Ji-Tu Cumbuka Movies

When a convict and his wife are placed on an isolated island with other convicts, the two are separated and the woman learns how to defend herself to stay alive. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

When a pair of inept thieves, Todd (Will Egan) and Bo (Steve Donmeyer), break into the mansion of a famous Hollywood producer, their criminal activities are disturbed when a group of attractive young women mistakenly show up for an audition. Taking advantage of the situation, the crooks pose as movie makers in order to run the auditions for an X-rated film. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Two women with serious differences are forced to look out for each other in this anarchic comedy. Sandy (Bette Midler) and Lauren (Shelley Long) are a pair of struggling actresses who don't get along especially well -- and are even less fond of each other when they discover that they're both dating the same man, Michael (Peter Coyote). However, when Michael suddenly goes missing, they discover that he's actually an espionage agent working with a foreign government, and as they set out to find him, they learn that he has implicated them in his schemes. Now Sandy and Lauren are stuck with each other as they look for Michael while trying to outrun the law. Outrageous Fortune also stars George Carlin as Frank, a burned-out '60s holdover who the women meet along the way. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

On his deathbed, a syndicate hitman confesses that it was he who killed Hunter's mobster father fifteen years earlier. No sooner has Hunter (Fred Dryer) digested this news than he learns that the man who put out the contract was his father's former partner--still very much alive. To prove the culprit's guilt, Hunter must locate a prostitute (Kay Lenz) who has vital information before the homicidal ex-partner can strike again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is the first A-Team episode to feature a famous guest star as "himself," in this case singer Rick James. At James' request, the A-Team forms a protective circle around legendary musician CJ Mack (Isaac Hayes), recently released from prison after serving time from manslaughter. It seems that Mack has been targeted for extermination by the prison's corrupt warden (Peter Haskell) because he knows too much about a sophisticated crime operation headquartered behind bars. Keep an eye out for James Avery (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) in a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This undistinguished comedy about life in prison features caricatures of inmates and law enforcement officers, as well as prison guards, in attempts at slapstick action. After Duke Jarrett (Jeff Altman) is put into prison because he had sex with the wife of a government VIP, he discovers that life in the prison is out of control -- until a disciplinarian takes charge. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Tom Hanks and John Candy were reunited for the first time since Splash in this period comedy about Peace Corps worker during the optimistic period of the Kennedy presidency. Lawrence Bourne III (Tom Hanks) is an upper-class heel who has to flee the country to escape his gambling debts and so sneaks aboard an airplane filled with Peace Corps volunteers en route to Thailand. On the plane he is befriended by well-meaning Peace Corps worker Tom Tuttle (John Candy). Once in Thailand, the workers become involved with building a bridge, and Lawrence becomes involved with the local Communists, an opium lord, and the CIA. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Tom Hanks stars in this raunchy teen comedy from veteran screenwriters Pat Proft and Neil Israel, who had previously collaborated on the amusing sketch film Tunnelvision (1976) and the disappointing Americathon (1980). Bus-driver Rick Gasko (Hanks) is engaged to wealthy Debbie Thompson (Tawny Kitaen), much to the chagrin of her father (George Grizzard), who considers Rick a loser. To keep an eye on her future groom, Debbie and her friends dress as prostitutes to attend his bachelor party, which quickly turns into a bacchanal of smutty debauchery. Familiar faces in the cast include action stars Michael Dudikoff and Ji-Tu Cimbuka, pin-ups Monique Gabrielle and Rosanne Katon, and teen-movie regulars Adrian Zmed and Wendie Jo Sperber. It's an occasionally hilarious excursion into bad taste, although one which two-time Oscar winner Hanks would probably like to forget. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

The Man Called Sloane was a 1979-80 TV series starring Robert Conrad as secret agent Thomas Remington Sloane III. T. R. Sloane was an operative of a "good" spy organization called UNIT; the bad guys worked for another acronymic concern called KARTEL. In 1981, a year after the cancellation of Man Called Sloane, a TV movie titled T.R. Sloane began making the rounds, starring Robert Logan as Sloane and Anne Turkel as another UNIT operative. This film found our man Sloane saving the world from being blown to hamburger by a superweapon. Perhaps T. R. Sloane was a long-suppressed pilot film, or perhaps it was a belated effort at a Man Called Sloane spin-off minus Bob Conrad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a Chicano gang member falls in love with a beautiful, wealthy Anglo girl. She tries to get him to leave the gang, but the young man is too deeply involved in being macho to listen. Then his grandmother dies and he travels to Mexico for the funeral. There his mother decides to introduce him to his estranged father, a boozy Anglo-American neer-do-well. Seeing his father causes the boy to take a good look at himself. He decides he wants a better life. He tries to leave the gang and they end up beating him senseless. Still he persists, and soon he is reunited with the girl he loves. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This feature-length pilot for an unsold TV series was based on Mandrake the Magician, the long-running comic strip created by Lee Falk and Phil Davis in 1934. Raised in the Himalayas, the orphaned Mandrake (played as a child by David Hollander, and as an adult by Anthony Herrera) is taught the secrets of magic and mass hypnosis by the wizard Theron (James Hong), and is given an enchanted amulet that will protect him from harm. With the help of his loyal assistant Lother (Ji-Tu Cumbuka), the caped, top-hatted Mandrake attempts to thwart an insane extortionist who threatens to kill innocent amusement-park patrons unless he is given 10,000,000 dollars. Princess Narda, Mandrake's exotic vis-à-vis from the funny papers, is here replaced by a feisty female cohort named Stacy (Simone Griffeth). Earning no plaudits from devotees of the original comic strip, Mandrake was little heard from after its initial NBC telecast on January 24, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted by Robert Getchell from Woody Guthrie's autobiography, Hal Ashby's biopic portrays a few pivotal years in the life of the celebrated folk singer and social activist. In the Depression 1930s, Midwesterner Guthrie (David Carradine) plays music locally but cannot make enough as a sign painter to support his wife (Melinda Dillon) and children. With only his paintbrushes, Woody joins the migration westward from the Dust Bowl to supposedly greener California pastures via boxcar and hitchhiking. When penniless Woody is turned back from the California border, he sneaks into the state alone and meets Luther (Randy Quaid), who takes Woody to a farm where hundreds of workers scrounge for a few ill-paid harvesting jobs. When singer Ozark Bole (Ronny Cox) arrives both to entertain and to urge the workers to unionize, Woody joins Ozark in song, fleeing with him after thugs break up the assembly. He lands a job singing with Ozark on the radio, and the two become partners in union agitation. Unable to commit in his personal life as he finds his political voice, Woody brings his family west, but his wife can't tolerate Woody's wandering ways. Reluctant to sell out his ideals for a lucrative career, Woody hits the road again, bringing his songs of freedom and protest to a nationwide audience on his own terms. Opting for atmospheric story-telling over strident polemic, the filmmakers present Guthrie as a complex individual with contradictory virtues and faults. Despite critical praise and nominations for several Oscars, including Best Picture, Bound for Glory proved less than glorious at the box office. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide