William Young Movies
An act of kindness gets a busload of travelers into a world of trouble when they stop to check on an injured biker and incur the wrath of his psychotic fellow gang members. It's Christmas Eve in Texas: ten passengers board a bus in hopes of getting home for the holiday, but find their journey delayed after their bus strikes a biker and the driver pulls over to ensure he's alright. But this isn't your average biker; he's all hopped up on crystal meth and armed to the teeth as well. Upon regaining consciousness, the drug-frenzied biker opens fire on the bus. Terrified, the passengers somehow manage to gain the upper hand and kill their trigger-happy assailant. Unfortunately for the passengers, this is only the beginning of their Christmas nightmare. The rest of the gang has witnessed the lynching, and now they're determined to avenge the death of their brother by killing everyone responsible. After forcing the boss off of the road and into an abandoned wrecking yard, the gang surrounds the stranded passengers and prepares to move in. But while this gang of renegade bikers may excel in the area of brutality, their intended victims are even more cunning when it comes to utilizing every resource at their disposal to wage a life or death struggle for survival. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lea Thompson, Desmond Harrington, (more)
A recently widowed eccentric with money to burn and no intentions of settling down enlists the aide of a showbiz professional to transform a run-down theater in Soho into London's most innovative entertainment hot spot in director Stephen Frears' cinematic account of the groundbreaking Windmill Theater. The year is 1937 and, despite having recently lost her husband, 69-year-old Laura Henderson (Judy Dench) remains as ambitious and vital as ever. Aghast at her friend Lady Conway's (Thelma Barlow) suggestion that she take up a mundane hobby such as diamond collecting to pass the time, Mrs. Henderson instead shocks her well-to-do social circle by purchasing the ramshackle Windmill Theater in the heart of downtown Soho. Unafraid to take a risk in the venture, yet lacking the experience needed to run the theater, Mrs. Henderson brings in showbiz veteran Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins) to line up an opening act that will set the stage ablaze. When the ever-curious Mrs. Henderson's intrusive spying begins to impede on Mr. Van Damm's creative progress, the frustrated theater manager has her banished from rehearsals. Though Van Damm's innovative idea to stage an unending stream of entertainment dubbed "Revudeville" proves a wild and profitable success, the Windmill begins to suffer when other local theaters quickly follow suit. Now faced with the prospect of seeing her once-lucrative endeavor fall by the wayside due to the unoriginality of the copycats who surround her, Mrs. Henderson decides to show audiences something they've never seen before by making the Windmill the first theater to feature nude female entertainers live on-stage. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, (more)
The stand-up comedy concert film Latham Entertainment Presents features a handful of African-American comedians including D.L. Hughley, Bruce Bruce, Earthquake, and Rickey Smiley. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- J. Anthony Brown, Bruce Bruce, (more)
- 1999
In 1989, Reed Paget was a 23-year-old photographer and aspiring documentarian who wanted to record the seven wonders of the world on film. He decided to start in China, where he got a job teaching English, just in time to witness the student uprisings that led to the massacre in Tiananmen Square. Paget was able to sneak his film (and himself) out of the country, and next visited Vietnam and Cambodia, hoping to photograph Angor Wat. As one might expect, Paget and his traveling companion were both arrested, but upon his release, Paget discovered he'd developed a taste for danger. He spent much of the next few years scrambling to the world's trouble spots and throwing himself into the face of war or civil disturbance in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, South Africa, Germany, Moscow, Cairo, and Israel, which was as close to the Gulf War as he was able to get before missiles began to fall. American Passport features Paget's footage from his many travels, as well as interviews with friends and family and his narration, which reflects his leftist political views on international politics. American Passport (which has also been advertised under the alternate spelling Amerikan Passport) was named Best Documentary at the 1999 Slamdance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
A man who's devoted his life to running around on his woman finally meets his match in this comedy. Dray Jackson (Bill Bellamy) is a ladies' man par excellence, who never lets the fact that he has a girlfriend, Lisa (Lark Voorhies), get in the way of making time with as many other women as possible. As he spends a typical day going from house to house "visiting" a number of beautiful females, Dray fills his friends David (Pierre Edwards), Kilo (Jermaine Hopkins), and Spootie (A.J. Johnson) in on the finer points of the art of having as many ladies as you want without getting caught. Dray's sister Jenny (Natalie Desselle) and her friend Katrina (Mari Morrow) are at once disgusted and morbidly fascinated with Dray's cheerful, chronic infidelity, and since Jenny is studying anthropology, they decide that Dray's lifestyle would be a worthy subject for research. Deciding to see what would happen if Dray was really put to the test (and maybe teach him a lesson in the process), Jenny and Katrina throw a party, and they invite Dray -- and all the women whose telephone numbers appear in his address book. Max Julien, best known for his role as the ultra-smooth pimp in the blaxploitation classic The Mack, appears as Dray's lady-killing Uncle Fred. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Bellamy, Natalie Desselle, (more)
- 1996
- R
- Add Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood to QueueAdd Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood to top of Queue
Much as Keenen Ivory Wayans' I'm Gonna Git You Sucka parodied the basic elements of 70's blaxploitation pictures, this film written by and starring his younger brothers Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans pokes fun at the gritty "reality check" films of the 1990's, such as Boyz N The Hood, Menace II Society and New Jack City. When Ashtray (Shawn Wayans) moves to South Central L.A. to live with his father (who appears to be the same age he is) and grandmother (who likes to talk tough and smoke reefer), he falls in with his gang-banging cousin Loc Dog (Marlon Wayans), who along with the requisite pistols and Uzi carries a thermo-nuclear warhead for self-defense. Will Ashtray keep living the straight life or will he join up with Loc Dog's gangsta homeboys? And is his romance with self-styled poet Dashiki (Tracey Cherelle Jones) going to go anywhere? Big brother Keenen has a small role as a mailman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, (more)
After their bank-robbing father and his companions kill a couple and threaten the fleeing daughter, a young man and his adopted Vietnamese brother use their kickboxing skills to administer justice. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Neil, Jerry Trimble, (more)
Two excellent actors shine in powerful roles in this drama by Ronald Neame that pits one Scottish army colonel against another. Alec Guinness is Lt. Col. Jock Sinclair, a man who temporarily takes over command of a regiment until his replacement, Col. Basil Barrow (John Mills) arrives. Sinclair comes from the lower echelons of the social order but was at least able to work himself up the echelons in the military hierarchy. He is fairly well-liked though still a little rough around the edges for some. When Barrow takes over, the two men clash almost at once. Barrow is from the upper crust, went to all the "right" schools, and believes in discipline and then a little more discipline, as well as efficient and proper bureaucratic processes. The differences between the two men threaten to rupture the unity of the regiment, especially after Sinclair assaults a soldier he finds in the company of his daughter. Barrow opts to report his behavior, leading to a climactic series of events. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Guinness, John Mills, (more)
- 1955
Opening with elaborate preparations for the Queen of England's birthday, The Queen's Guards introduces the audience via voiceover to John Fellowes, a young captain overseeing the participation of the Grenadier Guards in the celebratory parade. A series of flashbacks follow, which fill the viewer in on John's difficult past: a crippled father who is a former Guardsman himself and maintains an obsessive interest with the Guards; a dead brother (also a Guardsman) to whom John is constantly (and unfavorably) compared by his father; and difficulties encountered during his military training when he learns his brother died a coward and caused the death or injury of many of his colleagues (including the father of a girl in whom John has a romantic interest.) Eventually, John is placed in charge of a military operation that has many parallels to the ill-fated one led by his brother, putting him in the position to either repeat his brother's mistakes or atone for them and thereby restore the family's honor. The film mixes shot of actors portraying Guards with footage of actual Guardsmen and soldiers on parade and in action, and also includes some location shots of Battersea Bridge and the Prospect of Whitby. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Massey, Raymond Massey, (more)
