Vonetta McGee Movies

In 1994 -- six years after the final episode of the groundbreaking 1980s television crime drama Cagney & Lacey -- Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly reprised their iconic roles for the first of four TV-movie sequels. Cagney & Lacey: The Return finds the now-retired Lacey reuniting with the now-married Cagney for a case involving weapons smuggling, all while dealing with women's issues such as career, marriage, parenthood -- and, this time around, menopause -- in the trademark style that made the parent show such a cultural touchstone. ~ Sandra Bencic, Rovi

When a private detective takes on a missing person assignment trying to find an Italian aristocrat's uncle, she discovers a conspiracy of murder and drugs. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

This drama was a "Wonderworks Family Movie," and tells the tale of a self-centered, rebellious African- American youth who gets a new outlook on life after he is hit by a car and finds himself awakening in South Carolina during the early 19th century. Soon he is captured and auctioned off to the owner of a cotton plantation. While working under brutal conditions, he sees other slaves working together and quietly conspiring to revolt, and when he finally awakens in the 20th century, he realizes that he must think of others and begin working to help his ghetto-bound neighbors. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This made-for-TV movie was edited from several episodes of the short-lived television series Hell Town, in which Robert Blake starred as Father Noah "Hardstep" Rivers, a tough but giving Catholic priest trying to do good works in a rough ghetto neighborhood. Also appearing in Father of Hell Town are Jeff Corey and James Gammon. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Alex Cox's directorial debut was a wickedly funny and willfully bizarre story that became a major cult item once it began making the art-house rounds a year after its release (an initial run in a string of Southern grind houses and drive-ins, where it was billed as an action film, was a resounding failure). Having lost his job and his girlfriend, punk rocker Otto (Emilio Estevez) meets a guy named Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) who offers him $25 to drive his wife's car out of a "bad area." When a handful of angry people start chasing Otto, he realizes that something is up, and he discovers that Bud repossesses cars for a living. With few immediate prospects, Otto joins Bud at the repo yard and is soon "ripping" cars with the best of them. When an anonymous source posts a $20,000 reward for a missing 1964 Chevy Malibu, it turns out that what's valuable isn't the car itself, but what's in the trunk, which is very hot, glows brightly, and kills anyone who comes in contact with it. A vaguely surreal modern-noir science-fiction comedy with echoes of Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Repo Man is packed with more incongruous sight gags than anyone can absorb in one viewing; keep your eyes peeled for the air fresheners, the generic newspaper box, and the watches without hands. Harry Dean Stanton gives a superb comic performance as the intense but laid-back Bud, Emilio Estevez delivers perhaps the best work of his career as the petulant but goofy Otto, and Tracey Walter is hilarious as the spaced out repo-yard man Miller. Iggy Pop wrote and performed the theme song and The Circle Jerks appear as a lounge band. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

An upcoming Super Bowl provides the framework for this suspenseful thriller set in New Orleans. The trouble begins when a murderous stalker begins threatening assorted lovers, gamblers, and con artists who typically surround the big game. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Based loosely on the real-life relationship between political activist Angela Davis and convict-turned-author George Jackson, Brothers stars Bernie Casey as David Thomas, who begins corresponding with college professor and outspoken black activist Paula Jones (Vonetta McGee) after he's convicted of a crime he didn't commit. David's relationship with Paula gives him strength and insight as he tries to survive in the brutally violent and racist environment of prison. A great deal more serious and politically minded than most of the other "blaxploitation" films of its era, Brothers was directed by Arthur Barron, in a severe departure from his previous film, the sweet teenage love story Jeremy. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Thomasine and Bushrod was intended as the African American counterpart to Bonnie and Clyde, the difference being that the story in this case is utterly fictional. Vonette McGee plays Thomasine, and Max Julien (who also wrote and coproduced the film) is Bushrod. They are a pair of thieves, operating in the southwest between 1911 and 1915. Fancying themselves as Robin Hoods and the White Establishment as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Thomas and Bushrod steal only from Caucasian capitalists, then distribute the booty to Mexicans, Native Americans and poor whites. George Murdock is the redneck sheriff who dogs their trail. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the third and last in the original Shaft (1971) series of action-packed "blaxploitation" pictures, private eye John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) travels to the "motherland," where he breaks up a modern slavery ring. Shaft is hired by a diplomat, Emir Ramila (Cy Grant), to infiltrate the criminal empire of the evil Vincent Amafi (Frank Finlay), who is kidnapping poor Africans and shipping them to Europe as slave laborers. Amafi murdered Ramila's son when he attempted to expose the illegal operation, and Ramila, now aware that his investigation of Amafi has been compromised, needs an unfamiliar to face to help bring the ring leader down. After undergoing some training at the hands of a comely tutor so that he'll be able to pass muster as an African, Shaft travels to Ethiopia and allows himself to be shanghaied by Amafi's men. However, the high-ranking Wassa (Debebe Eshetu) is the traitor in Ramila's ranks, and he has betrayed Shaft. As the tough private eye attempts to free the slaves being held captive in a former Nazi prison below a French chateau and bed any beautiful women who crosses his path, he must also dodge a series of assassination attempts by Ramila's men. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Titled Detroit Heat for video release, this blaxploitation flick concerns two Motor City detectives (Hari Rhodes, Alex Rocco) on the trail of a gang of thieves who attacked a political rally. Noted blaxploitation fan Quentin Tarantino sponsored a theatrical re-release in 1998, with a video reissue following. ~ John Bush, Rovi

In this blaxploitation flick, a supercool deejay, stuck on himself, decides to get revenge after his girl friend is slaughtered in his apartment. He enlists the help of a friend to investigate the death. He then finds a tape that shows that implicates a mobster in the murder of a union leader. His girl died because she had the tape. Violence and martial arts action ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi