Fred Williamson Movies

A successful 80s music producer turned wealthy stockbroker is drawn out of is longtime funk by a classically trained dancer who reignites his passion in life in director Fred Williamson's gritty psychological drama. Ricardo French (Richard Brooks) has long fallen out of the limelight. His days as a flashy musical producer are but a distant memory, and these days recovering alcoholic Ricardo directs most of his energy into staying sober. Richard has grown detached, but that all starts to change when he meets Lexie (Cindy Herron Braggs). Lexie is a classically trained dancer who has been forced into servitude for shady nightclub owner Rashid (Ice-T). The moment Richard sees Lexie take the stage, he's inspired again. Not only does he go back to writing music, but he makes it his mission to prove that he can still pen an undisputed hit. Yet as Richard makes his way back to the top, Lexie is being pulled beneath the undertow by the abusive ex-husband who's threatening to take her daughter away. Will these two lost souls be able to meet on a common ground, or are they destined to remain two passing ships in the night? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A spitfire coffeehouse poet catches the attention of a conservative publisher, only to find that her attempts to get him to take part in an underground poetry-reading contest mask a much deeper motivation in the feature directorial debut of longtime television writer E. Paul Edwards. To Jake Thompson, poetry is the purest way of expressing his inner rage. Marni Elliot is an attractive publisher who is drawn to Jake's use of words, and convinced that he could take home the top prize at the Los Angeles Poetron -- a competitive poetry contest that has set the underground literary community ablaze. Though Jake at first refuses on the grounds that competition spoils the purity of art, he is intensely drawn to Marni and soon relents after the pair fall into bed together. When Marni reveals to Jake that she is HIV-positive, he quickly breaks the relationship off. As the Poetron draws near and Jake learns that he will be competing against Marni's former lover, however, he comes to realize that he cannot get the publisher out of his mind, and that his sympathy for her condition has helped him to overcome his anger as it transforms him into both a better poet, and a more capable competitor. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

When a high-class call girl witnesses a brutal murder with the potential to shake the police department, the state department, and the entire criminal underworld, it's up to two rival cops to see that she survives at all costs in this bullet-riddled action entry starring Fred Williamson, Gary Busey, and Don "The Dragon" Wilson. The most powerful men in the city have committed what they thought was the perfect crime - but there was a lone witness to their diabolical misdeed. This isn't your typical mob hit, but an assassination that has the potential to implicate some of the most powerful men in the city. Tyler and Yordan are two cops that have never seen eye to eye. Now, in order to ensure that this crucial piece of evidence not be snuffed out in a hail of gunfire, Tyler and Yordan must work together to protect their witness from a virtual army of assassins. Trust isn't a strong point with these two policemen, however, and in addition to keeping their charge out of the crosshairs the pair must constantly keep up their guards lest one of them turns out to be the informant who seems to be tipping off the triggermen to their every move. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

British director Isaac Julien takes on the Blaxploitation era of the '70s in the hour-long documentary Baadasssss Cinema. With archive film clips and interviews, this brief look at a frequently overlooked historical period of filmmaking acts as an introduction rather than a complete record. Features interviews with some of the genre's biggest stars, like Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, and Richard Roundtree. Director Melvin Van Peebles discusses the historical importance of his landmark film Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song. For a contemporary perspective, the excitable Quentin Tarantino offers his spirited commentary and author/critic bell hooks provides some scholarly social analysis. The music of Blaxploitation movies is rightfully discussed, focusing on Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly" and Isaac Hayes' "Shaft." Also features interviews with writer/director Larry Cohen and film historian Armond White. Baadasssss Cinema was originally shown on the Independent Film Channel in August of 2002 as part of a week-long Blaxploitation film festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Spike Lee's documentary on the football star, movie actor, and social activist is a no-frills examination of a man who has rarely been out of the public spotlight for over 45 years. Jim Brown talks about the various phases of his life, from his boyhood in the all-black community of St. Simons Island, GA; to his adolescence on Long Island, where he became a multi-sport star athlete; to his college days at Syracuse University; to his nine-year career as the NFL's leading running back with the Cleveland Browns; to his days as an action star in Hollywood films; to his work with various social programs, many designed to help inner city youth. Among the many interview subjects are Art Modell, the onetime owner of the Browns; former Cleveland Brown teammates Dick Schafrath, John Wooten, Bobby Mitchell, Paul Warfield, and Walter Beach; filmmaking colleagues Fred Williamson and Bernie Casey (both football players turned actors), Raquel Welch, Oliver Stone, James Toback, Melvin Van Peebles, and Stella Stevens; Kim Brown and James Brown Jr., two of Brown's children from his first marriage; and Rockhead Johnson, a former Los Angeles gang leader and officer of Brown's Amer-I-Can organization. Lee does address Brown's ongoing legal problems over various assault charges, many of them involving women, and he tracks down a onetime Brown lover who in the mid-'60s wound up in the hospital after an incident at his Los Angeles home. Brown appeared in a supporting role in Lee's film He Got Game. This film, co-produced by HBO's sports division, was released theatrically for a limited run; a version running 114 minutes premiered on HBO several months later. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Blaxploitation icon Fred Williamson produced, directed, and stars in this action thriller as Dakota Smith, a hard-nosed but scrupulously honest cop who has more than a few questions when his partner is murdered. As Smith sets out to find who killed his sidekick and bring him to justice, he discovers a trail of dirty dealings that leads from the lowest rungs of the police force to the highest pillars of city government -- and Dakota isn't about to rest until law and order once again prevails. Also starring in Down 'n Dirty are Bubba Smith, Gary Busey, David Carradine, Beverly Johnson, and Charles Napier. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Imaginary Z-grade 1960s exploitation film producer Morty Fineman (Jerry Stiller), who was responsible for such faux-works as Buddy Cops V: Hayseed and Toughnut, sci-fi blaxploitation flick The Foxy Chocolate Robot, and, of course, Heil Titler , is the focus for this mockumentary co-written and directed by Stephen Kessler). While Fineman struggles to make his latest effort, Ms. Kevorkian, about a gun-toting babe who's passionate about assisted-suicide, the bank wants to foreclose on his hallowed studio and sell his film archive for $8 a pound. In absolute desperation, he reaches out to his estranged daughter Paloma (Janeane Garofalo), who grudgingly agrees to be the president of his production company in spite of numerous moral qualms. Along the way, the film features interviews with such real-life luminaries as Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Corman, and blaxploitation stalwart Fred Williamson, that paints a picture of a relentlessly gung-ho producer whose work somehow manages to rise above nothing budgets and lackluster talent. They also highlight Fineman's penchant for hitting on his leading ladies; Karen Black recalled one incident by noting, "It helped to be drunk." This film was screened at the 2000 South By Southwest Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Obsessed with the media, a crazed serial killer likes to videotape the agonizing death of his victims thus providing the only clues a police detective has to go on. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Produced in Canada for a Canadian and U.S. viewership, the weekly, hour-long drama series Fast Track starred Keith Carradine as Richard Beckett. A former racecar driver, Beckett had become a doctor, working almost exclusively along the speedway circuit and tending to the injuries of his fellow motorists. Naturally, Beckett also got involved with various domestic crises, and occasionally put in time as an amateur detective. The impressive supporting cast included Duncan Regehr as Christian Chandler Jr., Tristan Rogers as Harry, Fred Williamson as Lowell Carter, and Sebastian Spence as Stevie Servine. Produced by Alliance Atlantis, Fast Track unveiled the first of its 23 episodes on August 3, 1997, telecast simultaneously on Canadian and American cable TV. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Larry Cohen, who directed a number of interesting and subversive exploitation films in the 1970s and 1980s, including Black Caesar and Hell Up in Harlem, reunited some of the biggest stars of the blaxploitation era for this tough-minded action opus. John Bookman (Fred Williamson) is a successful football coach who was born in Gary, Indiana but now lives in Los Angeles. When Bookman's father is shot, he returns home for the first time in years to discover that Gary has been all but taken over by a number of brutally violent youth gangs. Bookman learns that his father was shot in retaliation for going to the police after a young man was killed by gang bangers outside his grocery store; even worse, the kid who pulled the trigger was a member of the Rebels, the gang that he helped form as a teenager. Outraged, Bookman joins forces with the boy's parents, who also happen to be old friends: Jake Trevor (Jim Brown) and Laurie Thompson (Pam Grier). John, Laurie, and Jake organize the neighborhood against the gangs, with John's old gang brothers Bubba (Ron O'Neal) and Slick (Richard Roundtree) tagging along to show the young gangstas what the old school can do. If Williamson, Brown, Grier, O'Neal, and Roundtree all look a bit older than they did in their glory days, they all still boast charisma to spare, and anyone who liked their older films will have a good time with this one. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This action film concerns Jim Paradine (Miles O'Keeffe), a stressed-out Miami Beach policeman who goes to the mountains to visit his friend Eli (Frank Fontaine), a local cop. While he's there, Paradine runs into the gang of crooks who murdered his family two years before and left him for dead. Peter Colvey and Jason Cavalier are the homicidal brothers, and Lynne Adams is their lesbian sister. The gang swipes a $2 million payroll from mountain loggers and kills a lot of people (including Eli), only to have the vengeful, crossbow-toting Paradine and local sheriff Mantee (Fred Williamson) come after them. A snowmobile flies off a mountain, a man dangling from a cliff is blown up with a grenade, and the film is packed with enough violence and nudity to satisfy genre fans, despite a somewhat lacklustre leading turn by O'Keeffe (Tarzan, the Ape Man). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide