Wyclef Jean Movies

Interviews with Wyclef Jean, Quincy Jones, and Andy Garcia offer insight into the rich legacy of legendary Cuban vocalist Celia Cruz in this documentary exploring how one woman's voice shattered the barriers of racism and sexism across the globe. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Eddie Griffin and Nathan Phillips put the pedal to the metal in stunt coordinator-turned-director Andy Cheng's supercharged auto thriller. As a serious collection of speed freaks gather to hit the streets in hopes of winning 24 million dollars, every rule is broken and the law simply doesn't have enough horsepower to ensure that justice is served. With the speedometer maxed out and the past becoming nothing more than a fading image in the rearview mirror, these drivers will do whatever it takes to win the prize that promises to change their life forever. In addition to featuring a score (and cameo) by hip-hop icon Wyclef Jean, Redline was produced by real-estate developer-turned-producer Daniel Sadek -- who not only financed the 26-million-dollar film, but also donated his personal car collection to the production. Featured automobiles include Sadek's Lamborghini Murcielago, Enzo Ferrari, Ferrari F430, Ferrari Scaglietti Phantom, and two McLarens. In a bid to increase the realism of the driving scenes, one of Sadek's two 400,000-dollar Porsche Carrera GTs was set to be destroyed for the film. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

As another semester draws to a close at the University of Dreyskill, a simple game dreamt to help students avoid studying becomes a bloody battle for survival in this stalk-and-slash frightener from filmmaking duo Brian Hooks and Deon Taylor. Dreyskill may have a reputation as a prestigious private school, but a group of students known as "The Crew" are sick of studying for finals and looking to have a little fun. In order to pas the time, they create a game called "75." The rules of 75 are simple: the participant in the game calls a random telephone number and attempts to scare the party on the other end of the line for 75 seconds; should the recipient of the call laugh or hang up, the player loses, and the player with the best call emerges victorious. By the time exams are over, 75 has become a popular campus pastime among all the students, and one rich classmate invites the Crew to his massive mansion in the Colorado hills for a wild weekend of partying. But when one of the Crew accidentally calls the wrong person, the once-playful scares become all too real. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Cuba Gooding Jr. and Clifton Collins Jr. portray a pair of former gang members who trade in their colors for badges, only to discover that life on the other side of the law isn't much different than life on the streets, in Nightstalker director Chris Fisher's tale of crime and corruption in the highest ranks of the inner-city police force. As anti-gang task force cops Armando Sancho (Collins Jr.) and his partner Salim Adel (Gooding Jr.) make their way through the sweltering concrete jungle of a decaying city, the lines between the law and the lawless grow increasingly blurred. His conscience stirred by his involvement in the murder of an innocent man, Sancho begins weighing the prospect of participating in an Internal Affairs investigation against his loyalty to his amoral partner and best friend Adel. When Sancho and Adel are called in by their division lieutenant (Cole Hauser) and assigned the task of delivering confiscated dope to the henchmen of feared gangster Damien Baine (Wyclef Jean), the deal is sweetened by Baine's offer to cut the pair in on the profits if they agree to bust a gang of newly arrived Canadian drug dealers looking to establish roots in the city. The task is complicated however, by the revelation that not only does the Canadian gang have direct ties to a well-established crime syndicate headed by ruthless Latino crime lord Roland (Robert La Sardo), but that the disgruntled girlfriend of a noted police informant is looking to exact deadly revenge on Adel for a previous wrongdoing as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A teenage boy makes the sort of wish you'd expect a teenage boy to make, and he might just get to live it out in this dark comedy. Dylan Jamieson (Michael Angarano) is a 16-year-old boy living in Pennsylvania who is being raised by his mother, Karen (Cynthia Nixon), on her own after the death of his father (played by Ethan Hawke). Karen and Dylan have received the news that the boy has contracted a rare form of cancer and isn't likely to live to see seventeen. Dylan has taken the news surprisingly well, facing his treatment with pointed good humor and spending much of his free time with his best buddies Slap (Gideon Glick) and Ricky (Matt Bush). Aware that the end is on the horizon, Karen contacts United Wish Givers, a group that arranges for ailing youngsters to enjoy a final adventure before they pass, and they set up a fishing trip for Dylan with a professional football star. However, Dylan comes up with a better idea with the help of Slap and Ricky, and on television, tells the group's representatives that what he really wants is a weekend-long date with Nikki Slater (Sunny Mabrey), a supermodel and world-class sex symbol. While the United Wish Givers are appalled and Karen isn't sure this is a good idea, Arlene (Gina Gershon), Nikki's agent, sees possibilities in this news -- Nikki has been on a bender of bad publicity recently, and granting a kid's last wish might be just the thing to help folks forget that she's been pushing rival models off runways. One Last Thing... was directed by Alex Steyermark, who worked with Gina Gershon on his previous film, Prey for Rock & Roll. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A high school basketball player from Indiana finds his fate careening down an increasingly uncertain path when his family moves to Newark, New Jersey in his senior year and he befriends an inner city basketball phenomenon who may be able to lead them to the state championships. Indiana teen Josh Sendler (Douglas Smith) expected to spend his senior year surrounded by lush cornfields, so when his family moves to Newark it feels like world is suddenly turned upside down. There, on the concrete courts of New Jersey, Josh makes the acquaintance of a talented young basketball player named Antwon (Kevin Phillips). Together, Josh and Antwon form a formidable team on the court, a team that could accomplish great things if it wasn't for the racism that's about to set these streets ablaze. Will Josh and Antwon's friendship prove strong enough to endure the challenges that lit ahead and lead them to true victory? Wyclef Jean provides original music for this gritty sports drama from director Phil Bertelsen. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Jonathan Demme directed this updated remake of John Frankenheimer's 1962 cult favorite The Manchurian Candidate, a pioneering examination of political conspiracy and psychological reconditioning. Major Bennett Marco (Denzel Washington) and Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) are two soldiers who served in the same company during Operation Desert Storm, but their paths following their tours of duty have been very different. Shaw, the son of powerful congresswoman Eleanor Shaw (Meryl Streep), has used his reputation as a war hero to quickly scale the ladder of American politics, and with the help of his mother earns the Vice Presidential nomination. Marco, on the other hand, has been troubled with mental illness, and is convinced that something strange happened to him and his compatriots during the war. As Marco struggles to find the truth behind his nightmares and emotional torment, he unearths some disturbing facts about how his mind and body have been reworked by shadowy forces, as well as those of his fellow soldiers -- including Raymond Shaw. Featuring a stellar supporting cast (including Jon Voight, Miguel Ferrer, Ted Levine, and Dean Stockwell), The Manchurian Candidate credits George Axelrod's screenplay for the 1962 film as its source, as opposed to Richard Condon's 1959 novel from which Axelrod adapted his script. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

James Brown: Soul Survivor spans more than four decades of the one and only Godfather of Soul, documenting the rise and fall of the "hardest working man in show business." Through archival footage, excerpts read from his biography, and interviews with the people closest to the man, you get an inside look at the music and political times which helped shape Brown's career through the ages. Various friends lending thoughts in the program include the Rev. Al Sharpton, rapper Chuck D, Little Richard, and former long-time musical director Fred Wesley. Performances include segments from a House of Blues gig along with rare, behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage of the maestro at work. Originally aired as part of the American Masters television documentary series, this 90-minute special was later released on DVD under the Polydor label. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

This family musical enjoys the dubious distinction of being the first film ever based on a theme park attraction, the "Country Bears Jamboree" at Disneyworld. Beary Barrington (voice of Haley Joel Osment) is an adolescent bruin raised by a human family after he was found by a park ranger, abandoned in the forest. Curious about his biological roots, Beary travels to Tennessee to seek out his birth parents while attempting to locate the members of his favorite musical group -- a defunct country music act called the Country Bears -- along the way. Country Bear Hall, the famed venue where the band was launched, is facing imminent destruction at the hands of greedy banker Reed Thimple (Christopher Walken), but young Beary has a plan to save the hall by staging a reunion benefit concert. Beary's path takes him through a guitar duel, a vintage coffee house, and a car wash, as he's pursued by a pair of bumbling cops (Diedrich Bader and Daryl "Chill" Mitchell) trying to reunite him with his adoptive parents. Meanwhile, a panoply of musical legends including Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, and Queen Latifah appear Behind the Music-style to comment on the Country Bears' alleged artistic influence on their work. The Country Bears, the first in a pair of planned Disney projects based on the company's theme park rides (the second is slated to be based on "Pirates of the Caribbean"), co-stars Stephen Tobolowsky, Brad Garrett, Alex Rocco, and Stephen Root. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

The fifth in a series of documentaries revolving around Haiti's struggle for democracy, this piece from director Jonathan Demme revolves around the life of Jean Dominique, a Haitian radio personality who spent his life campaigning for reform within the notoriously oppressed nation. The Agronomist begins just after the 1991 overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, when Dominique and his wife, while at the radio station, came under fire from rebels involved with the coup. Referred to as an agronomist due to his background in agriculture -- which, consequently, brought him into contact with the feudalistic nature of Haiti's farming system -- Dominique's passion for reform landed him in exile. Rather than give up after his release, Dominique initiated a career as a radio communicator, and he allowed Demme access to the station and his personal life during key periods of unrest and political fluctuation. Sadly, the documentary ends with an account of Dominique's assassination in April of 2000. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Previously, and brilliantly, adapted as an opera by Georges Bizet, the Prosper Merimee novel Carmen served as the inspiration for this updated made-for-cable movie. Set in contemporary Los Angeles, the film stars Beynoce Knowles of Destiny's Child as the seductive Carmen, no longer an employee in a cigarette factory but instead an aspiring actress. The "Don Jose" character has become a cop named Sgt. Derek Hill (Mekhi Phifer), who after being ordered by his corrupt superior officer Frank Miller (played by rapper Mos Def) to arrest Carmen for her involvement in a bar fight, falls hopelessly--and tragically--in love with her. After leading Hill down the path to perdition, Carmen deserts him, not out of love for bullfighter Escamillo but for a top-40 rap star named Blaze (Casey Lee). Although the familiar Bizet melodies are heard as linking music, the main musical score is a complete original, composed by Kip Collins. MTV's Hip Hopera: Carmen first aired over the titular cable network on May 9, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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, Rovi