Hawthorne James Movies

An ambitious grocery clerk learns that success doesn't come without a price after being taken under the wing of a legendary pimp in this flashy street drama that takes its inspiration from Snoop Dogg's multi-platinum album "R & G (Rhythm and Gangsta): The Masterpiece". Cordé Christopher (Dogg) works a dead end job in a local grocery store, and despite his frustrating financial struggles, Cordé's way with the ladies is near legendary. When a pimp known only as Orange Juice (Hawthorne James) offers to take on the naïve supermarket lackey as his protégé, Cordé is soon strutting down the street with high profile honey Chardonnay Allen (Shillae Anderson on his arm and a healthy wad of cash in his pocket. But success as a hustler doesn't come without a price, and when the heat on the street begins to rise, Cordé must choose between continuing to live the lavish lifestyle to which he has become accustomed or forsaking it all to lead a meaning and truly fulfilling life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

While still torn between his good and evil sides, Cole (Julian McMahon) comes to the rescue of Melissa (Amy Laughlin), a woman whose husband had been lured to his death by a bewitched Siren (Melinda Clarke). In their efforts to further protect Melissa, the Charmed Ones discover that the woman is destined to be a Whitelighter, just like Piper's husband, Leo (Brian Krause). The situation is complicated when both Cole and Phoebe fall under the Siren's deadly spell -- and complicated farther when Piper's still-unborn baby, sensing that his parents both need to walk in each other's moccasins a few miles, switches the supernatural powers possessed by Leo and Piper (Holly Marie Combs). ~ All Movie Guide

A group of teenagers telling ghost stories while stranded in the middle of nowhere sets the scene for this collection of horror tales. A girl is terrorized by a psycho she "met" on the internet, a biker makes the mistake of visiting a haunted farmhouse, and some folks in an RV finds monsters along the highway. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director David Fincher's dark, stylish thriller ranks as one of the decade's most influential box-office successes. Set in a hellish vision of a New York-like city, where it is always raining and the air crackles with impending death, the film concerns Det. William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a homicide specialist just one week from a well-deserved retirement. Every minute of his 32 years on the job is evident in Somerset's worn, exhausted face, and his soul aches with the pain that can only come from having seen and felt far too much. But Somerset's retirement must wait for one last case, for which he is teamed with young hotshot David Mills (Brad Pitt), the fiery detective set to replace him at the end of the week. Mills has talked his reluctant wife, Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow), into moving to the big city so that he can tackle important cases, but his first and Somerset's last are more than either man has bargained for. A diabolical serial killer is staging grisly murders, choosing victims representing the seven deadly sins. First, an obese man is forced to eat until his stomach ruptures to represent gluttony, then a wealthy defense lawyer is made to cut off a pound of his own flesh as penance for greed. Somerset initially refuses to take the case, realizing that there will be five more murders, ghastly sermons about lust, sloth, pride, wrath, and envy presented by a madman to a sinful world. Somerset is correct, and something within him cannot let the case go, forcing the weary detective to team with Mills and see the case to its almost unspeakably horrible conclusion. The moody photography is by Darius Khondji; the nauseatingly vivid special effects are by makeup artist Rob Bottin, best known for more fantasy-oriented work in films like The Howling (1981). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

In Frasier's first holiday episode, Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) makes plans to spend Christmas with his son Frederick (remember him from Cheers?). But when these plans fall through, a disappointed Frasier volunteers to fill in for sports-show host Bulldog at radio station KACL on Christmas Day. Unfortunately, all of his callers are just as depressed as he is, leading Frasier to seek comfort after his gig by going to a diner he has never previously visited. Our hero's uncharacteristically shabby appearance and dour demeanor have an unusual effect on the diner's regular customers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Will (Will Smith) and Carlton (Alfonso Ribeiro) have carefully planned an intimate and very romantic evening with two French girls, Monique (Kent Masters King) and Renee (Monique Mannen). Alas, this is the very same evening that Will's Aunt Helen (Jennifer Lewis) has chosen to drop by unannounced. Even worse, Aunt Helen is a highly emotional state, convinced that her husband Lester (Felton Perry) is cheating on her. Listen to a quick but pointed reference to Will Smith's recent Grammy Award win. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Depression-era inventor finds a way of revolutionizing manufacturing technology and then discovers that this invention has its dark side as well. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Val Kilmer delivers what was considered one of 1991's best performances as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's hallucinatory bio-pic of the seminal 1960s rock group The Doors. Stone cuts a jagged swath through Morrison's life, starting with a childhood memory where Morrison sees an elderly Indian dying by the roadside. It picks up with Morrison's arrival in California and his assimilation into the Venice Beach culture, followed by his film school days at UCLA; his introduction to his girlfriend Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan); his first encounters with Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan); and the origin of The Doors -- made up of Manzarek, Robby Kreiger (Frank Whaley), and John Densmore (Kevin Dillon). As the fame of The Doors grows, Morrison's obsession with death increases. The band grows weary of Morrison's missed recording sessions and no-shows at concerts. Morrison, meanwhile, sinks deeper into a drug-induced haze, having mystical sexual encounters with Patricia Kennealy (Kathleen Quinlan), an older rock journalist involved with sadomasochism and witchcraft. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A newspaper heiress is kidnapped, brainwashed, and forced to join a group of terrorist bank robbers in this docudrama, based on the saga of Patricia Hearst. In 1974, Hearst (Natasha Richardson), the granddaughter of publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst, was a student at the University of California. On February 4, members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a radical political group, broke into the Berkeley home she shared with her boyfriend and kidnapped her. Hearst then allegedly spent 57 days locked in a closet as she was indoctrinated into the group's revolutionary beliefs by their charismatic leader, Cinque (Ving Rhames). Eventually, Hearst joined (or at least pretended to join) the SLA, adopted the name Tania and participated in a number of high-profile bank robberies. After several SLA members died in a police fire storm, Hearst and fellow members Bill and Emily Harris (William Forsythe and Frances Fisher) went on the lam and were later arrested. Although she claimed her participation in the group was a ruse carried out to protect herself from further rape, torture, and mind control, Hearst eventually served several years in prison after her 1976 conviction for bank robbery. Based on the novel Every Secret Thing, Hearst's own account of the events, Paul Schrader's film tells the story from the heiress' own viewpoint, with little in the way of conflicting evidence. After President Carter ordered her release from prison in 1979, Hearst went on to act in several films, including Cecil B. Demented, a John Waters spoof whose plot bears some resemblance to her own life story. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Much of the original cast from the popular television series Police Story reunited for this edgy drama, in which the detectives search for a killer loose on the roads. This entry was one of several TV-movies in the late 1980s to feature the familiar cast in the Police Story format. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, The Color Purple spans the years 1909 to 1949, relating the life of Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), a Southern black woman virtually sold into a life of servitude to her brutal husband, sharecropper Albert (Danny Glover). Celie pours out her innermost thoughts in letter form to her sister Nettie (Akousa Busia), but Albert has been hiding the letters Nettie writes back, allowing Celie to assume that Nettie is dead. Finally, Celie finds a champion in the don't-take-no-guff Sofia (Oprah Winfrey), the wife of Glover's son from a previous marriage. Alas, Sofia is "humbled" when she is beaten into submission by angry whites. Later, Celie is able to forge a strong friendship with Albert's mistress Shug (Margaret Avery). Emboldened by this, Celie begins rifling through her husband's belongings and finds Nettie's letters. Able at last to stand up to her husband, Celie leaves him to search for a new life on her own. A major box-office hit, The Color Purple was nominated for eleven Oscars. The film was co-produced by Quincy Jones, who also wrote the score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide