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

Sin City becomes the sight of a horrific vampire plague when a gang of vicious bloodsuckers descend upon the gambling paradise and soak the dry desert sand with warm wet blood in director Fred Williamson's two-fanged shocker. ~ 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

A soldier sets out on a mission of mercy only to discover he's a pawn in a deadly game in this action thriller from cult hero Fred Olen Ray. Veteran U.S. Air Force pilot Murphy (Daniel Baldwin) and his superior, Captain Reynolds (Fred Williamson), are kidnapped by members of a Central American drug cartel as they escort an American congressmen traveling abroad. Murphy and Reynolds are able to signal for help, and a squadron frees the captured soldiers, but Rifkin (Hannes Jaenicke), Murphy's friend and comrade, goes missing in action. A year later, Murphy learns that Rifkin is being held captive by the cartel's leader, Salvatore (Joe Lala), and with Reynolds' help, he sets out on a secret rescue mission using a state-of-the-art stealth aircraft to avoid detection by either Salvatore's gang or government troops. However, Murphy eventually discovers he's walked into a trap -- Reynolds and Rifkin are in cahoots with Salvatore, and they've staged Rifkin's capture to steal the jet for Salvatore's illegal purposes. Active Stealth also stars Shannon Whirry as Murphy's wife, Lisa Vidal, Chick Vennera, and Tim Abell. ~ Mark Deming, 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

Since its first broadcast in 1970, ABC's Monday Night Football has become one of television's longest running and most popular shows. With a combination of game highlights, announcer gaffs and hilarious banter, this video highlights many memorable moments of the show's first 25 years. Announcers Howard Cossell, Frank Gifford, Al Michaels and others give their impressions of working the games and their contributions to what has become an American institution. Several players and media critics also give their take on how Monday Night Football has helped shape the public's view of professional football. ~ Ed Atkinson, All Movie Guide

After a group of technically advanced villains plan to wreak havoc on the world, competent cop Robert Malone (Fred Williamson) is called upon to stop them. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

The Bastards (led by Fred Williamson) venture into the jungles of Vietnam with the intent of killing as many Vietcong as possible. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Half-Nelson was a very brief TV cop series which made its bow on March 24, 1985, with a two-hour "special". Joe Pesci, sporting lots and lots of hair, stars as ex-Manhattan cop Rocky Nelson, nicknamed "Half" Nelson because he stands well under six feet. Nelson is now a Beverly Hills security guard who dreams of launching an acting career. Guest star Morgan Brittany shows up just long enough to die along with an old buddy of Nelson's. The official police verdict is suicide, but Nelson suspects foul play. Also showing up in cameo roles are Dean Martin, John Matuszak, Larry Holmes and Jerry Reuss. The Half-Nelson pilot was telecast on a Sunday; the subsequent series settled into a Friday night slot (but not for long). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Chicago cop is wrongly accused of theft and dismissed from the force. In order to clear his name, he goes after the real culprits -- without the extra baggage of police regulations that might have made his task more difficult if he were still active in the department. This script was originally intended for a Dirty Harry vehicle, but was never realized. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

One of many post-apocalyptic science-fiction films which poured out of Europe in the wake of George Miller's Mad Max, this film stars Stefania Girolami as Anna, who runs away from her wealthy but obnoxious family into the surrealistic biker gangland of the Bronx. There, she meets Trash (Marco de Gregorio), part of a gang called The Riders, and soon falls in love with him. Problems arise when Anna's father (Enio Girolami), president of the evil Manhattan Corporation, sends in a psychopath named Hammer (Vic Morrow) to stir up trouble among the rival gangs, including a black club led by Ogre (Fred Williamson) and a rollerskating group led by Golem (Luigi Montefiori). Castellari's direction is surprisingly stylish and exciting, but all of the hyper-macho posturing eventually grows tiresome for anyone over fifteen. Still, undemanding viewers will have a good time, as the action keeps coming fast and furious, laced with suitably hardbitten dialogue by director Enzo G. Castellari, Elisa Livia Briganti and Dardano Sacchetti. A minor classic of testosterone cinema, followed by several sequels starting with Fuga dal Bronx (1983). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Jack Hedley of The Anniversary stars as a hardbitten police lieutenant tracking a sadistic sex-killer in this gruesome thriller from splatter-maven Lucio Fulci. The misogynistic script (by Fulci and prolific collaborators Gianfranco Clerici and Vincenzo Mannino) posits a femme-hating psycho (who talks like Donald Duck) slashing beautiful women with a switchblade and a straight-razor because his daughter is in the hospital and will never grow up to be beautiful. Fulci was apparently trying to work in a statement about American competitiveness by making his heroine (Antonella Interlenghi) an aspiring Olympic athlete, and having a killer who is concerned that his daughter will never be "the best," but the point gets lost amidst the buckets of blood and gratuitously kinky sex scenes. Pandering to the lowest common denominator as never before in his career, Fulci showed with this blatant play for the sicko slasher crowd that the days of well-plotted, stylish Italian horror were gone, replaced with the most vicious sort of sexual violence and perversion. Despite all of that, there is one fairly masterful sequence in which the suspect's S&M sex partner learns his identity from a radio broadcast and must untie herself and escape while he sleeps. This scene is tense and nerve-wracking, a high-point of genuine fear amidst a nauseating collage of metal blades slicing female flesh. A shameful piece of work that makes Mario Landi's Giallo a Venezia look positively liberated, it co-stars Renato Rossini, Andrea Occhipinti, and Paolo Malco, with cult figures Alessandra Delli Colli, Daniela Doria, and Barbara Cupisti on the chopping block. Cinematographer Luigi Kuveiller, editor Vincenzo Tomassi, and composer Francesco De Masi have all done better work. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide