Russell B. Parker, a former vaudeville hoofer, is a man of big dreams but small ambitions. He hardly works at all in fact, often spending the time incessantly playing checkers with his friend, William Jenkins. Parker lives with Theopolis and Bobby, his two unemployed sons, and Adele, his hard-working daughter. The ghost of his dead wife, a woman who drove herself into an early grave working to support the family, nags at his conscience.
A white female detective is partnered with a black male detective to find the person who is committing a series of particularly vicious murders. During the course of the investigation the two begin to develop an attraction to each other, but the situation is complicated by the fact that he is married.
Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only human survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. Besides him, only a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people remain - sensitive to light, and homicidally psychotic.
Adventurer/surgeon/rock musician Buckaroo Banzai and his band of men, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, take on evil alien invaders from the 8th dimension.
Political double-talk, dirty tricks, hidden microphones, spy satellites, bugging the Oval Office and a nuclear bomb for sale are all ingredients in this swift, funny and frightening look at the possibilities in today's political arenas. Sean Connery stars as TV Newsman Patrick Hale on an international chase to track two suitcase sized nuclear weapons and to uncover the twisting maze of apparent involvement of US Government agencies.
When a Black doctor develops a serum that is supposed to regenerate dying liver cells and tests it on himself, it accidentally turns him into an albino monster with a lust for murdering prostitutes, pimps and drug dealers.
Michael's health club is beseiged with a series of terrible murders involving killer saunas and other grisly devices. Michael's wife killed herself a while before and her brother holds Michael responsible. Michael needs to stop the bloodshed before he loses all of his clients.
A preacher teams up with a labor union organizer to help unionize the mill where he worked.
The unintentional shooting by police of a star basketball player has profound personal, political and community repercussions in this acclaimed adaptation of the novel Hog Butcher by Ronald Fair. This was one of the more thoughtful urban dramas produced at the height of the "blaxploitation" craze. Also released under the title Hit the Open Man, it features the screen debut of Laurence Fishburne, who was barely a teenager at the time.
The uncle of an executed murderess relates four stories of his hometown, Oldfield, to a reporter. In the first, an elderly man pursues a romance with a younger woman, even to the grave and beyond. In the second, a wounded man on the run from creditors is rescued by a backwoods hermit who holds the secret to eternal life. In the third, a glass-eating carny pays the ultimate price for looking for love on the outside. And in the fourth, a group of Civil War soldiers are held captive by a household of orphans with strange intentions for them.
An evening of TV programming is interrupted by breaking news: in Charleston, South Carolina, two Coast Guard personnel and two members of a local news team have been taken hostage by a group of terrorists who are seeking to destroy the triggers of all local nuclear devices. Moreover, the terrorists threaten to detonate their own device if their demands are not met.
A widow tries to influence the local mayoral election in Baltimore, Maryland, after she discovers that a black candidate is being used by the incumbent mayor to further his own reelection efforts.
A new highway threatens a Chicago neighborhood, so to protest the residents throw a block party.
Two veteran private eyes trigger a criminal reign of terror with their search for a missing girl. | Al Hickey (Cosby) & Frank Boggs (Culp) are two jaded private investigators who get hired to find a missing woman and quickly find themselves submerged in a world of murder and untruths.
A dedicated teacher tries to reach out to juvenile delinquent students at a London alternative school.
A slick, smooth-talking, womanizing young black DJ falls hard for an enigmatic woman he's just met. Things take a turn for the worse, though, when she is found dead in his apartment. It turns out that she was killed by the local mob, which is trying to frame him for the crime. With the police after him, he calls on some of his old acquaintances to help clear his name and avenge the woman's death.
An idealistic rookie cop joins the LAPD to make ends meet while finishing law school, and is indoctrinated by a seasoned veteran. As time goes on, he loses his ambitions and family as police work becomes his entire life.
Story of Denmark Vesey, who was raised as a slave but bought his freedom. He organized a plot to seize the city and free the black slaves, but this failed and he and others were hanged. Set in Charleston in 1822.
Louise dreams of traveling the world, but her weak heart and husband Brently's overbearing concern keep her from doing so. However, news of a train accident changes everything.
A family takes in an abused girl and eventually decide to adopt her.
A strange mortician tells four horrific tales to three drug dealers that he traps in their local funeral parlor.
A young man in Los Angeles dreams of striking it big as a singer in the music business. One day he gets signed to a big record contract, but along with the fame and money he develops an addiction to the drug PCP.
Inner city kids are given new direction when they are convinced to join the school chess team.
Sharon Blake is a successful career woman who has a passionate affair with a possessive man. When she tries to break off the relationship, she uncovers the dark side of her former lover, who starts stalking and harassing her.
Heated confrontations and revelations result when a divorcee returns with her young son to the home of her two sisters.
Vic "Bomber" Bealer is a handsome, manipulative boxer who aspires to something greater than the small-town life he knows in Texas. But, even when opportunities present themselves, Bealer is too restless and indecisive to take advantage. Despite being on the cusp of making the Olympic boxing team, his life is in total disarray as he juggles relationships with an old flame, a girl who's way too young for him, and a foul-mouthed trainer.
This film adaptation of James Baldwin's celebrated novel tells the journey of a family from the rural South to "big city" Harlem seeking both salvation and understanding and of a young boy struggling to earn the approval of a self-righteous and often unloving stepfather.
Two blue-collar buddies search the underworld for a winning lottery ticket lost in a nightclub holdup.
James Earl Jones delivers a riveting performance as paranoid patriarch King Lear, an aging monarch who insists that his three daughters prove their love for him, only to learn he's exalted the two who seek to destroy him. This live performance recording of Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival production deftly envisions the bard's haunting tragedy with a fine supporting cast, including Raul Julia, Paul Sorvino and Rene Auberjonois.
Shot entirely on location in Hollywood in 1984, this feature documentary explores the role of black actors, black directors and the black audience in American movies.
A high-priced call girl is forced to depend on a reluctant private eye when she is stalked by a psychopath.
An independent filmmaker has left his profession and keeps it a secret. Years later, his niece finds his old films in a locked trunk and discovers his strong principles when it came to supporting his actors and his art overall.
A Different World is an American sitcom television series and a spin-off of The Cosby Show. It aired for six seasons on NBC from September 24, 1987, to July 9, 1993.The series originally centered on Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional historically black college in Virginia. It was inspired by student life at historically black colleges and universities