Anthony Anderson Movies

The Fox cop drama K-Ville was set in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, hence its title (the designation "K-Ville" was among the graffiti found scrawled on the walls left standing in the wake of the disaster). The focus was on the activities of the NOPD's Felony Action Squad, led by short-tempered Capt. James Embry (John Carroll Lynch). Heading the cast was Anthony Anderson as police detective Marlin Boulet, who, assigned to keep the peace in his old, now devastated Ninth-Ward neighborhood, played by his own rules, never dodged a confrontation with either criminals or colleagues, and swigged bourbon with cavalier abandon. He was also a compassionate family man, though he found it very difficult to carry on a long-distance relationship with his wife Ayana (Elise Neal) and daughter Tawni (Jiya Fowler), who'd been evacuated to Atlanta. Boulet's new partner was the mysterious Trevor Cobb (Cole Hauser), a "loose-cannon" veteran of the Afghan War whose previous criminal record had been fortuitously washed away in the hurricane, a secret that Boulet was willing to keep from the higher-ups so long as Cobb stayed "on task." The rest of the Felony Action Squad ran the usual TV-stereotype gamut, including resident jokester "Glue Boy" Gooden (Blake Shields) and sole female member "Love Tap" LeBeau. Essentially a standard buddy-cop series laced with contemporary cynicism, the location-filmed K-Ville debuted September 17, 2007. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eric and Ari scramble for answers about the Aquaman deal; Turtle mopes over bad luck with women; Vince discovers how pricey his new neighborhood can be. Anthony Anderson and Bob Saget have cameos. ~ Joe Friedrich, All Movie Guide

Although the gritty cop drama The Shield would become the FX's network longest-running dramatic series during its fourth season, a serious drop in ratings at the end of season three could well have precipitated the show's cancellation. Giving the program a major shot in the arm was the addition of two new regulars, Glenn Close and Anthony Anderson. Close is introduced as Monica Rawling, the new captain of the Farmington District Strike Force and the new (nominal) boss of tough, brutal, and borderline-corrupt Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis). Rawlings has been appointed to her post after Mackey's former captain and longtime enemy David Aceveda (Benito Martinez) is elected to the city council. Though certainly not enamored of Vic's strong-arm tactics and questionable ethics, Rawling is willing to give the detective a relatively free hand in dealing with the district's most vicious drug dealers. Even so, both Aceveda and Rawling intend to closely monitor Vic's movements, forcing him to play it "straight" (or as straight as he's capable of being) throughout the season. The promotion of Rawlings has a profound effect not only on Vic but also on his fellow detective Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder), who is bitter over not being promoted to captain herself.

Anthony Anderson is cast as Antwon Mitchell, at once the most formidable and most frustrating adversary that Mackey and his team have ever come up against. Once a powerful drug lord, Mitchell has managed to win release from prison, and is now regarded by many of the power elite as a reformed man, a dedicated community activist. Of course, Vic (and the viewers) known that Mitchell hasn't changed a bit, and in fact is a more dangerous mob leader and drug pusher than he'd been before his arrest thanks to strong ties with the Russian mafia. But to the public at large, Mitchell is virtually a saint, and thus above suspicion when the you-know-what hits the fan. Even when Vic and Rawlings have Mitchell dead to rights, he manages to wriggle out of their clutches, leading Vic to suspect that there's a mole in the ranks of the strike force -- a mole who may or may not be his longtime colleague Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins). Vic's determination to expose Mitchell heats up after several cops are murdered in a well-planned ambush. In giving Vic a tacit carte blanche to blast Mitchell's operation apart, Rawling puts her own job on the line. Ironically, what ultimately seals Rawling's doom is not her war against drugs, but her fierce determination to bring the city's most heinous child abusers to justice. Bringing Glenn Close and Anthony Anderson to the fold turned out be the best thing that had happened to The Shield in years. The series ended its four season posting its best-ever ratings -- indeed, some of the best ratings in the entire realm of cable television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Comic actor Anthony Anderson was appropriately cast as Anthony Anderson in this half-hour WB sitcom. A struggling actor and single dad, Anthony was forced by financial and other considerations to move back home with his middle-class mom and dad, who looked after his son, Tuga (Damani Roberts), while he continued to seek out movie work. Anthony's mother, Flo (Roz Ryan), was delighted to have her darling boy back, but his irascible father, Joe (John Amos), was not so thrilled -- especially since he had already rented out Anthony's old room to Latina medical student Lydia Serrano (Aimee Garcia). Co-created by star Anderson, Adam Glass, and Marco Pennette, All About the Andersons debuted September 12, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A white youth is killed in a black neighborhood after a botched drug deal. The victim's racist father (Thomas G. Waites) arouses the ire of Lt. Fancy (James McDaniel), resulting in a controversial confrontation. Elsewhere, Greg (Gordon Clapp) and Jill (Andrea Thompson) investigate when an African-born youth finds his mother's butchered body in their refrigerator. And while taking sick leave, Diane (Kim Delaney) suffers a miscarriage. When originally telecast, this episode ended with a surprise musical rendition by the entire cast of "Stop in the Name of Love" (running during the end credits), as a promotion for an upcoming network special commemorating the 40th anniversary of Motown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Legendary director Martin Scorsese takes the helm for this tale of questionable loyalties and blurring identities set in the South Boston organized crime scene and inspired by the wildly popular 2002 Hong Kong crime film Infernal Affairs. As the police force attempts to reign in the increasingly powerful Irish mafia, authorities are faced with the prospect of sending in an undercover agent or seeing their already frail grip on the criminal underworld slip even further. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a young cop looking to make a name for himself in the world of law enforcement. Collin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is a street-smart criminal who has successfully infiltrated the police department with the sole intention of reporting their every move to ruthless syndicate head Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). When Costigan is assigned the task of working his way into Costello's tightly guarded inner circle, Sullivan is faced with the responsibility of rooting out the informer before things get out of hand. With the stakes constantly rising and time quickly running out for the undercover cop and his criminal counterpart, each man must work feverishly to reveal his counterpart before his identity is exposed by the other. Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, and Ray Winstone co-star, and writer William Monahan adapts a screenplay originally penned by Alan Mak and Felix Chong. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Directed by Danny Leiner, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle follows the life-changing (and mind-altering) journey of Korean-American investment banker Harold (John Cho) and Indian-American medical-school candidate Kumar (Kal Penn). Both underdogs, Harold and Kumar decide to spend what would have been an otherwise uneventful Friday night satisfying an oddly intense urge for White Castle hamburgers. However, finding a White Castle proves a highly difficult task, and the two friends wind up on an epic road trip of deep thoughts, deeper inhaling, and enough half-baked, politically incorrect philosophizing to outweigh a White Castle value meal. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Love really is a battlefield in this war of the sexes comedy that marks the directorial debut of Def Jam's How to Be a Player (1997) screenwriter Mark Brown. Vivica A. Fox stars as Shante, a knowledgeable veteran of the dating game who thinks she's found the perfect mate in the handsome Keith (Morris Chestnut). When Keith is spotted stepping out with Shante's arch-rival Conny (Gabrielle Union), the spurned lover institutes what she labels the "ten-day plan," an all-out assault on Keith designed to make him come crawling back to her. Shante's scheme includes sexy lingerie, home cooking, aloofness, and other tactics intended to make Keith regret his errant ways, but Keith is receiving contradictory advice from his allegedly worldly wise buddy Tony (Anthony Anderson). Two Can Play That Game is produced by Doug McHenry, director of Jason's Lyric (1994) and Kingdom Come (2001). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

William Shakespeare's streak as the hottest storyteller in Hollywood continues with this modern-dress variation on Romeo and Juliet. In this loose adaptation, Hang Sing (Jet Li) is a former police officer from Hong Kong who comes to the United States following the death of his brother, the leader of an Asian crime ring. Hang Sing discovers that his brother had become involved in a turf battle with an African-American gang, led by Isaak (Delroy Lindo). But his blood lust begins to subside when he falls in love with Isaak's daughter Trish (Aaliyah) and finds himself torn between his affection for her and his desire for justice against the men who killed his brother. Romeo Must Die was the directorial debut of noted cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak; the supporting cast includes Russell Wong and Isaiah Washington. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Six years after Dumb and Dumber, Jim Carrey reunited with Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly for this anarchic comedy with a hint of romance. Charlie (Carrey) is a good-natured Rhode Island state trooper who likes helping people. But years of internalizing his frustrations about his work and his family have caused Charlie to develop an alter ego: Hank, an abusive, violent, sexually compulsive police officer. Charlie can keep Hank at bay with medication, but just barely. When Irene (Renee Zellweger) finds herself in legal trouble through a series of misunderstandings involving her ex-boyfriend, Charlie must escort her on a long drive to New York for questioning. After Charlie loses his medication, he and Hank wind up vying for her affections: Charlie wants Irene to marry him, while Hank has more brutal intentions. Me, Myself, and Irene also features Chris Cooper, Robert Forster, and Jessica Harper, as well as Anthony Anderson, Mongo Brownlee, and Jerod Mixon as Charlie's rotund, African-American sons. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Comedians Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence team up for a story that wouldn't appear to have many immediate humorous possibilities -- two men serving life sentences in prison for a crime they did not commit. Life opens in Harlem in 1932, where Ray Gibson (Eddie Murphy) is a small-time con man in debt to Spanky, a gangster (Rick James). Ray spots would-be bank teller Claude Banks (Martin Lawrence) at a gambling spot and, figuring him for an easy mark, lifts his wallet -- only to discover Claude is broke. Ray and Claude's mutual need to raise some cash brings them together when Spanky offers them a job bringing back a load of moonshine from bootleggers in the deep south. However, things don't go well for Ray and Claude, and they're arrested by a sheriff in Mississippi who recently killed a man and needs someone on whom he can hang the charge. Since Ray and Claude are black, from out of town and have been caught red-handed with a load of illegal liquor, the sheriff figures they're easy pickings and frames them for the murder. Soon the two men are inmates in a Southern work camp, where they spend the next 55 years learning to get along with the other inmates, avoiding the wrath of the guards, seeing younger prisoners come and go and never losing hope that someday, somehow, their innocence will be proven and they'll be released. Life is the second screen pairing for Murphy and Lawrence, who also shared screen time in 1992's Boomerang, and was scripted by Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone from an original idea by Murphy. The supporting cast includes Ned Beatty, Clarence Williams III, Bernie Mac, Nick Cassavetes and R. Lee Ermey. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Spoof series torch-bearer and Airplane! mastermind David Zucker steps back into the captain's chair for yet another round of cinematic shenanigans in the latest installment of the Scary Movie franchise, this time mocking such frightful blockbusters as Saw, War of the Worlds, The Village, and The Grudge. An alien invasion threatens to wipe out the entire human race, but not if Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) and her nymphomaniac pal Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) have any say in the matter. With the clock counting down for all of humankind and the extraterrestrial invasion about to begin, the fearless but slightly dunderheaded heroines are joined by a series of celebrity guests including Dr. Phil, Carmen Electra, Chris Elliot, Shaquille O'Neal, and, of course, Leslie Nielsen in ensuring that the planet remains free of the alien menace and prepared for yet another installment in the over-the-top, pop-culture deflating satire series. Although two versions of this film officially exist (a PG-13 one and an "Unrated and Uncensored" one - evidently they skipped the R version) the unrated cut only reportedly features about 3 extra minutes of screen time, devoted to jiggling and bouncing breast implants. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide