Release Date: 8/29/19; Netflix Genre: Romance Rating:TV-PG Director: Roger Kumble Studio(s):Netflix. Cast:Christina Milian, Adam Demos, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Anna Jullienne, Claire Chitham, Blair Strang, Jonathan Martin, William Walker, Daniel Watterson, and Simone Walker.
Story: Gabriela Diaz’s (Christina Milian) San Francisco design firm folds the week of her break-up. Inspired by a potent concoction of wine and Wi-Fi, she successfully enters a contest to “Win an Inn” overlooking New Zealand’s countryside. Thousands of airline miles later, she discovers The Bellbird Valley Farm boasts a crumbling facade, floorboard-treading goat, and meddling neighbor who covets the space. Eager to renovate and sell the property fast, she partners with Jake Taylor (Adam Demos), the Kiwi contractor and volunteer firefighter observing much of her city-girl culture shock. Once the final fixtures are hung, she’s hesitant to leave him, the inn, and the inviting community that nurtured her creative side.Source(s): The Playlist; Netflix.
Story:A young freelance photographer in Houston meets a beautiful determined teacher from Atlanta. His best friend tries to warn him about her. There is something a little strange about Claudia. Q loves her dearly but she may not be The Perfect Wife. Source: Maverick Entertainment.
Release Date:8/20/19; DVD Genre:Drama Rating:NR Director: Nakia T. Hamilton Studio(s):Luv Life Entertainment, Maverick Entertainment Running Time: 73 mins. Cast: Nelson J. Davis, Jenique Bennett, Kevin Stone, Lily Nicole.
Story:A young man named Lit loves money more than his life, friends and God! He is put to the test when he finds some money from a robbery. The ones that stole the money are in jail. Lit doesn’t know they sent their friends to find the cash. How far will he go to Secure The Bag? Source: Maverick Entertainment.
Release Date: (1976) Genre: Action/Comedy Rating: R Director: Cliff Roquemore Studio(s): Comedian International, Xenon Entertainment Group, Dimension Pictures, Vinegar Syndrome. Running Time: 98 mins. Cast: Rudy Ray Moore (Dolemite), Lady Reed (Queen Bee), Jimmy Lynch (Mr. Motion), Gloria Delaney (Hurricane Annie), J.B. Baron (Sheriff Beatty), Jerry Jones (Detective ‘Pistol Pete’ Blakeley), Herb Graham (Cavaletti), Ernie Hudson (Bo).
Story: Dolemite (Rudy Ray Moore) is back and badder than ever in THE HUMAN TORNADO! After being run out of town by a racist sheriff, Dolemite returns to LA only to discover that Queen Bee’s (Lady Reed) club has been taken over by the mafia. On top of that they have also kidnapped two of Queen Bee’s top girls! With the law hot on his tail, Dolemite rounds up the toughest Kung-Fu fighting badasses in Southern California to take on the mob, culminating in one of the craziest surprise endings in blaxploitation film history! Source: Daarac.org.
Full Synopsis:In Citronell, Alabama, Dolemite performs his comedy routine to a rapt audience while a scantily-clad woman performs a provocative dance. Later, Dolemite drives to his hilltop mansion, where a party is in progress.
He leads Mrs. Bently into the bedroom and tells her that he will be with her later. In the living room, a man delivers the bad news that plans to build a home for boys have been abandoned. Dolemite offers his own home to the cause and receives an enthusiastic round of applause. Dolemite returns to the bedroom and tells Mrs. Bently that he needs to “get this shit over with.” She replies, “Dolemite, you’re worth every damn cent I pay you.”
Sheriff Bently and his deputies raid the party. Party guests Bo, Jimmy and Dough see the police car from the patio and run inside to tell the others, but none are able to escape, and Bently holds the group at gunpoint. When Bently and Deputy Charlie attack a young woman, she falls into the doorway of the bedroom, where Dolemite is with Mrs. Bently. On the sheriff’s order, Charlie kills Mrs. Bently, but Dolemite shoots Charlie, escapes through a back door, and tumbles down the hill to the road, where Bo, Jimmy and Dough are waiting in a car. Bently and Deputy Jethro give chase. After killing Jethro and destroying Bo’s car in a fiery wreck, Dolemite and his comrades travel on foot. Jimmy flags down an openly gay white man, and when Dolemite, shotgun in hand, demands a ride to California, the driver cheerfully obliges.
Along the way, Dolemite phones Queen Bee, who runs a successful nightclub in Los Angeles. She entices Dolemite with the news that dancer Hurricane Annie is pining for him. Meanwhile Mafioso and rival club owner Joe Cavaletti plans to eliminate Queen Bee, and sends three armed henchmen to her club. Master of ceremonies, Mr. Motion, and star attraction, Java, try to fend them off. The men beat Queen Bee and kidnap Java and a waitress named T.C. Cavaletti forces Queen Bee and her girls to work at his nightclub, the Twenty Grand while Java and T.C. are taken to Cavaletti’s torture house, where an insane old woman torments them with a live snake. Dolemite and his comrades discover that Queen Bee’s home and nightclub are both empty. After searching several nightspots, the group locates Hurricane Annie, who suspects that Queen Bee and her girls are Cavaletti’s prisoners.
They find Queen Bee waiting tables at the Twenty Grand, but she can divulge very little as she is being watched. Dolemite goes home with Hurricane Annie, who teases him about his recent weight gain. They remove their clothes and do exercises on the bed, which leads to sex. The next day, Sheriff Bently appears at the office of Police Captain Ryan, demanding the arrest of Dolemite for the murder of Mrs. Bently. Ryan assigns his Detective Pete Blakeley to the case.
Later, Dolemite learns that Mrs. Cavaletti is a nymphomaniac, and poses as a dealer of erotic paintings as a means to seduce her. After their lovemaking causes the bedroom to collapse around them, Mrs. Cavaletti divulges the location of the torture house. Queen Bee and her girls are staffing Cavaletti birthday party that night and they, along with Mr. Motion, Dolemite’s friends, and karate champion Howard Jackson, plan an attack. Meanwhile, Dolemite fights his way into the torture house. In the basement, a sadistic henchman puts a live grenade between T.C.’s legs, while a rack of spikes is about to fall on Java. Dolemite appears, breaks the henchman’s neck, and frees them.
At the party, Mr. Motion and Bo pose as caterers and sneak their comrades into the house. The forces of Dolemite and Queen Bee soon triumph over those of Cavaletti. Blakeley, Ryan and Bently arrive and find Cavaletti being eaten alive by rats, while Dolemite drives away. Bently gives chase, shoots Dolemite in the back and says, “Your career is over, stud,” before leaving. Dolemite sits up, opens his jacket, and reveals a bulletproof vest. Source: American Film Institute. Photo Source(s)/Gifs: Daarac.org, IMDB.
Release Date:1975 Genre: Drama Rating: R Director: D’Urville Martin Studio(s):Comedian International, Dimension Pictures, Vinegar Syndrome, Xenon Entertainment Group. Running Time:91 mins.
Cast:Rudy Ray Moore (Dolemite), D’Urville Martin (Willie Green), Jerry Jones (Blakeley), Lady Reed (Queen Bee) and the Dolemite girls: Brenda DeLong, Terri Mosley, Marilyn Shaw, Lynell Smith, Vera Howard, Joy Martin.
Story: Dolemite (Rudy Ray Moore), the baddest pimp in town, has just been released from prison, ready to take revenge on notorious gangster Willie Green (D’Urville Martin), who set him up on a phony drug charge and stole his club, The Total Experience. With the help of his friend Queen Bee (Lady Reed) and their band of Kung Fu fighting vixens, Dolemite takes on every “rat soup eatin’ motherf#%*er” in South Central. Source: TCM.
Full Synopsis: After serving a portion of his twenty-year prison sentence for possession of stolen furs and narcotics, Dolemite, an African American pimp, is offered the chance to exonerate himself if he cooperates with the prison warden in an undercover investigation. Dolemite is adamant that he was framed and deserves to be released from prison, so he agrees to help the warden, who says the crime rate in Dolemite’s neighborhood has spiked in his absence, and Dolemite’s nephew, Little Jimmy, was recently killed by gang members. The next day, three of Dolemite’s prostitutes pick him up from prison. When one of the women notices a group of thugs tailing their car, Dolemite orders the car to be pulled over and retrieves his gun. As the men pull up beside their car, Dolemite emerges from the roadside and shoots the pursuers dead.
At his brothel, Dolemite learns from the madame, Queen Bee, that Willie Green took possession of Dolemite’s nightclub, The Total Experience, as collateral for money he lent to Queen Bee for police fines. Still owing Green $50,000, Queen Bee says the prostitutes have been forced to learn karate to protect themselves. After Dolemite has sex with one of the women, he drives into town, where he is approached by Mitchell, a plainclothes policeman, and his partner. Dolemite recognizes the pair as the officers who framed and arrested him. The officers frisk Dolemite and produce a bag of white powder, claiming it was under his passenger seat. Dolemite accuses the men of framing him once again and kicks them to the ground as they warn him to leave town.
Later, Dolemite runs into Creeper, a drug addict, whom he addresses as the “Hamburger Pimp.” Creeper complains that Green has raised the price of street drugs, so Dolemite offers to pay Creeper in exchange for information. They go to the flophouse where Creeper has a room. Creeper admits that he witnessed Little Jimmy’s murder, but when Dolemite demands to know who killed his nephew, two thugs burst in. One of the men shoots Creeper dead, but Dolemite steals the killer’s gun and beats the intruders just before Mitchell and his partner arrive. Seeing Dolemite in the middle of the crime scene, they arrest him for murder. Dolemite is bailed out of jail and picked up by a woman named Pinky, who takes him to her house where they engage in sex. Dolemite retrieves $50,000 in cash that he hid before going to prison, which he hands to Green’s henchmen, telling them to pass it along to Green with instructions to leave town in the next twenty-four hours.
Green alerts Mayor Daley, that Dolemite is causing trouble, and Daley promises to have him killed. At the re-opening of the Total Experience, Green says Dolemite still owes him $100,000 in interest, but offers to waive the interest in exchange for a partnership. When Dolemite refuses, Green instructs his thugs to tear up the club and goes after Dolemite. Using their karate skills, Dolemite’s prostitutes fight Green’s men as Blakely, an FBI officer, arrives and joins the fray. Green shoots Dolemite in his dressing room, and Dolemite punches him in retaliation, then rips out his entrails. Blakely finds Dolemite injured, then shoots Green in order to take the blame for his death. Dolemite is taken to the hospital, where Mayor Daley sends a hired killer to murder him.
Traveling to an airplane hangar, Blakely shoots Daley as he attempts to climb into a small airplane. Arriving at the hospital, Blakely tells Dolemite that assassins are on their way, but he has a plan to protect him. When the assassins arrive, the receptionist provides the wrong room number, and Dolemite and Blakely ambush the men as they shoot at an empty hospital bed. Believing Dolemite is alone, Mitchell and his partner arrive and begin to arrest him, but Blakely appears and accuses them of corruption. More police arrive, but, at Blakely’s behest, they arrest Mitchell and his partner instead of Dolemite. Source: American Film Institute. Photo Source: DAARAC.org. Gif: Giphy.com.
Release Date:September 2019 – Toronto International Film Festival; 10/4/19 – Netflix Genre:Biography Rating: R Director:Craig Brewer Studio(s): Netflix Running Time:118 mins.
Cast: Eddie Murphy (Rudy Ray Moore), Wesley Snipes (D’Urville Martin), Keegan-Michael Key (Jerry Jones), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nick), Chris Rock, Craig Robinson (Ben Taylor), Tituss Burgess (Theodore Toney), Mike Epps (Jimmy Lynch), Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Snoop Dogg.
Details: In Dolemite Is My Name, Murphy plays the comedian and singer Rudy Ray Moore, who was inspired to branch out and develop an alter-ego he could use on stage, a foul-mouthed pimp named Dolemite. When the character’s direction couldn’t take off on stage or in a comedy album, he took Dolemite to the screen and made a series of Blaxploitation movies starring his alternate persona.
“Dolemite is my name and f—in up motherf—ers is my game,” Murphy says while donning a garish suit and a afro wig. The Dolemite character ended up appearing in three films, Dolemite from 1975, followed by The Human Tornado and The Return of Dolemite. But this new biography specifically follows the rise of Moore as he struggled to bring the Dolemite character to the screen and make something that black audiences specifically could get behind. Source: The Wrap. Photo Source: IMDB.
Release Date: 8/29/19; Netflix
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He leads Mrs. Bently into the bedroom and tells her that he will be with her later. In the living room, a man delivers the bad news that plans to build a home for boys have been abandoned. Dolemite offers his own home to the cause and receives an enthusiastic round of applause. Dolemite returns to the bedroom and tells Mrs. Bently that he needs to “get this shit over with.” She replies, “Dolemite, you’re worth every damn cent I pay you.”
Jimmy flags down an openly gay white man, and when Dolemite, shotgun in hand, demands a ride to California, the driver cheerfully obliges.
Dolemite and his comrades discover that Queen Bee’s home and nightclub are both empty. After searching several nightspots, the group locates Hurricane Annie, who suspects that Queen Bee and her girls are Cavaletti’s prisoners.
Queen Bee and her girls are staffing Cavaletti birthday party that night and they, along with Mr. Motion, Dolemite’s friends, and karate champion Howard Jackson, plan an attack. Meanwhile, Dolemite fights his way into the torture house. In the basement, a sadistic henchman puts a live grenade between T.C.’s legs, while a rack of spikes is about to fall on Java. Dolemite appears, breaks the henchman’s neck, and frees them.
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Black Cinema Connection 