Jimmy Woodard Movies

Hip Hop duo Kid & Play return in the second follow-up to their 1990 screen debut House Party. Kid (Christopher "Kid" Reid) is taking the plunge and marrying his girlfriend Veda (Angela Means), while his friend Play (Christopher Martin) is dipping his toes into the music business, managing a roughneck female rap act called Sex as a Weapon. Play books the ladies for a concert with heavy-hitting promoter Showboat (Michael Colyar), but when they decide to fire Play and hire a new manager, he has to figure out how to deliver them to the show or face the wrath of Showboat's female security force. Play is also in charge of arranging Kid's bachelor party, but while he's setting up a bash to end all bashes, he discovers that his three younger cousins have just arrived in town, and Kid's former flame Sydney (Tisha Campbell) has shown up hoping to put a halt to the upcoming nuptials. Multi-platinum rap act TLC appear as Sex as a Weapon, while Play's cousins are played by the members of the R&B group Immature. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Small-time crook Johnny Stewart (Damon Wayans) decides to go straight to win a beautiful girl (Stacey Dash), and to prove it, he joins the mailroom of the credit-card firm for which she works. Needing money to impress her, Johnny steals a credit card, goes on a shopping spree and wins the girl. The story isn't over though, because a security guard who caught his theft on videotape is blackmailing Stewart to join his own credit-card ring. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

One of countless Stephen King adaptations, this take on one of the author's Night Shift tales is set in a Maine textile mill whose overbearing manager (Stephen Macht) finds himself in a tight spot when county inspectors crack down on his less-than-safe operation after a fatal accident involving a picking machine. He rounds up a few financially-desperate locals -- including drifter David Anderson, the film's nominal hero -- into a rag-tag crew to clean up the nightmarish, rat-infested lower levels of the decrepit building. Working their way through the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the mill, the crew encounters a rat's nest far beyond what their foreman had imagined, with a gigantic, man-eating monster rodent nesting at its center. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

This satirical look at the ambivalent relationship between Hollywood power brokers and African-American performers marked the writing, producing, and directing debut of Robert Townsend. The filmmaker also stars as Bobby Taylor, a struggling actor looking for his big break despite his family's and co-workers' reservations about his chosen career path. While working a day job flipping burgers, Bobby heads out to insulting cattle calls where white casting agents pass judgement on whether he seems "black enough." Meanwhile, he imagines himself playing Sam Spade, Rambo, and other movie heroes rather than the stereotypical roles actually available to him. When Bobby actually does win one such pimp-daddy part, however, he is forced to choose between accepting work that opens doors, but ultimately demeans him and returning to obscurity with his principles intact. Hollywood Shuffle's enormous supporting cast includes a wealth of black actors, from then-unknowns such as Damon Wayans to veterans such as 227 star Helen Martin. Self-financed and filmed on scraps of hand-me-down celluloid, the film helped establish actor Townsend as a director of note and also kick-started the career of co-screenwriter and co-star Keenen Ivory Wayans, who would cast Townsend in his own directorial debut the following year. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

This often witty tale of revenge is by first-time director Andy Anderson. Bobbie King (Stephanie Rascoe) is a pretty housewife who has just been severely beaten and raped by a stranger. She comes out of shock, but continues to suffer mentally and emotionally, and then she hears about a man who completely changed his identity. Suddenly, her life regains some meaning as she takes all the necessary steps to transform herself into an entirely different person. She even gets a new name along with her new personality. What is going on? A trip to a gun shop to buy a handgun starts to supply the answer. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide