be unmemorable yet pass by as enjoyably as a chance reunion with old friends.
Rolling out of bed at the outset, so we can immediately appreciate the star’s toned torso at age 57, ogled by a random female receptionist moments later, White’s Jaxen is a former Atlanta cop and onetime law student who’s now head of security at his friend Ree Ree’s (Mike Epps) nightclub. It is in the latter capacity that he runs across former flame Gina (Gillian White), an event planner, and both of them immediately wonder why that fire ever flickered out. A new rekindling occurs when the night ends at his apartment — foreplay taking an unusual form which proves these parties have kept up their kickboxing skills in the decades since they last met.
Jaxen also does “odd jobs” he vaguely describes as “helping people out of tight situations.” Before his unanticipated date night, we see one such gig involves him strong-arming a burly gym-going physician (Steven Shelby) into pledging he won’t batter his wife again. Later, he reluctantly accepts another mission from a local figure he dislikes, record company maven Barnes Holland (Orlando Jones). Star singer Jahari (La La Anthony) has gone missing at an inconvenient moment, with a new record to promote and the label about to go public. Since he was once the lady’s bodyguard, Jaxen is concerned enough about her well-being to take the assignment.
Tracing her whereabouts leads first to current beau Money (Method Man), who joins Jaxen in the search. Chief among those figures tangled in what gradually emerges as a kidnapping and extortion scheme are globetrotting businesswoman Yuen Song (Levy Tran), who goes nowhere unflanked by her own two sneering bodyguards (Noah Fleder, Theodore Park). Soon our heroes are dodging would-be assassins at every turn. Jaxen complains “I’ve been in five fights in two days” when Gina chides him about his post-coital neglect. Hey, she is not to be trifled with — being distracted by death threats is no excuse for not sending flowers, at the very least.
The dialogue in Michael Stradford’s script is alternately funny and flat-footed. Things get increasingly silly in a way not so much light-hearted as careless, with credibility taking a distant second place in priority to action and banter that themselves aren’t particularly inspired. “Trouble Man” has a small-screen look that remains undistinguished even in scenes of strenuous physical combat. And its indifferent craftsmanship is capped by the most shrugworthy Easter-egg fadeout hinting at a sequel in recent memory.
Nonetheless, White’s fourth directorial feature is fun, its near-arbitrary progress sometimes achieving goofy liftoff — as when Jaxen nonchalantly bounces off a parked van to fly-kick a hitman on the back of a speeding motorcycle, or single-handedly battles a whole barroom of Asian biker toughs. When he goes mano-a-mano with the chief villain during a rooftop climax, a traditional samurai sword materializes from nowhere for the occasion.
Numerous roles seem to exist just to shoehorn in welcome allies, whether it’s Mrs. Michael Jai White (the performer previously billed as Gillian Illana Waters) as romantic interest, Snoop Dogg’s pater Vernell “Poppa Snoop” Varnado as a foul-mouthed elderly doorman, or an appearance by R&B luminary Keith Sweat, who performs a cover of James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” under the closing credits crawl.
Acting is understandably variable, with not everyone on the same page as to how jokily they’re meant to be taking matters — a point the film itself doesn’t seem too clear on. Still, White’s bemused alpha authority carries the day. And this uneven, sometimes sloppy vehicle gets a real boost from Method Man. He lends his wannabe-main-character sidekick moments of comedic invention that make him MVP here, much as he was in the very different “Bad Shabbos” a couple months ago.
