Sylvester Stallone was a struggling actor, known for his supporting work in tough-guy roles, when images of a character named Rocky Balboa began to play in his head. Eventually a script and a movie grew up around the character.

Flash-forward some 30 years, when another actor, Michael Jai White, also known for tough-guy roles and supporting work, has an idea and a character of his own.

White's character didn't have a name, just an image - big Afro, mod jacket open to reveal a bare chest, a gun in one hand, nunchucks in the other, women wrapped around each leg.

He had a poster made, and took the image to director Scott Sanders (they'd collaborated on "Thick as Thieves"), who put together a fake trailer for a fake action movie called "Super Bad," which was then stumbled upon and circulated by Japanese Internet geeks and subsequently listed on imdb.com as a real movie.

Soon, it WAS a real movie, with real backers and a real script (though a new name) and White in the lead role of "Black Dynamite," which manages to replicate blaxploitation in a way that is both ironic and sincere.

The movie is sometimes tongue-in-cheek, like "Undercover Brother," but it gets laughs by re-creating both the flaws and the spirit of a legitimate blaxploitation movie, which means it has actual ass-kicking.

"We wanted to make sure people had the same kind of experience," said the 6-foot-2, 230-pound White, in town recently to promote the movie. "We're bringing it to people who have never seen what was so special about them. A lot of the movies were low-budget, but what was seen on screen undeniably captured a certain spirit, the spirit of a long-oppressed people who are now making movies as the hero. Yes, there's a bit of an overcompensation there that's kind of funny when you look at it now, but the spirit is also there."

In "Black Dynamite," nefarious forces are selling heroin to orphans and poisonous malt liquor to black men. Black Dynamite battles hoodlums, corrupt politicians and ultimately The Man to set things right.

It's obviously meant to be funny, and there are a few winks and nudges in the movie, but none from White, who is taking the comedy framework of "Dynamite" and using it to deliver real action, and to pay tribute to his lifelong heroes.

"Jim Brown and I are quite close, he's like a surrogate father to me. He's the person I base a lot of my character on, he's the first black superhero in film," said White.

The first, and, oddly, one of the last. White laments the passing of the action hero in black movies, and in mainstream movies as well. The homegrown action star, he complains, has given away to foreign imports like Dan Craig.

"Who's the ass-kicking person in Hollywood movies today? I'll apply for the job."