Richard Roundtree Movies
Blaxploitation superstar Richard Roundtree earned screen immortality during the 1970s as the legendary Shaft, "the black private dick that's the sex machine to all the chicks." Born July 9, 1942, in New Rochelle, NY, Roundtree attended college on a football scholarship but later gave up athletics to pursue an acting career. After touring as a model with the Ebony Fashion Fair, he joined the Negro Ensemble Company's acting workshop program in 1967. He made his film debut in 1970's What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?, but was still an unknown when filmmaker Gordon Parks Sr. cast him as Shaft. The role shot Roundtree to instant fame, launching the blaxploitation genre and proving so successful at the box office that it helped save MGM from the brink of bankruptcy. Thanks to the film's popularity -- as well as its two sequels, 1972's Shaft's Big Score! and the following year's Shaft in Africa, and even a short-lived television series -- Roundtree became an icon of '70s-era cool, and his image graced countless magazine covers. Outside of the Shaft franchise, he also appeared in films including the 1974 disaster epic Earthquake, 1975's Man Friday, and the blockbuster 1977 TV miniseries Roots.By the end of the decade, however, the blaxploitation movement was a thing of the past, and Roundtree's stardom waned; apart from the 1981 big-budget flop Inchon, he spent the 1980s appearing almost exclusively in TV roles or low-rent, direct-to-video features. Still, he continued working steadily, and in 1995 appeared in David Fincher's smash thriller Seven. The following year he co-starred in the acclaimed Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored, and also teamed with fellow blaxploitation vets Pam Grier and Fred "the Hammer" Williamson in Original Gangstas. In 1997, Roundtree returned to series television in 413 Hope St. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
In the Roaring '20s Chicago, three young men newly arrived from Liverpool find themselves working for Al Capone (Julian Littman). Capone's ruthless right-hand man Georgio (Al Sapienza) exploits Jimmy's (Marc Warren) explosive right uppercut by scheduling him in a boxing match against the local champ; in preparation, Georgio has Jimmy train with the aging coach Boom Boom (Richard Roundtree). Only later do they realize the fight is fixed and Jimmy is ordered to take a dive in the fifth round, something he's reluctant to consider. Jimmy makes things worse by having an affair with Georgio's girlfriend Edith (Kirsty Mitchell), and hot-tempered Georgio is not happy. Meanwhile Jimmy's mates are implicated in the kidnapping of Capone's young son, an accusation they compound by robbing the mob safe. Can these adventures possibly have happy endings? ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Saturday Night Live cast member Chris Kattan stars in this mob comedy as Corky Romano, a veterinarian with a penchant for pop music from the '80s. As a youth, Corky was kicked out of his Mafia-connected family for being an oddball. Now his long-lost father (Peter Falk) has been indicted and needs Corky to infiltrate the FBI and steal the government's evidence against him. Corky is willing to aid the relatives who so long ago turned their backs on him, but his brothers go overboard when intimidating the computer hacker who gets Corky's bogus application into the FBI academy, presenting him as a super agent named Pissant. Now Corky must live up to his reputation for an eminently qualified top cop while simultaneously trying to get the goods on his dad. Corky Romano co-stars Peter Berg, Chris Penn, Vincent Pastore, Vinessa Shaw, Fred Ward, and Richard Roundtree. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Kattan, Vinessa Shaw, (more)
Just how far should one man go to stay ahead of his competition? Milo Hoffmann (Ryan Phillippe) is a young and gifted computer software designer who with his close friend Teddy is about to launch a high-tech start-up firm based on Milo's inventive ideas in convergence, in which he's helping to create new ways for different forms of digital technology to work in harmony. However, before Milo and Teddy can get their company off the ground, Milo receives a very tempting offer from Gary Winston (Tim Robbins), a trailblazing genius in the digital world who has turned his company N.U.R.V. (which stands for "Never Underestimate Radical Vision") into one of the richest and most powerful computer firms on Earth. While Milo is sympathetic to Teddy's beliefs that computer technology should belong to the people and that open source software is the most promising future lies, Winston has long been Milo's role model in design and research, and Milo feels Winston's offer is too good to pass up. Milo and his girlfriend Alice Poulson (Claire Forlani) move out to Silicon Valley, and at first Milo thrives on the challenges of his new position, and develops a close working relationship with fellow designer Lisa Calighan (Rachael Leigh Cook). But Milo underestimates the ruthlessness of the leading-edge software industry, and he soon learns there's a sinister undercurrent to Winston's drive to stay on top. Antitrust earned rising star Ryan Phillippe his first million-dollar paycheck after well-regarded roles in 54 and Cruel Intentions. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan Phillippe, Rachael Leigh Cook, (more)
This action drama puts a new spin on Shaft, one of the key "blaxploitation" films of the 1970s. John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson), the namesake nephew of the legendary private eye (Richard Roundtree), is a street-smart police detective who with his partner Carmen Velez (Vanessa L. Williams) has been assigned to a racially motivated murder case, in which a black college student was killed in front of a restaurant by Walter Williams Jr. (Christian Bale), the sociopathic son of a New York construction tycoon, who then fled the country rather than face prosecution. Diane Palmieri (Toni Collette), a waitress on a smoke break, saw the murder, but she doesn't want to talk to the police. Two years later, Walter is forced to return to New York, but without Diane's testimony, the city doesn't have much of a case. Soon, Shaft, Walter Junior, and Walter Senior's goons are all looking for Diane, with Junior enlisting the help of Peoples Hernandez (Jeffrey Wright), a small-time drug dealer who will do anything to move into the big leagues. Shaft and Carmen find Diane, but discover that she had a good reason for being on the lam for the past two years. Amidst all this activity, John gets frequent advice from his uncle, with whom he ponders the idea of quitting the force and opening a detective agency. Shaft was directed by John Singleton, from a screenplay by Singleton, Richard Price, and Shane Salerno. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams, (more)
- 1999
- NR
Based on the best-selling book by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth, which was later adapted into a Broadway play, Having Our Say tells the true story of the Delany Sisters, two African-American women who were fathered by a former slave, went on to attend college, and witnessed the slow but steady advance of civil rights in America before a reporter for The New York Times sat down with them to record their story. In the film version, 103-year-old Sadie (Diahann Carroll) is a polite and soft-spoken woman who deals cheerfully with the questions of journalist Amy Hill Hearth (Amy Madigan). Sadie's considerably more feisty 101-year-old sister (and housemate) Bessie (Ruby Dee) grumbles about "white people who ask you to explain the obvious to them," but soon adds her own stories as the Delanys discuss their quietly remarkable lives as career women and racial pioneers who not only survived Jim Crow laws, they outlived Jim Crow, as well. Produced for CBS Television, Having Our Say was first aired April 18, 1999. Incidentally, Bessie Delany died in 1995 at age 104, while Sadie, at 110, passed on in 1999, only a few months before this was first aired. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diahann Carroll, Ruby Dee, (more)
- 1997
- PG13
Low-rent, poorly-lit superhero action is the order of the day in this film from television director Kenneth Johnson -- who makes several references to his series Alien Nation throughout the course of the movie. NBA basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal stars as John Henry Irons, a weapons designer and metallurgical genius who is developing a new sonic weapon for the military with the help of Sparks (Annabeth Gish), a computer whiz. When an accident caused by unscrupulous superior Nathaniel Burke (Judd Nelson) leaves Sparks paralyzed, Irons quits his job in disgust. It turns out later that Burke has begun mass-producing the weapon and selling it to terrorists and L.A. street gangs, so Irons and Sparks team up with Uncle Joe (Richard Roundtree), a junkyard artist, to create a suit of armor and a gadget-packed sledgehammer. Irons dons the suit and becomes known as the superhero Steel, who kicks criminal posterior all over the city with his impenetrable get-up and high-tech gizmos. Before long, Burke's comeuppance is in the offing. Although specific references to it were excised between the source material and script, the original DC Comics version of Steel was a spin-off of the Superman comics series. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shaquille O'Neal, Annabeth Gish, (more)
- 1997
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
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
- Starring:
- Joe Lando, Mary Page Keller, (more)
Jay Ward's fondly-remembered cartoon series about a klutzy king of the jungle gets the big-screen, live-action treatment in this comedy from Walt Disney Pictures. A young boy named George becomes lost in the jungles of the African nation of Bukuvu following a plane crash, where he's rescued and raised to manhood by an articulate ape called Ape (voice of John Cleese). George grows to become a strapping adult (played by Brendan Fraser) who is cheerful and good-hearted but not terribly bright, not to mention his nasty habit of running into trees while swinging on vines from one part of the jungle to another. Ursula Stanhope (Leslie Mann), an heiress from San Francisco, travels to Bukuvu for a safari, both to satisfy her thirst for adventure and because she's trying to get away from the snooty Lyle Van Der Groot (Thomas Haden Church), whom she is engaged to marry even though she doesn't like him very much. Lyle follows Ursula to Bukuvu, hoping to catch up with her and locate the legendary White Ape of the Jungle; when Ursula becomes stranded and is rescued by George, Lyle is determined to rescue her from the savage ape man, even though George is a greater threat to himself than anyone else. George finds himself infatuated with the lovely Ursula, and he hopes to win her heart, even though he's a bit rusty on the particulars of the human courtship ritual (Ape tries to help by lending him a copy of "Coffee, Tea, or Me?"). We also get to meet George's faithful pet Shep, an elephant who seems to have gotten the idea that he's a Cocker Spaniel. Blaxploitation legend Richard Roundtree also appears as Bukuvu dignitary Kwame. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brendan Fraser, Leslie Mann, (more)
- 1996
- PG
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Actor Tim Reid (WKRP in Cincinnati) made his directorial debut with this filmed adaptation of Clifton L. Taulbert's autobiography. Set in an African-American community in the segregated South, Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored follows a young Taulbert through three decades, beginning with his birth in a cotton field in 1946. As he grows up, Taulbert is faced with the harsh realities of being black in the mid-20th century: first from the lessons of his great-grandfather (Al Freeman Jr.), later in his trips to the local segregated library, and finally in 1962, when a 16-year-old Taulbert watches as his community deals with a racist white business owner trying to run a local black ice man out of town. Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored was the recipient of the Audience Choice Award at the 1995 St. Louis International Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
Whoopi Goldberg headlines this youth-oriented comedy fantasy set in a near future where scientists for some reason have genetically resurrect dinosaurs. This time, the revitalized reptiles are intelligent and equipped with humanoid articulatory tracts so they can speak. They also wear shoes. Goldberg plays a leather-clad smart-alecky detective who is assigned the odious task of teaming up with Teddy Rex, a dino-detective. Naturally lizards and leather don't mix and the two constantly bicker their way into buddyhood as they investigate the death another dinosaur, a death that turns out to be linked with a crazed scientist's nefarious, chilling plot. Goldberg (to her credit) attempted to back out of making this film soon after production started. Were it not for the threat of major legal retaliation by the studio, she may have succeeded. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whoopi Goldberg, Armin Mueller-Stahl, (more)
- 1996
The "perfect" family life of rock star Jon Mateos (A Martinez) is shattered when his Evie (Rosalind Allen) dies in a car accident while rushing to make a TV appearance with her husband. Now Jon must shoulder the burden of looking after his three children, whom Evie had raised all by herself while he pursued success. Unable to connect with his kids, Jon retreats into a nether world of booze and drugs--and Monica (Roma Downey) and Tess (Della Reese) must somehow help him get his act together before tragedy strikes his eldest daughter Samantha (Ivey Lloyd). TV journalist Kathleen Sullivan appears as herself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
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
- Starring:
- Dave Chappelle, Christopher Gartin, (more)
Larry Cohen, who directed a number of interesting and subversive exploitation films in the 1970s and 1980s, including Black Caesar and Hell Up in Harlem, reunited some of the biggest stars of the blaxploitation era for this tough-minded action opus. John Bookman (Fred Williamson) is a successful football coach who was born in Gary, Indiana but now lives in Los Angeles. When Bookman's father is shot, he returns home for the first time in years to discover that Gary has been all but taken over by a number of brutally violent youth gangs. Bookman learns that his father was shot in retaliation for going to the police after a young man was killed by gang bangers outside his grocery store; even worse, the kid who pulled the trigger was a member of the Rebels, the gang that he helped form as a teenager. Outraged, Bookman joins forces with the boy's parents, who also happen to be old friends: Jake Trevor (Jim Brown) and Laurie Thompson (Pam Grier). John, Laurie, and Jake organize the neighborhood against the gangs, with John's old gang brothers Bubba (Ron O'Neal) and Slick (Richard Roundtree) tagging along to show the young gangstas what the old school can do. If Williamson, Brown, Grier, O'Neal, and Roundtree all look a bit older than they did in their glory days, they all still boast charisma to spare, and anyone who liked their older films will have a good time with this one. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, (more)
- 1994
- R
When crooks kill her partner and a protected witness, a vengeful policewoman becomes a vigilante who is hell-bent on bringing the wrong-doers to final justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marjean Holden, Cory Everson, (more)
Set in Utah (but filmed in Texas), the made-for-TV Shadows of Desire will probably seem fresh and original to anyone who hasn't seen the old Katharine Hepburn-Robert Taylor-Robert Mitchum theatrical feature Undercurrent--or, for that matter, to anyone unfamiliar with the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Central to the plotline is Rowena Ecklund (Nicollette Sheridan), a woman torn between her sincere love for the kindly, sensitive Jude Snow (Adrian Pasder) and her insatiable lust for Jude's arrogant, dangerous older brother Sonny (Joe Lando) (guess which brother has the longest hair and the sweatiest shirt?) The passions engendered by this triangle are matched only by the all-stops-out histrionics of Piper Laurie as Jude and Sonny's domineering mother Ellis. Originally telecast September 20, 1994, on CBS, Shadows of Desire has since been rerun on cable television and on Canadian TV under the title The Devil's Bed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
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
- Starring:
- Ben Johnson, Michael Landon, Jr., (more)
- 1993
- R
From the evidence at hand, it seems apparent that the inexpensive Mind Twister was the last cinematic stand for the late Telly Savalas. There's a wacko killer at large, murdering at random. A courageous cop offers himself as bait to stop the murderer. This proves difficult, as who knows where the killer will strike next? Richard Roundtree and Suzanne Slater also show up in this garish Fred Olen Ray concoction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Gypsy Angels stars Wheel of Fortune's Vanna White -- sort of. The title characters are a group of Atlanta-based stunt pilots in search of adventure and romance. What they find is several impressively constructed stripteasers. Most of the film -- including White's fleeting topless scenes -- was culled from a long-shelved action flick made sometime in the early 1980s. The name of "Alan Smithee" in the director's credits is a dead giveaway that the genuine director (or directors) had no wish to be associated with this T&A pastiche. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
- R
In this exceedingly complex erotic thriller, a hard-nosed gumshoe uses his expertise as an ex-cop to untangle a convoluted insurance scam. ~ 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
- 1993
Softcore porn auteur Gregory Hippolyte directed this thriller featuring plenty of female nudity and starring Nick Cassavetes, son of famed indie director John Cassavetes. Beverly Hills shrink Dr. Jonathan Brooks (Cassavetes) seemingly has everything to lose: wealth, a successful practice, and a beautiful lawyer fiancée, Jennifer (Diana Barton). There's a serial killer on the loose in L.A., so Brooks is helping his cop friend Harry Reams (Richard Roundtree) compile a psychological profile of the murderer. Brooks is also treating an interesting new patient, Laura (Shannon Whirry), a shy hooker who transforms under hypnosis into a completely different woman, the seductive Lana. Brooks has a torrid affair with the irresistible Lana, but he's getting more than he bargained for. Lana steals the videotapes of her "sessions" with the good doctor and blackmails him with the damning evidence, destroying Brooks' life in the process. In the meantime, Harry closes in on a biker (Don Swayze) who might be the killer -- and the suspect has a connection to Lana. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Made for cable television, a TV-show homemaker (Dyan Cannon) invites a local hero (Kris Kristofferson) over for a live-broadcast Christmas dinner, but her lack of cooking skills could cause a problem. The film was directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
