Mario Van Peebles Movies
The son of African American director/writer Melvin Van Peebles, Mario van Peebles made his acting bow in a small role in his dad's Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971). At the time, Van Peebles had no burning desire to become a performer, choosing instead to study economics at Columbia University. He wavered between a financial and an acting career before becoming a full-time actor... (read more) with the 1984 film Cotton Club. In 1988, Van Peebles starred in a conformist TV comedy adventure series, Sonny Spoon, playing a glib private eye with a predilection for elaborate disguises; this brief series afforded him his first opportunity to direct. Three years later he made his film directing debut with New Jack City, a film widely praised by some as being a truthful, no-nonsense dissection of inner-city life, and widely derided by others as merely a slick outgrowth of the "blaxploitation" flicks of the 1970s. Van Peebles played a major role in New Jack City, as he would in his subsequent Posse (1993), a revisionist western about a Utopian all-black community. Van Peebles' next directorial endeavor was Panthers (1995), a recounting of the Black Panther Movement that came under fire from several of the real-life activists depicted in the film despite the fact that Van Peebles steadfastly defended it as historically accurate.
In addition to making and starring in his own films, Van Peebles occasionally appears in the films of others. He had a starring role in Clint Eastwood's Heartbreak Ridge (1986) and for his performance earned an NAACP Image Award. On television, Van Peebles has starred in a number of prestigious productions, including The Emperor Jones for PBS and The Pool Hall opposite James Earl Jones. For this latter role, Van Peebles was nominated for a Cable ACE award. For his work in Children of the Night he received a Bronze Halo Award. He has also directed episodes of television series, notably those of producer Steven J. Cannell. For directing the ABC After School Special: Malcolm Takes a Shot, he received a nomination for a Directors Guild Award. In the late '90s, Van Peebles joined a growing trend and starred in an elaborate CD-Rom game for Sony called Solo in which he played an android superhero with a human learning capacity. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
We the Party
R 2012
Five Los Angeles teens contend with the trials of adolescence while racing to keep up with all of the latest trends in this honest look at modern youth culture from director...
Bring Your 'A' Game
2012
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Herschel
2011
This documentary profiles former Georgia running back Herschel Walker. The 1982 Heisman Trophy winner overcame teenage bouts with bullying for being overweight and having a...
All Things Fall Apart
R 2011
A talented college running back fights to regain his health after being stricken with cancer, and grapples with the realization that his NFL dreams may have slipped out of reach...
Redemption Road
PG13 2010
Stricken with stage fright and saddled with debt, talented blues guitarist Bailey (Morgan Simpson) learns that he has just inherited his grandfather's estate, and hits...
Multiple Sarcasms
R 2010
A frustrated architect tries his hand at being a playwright when his life hits a disheartening plateau. New York City, 1979: Gabriel Richmond (Timothy Hutton) is a family...
Tied to a Chair
2009
The frustrated wife of a high-ranking British official abandons her marriage to salvage her stalled-out acting career, and becomes ensnared in a massive terrorist plot after...
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
NR 2008
Melvin Van Peebles, director of the landmark independent film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, embraces the new age of digital filmmaking with his picaresque comedy,...
The Uniter
2008
Mario Van Peebles writes and directs this sci-fi tale that follows a political exile who goes back in time to train a young teen who could bring peace to the future of the...
Sharpshooter
2007
James Remar and Melvin Van Peebles headline this relentlessly tense tale of a special ops sniper who reluctantly accepts one final mission before disappearing into...
Hard Luck
R 2006
An infamous ex-con on the road to redemption finds his quest unexpectedly complicated by the police, the mafia, and two of the nation's most vicious serial killers in a high...
Carlito's Way: Rise to Power
R 2005
In this belated prequel to director Brian De Palma's 1993 crime drama, gangster Carlito Brigante (Jay Hernandez) rises through the ranks of the New York underworld to...
How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)
2005
Melvin Van Peebles created a new style of African-American filmmaking in 1971, when on a shoestring budget he made Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, a violent action...
Crown Heights
R 2004
Racial tensions between Hasidic Jews and African-Americans come to a boil in the Crown Heights section of Queens in this powder-keg drama based on real-life events that took...
Poetic License
2004
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BAADASSSSS!
R 2003
In 1971, filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles released his third film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which he wrote, directed, and scored. Despite boasting an all-black cast,...
44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shootout
R 2003
On February 28, 1997, a pair of heavily armed and heavily armored outlaws named Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. and Emil Matasarenu, who had previously cut a crooked swath...
The Hebrew Hammer
R 2002
He's hip, he's fly, and he never mixes meat with dairy -- he's the world's first Jewish private eye, and he's out to save the world in this satiric comedy. {%Mordechai...
10,000 Black Men Named George
R 2002
In the 1920s, the rights of American workers to join a labor union was still considered an open question, and African-Americans were routinely denied their civil and economic...
Robbery Homicide Division [TV Series]
2002
Michael Mann of Miami Vice fame was the principle guiding force behind the CBS cop drama Robbery Homicide Division. In a major casting coup, Mann managed to sign...