Addison Cook Movies
- 1986
- R
Actor Forrest Tucker is the host of this Tunnelvision/Groove Tube-type film that spoofs television shows. Included are parodies of the Phil Donahue Show, a slasher Santa Claus and goofy late-night news reports, among others. Started in 1983, this film was finished in 1984 but not released until 1987. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Forrest Tucker, Bobbi Wexler, (more)
- 1991
- R
Marcus De Leon directed this standard erotic thriller for Roger Corman's Concorde Pictures. Sexy Julie Carmen stars as Teresa Bozman, wife of Jake (Guy Boyd), a sadistic bar-owner in East Los Angeles. When a handsome singer named Tony Montero (Robert Beltran) is hired, his music boosts the club's business and steals Teresa's heart. Together, they plot to kill Jake and live happily ever after, but the usual complications ensue. A mostly Latino cast and authentic locations give this film more credibility than Dan Golden's tiresome redneck remake (also for Concorde), Saturday Night Special (1994). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Carmen, Robert Beltran, (more)
Tom Kalin directed this cool and aloof black-and-white study of the infamous Leopold and Loeb case, a case told before in two previous films -- Rope and Compulsion. In 1924, in Chicago, Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, two 18-year-olds, kidnapped and murdered the 13-year-old Bobby Franks, immediately killing him and then stuffing his naked body up a culvert. The motive for the crime was simply that they wanted to prove to themselves that they were smart enough to get away with it. The previous film versions downplayed Leopold and Loeb's homosexuality, but Kalin's version plays it up into a psychosexual motif. Loeb (Daniel Schlachet) is the calculating intellectual, while Leopold (Craig Chester), the amateur ornithologist, is the emotional and weak one. In love with Loeb, Leopold is willing to do anything for him, and when Leob uses the withholding of sex as a prompt, Leopold is even willing to commit murder to have his sexual desires satisfied by Loeb. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Schlachet, Craig Chester, (more)
Writer-director Spike Lee's epic portrayal of the life and times of the slain civil rights leader Malcolm X begins with the cross-cut imagery of the police beating of black motorist Rodney King juxtaposed with an American flag burning into the shape of the letter X. When the film's narrative begins moments later, it jumps back to World War II-era Boston, where Malcolm Little (Denzel Washington) is making his living as a hustler. The son of a Baptist preacher who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, Little was raised by foster parents after his mother was deemed clinically insane; as an adult, he turned to a life of crime, which leads to his imprisonment on burglary charges. In jail, Little receives epiphany in the form of an introduction to Islam; he is especially taken with the lessons of Elijah Mohammed, who comes to him in a vision. Adopting the name 'Malcolm X' as a rejection of the 'Little' surname (given his family by white slave owners), he meets the real Elijah Mohammed (Al Freeman, Jr.) upon exiting prison, and begins work as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Marriage to a Muslim nurse named Betty Shabazz (Angela Bassett) follows, after which X spearheads a well-attended march on a Harlem hospital housing a Muslim recovering from an episode of police brutality. The march's success helps elevate X to the position of Islam's national spokesperson. There is dissension in the ranks, however, and soon X is targeted for assassination by other Nation leaders; even Elijah Mohammed fears Malcolm's growing influence. After getting wind of the murder plot, X leaves the Nation of Islam, embarking on a pilgrimage to Mecca that proves revelatory; renouncing his separatist beliefs, his oratories begin embracing all races and cultures. During a 1965 speech, Malcolm X is shot and killed, reportedly by Nation of Islam members. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, (more)
Nineteen unsavory characters find their lives briefly intertwined one Friday afternoon in a Brooklyn neighborhood in this sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic offering from Cinque Lee (brother of distinguished director Spike Lee). None of the characters are actors and all of them use their actual names. Even Lee appears as an escapee from a mental hospital who is trying to rebuild a relationship with his troubled estranged son Ari. Lee must also find the medication he needs to function. Meanwhile Ari's mother looks for him while her husband is accidentally nabbed by a car jacker. In other vignettes, a rookie magician messes up her very first gig, a lesbian pimp attempts to woo back her old girl friend and a drug dealer frantically searches for a missing stash. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Darnell Martin, Addison Cook, (more)
