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African-American Cinema DVDs

Rush Hour (New Line Platinum Series)

Sales Rank:17896
List Price: $14.98
Lowest New Price: $2.08
Lowest Used Price: $0.25
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Jackie Chan
Chris Tucker
Ken Leung
Tom Wilkinson
Tzi Ma

The plot line may sound familiar: Two mismatched cops are assigned as reluctant partners to solve a crime. Culturally they are complete opposites, and they quickly realize they can't stand each other. One (Jackie Chan) believes in doing things by the book. He is a man with integrity and nerves of steel. The other (Chris Tucker) is an amiable rebel who can't stand authority figures. He's a man who has to do everything on his own, much to the displeasure of his superior officer, who in turn thinks this cop is a loose cannon but tolerates him because he gets the job done. Directed by Brett Ratner, Rush Hour doesn't break any new ground in terms of story, stunts, or direction. It rehashes just about every "buddy" movie ever made--in fact, it makes films such as Tango and Cash seem utterly original and clever by comparison. So, why did this uninspired movie make over $120 million at the box office? Was the whole world suffering from temporary insanity? Hardly. The explanation for the success of Rush Hour is quite simple: chemistry. The casting of veteran action maestro Jackie Chan with the charming and often hilarious Chris Tucker was a serendipitous stroke of genius. Fans of Jackie Chan may be slightly disappointed by the lack of action set pieces that emphasize his kung-fu craft. On the other hand, those who know the history of this seasoned Hong Kong actor will be able to appreciate that Rush Hour was the mainstream breakthrough that Chan had deserved for years. Coupled with the charismatic scene-stealer Tucker, Chan gets to flex his comic muscles to great effect. From their first scenes together to the trademark Chan outtakes during the end credits, their ability to play off of one another is a joy to behold, and this mischievous interaction is what saves the film from slipping into the depths of pitiful mediocrity. --Jeremy Storey

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Race Movies: The Duke Is Tops/The Black King/Spirit Of Youth/The Glove

Sales Rank:11574
List Price: $4.98
Lowest New Price: $1.37
Lowest Used Price: $2.09
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Black & White
Closed-captioned
Dolby
DVD-Video
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Lena Horne
Joe Louis
A.B. DeComathiere
Ralph Cooper
Edna Mae Harris

Four classic urban films: The Duke is Tops, The Black King, Spirit of Youth, and The Glove.

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Spencer Williams Collection - 4 Movies

Sales Rank:19378
List Price: $4.98
Lowest New Price: $1.51
Lowest Used Price: $1.91
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Black & White
Closed-captioned
Dolby
DVD-Video
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Spencer Williams
Herb Jeffries
July Jones
The Four Tones
Lucius Brooks

Four classic urban films: Juke Joint, The Bronze Buckaroo, Go Down Death, and Blood of Jesus.

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Sheba, Baby

Sales Rank:13468
List Price: $14.98
Lowest New Price: $5.10
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Pam Grier
Austin Stoker
D'Urville Martin
Rudy Challenger
Dick Merrifield

Pam Grier combines big guns and fantastic '70s outfits in Sheba, Baby. After roughly 4,000 establishing shots of Chicago in the opening credits, private eye Sheba Shayne (Grier) immediately heads to Louisville, where thugs are leaning on her father's business, trying to get him to sell out. The police, alas, are no help, but never fear--Sheba is the kind of private dick who doesn't shy away from dunking a man's face in toxic chemicals to get the information she needs. She soon finds herself going head-to-head with a crime lord named Pilot, and the butt kicking begins. Sheba, Baby offers giant ties, big guns, and a firefight on speedboats, and yes, of course there's a catfight. Mandatory viewing. --Ali Davis

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Waiting to Exhale

Sales Rank:39175
List Price: $9.98
Lowest New Price: $4.40
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Color
DVD-Video
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Whitney Houston
Angela Bassett
Loretta Devine
Lela Rochon
Gregory Hines

Based on a novel by Terry McMillan, this weepy melodrama about four African American women and the men who wronged them became an instant cultural phenomenon when it was released back in 1995. It's easy to see why Exhale struck a nerve: the movie boasts an attractive cast of African American actresses and personalities, including Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, and Lela Rochon. Unfortunately, though, Exhale sags under the weight of its soapy, crisis of the week plotting and relentlessly cheery "you go, girl!" optimism. And African American men, cast here as insensitive lovers and pigheaded materialists, get the very short end of the feminist stick. Perhaps moviegoers were simply responding to the brilliant soundtrack by R&B superstar Babyface, who provided the movie's only real groove. --Ethan Brown

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Killer of Sheep: The Charles Burnett Collection

Sales Rank:22881
List Price: $39.95
Lowest New Price: $26.25
Lowest Used Price: $19.99
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Black & White
NTSC
Full Screen

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Henry Gayle Sanders
Kaycee Moore

One of the 100 Essential Films. -National Society of Film Critics

DVD Details: USA, 1977, 80 minutes, B&W, Region 0, NTSC, In English; Special Features of this 2-disc deluxe box set: KILLER OF SHEEP commentary track with Charles Burnett and the Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Richard Peña; KILLER OF SHEEP cast reunion video by Ross Lipman (who restored the film); KILLER OF SHEEP trailer; Burnett's second feature, MY BROTHER'S WEDDING (1984. Color. In English. Starring Everett Silas and Jessie Holmes): the original 115-minute cut and the director's 82-minute cut; three rediscovered short films: SEVERAL FRIENDS (1969. 23 minutes.), THE HORSE (1973. 13 minutes.), and WHEN IT RAINS (1995. 13 minutes.); the new short on Hurricane Katrina, QUIET AS KEPT (2007. 5 minutes.); and liner notes by film critic Armond White.

A masterpiece of African American filmmaking and one of the finest debuts in cinema history, KILLER OF SHEEP was chosen for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. In the Los Angeles community of Watts, Stan, a sensitive dreamer, is growing detached and numb from the toll of working at a slaughterhouse. Frustrated by money problems, he finds respite in moments of simple beauty: the warmth of a teacup against his cheek, slow dancing with his wife, holding his daughter. Combining lyrical moments with neorealist style, Burnett unfolds his story with compassion and humor. KILLER OF SHEEP's haunting images and extraordinary soundtrack are a revelation in this new high-definition transfer from the UCLA Film & Television Archive's brilliant 35mm restoration.

View the trailer here: http://www.killerofsheep.com/trailer.html.

The 2-disc special edition also includes an additional full-length feature (original release & director's cut), MY BROTHER'S WEDDING: When MY BROTHER'S WEDDING was rushed to a festival screening before the director could make his final cut, it received mixed reviews and was never released - denying audiences the chance to discover Burnett's remarkable second feature. The film critic Armond White called this 'a catastrophic blow to the development of American popular culture.' Revisited decades later, following restoration by the Pacific Film Archive and a complete re-edit by Burnett, MY BROTHER'S WEDDING proves to be funny, heartbreaking and timeless. Pierce Mundy works at his parents' South Central dry cleaners with no prospects for the future - his childhood buddies are all in prison or dead. With his best friend just getting out of jail and his brother busy planning a wedding to a snooty upper-middle-class black woman, Pierce navigates his conflicting obligations while trying to figure out what he really wants.

A treasure that demands to be unearthed in all its funny-sad tenderness. - Village Voice

Astonishing! Marvelous and rare... Humorous, loving and honest, devoid of either condescension or political posturing... An indelible reminder of what real independence looks like. - A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Never less than engrossing! As ever, it's a joy to look at and listen to: Burnett's movies are quite unlike anyone else's. - Time Out New York

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Mama Flora's Family

Sales Rank:18927
List Price: $14.98
Lowest New Price: $7.58
Lowest Used Price: $2.90
MPAA Rating: Unrated

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Cicely Tyson
Erika Alexander
Blair Underwood
Queen Latifah
Mario Van Peebles

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500 Years Later: Directors Cut

Sales Rank:29223
List Price: $16.99
Lowest New Price: $16.99
Lowest Used Price: $9.99
MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)

Format:

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Dr. Kimani Nehusi
Molefi Kete Asante
Amiri Baraka
Nelson George
Dr. Francis Cress Welsing

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Blacula

Sales Rank:21644
List Price: $14.98
Lowest New Price: $6.87
Lowest Used Price: $4.98
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Color
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

William Marshall
Vonetta McGee
Denise Nicholas
Thalmus Rasulala
Gordon Pinsent

William Marshall, a Shakespearean actor with a rich baritone voice, enriches this otherwise bland blaxploitation vampire film with his strong, seductive performance. He's Manuwalde, a European-educated 18th-century African prince who appeals to the Count Dracula for help in ending the slave trade. Dracula, never known as a great emancipator, puts the bite on Manuwalde's troubles, dubs him "Blacula" (the only time the name is uttered in the film), and imprisons him in a casket. Stirred to life, so to speak, centuries later in Los Angeles by gay antique hunters, he steps into the soulful '70s and splits his energies between feeding his bloodlust and wooing a young beauty (Vonetta McGee), a dead ringer for his long-dead wife. Thalmus Rasulala (Friday Foster) is a modern medical professor turned urban Van Helsing, and Elisha Cook Jr. has a bit part as a coroner with a hook for a hand. The potential for a clever urban black twist on the European vampire myth is lost in this dull, thoroughly conventional tale. Marshall is under enough sloppily applied facial hair to make him a wolfman, and his victims walk around with a plastic blue pallor. But despite the limitations, Marshall creates a magnetic, aristocratic character and infuses his monster with a sense of loss and sadness in the climax. It was followed by a sequel, Scream, Blacula, Scream, and inspired Blackenstein. For a more interesting and thoughtful African American take on the vampire legend, look to Ganja and Hess. --Sean Axmaker

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Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

Sales Rank:21053
List Price: $19.98
Lowest New Price: $7.88
Lowest Used Price: $7.87
MPAA Rating: X (Mature Audiences Only)

Format:

Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

John Amos
Michael Augustus
Simon Chuckster
Steve Cole
John Dullaghan

Raw, jagged, and explosively angry, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is a landmark in American independent cinema. Melvin Van Peebles directed, wrote, produced, edited, scored, and stars as Sweetback, a passive bouncer raised in a brothel. Shot guerrilla style on a starvation budget on the streets of Los Angeles, it's a violent tale of Sweetback's journey from passive acceptance to political awareness and active defiance. He becomes the target of a manhunt when he kills two cops who beat up a young black activist, and he bounces from hideout to hideout before running for the border, all the while getting more booty than Shaft and Superfly put together. The movie was so inflammatory by conservative industry standards that it was "Rated X by an All White Jury," which the ads proudly touted. The unusual mix of agitprop and exploitation is directed in a jagged style that recalls Godard and set to a funky score performed by Earth, Wind & Fire, which Van Peebles intercuts with chanting Greek chorus-like slogans. Released independently, it was a huge hit and effectively spawned the blaxploitation genre, but none of the films that followed ever recaptured the energy, the anger, and the social politics of this breakthrough in independent cinema. --Sean Axmaker

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African-American Cinema DVDs

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