I guess in blaxploitation movies the plot and dialogue are beside the point. But if the film's stars have absolutely no charisma, the film is sunk. This is the case with Dolemite. The hero is a pimp who is supposed to be defiant, savvy, and a lethal fighter. In reality, Rudy Ray Moore is a chunky man who acts as if just saying "mutha fucka" makes him some kind of great wit. (Don't get me wrong: I don't have a problem with profanity. Just don't expect me to salute a guy who thinks that using profanity is sufficient to impress me). Most of the performances are so bad that the viewer becomes so conscious that these are people acting out parts. The only exceptions are West Gale (who plays a corrupt, hypocritical preacher) and Jerry Jones (one of the detectives in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye), who plays an FBI agent tackling corruption in the local police force. I did find it interesting that the film treats an FBI agent as a hero, considering the FBI's pretty shabby record when it came to the civil rights movement. Maybe it just came from respect for the federal government's other interventions to promote civil rights.