African American Classics

Richard Pryor's performance at the New York Improv on April, 29th, 1971 features the comedian giving his thoughts on sex, drugs, and race relations. Included is "Wino Preacher & Willie the Junkie," showcasing Pryor in the irreverent style that parlayed his career as a stand-up comic into a successful international star of films and television. There is an advisory warning for the strong language. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A group of wanna-be filmmakers and actors concocts a scheme to make a movie with a major star without having to pay him in this comedy. Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) has struggled for years to make it in Hollywood with no real success; he's convinced that he has to make his big break soon or it will be too late. Bobby has a script, and he has a cast, including an ingenue straight off the bus from Ohio (Heather Graham), a one-time regional stage star who fondly recalls her brief moment of glory (Christine Baranski), and a hunky aspiring matinee idol (Kohl Sudduth). He also has a young associate named Dave (Jamie Kennedy), who has a low-level job at a movie studio as a gofer -- which means that he has keys to every part of the lot and can "borrow" whatever they need. All they need is a star, but without any money, how do they get one? Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) is a leading action star, and he is obviously beyond Bowfinger's budget. But Bobby has an idea: what if he tricked Kit into appearing in the film without his knowing it? Steve Martin also wrote the film's screenplay, and former Muppets performer Frank Oz directs. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Comic Chris Rock co-scripted and stars in this remake of 1941's Here Comes Mr. Jordan, which was also remade with Warren Beatty in 1978 as Heaven Can Wait. Comedian Lance Barton (Rock) is struggling to get his career off the ground when he dies in an untimely bus accident; arriving at the Pearly Gates, he discovers that he's not supposed to have passed on for another 50 years. Barton is not happy with this turn of events, and eventually the Powers That Be send his spirit back to Earth, but for the time being he has to make do with the body of a middle-aged, closed-minded millionaire, Charles Wellington. Lance falls in love with a young community activist (Regina King), but he soon finds he has bigger problems at home: the millionaire's wife and her lover are both trying to kill him. The supporting cast includes Mark Addy as an actor passing himself off as an English manservant, Chazz Palminteri as Mr. King, Heaven's no-nonsense manager, and Eugene Levy as Mr. Keyes, the angel who accidentally ends Barton's life. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Bill Cosby's gang of childhood pals evolve from standup comedy to an animated cartoon series to real life in this family-friendly comedy. Doris (Kyla Pratt) is a teenager who doesn't fit in with most of her classmates at school, has been depressed since the death of her grandfather, and is disturbed by her foster sister's willingness to remake herself in order to be popular. One of Doris' few solaces comes from watching reruns of the animated television series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and one day while watching the show she starts to cry, with a tear dropping into her remote. The tear draws big-hearted (and just plain big) Fat Albert (Kenan Thompson) from the animated universe into Doris' real world in hopes of cheering her up and helping her deal with her problems. As Fat Albert and his pals -- Rudy (Shedrack Anderson III), Bucky (Alphonso McAuley), Mushmouth (Jermaine Williams), Weird Harold (Aaron A. Frazier), Dumb Donald (Marques B. Houston), and Bill (Keith D. Robinson) -- adapt to the three-dimensional world and try to teach Doris to believe in herself, they learn that traveling back to the animated world is harder than they thought, which becomes alarming when they start to fade away. The real world also poses some new dilemmas for Fat Albert when he falls in love with Doris' foster sister, Lauri (Dania Ramirez). Bill Cosby co-authored the screenplay for Fat Albert, using his full name, William H. Cosby Jr., and collaborating with Charles Kipps; the project was begun with Forest Whitaker as director, who left midway through shooting, with Joel Zwick taking over in his place. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Alfred Uhry, Driving Miss Daisy affectionately covers the twenty-five year relationship between a wealthy, strong-willed Southern matron (Jessica Tandy) and her equally indomitable Black chauffeur Hoke (Morgan Freeman). Both employer and employee are outsiders, Hoke because of the color of his skin, Miss Daisy because she is Jewish in a WASP-dominated society. At the same time, Hoke cannot fathom Miss Daisy's cloistered inability to grasp the social changes which sweep the South in the 1960s. Nor can Miss Daisy understand why Hoke's "people" are so indignant. It is only when Hoke is retired and Miss Daisy is confined to a home for the elderly that the two fully realize that they've been friends and kindred spirits all along. The supporting cast includes Esther Rolle as Miss Daisy's housekeeper and Dan Aykroyd as Miss Daisy's son Boolie (reportedly, playwright Uhry based the character upon himself). Driving Miss Daisy won Academy Awards for best picture, best actress (Jessica Tandy), best screenplay (Uhry) and best makeup (Manlio Rachetti). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two socialites find their view of the world changed when a young man takes advantage of their preconceptions in this thoughtful comedy-drama. Flan and Ouisa Kittredge (Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing) are a married couple who have built highly successful careers as art dealers catering to Manhattan's upper crust. The Kittredges are entertaining friends one evening when a young black man named Paul (Will Smith) appears at their door. Paul says that he's a close friend of their children, with whom he attended boarding school, and he's just been mugged and needs to get off the street for a moment. Flan and Ouisa invite him in, and they are immediately taken by Paul's intelligence and charm; he offers to prepare dinner, regales them with stories about his father, Sidney Poitier, and ends up spending the night at their apartment. However, the next morning Flan and Ouisa discover that they've been had; Paul is actually a con artist from the streets who has been pulling the wool over the eyes of many of their friends -- and his actions are beginning to have serious consequences. John Guare adapted the script from his own successful stage play; the supporting cast includes Ian McKellen, Mary Beth Hurt, Bruce Davison, and Heather Graham. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A police detective finds that looking into a murder is anything but routine when one of the suspects is the President of the United States. When the nude and bloodied corpse of an attractive woman is found in a bathroom at the White House, Harlan Regis (Wesley Snipes), a top detective with the Washington D.C. police force, is assigned to investigate. However, Regis soon learns that the Secret Service, headed by Nick Spikings (Daniel Benzali), is launching their own investigation, and they want Regis to stay out of their way. While Alvin Jordan (Alan Alda), National Security Advisor to President Jack Neil (Ronny Cox), intervenes in Regis' favor, it becomes obvious that no one wants him poking his nose into a case in which the suspects include both the President and his ill-tempered son Kyle (Tate Donovan). Eventually, Regis finds an ally in Nina Chance (Diane Lane), a member of the Secret Service's team, while the President tries to fend off the investigation in the midst of an international crisis. Comedian Dennis Miller also appears as Regis' partner Stengel. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Patrick Ewing: Standing Tall, a documentary, provides an intimate look at the basketball-focused biography of celebrated NBA center Patrick Ewing and proves that there is more to this man than game-saving blocks and slams. Catch footage of him as a schoolboy star in Boston, revisit his college career at Georgetown, snag a courtside seat for his battles as the centerpiece of the resurgent New York Knicks, and fly with him to Barcelona to be part of the historic "Dream Team." Rare footage and detailed interviews capture some of Ewing's career-building moments and give fans a taste of the celebrity center's friendly demeanor.
~ Betsy Boyd, All Movie Guide

The caretaker of a church, along with his family, dies in a church burning. Someone, or something, begins exacting revenge on a local group of thugs a short time later. ~ All Movie Guide

The Chris Rock Show host and former Saturday Night Live cast member Chris Rock brings his critically acclaimed brand of social commentary-themed humor to this 1999 standup comedy presentation from HBO. Also released as an album, Chris Rock: Bigger & Blacker features Rock on-stage extolling his razor-sharp wit and wisdom on such topics as gun control, President Clinton, homophobia, racism, black leaders, and relationships. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Ever since she exploded onto the pop charts in 1985 with her self-titled debut album, Whitney Houston has been one of the biggest hitmakers in contemporary music, and this home video release collects video clips and concert performances of 21 of her best loved songs, including "How Will I Know," "You Give Good Love," "The Greatest Love of All," "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," {&"I'm Every Woman," "It's Not Right, But It's OK," and of course "I Will Always Love You." The DVD also features bonus footage, including Houston's first TV appearance (on The Merv Griffin Show in 1985), her performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner at the 1991 Super Bowl, an interview with Houston and former Arista Records president Clive Davis, and her rendition of "Impossible" from the TV movie Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco E. Prosperi, best-known for the groundbreaking shockumentary Mondo Cane, directed this bizarre and shocking look at slavery in America. Set in the deep South prior to the Civil War, Zio Tom finds Jacopetti and Prosperi travelling back in time aboard a helicopter to investigate the nuts and bolts of slavery as it happened in the United States prior to abolition. Along the way, the filmmakers go aboard a slave ship as frightened Africans are brought to America under inhuman conditions; they witness the dangerous and degrading process by which slaves were made ready for market; and they visit a "breeding farm" for slaves after laws prohibit the importation of slaves from abroad. Also included is a sermon from a preacher who argues for the moral and spiritual necessity of slavery (while another man speaks out against it strictly on grounds of economics and practicality); the contrasting thoughts of men and women on the matter of miscegenation; and an interview with an educated slave who feels his circumstances are better for him than conventional employment. Also shown is the brutal torture and punishment of slaves for any number of real or imagined grievances. Re-creating both the opulence and the ugliness of the Old South on a grand scale, Zio Tom concludes with present-day African-Americans reading The Confession of Nat Turner and contemplating violent overthrow of the white-dominated culture. Understandably controversial, Zio Tom received a very brief theatrical release in the United States under the title Farewell Uncle Tom, where it received an X rating from the MPAA despite being trimmed by approximately 20 minutes from its original Italian running time. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this romantic drama, two teenagers in love struggle to look past their differences. After the unexpected death of her mother, Sarah Johnson (Julia Stiles) moves to Chicago to live with her father. Knowing no one at her new school and not at home in a gritty, inner-city high school, Sarah has trouble adjusting, but she soon becomes friends with Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas), who has talent and street smarts but a checkered past. Sarah was an avid student of ballet before her mother's death sidelined her studies, while Derek has some serious hip-hop moves, and their mutual love of dance leads their friendship into something deeper. However, since Sarah is white and Derek is black, they have more to contend with than the average high school couple; Sarah gets static from Nikki (Bianca Lawson), Derek's former girlfriend, while Derek has to deal with his friend Malakai (Fredro Starr), who is still deep in the thug life Derek is trying to avoid. Save the Last Dance was directed by Thomas Carter, who previously examined the sociopolitical side of dancing in Swing Kids. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide