Mekhi Phifer Movies

Although he had almost no prior acting experience, Mekhi Phifer made a highly auspicious screen debut as Strike, a 19-year-old petty drug dealer in Spike Lee's gritty urban drama Clockers (1995). A veteran of the Harlem streets, Phifer got his break when he attended an open casting call with only photo booth pictures of himself to give to interviewers. Displaying a rare charisma and intensity that was perfect for the role of Lee's ambitious protagonist, the novice actor beat the considerable odds against him and out-acted nearly 1,000 other applicants for the part.

Following the success surrounding his Clockers debut, Phifer appeared in The Tuskegee Airmen, a powerful drama starring Laurence Fishburne that first aired on the HBO cable network. In 1997, Phifer made another strong impression playing the volatile but good-hearted Lem in George Tillman Jr.'s comedy drama Soul Food. The following year, he took part in the rage of teen horror films as one of the stars of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and further established himself as one of Hollywood's more photogenic up-and-comers by starring alongside Julia Stiles and Josh Hartnett in O (2000), a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello that saw Phifer as a high-school basketball star betrayed by his jealous best friend.

Though a well-known performer, Phifer didn't have a bona fide hit until 2002 when he played Future alongside hip-hop star Eminem in the urban drama 8 Mile. That same year, Phifer found success on the small screen as well, joining the cast of NBC's long-running hit medical series ER. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
1999  
PG13  
Add A Lesson Before Dying to QueueAdd A Lesson Before Dying to top of Queue
Don Cheadle, Mekhi Phifer, and Cicely Tyson star in this drama set in the 1940s about a black man sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit and teacher who is to counsel him as he awaits execution. A Lesson Before Dying is based on a novel by Ernest J. Gaines. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Don CheadleCicely Tyson, (more)
1999  
 
For the absolute best in the world of hip-hop music, why not go straight to The Source? Collecting some of the hottest acts on the scene onto one stage for an unforgettable night of music and awards, the 1999 Hip-Hop Music Awards features such talented performers as Lauryn Hill, Puff Daddy, DMX, and many, many more. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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1999  
 
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The troubled marital relationship between failed screenwriter Howard (Mel Jackson) and his comely wife Debbie (Mari Marrow) gets stressed even further when a sexy stranger named Silk (Mekhi Phifer) arrives at the door of their middle-class suburban home. Silk's car has broken down, it seems, and he needs to use the telephone. Howard goes back to work on the patio with his partners, and as they hammer out pages of Howard's latest script, Debbie and her significantly single, wisecracking friend Tammy (Malinda Williams) find Silk an interesting diversion. Before long, though, it's Debbie who is nude in the hot tub with Silk -- while Howard watches, bound and gagged from a kitchen window. As it happens, Silk is a deranged fugitive wanted for murder, and suddenly the household has been taken hostage. As the body count rises, not all is as it seems.
~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Mekhi PhiferMel Jackson, (more)
1998  
R  
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I Know What You Did Last Summer was one of the two teenaged horror movies responsible for bringing the horror genre into the 90's (the other being Wes Craven's Scream). Both of those films came from the pen of screenwriter Kevin Williamson, and both of them generated sequels. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is the continuation of Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a tortured college co-ed who accidentally almost killed a man and left him for dead one night. One year later, that man, named Ben Willis, came back to kill all of Julie's friends. Now, another year later, she still suffers from nightmares over the horrible incidents. When Julie's roommate Kate (Brandy) wins an all-expenses paid trip to the Bahamas on a radio promotion by guessing the capital of Brazil, she decides to take her roommate Julie, her boyfriend (Mekhi Phifer), and their new friend (Matthew Settle) on the retreat. Once there, they discover that besides being the rainy season, they were also followed by Julie's nemesis who is still seeking revenge. Slowly the islanders turn up murdered, leaving Julie no choice but to explain her past actions to her friends and fight to stay alive. It will entail the final showdown between her and Ben Willis once and for all. ~ Chris Gore, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Jennifer Love HewittFreddie Prinze, Jr., (more)
1998  
 
In the first episode of Homicide: Life on the Street's two-part season six finale, Judge Gibbons, who presided over the Mahoney wrongful-death suit, is found murdered -- and before long, three cops are killed in drive-bys that may be related to Gibbons' death. The FBI joins the homicide unit to crack the case, with all evidence pointing back to the drug-dealing empire of Georgia Mae Mahoney, which is now self-destructing in a deadly turf war. As Kellerman (Reed Diamond) broods over the likelihood that his public chastisement of Gibbons may have brought about the man's death, Georgia Rae's son Junior Bunk (Mekhi Phifer) is brought in for questioning -- whereupon Junior grabs a gun and begins firing, seriously wounding two of the series' main characters! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Richard BelzerAndre Braugher, (more)
1998  
R  
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In this hard-edged crime drama, four kids from the tough New York neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen decide to pull a robbery, but their first foray into crime does not go well. When the dust settles, Hayden (Ryan Slater) is dead, and Johnny (Mekhi Phifer) gets pinched by the cops, while Patty (Johnny Whitworth) and Gloria (Angelina Jolie) manage to get away. Johnny serves a five-year stretch in prison for the theft. Although Gloria was in love with Johnny, Hayden was her brother, so she's become susceptible to gossip that Johnny was responsible for Hayden's death, and she is eager to get revenge on her former lover. Patty has also fallen in love with Gloria, and while he is not happy about betraying his old friend, he's soon ensnared in Gloria's plot to kill Johnny. Patty also has to deal with the guilt he feels about his on-again, off-again affair with Gloria's mother Liz (Rosanna Arquette), a failed lounge singer sunk deep into drugs and alcohol. Meanwhile, as he tries to clear his name with Gloria, Johnny is trying to make a career as a boxer; Lou (William Forsythe), a veteran trainer and manager, offers to help Johnny, but the young fighter isn't so sure he wants to be linked to someone with Lou's ties to organized crime. Hell's Kitchen N.Y.C. was the feature directorial debut for Tony Cinciripini, who was formerly an assistant to famed acting coach Lee Strasberg. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Mekhi PhiferRosanna Arquette, (more)
1997  
R  
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This hit domestic comedy-drama concerned the fortunes of an extended African-American family recalled through the eyes of young narrator Ahmad (Brandon Hammond). Ahmad's world revolves around his grandmother, Big Mama Joseph (Irma P. Hall) and her three daughters: workaholic attorney Teri (Vanessa Williams), newlywed salon owner Bird (Nia Long), and Ahmad's housewife mom, Maxine (Vivica A. Fox). Each sister is in turmoil. Teri has lost patience for her husband Miles (Michael Beach), who wants to quit the law and take up music. Bird doesn't realize that her husband Lem (Mekhi Phifer) is about to be humiliated by her ex-boyfriend (Mel Jackson). And while Maxine's relationship with her husband Kenny (Jeffrey D. Sams) is going well, her relationship with her jealous sister Teri needs fixing. These conflicts boil over at Big Mama's traditional Sunday dinners, where the matriarch plays peacemaker. The ritual faces extinction, however, when Big Mama suffers a stroke -- but Ahmad is waiting in the wings to take her place. Soul Food launched the directing career of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native George Tillman, Jr., who based the script on his own family experiences. In the summer of 2000, Soul Food was spun off into a cable TV series. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Vanessa WilliamsVivica A. Fox, (more)
1997  
 
Season six of Homicide: Life on the Street is marked by several changes in the Baltimore homicide unit, not least of which is the exit of two main characters, Sgt. Kay Howard (Melissa Leo) and videographer J.H. Brodie (Max Perlich). Several of the remaining unit members are still being rotated to other departments, though detectives Frank Pembleton (Andre Braugher) and Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor) have been returned to the open arms of their longtime skipper, Lt. Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto). New faces in the squad room include Detective Paul Falsone (Jon Seda), late of the auto-theft division; Detective Stuart Gharty (Peter Gerety), formerly a uniformed officer; and Detective Laura Ballard (Callie Thorne), fresh from of tour of duty with the Seattle homicide department. All three of the newcomers face a hectic initation as they dodge the bullets of a sniper running wild in Baltimore. But the main story line in this first episode of the new season gets under way as Giardello attends a formal reception for his longtime friend, black businessman and community activist Felix Wilson (James Earl Jones) -- only to be swept into an unsettling murder investigation when the body of the Wilson family's maid is found in the men's room of the reception hall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Richard BelzerAndre Braugher, (more)
1997  
R  
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This bittersweet romantic comedy tosses a few screwball comedics into the path to true love. Impoverished, would-be novelist Lee Plenty (Christopher Scott Cherot) lives off his pals while hoping to score big some day soon. Then wealthy, beautiful Havilland Savage (Chenoa Maxwell) invites him to Washington, D.C., for a quiet New Year's Eve party at her affluent family's home -- where Lee becomes the focus of attention from every woman on the premises. Hav's grandmother (Betty Vaughn), however, foresees that Hav and Lee were destined for each other. Shown at the 1997 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Chenoa MaxwellChristopher Scott Cherot, (more)
1996  
PG13  
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In this comic send-up of dramas set in urban schools (such as Lean on Me and Dangerous Minds), Jon Lovitz plays Richard Clark, a teacher who is persuaded to give up his position at Wellington Academy, an upscale private school (where the receptionist cheerfully answers calls with the question "Are you white?"), to take over a class at Marion Barry High School in Inner City, U.S.A. Marion Barry High is a far cry from the ivory-tower atmosphere of Wellington; the statue in the courtyard holds a crack pipe, the Michigan Militia sets up a booth for career day, and there's so much violence on campus that the school has its own graveyard; however, Clark is determined to reach his thick-headed charges, and he hopes to also make an impression on Victoria Chappell (Tia Carrere), a beautiful woman also on the teaching staff. Clark does battle with Evelyn Doyle (Louise Fletcher), the school's militaristic principal, in an effort to raise standards for the school's star straight-C students, and he finds that he's getting through to one of the school's toughest students, Grig (Mekhi Phifer). Screenwriters Pat Proft and David Zucker helped create The Naked Gun and its follow-ups. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Jon LovitzTia Carrere, (more)
1996  
 
For his first case after returning to active duty, Pembleton (Andre Braugher) joins Bayliss (Kyle Secor) in investigating the murder of a divorced woman and her two children, with the woman's ex-husband, an Annapolis naval officer as chief suspect. In other developments Lewis (Clark Johnson) and Munch (Richard Belzer) welcome the opportunity to pin a homicide rap on slippery drug kingpin Luther Mahoney (Erik Todd Dellums) -- especially since the prime witness is Mahoney's own nephew (played by future ER regular Mekhi Phifer). And Cox (Michelle Forbes) offers moral support to Kellerman (Reed Diamond) when he is summoned before the grand jury investigating corruption in the arson unit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Richard BelzerAndre Braugher, (more)
1995  
R  
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Based on Richard Price's grim best-seller, and directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay co-written with Price, Clockers takes the structure of a police procedural to build a chilling portrait of despair, hope, and the unanswered problem of black-on-black crime in an urban housing project. The film's haunting themes are vividly visualized during the opening credits, which run over police photos of dead young black men, shot and sprawled on sidewalks, in streets, and hanging over fences. Strike (Mekhi Phifer) is a 19-year-old African-American "clocker" -- the lowest link on the drug dealing chain -- who hangs around park benches and street corners selling small amounts of druges at all hours of the day. Strike drinks chocolate milk to soothe an ulcer and plays with model trains in his apartment, dreaming of a way out of his dead-end life. Drug kingpin Rodney (Delroy Lindo) asks Strike to kill another clocker, Darryl, for skimming money, saying that this will be Strike's ticket to a higher post in Rodney's organization. Darryl is indeed shot, and suspicion immediately falls on Strike, but a weary cop named Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) thinks there's more to the case. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Harvey KeitelJohn Turturro, (more)

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