Sheryl Lee Ralph Movies
Though primarily a star of Broadway musicals, Sheryl Lee Ralph actually launched her career in the Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby feature film A Piece of the Action (1977). The beautiful African-American singer/dancer made her Great White Way debut in the musical Reggae (1980). On stage, Ralph is most famous for her Tony-nominated portrayal of Deena Jones in the popular show Dreamgirls (1981). In 1978, Ralph made her television debut on The Kroft Komedy Hour. She has subsequently co-starred in a few series, including NBC's short-lived Foxfire (1985) and ABC's New Attitude (1990). Fans of the sitcom Designing Women will recognize Ralph for her over-the-top portrayal of Meschach Taylor's ex-Vegas showgirl wife Etienne Toussiant Bouvier. Her other films include The Distinguished Gentleman (1992) and Bogus (1996). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The world finds itself on the brink of nuclear disaster, with the balance point a small diner in Colorado, in the suspenseful political thriller Deterrence. In the year 2008, U.S. President Walter Emerson (Kevin Pollak), who recently took office after the death of the former chief executive, is campaigning for re-election. After winning the Colorado state primary, Emerson finds himself stranded in a roadside diner after a freak snowstorm. Traveling with Emerson are his chief of staff, Marshall Thompson (Timothy Hutton), national security advisor Gayle Redford (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and a network TV crew. While the president exchanges pleasantries with the diner's staff and customers, a new bulletin appears on TV: Udei Hussein, son of the late Saddam Hussein, has invaded Kuwait and butchered several hundred U.S. peace-keeping troops. Outraged, the president announces that if Hussein and his forces do not withdraw and officially surrender, he will begin dropping nuclear weapons on Baghdad. However, Iraq responds that if they are attacked, 23 cities in the United States and allied nations will be immediately destroyed in a counterattack. Emerson, his advisors, and the others trapped in the diner with them debate long and loud about what to do, and what the potential consequences could be. Deterrence was written and directed by former film critic Rod Lurie. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Pollak, Timothy Hutton, (more)
- 2000
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Leslie Jordan writes and stars in this autobiographical account of being gay and drug-addled in 1970s Atlanta. The film opens with the protagonist known only as Storyteller (Jordan) meeting his maker after a drug overdose and trying to explain the sorry state of his former life. Rewind 20 years, when our hero, styling himself as a lilliputian dandy à la Truman Capote, leaves home for Atlanta -- dubbed the "San Francisco of the South." There he meets debutante refugee and drug connoisseur "Miss Make-Do" (Erin Chandler) who introduces him to the wonderful world of chemicals and the film's titular hotel -- a low-rent Chelsea-like dive. After his benefactress kicks him out for taking up with a thuggish coke dealer, the hapless fop protagonist finds another protector in Tripper -- a roughneck junkie, ex-con, and pimp. The two form a weird platonic and dependent relationship that eventually spirals into an opiate oblivion. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Jordan, Erin Chandler, (more)
- 1999
- R
Unconditional Love stars stand-up comic John Kennedy Horne as Joe Kirkman, an investigative reporter for an L.A. newspaper. When his best friend is murdered by underlings of Ted Markham (Henry Silva), a business executive with criminal ties, Kirkman decides to get revenge the best way he knows how -- by digging into Markham's business, uncovering the extent of his crimes, and bringing him to justice. He's aided in his research by Patrice (Tracey Ross), a graduate student and computer expert who soon develops a decidedly non-academic relationship with Kirkman. Unconditional Love also features supporting performances from Antonio Fargas, Robert Culp and Adrian Zmed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Kennedy Horne, Tracey Ross, (more)
Writer/director Mike Sargent makes his feature debut with this witty romantic comedy about looking for a lover in the newspaper pages. New York reporter Keith Parker (Malik Yoba) neglects his day job to tend to his two girlfriends. His carefully balanced world comes crashing down when he gets canned from work and dumped by both of his honeys. Keith resolves to get his life back in order by placing some personal ads both under his real name and under his cheesy pen name. Much of the rest of the film details Keith's adventures on the town with a diverse array of women including an angry black militant (Angela Bullock) who denounces Whoopi Goldberg, a depressive poet (Joie Susannah Lee), and a forthright businesswoman who seeks the right man to impregnate her. Personals was screened at the 1999 Chicago Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Malik Yoba, Stacey Dash, (more)
Albert Franklin (Haley Joel Osment) is the son of stage magician Lorraine Franklin, and has learned to do a few magic tricks of his own. However, when his mother dies and he is sent to live with his aunt Harriet (Whoopi Goldberg), it becomes clear that for him the boundary between stage magic and the real kind is just a bit fuzzy. This is fortunate, because the young man needs a friend. The friend magically appears in the form of a spirit (Gerard Depardieu) calling himself "Bogus," who helps him figure out how to meet the challenge of relating to his very preoccupied aunt. She is more concerned with keeping her restaurant supply company afloat than she is with her new ward. Things change when she, too, catches a glimpse of the spirit. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whoopi Goldberg, Gérard Depardieu, (more)
From director-writer Desmond Nakano comes this unusual role-reversal picture examining racism from a different perspective. Louis Pinnock (John Travolta) is a semi-literate worker in a chocolate candy factory. One day he makes a delivery to the mansion of wealthy Thaddeus Thomas (Harry Belafonte). He is noticed while he is unintentionally looking up at Thomas' wife, Megan (Margaret Avery), while she is undressing in an open window. Thomas makes sure that Pinnock is fired for this innocent indiscretion despite his years of reliable performance at the factory. Some time later, unemployed and destitute, Pinnock and his wife Marsha (Kelly Lynch) and children are evicted roughly from their home by police officers. Marsha's mother (Carrie Snodgress) takes in her daughter and grandchildren, but she won't let Pinnock stay. Police officers beat up Pinnock one day because, they say, he fits the description of a criminal suspect. Finally, Pinnock goes to Thomas's house to get an explanation for his firing, but Thomas doesn't remember the incident. Pinnock takes Thomas hostage and demands he be paid for all the hours of work he has missed. In this film, all the authority figures and wealthy people are black, and Pinnock is a member of a poor white underclass. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Travolta, Harry Belafonte, (more)
The good (if not fully evolved) citizens of Bedrock make their way to the big screen in this live-action adaptation of the popular animated series of the 1960s. Fred Flintstone (John Goodman) and his best friend Barney Rubble (Rick Moranis) work together at the Slate and Company Rock Quarry. When Fred loans Barney some money that allows him and his wife Betty (Rosie O'Donnell) to adopt a child, Barney is looking for a way to show his gratitude. Barney thinks he's found one when the executives at Slate and Company announce that they're giving all their employees intelligence tests to help determine future promotions. When Barney switches his high-scoring test with Fred's, his plan works -- but not quite the way he had hoped: Fred is deemed executive material and given a big promotion, complete with a sexy secretary (Halle Berry) who makes his wife Wilma (Elizabeth Perkins) jealous, while Barney is soon out of a job and can't pay his bills. Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbara, who created the original television series, make cameo appearances here; Elizabeth Taylor gives a fine comic performance as Wilma's nagging mother, and Harvey Korman provides the voice of the Dictabird. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins, (more)
- 1994
- R
While investigating an infidelity case, an unconventional private detective discovers a far-reaching conspiracy in the magical world of 1950s Hollywood -- and in this film, the word "magical" is meant literally. Director Paul Schrader's comic mystery, originally made for cable, is set in an alternate universe where witchcraft is commonplace and magic just another modern convenience. The magic trend is particularly prominent in Hollywood, where detective H. Phillip Lovecraft is considered unusual for preferring to do things the old-fashioned, non-magical way. Still, Lovecraft is successful enough to be hired by famed movie star Kim Hudson, who suspects that she's being cheated on by her husband, wealthy producer N. G. Gottleib. It seems like a cut-and-dry case, until Gottleib winds up dead, the victim of a magic spell. Lovecraft's subsequent investigation finds this murder is part of a conspiracy centering around a secret, magic-run brothel and somehow involving Senator Lance Crockett, a McCarthy-like conservative leading a popular campaign to outlaw magic. When Crockett frames one of Lovecraft's friends as the witch responsible for Gottleib's death, it is up to Lovecraft to reveal the truth before his friend is burned at the stake. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Hopper, Penelope Ann Miller, (more)
- 1993
- PG
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In the sequel to the hit comedy Sister Act, Whoopie Goldberg reprises her role of Deloris Van Cartier, a Las Vegas entertainer who hid out with in a convent of nuns to avoid a nasty bunch of gangsters. In Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Deloris is persuaded to return to the convent by the Mother Superior (Maggie Smith), because her help is needed in teaching their choral students at St. Francis High in San Francisco. However, St. Francis is in a crisis, since the administrator running the school (James Coburn) is threatening to shut the place down. If the gospel choir wins first place in a singing contest in Los Angeles, St. Francis will be saved from the priest's plans. Though the plot is rather thin and derivative, Sister Act 2 is lighthearted fun, thanks to good musical numbers and winning performances from the cast. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimy, (more)
- 1992
- R
Successful character actor Barry Primus spent seven years trying to get financing for his feature debut as a writer-director, Mistress. In the film, a once-promising writer-director, Marvin Landisman (Robert Wuhl), who now directs instructional videos, is sitting home one night, watching his own print of Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion, when he gets a strange phone call. A producer, Jack Roth (Martin Landau), formerly a bigwig at Universal, tells Marvin he was cleaning out his office when he came across Marvin's old script, "The Darkness and the Light." Jack claims he can get financing to make the film, and agrees to Marvin's stipulation that he be attached to direct. They "take a meeting" at a low-rent diner, and Jack brings along a gung-ho novice screenwriter, Stuart (Jace Alexander), to help Marvin polish the script. They meet with three potential backers, played by Eli Wallach, Danny Aiello, and Robert DeNiro, each one more meddlesome than the last, and each with a girlfriend (played by Tuesday Knight, Jean Smart, and Sheryl Lee Ralph, respectively) whom they demand be cast in the film. At first, Marvin adamantly resists changing his serious, downbeat, and very personal script, about an painter who commits suicide, rather than betray his ideals. But eventually, Marvin gets caught up in the momentum of actually getting his dream project made, and starts compromising. He agrees to cast the three women; he agrees to make the script funnier and sexier; he even agrees to change the painter to a photographer to please his backers. Laurie Metcalf plays Marvin's long-suffering wife, and Christopher Walken has a cameo as a tortured actor. Mistress was the first film produced by DeNiro's independent production company, Tribeca Films. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Wuhl, Martin Landau, (more)
A smooth-talking confidence trickster makes his way into congress (where the cynical would suggest he'd have plenty of company) in this comedy. Thomas Jefferson Johnson (Eddie Murphy) is a con man from Florida who gets the bright idea that a scam artist could make a tidy sum if he was able to get inside the political arena. When a Florida congressman named Jeff Johnson dies and a special election is held to replace him, Thomas puts his name on the ballot as "Jeff Johnson," and enough confused voters check the ballot for him that he wins the race and is on his way to Washington D.C. Johnson soon finds a mentor in Dick Dodge (Lane Smith), chairman of the Power and Industry Committee, who shows Johnson the ropes on raking in PAC money while the late Mr. Johnson's aide, Reinhardt (Grant Shaud), gives him the inside scoop on how things work in Washington. Johnson's plans are going just as he hoped until he meets Celia Kirby (Victoria Rowell), a volunteer lobbyist and political activist whose uncle is a noted religious leader, The Rev. Elijah Hawkins (Charles S. Dutton). Johnson quickly becomes smitten with Celia, but it's obvious that she's not buying his act, and if he wants to win her heart, he'll have to stop fooling people into thinking he's honest and actually be honest. Joe Don Baker and Sheryl Lee Ralph also co-star. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy, Lane Smith, (more)
- 1991
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The fourth of Kenny Rogers' Gambler TV movies, 1991's The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw is regarded by many Western diehards as the best. This time, gambler Brady Hawkes is en route to a high-stakes poker game in San Francisco. His travelling companions are a trouble-prone frontier Romeo (Rick Rossovich) and a feisty ex-saloon gal (Reba McEntire). Never mind that: The real attraction of Luck of the Draw is its enormous guest-star lineup of famous TV cowboy heroes of yore: Gene "Bat Masterson" Barry, Hugh "Wyatt Earp" O'Brien, Brian "The Westerner" Keith, Chuck "The Rifleman" Connors, Jack "Maverick" Kelly, Clint "Cheyenne" Walker, David "Kung Fu" Carradine, and "Virginian" co-stars James Drury and Doug McClure. The first portion of this two-part movie concentrates on setting up the plot; Part two is the card game itself, preceded by a boxing match refereed by Bat Masterson (Gene Barry). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenny Rogers, Reba McEntire, (more)
- 1990
- PG
African-American drifter Danny Glover shows up at the LA doorstep of his old pal Paul Butler. In the spirit of auld lang syne, Butler takes Glover in, though his wife (Mary Alice) is not happy with this intrusion. She already has enough on her hands contending with her grown live-in son Richard Brooks and his real-estate agent wife Sheryl Lee Ralph. Glover ingratiates himself by reminding family of their Southern roots; less positively, he drinks a great deal, brings suspicious-looking cronies into the household. When Butler suffers a stroke, Glover assumes charge of the house--whereupon his charm evaporates and disaster follows. But Glover isn't really the villain of To Sleep With Anger: everyone in the film is depicted in all-too-human shades of gray. This effort by African American writer/ director Charles Burnett was the first of his films to attract widespread critical notice, almost 13 years after he created the seminal Killer of Sheep. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Glover, Richard Brooks, (more)
Xavier Quinn (Denzel Washington) is police chief of a tiny Caribbean island. Quinn's efforts to straddle the fence between the local blacks and the moneyed whites have lost him the respect of both groups. When a murder is committed, Quinn suspects that the killer is Maubee (Robert Townsend), a notoriously elusive criminal who has become a folk hero to the locals. Despite various political pressures -- and the fact that he and Maubee were childhood friends-Quinn vows to solve the murder, and, if necessary, bring Maubee to justice. A mess of merry plot twists distinguish this diverting fox-and-hound caper. Filmed entirely on location, The Mighty Quinn was based on Finding Maubee, a novel by A.H.Z. Carr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denzel Washington, Robert Townsend, (more)
Blake Edwards, mining the same territory as in his 10, Micki and Maude, The Man Who Loved Women, and That's Life, (not to mention Blind Date), once again deals with male mid-life menopausal angst. Zach (John Ritter) is a novelist suffering from writer's block, spiraling downward in a sea of women and booze. To illustrate the depths to which Zach's life has sunk, the film begins when his mistress catches him in bed with another woman. Then his wife walks in. As a result, his wife leaves him. Things keep getting worse --his agent is dying, his house burns down, and he gets picked up for drunk driving. But in spite of his despair, he can't help chasing women, engaging in a series of bedroom misadventures with a collection of women --including a female body builder; a woman who likes to set pianos on fire; and the girlfriend of a rock star who suggests that he wear one of her boyfriend's glow-in-the-dark condoms. Helping Zach regain control of his life is Barney the lawyer (Vincent Gardenia) and Dr. Westford (Michael Kidd), a helpful psychiatrist. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ritter, Vincent Gardenia, (more)
This animated musical retells Dickens's Oliver Twist amongst animals in New York City, with Oliver as an innocent kitten who joins a gang of law-breaking dogs. When Oliver is adopted by a wealthy young woman, the gang's evil human owner hatches a kidnapping scheme to tap into the girl's fortune. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joey Lawrence, Billy Joel, (more)
- 1986
In an episode clearly inspired by the "Hurricane" Carter saga, ex-prizefighter Typhoon Thompson (Isaac Hayes) gets out of prison after serving several years for the murder of his manager. Now all Typhoon lives for is to get even with the person whom he claims is the real murderer--and to exact vengeance against Hunter (Fred Dryer), the police detective who sent him up. As dead bodies pile up all over LA, it looks as if Typhoon has embarked upon a killing spree...but Hunter begins to suspect that someone else is responsible for the carnage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
A devoted nun endeavors to create a halfway house for female convicts on parole in this drama. To achieve her goal, she must face a daunting series of obstacles. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bonnie Franklin
