Kristoff St. John Movies

Four blue-collar workers join forces with a destitute streetwalker in order to establish a top-dollar escort service in actor-turned-director Blair Underwood's working class drama. They live in a rundown Pittsburgh neighborhood where every day is a struggle. Stuck in low-paying, dead end jobs that will never propel them above the poverty line. But the prostitution racket may just be the ticket to a better life. Before long, everyone is rolling in cash, and living the lifestyle that always seemed just out of their reach. But when a sudden tragedy brings reality knocking, the four friends find themselves in over their heads, and desperate to escape. Ving Rhames, Bijou Phillips, and Danny Masterson star in a gritty urban drama exploring the dark side of the criminal lifestyle. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A high-profile advertising executive who's struggling to land a lucrative promotion gets an important lesson from a most unlikely source in the feature directorial debut of prolific television actor Corbin Bernsen. Joel Goodman (Rick Hearst) is content with his high-paying job and his happy home life, but when a hard-working and high-ranking colleague literally works himself to death, the friendly competition between Joel and his co-worker Tom (Sean Kanan) turns as serious as a heart attack. In Joel's eyes, the only thing standing between him and the newly available corner office is the slow-going, bumper-to-bumper Los Angeles traffic that he is forced to contend with on a daily basis -- a problem easily resolved when Joel hires a homeless man (Anthony Geary) to join him in the daily commute so that Joel may have access to the faster moving carpool lanes. Though at first the pair seem to have little in common, conversation soon reveals that, despite outward appearances, Joel's new traveling companion knows a thing or two about getting ahead in business, and that in order to be successful in the office one must first find happiness in the home. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

When Dwayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Ron (Darryl M. Bell) complain that the female students invariably neglect their personal appearance during final exams, the girls gets even by staging a "Miss Ugly America" pageant. Elsewhere, Denise (Lisa Bonet) volunteers to be a peer counselor, a job that ironically causes her to neglect her classwork. And Whitley (Jasmine Guy) learns to her horror that relying upon the Botany Class notes taken by Millie (Marisa Tomei) may be a big mistake.. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Atlanta Child Murders is a five-hour, two-part dramatization of one of the most tragic and controversial homicide cases of the past twenty years. From 1979 through 1982, some 28 African-American children and young adults disappeared from Atlanta--some without a trace, but others to later turn up as murder victims. Part One (which debuted February 10, 1985) details the beginning of the manhunt conducted by the Atlanta Chief of Police (James Earl Jones). Screenwriter Abby Mann uses the actual events as a springboard for his thesis that the case and its outcome revealed many uncomfortable truths about the still-fragile state of race relations in the New South. Both parts of The Atlanta Child Murders were later combined into one 245-minute "feature film."

The second part of the five-hour TV docudrama The Atlanta Child Murders originally aired February 12, 1985. After 28 African-American children and young adults have either disappeared or been murdered, the Atlanta police finally have a suspect in custody: Small-time show business entrepreneur Wayne Williams (Calvin Levels). Scriptwriter Abby Mann utilizes actual court transcripts of Williams' trial, which results in a conviction on one count of murder. This decision in essence leaves the cases of the other 27 victims unresolved--and in so doing, Mann opens the door to speculations that Williams, a black man, was a "convenient" suspect, who might possibly have been railroaded in the authorities' haste to find a solution to the sordid case. Whatever Mr. Mann may have felt concerning Williams' guilt or innocence, the fact remains that the murders and disappearances stopped cold once Williams was in custody (as of this writing, Williams persists in his efforts to reopen the case, claiming that he was framed by the white power structure). Morgan Freeman served as narrator for both installments of The Atlanta Child Murders. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Maya Angelou may be eminently qualified for her position as America's poet laureate, but her skills as a scriptwriter areat play in Sister Sister. Diahann Carroll plays a Southern schoolteacher who lives in the large house willed to her by her pullman-porter father; here she takes care of younger sister Irene Cara, striving to keep the girl on the straight and narrow. Into this proper household descends Carroll's other sister, Rosalind Cash, an uninhibited swinger. The inevitable confrontation is spiced by the fact that the "saintly" Carroll has been busy helping her preacher boyfriend (Dick Anthony Williams) siphon church funds in order to finance his political career. Set in North Carolina, the made-for-TV Sister Sister was actually filmed in Alabama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Beulah Land is an edited, movie-length version of the three-part TV miniseries adaptation of Lonnie Coleman's multi-part novels. The film is set in the Old South, with a time span ranging from 1827 to the postwar Reconstruction Era. Lesley Ann Warren stars as Sarah Kendrick, young belle of the Beulah Land plantation, who finds herself in love with a "damn Yankee." Sarah must also contend with a weakling brother (Paul Rudd) and a former slave (Dorian Harewood) who demands freedom as a right rather than a privilege. Beulah Land took forever to get before the cameras due to protests from black historical organizations; when it was finally telecast on October 7-9, 1980, NBC conducted a low-pressure ad campaign, as though the network was still fearful of stepping on toes despite the testimonial of a black Yale history professor, who commended the production for its "special sensitivity." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide