Richard Roundtree Movies

Defying the wishes of her policeman father (guest star Richard Roundtree), Kim (Charnele Brown) attends the Freaknic music festival--only to be caught in the act when dear old dad shows up for the Hillman homecoming celebration. Kim is outraged by her father's strictness, but Whitley (Jasmine Guy) is curiously unsympathetic to her plight. Meanwhile, the phrase "four's a crowd" takes on a whole new meaning when Dwayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Ron (Darryl M. Bell) bring their respective dates home on the same night. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, a free-lance photographer is falsely convicted of possessing cocaine and is sentenced to jail time and 400 hours of community service. For the latter she must work with the LAPD and take favorable pictures of them doing their jobs for a public relations campaign. She willingly does this so she can regain custody of her young son. The trouble begins when she snaps a picture of Officer Eddie Martin, the cop who got her falsely arrested, killing a pimp. Unfortunately, the corrupt cop catches her catching him and now her life and the life of her son is in terrible danger. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This tired, pointless sequel (the sixth in the creatively bankrupt series) continues the premise explored in both Amityville: The Evil Escapes and later used in Amityville 1992: It's About Time, in which the demonic forces occupying the infamous haunted Long Island spook-house reside within various household items that subsequently haunt their unsuspecting new owners. This time the curse inhabits an antique mirror from the house -- passed on to a photographer (Ross Partridge) by one of his subjects -- whose reflection presages the violent death of nearly everyone who gazes into it. Inane plot twists abound, leading Partridge to discover his own connection to Amityville's dark heritage, while his pretentious friends die in messy and uninteresting ways. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

In this the third in the "Angel" series, former hooker Angel is reunited with her mom just long enough to make friends (her mom left when Angel was a baby) and learn that she has a half-sister somewhere. Mom is soon the victim of some sort of hit squad and Angel decides to find her half-sister and avenge her mom's death. Her half-sister, it turns out, is a prostitute, and former-hooker Angel, virtuously "born-again," is dead-set against prostitution so she's out to save her sibling. Unlike its predecessors, there's lots of nudity in this film. ~ All Movie Guide

The lives of a down-and-out but loving and optimistic Florida couple change dramatically when their desperately impoverished relatives abduct the 11-year-old son of a wealthy businessman and bring the child to their house. When Lucas and Roberta find that Roberta's sister Carrie and her husband Carl have kidnapped little John Wesley Danforth from a little-league game, their first instinct is to call the cops and send the boy back home. But Carl is in dire financial straits and desperately needs the ransom money. He pulls out a loaded gun and forces Lucas and Roberta to become accessories to the crime. Meanwhile, the boy's upstanding father August Danforth hires a private detective. Against the advice of the investigator, he then agrees to pay the $100,000 that Carl demands. When it is time to pick up the loot, Carl remains at home with Roberta and the boy and forces Lucas to accompany Carrie to get the money. While they are gone, Roberta engineers an escape for herself and John Wesley.

As soon as Lucas returns with the money, the three speed off in a truck. Lucas and Roberta want to take John Wesley straight to the police, but he refuses to go. Shortly thereafter, they learn the shocking reason why: it seems that his fine, well-respected father is a child batterer. All John Wesley wants is to be reunited with his estranged mother in Louisiana. When faced with the child's obvious suffering, the good-hearted couple feel they have no choice but to obey his wishes. This puts all three of them plus the mother in grave danger for not only has the vengeful August called in the FBI, but the dangerously enraged Carl and Roberta are rapidly closing in on them. In order to survive, the four fugitives make one final effort to make it to the safety of Mexico. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Veteran Hollywood screenwriter Clyde Ware handled the directing chores in Bad Jim. The film is worth noting as the cinematic debut of John Clark Gable, the son of guess who. Gable, James Brolin, and Richard Roundtree play three soft-hearted bandits who purchase a horse from Billy the Kid. They use the easily recognizable steed to convince their victims that they are members of Billy's gang-thus eliminating the nasty necessity of gunplay. One of the gang members breaks away from the others, taking the horse with him, and pretty soon he's every bit as mean and dangerous as the real Billy. The film's pace may be a bit too measured for some tastes, but the characters are believable and the story has its own peculiar logic. Bad Jim is slightly reminiscent of John Ford's Three Godfathers; both films, in fact, feature Harry Carey Jr. is a supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two guys looking for a respite from their bumpy romantic lives find themselves in the midst of a very confusing situation in this broad comedy. Jerry (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a guy who thinks he's found the love of his life in Felicia (Vivica A. Fox), his beautiful longtime girlfriend. Jerry decides to propose to Felicia, and arranges for a hot-air balloon ride in order to create the ideal setting to pop the question. However, Felicia not only turns him down, she announces that she's leaving him for another man. Jerry sinks into a deep depression, until his best friend Nick (Horatio Sanz), who has been having his own romantic problems, suggests they take a vacation cruise on an ocean liner, forgetting their troubles while they make time with bikini-clad babes. Jerry is game, but after an angry misunderstanding with a travel agent, Nick and Jerry discover they've been booked on a tour specifically for gay men. Jerry and Nick are forced to pose as lovers to ward off the indefatigable advances of aging playboy Lloyd (Roger Moore), which cramps their style when the ship's captain rescues a boatload of buxom Swedish swimsuit models. Jerry's spirits rise when he meets Gabriella (Roselyn Sanchez), a beautiful dancer who is part of the ship's entertainment staff. Jerry, however, now has to walk a fine line between maintaining his cover and convincing Gabriella that despite outward appearances, he's not gay. Boat Trip was the first feature film from director Mort Nathan, best known for his work as a writer for television. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

None of the original cast members of the long-running (1959-73) TV western series Bonanza are on hand for the 1993 TV movie Bonanza: The Return. However, Michael Landon Jr., son of the series' "Little Joe," shows up as Joe's son Benj Cartwright; and Dirk Blocker, son of Dan "Hoss" Blocker, has a supporting role as a journalist. One of the Cartwrights in this film is a woman. Her name is Sara Cartwright, and she's portrayed by Emily Warfield. Set in 1905, the descendants of the original Ponderosa bunch take on an evil strip-mining tycoon, played by Dean Stockwell. A well-directed climax aboard a speeding train caps this enjoyable "retro" film. When it was first telecast on November 28, 1993, Bonanza: The Return was preceded by a nostalgic one-hour special devoted to the old series, Back to Bonanza. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Long before he headlined his own cutting-edge Comedy Central sketch series, African-Amercian comedian Dave Chappelle was the co-star of the conformist ABC sitcom Buddies. Chappelle and Christopher Gartin were cast as black Chicagoan Dave Carlisle and Dave's lifelong white pal John Butler, who ran a small videotaping company called Hi-Intensity. Hoping to break into the big time and land a Hollywood contract, our heroes exercised their auteur filmmaking muscles at various Windy City social functions, including weddings, birthday parties, Bar Mitzvahs, and funerals. Also in the cast was Paula Cale as John's wacky young bride Lorraine, Tanya Wright as Dave's sassy girlfriend Phyllis Brooks, Judith Ivey as Lorraine's trailer trash, epithet-spouting mother Maureen "Mo" DeMoss, and former Shaft star Richard Roundtree as Dave's father -- and Hi-Intensity's no-nonsense landlord. Debuting March 5, 1996, as a spin-off of the successful ABC comedy series Home Improvement, Buddies fell far short of matching its parent series' success; it was canceled after five weeks, leaving eight of its completed episodes unshown. The entire series has since that time been released on DVD, to capitalize on Dave Chappelle's latter-day popularity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western two misfits, a black man AWOL from the union army, and a crippled Indian hide in a Mexican church following the murder of two people. A bounty hunter is hot on their trail. Violence ensues when he catches up to them. The one that killed the people is stoned to death. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This standard, tongue-in-cheek, gangsters and good guys saga is carried on the star power and screen presence of Clint Eastwood as Lt. Speer, a taciturn, tough, play-it-by-the-book cop, and on Burt Reynolds as Mike Murphy, Speer's old friend in the force, now turned private eye but still a captivating rogue at heart. With a sub-text of playing their well-known screen personas off each other, Eastwood and Reynolds provide more than a surface interpretation of the characters that made them famous. After Murphy's partner is murdered, he focuses on pitting one mob boss against another in an attempt to have both mobsters kill each other. In the meantime, Lt. Speer -- who has never approved of Murphy's private detective business -- does not really know if Murphy is for or against the two top gangsters. Set in the era of speakeasies and Prohibition, an added layer of "film noir" can be discerned under the complex plot, verbal repartée, and episodes of toned-down violence (a kind of parody in themselves). Although this may not be the best film either star has made, it is still interesting to see them together on screen. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide