Bernie Mac

Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe, and Gloria the Hippo are still together! This time they end up on an African adventure where Alex is reunited with his parents.

Though it's been about twenty years since they have spoken with one another, two estranged soul-singing legends agree to participate in a reunion performance at the Apollo Theater to honor their recently deceased band leader. When R&B legend Marcus Hooks dies suddenly, VH-1 invites his original back up duo, Floyd Henderson and Louis Hinds, "The Real Deal," to appear at a memorial tribute at the Apollo Theater. Floyd, who's bored in retirement, wants this more than anything; Louis, a philosophical ex-con, does not. Plus, there's bad blood between them (Louis's wife Odetta left him to marry Floyd - then left Floyd). Floyd begs, Louis consents but won't fly, so they leave L.A. in Floyd's flashy Cadillac with five days to get to New York. On the road, they must get back their vocal chops, renew their friendship, and sort out the past. With Floyd's bad hip and Louis's bad kidneys, will they even make it? —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

The determined Jim Ellis starts a swim team for troubled teens at the Philadelphia Department of Recreation.

The Angels go undercover in search of two rings that hold data on the Witness Protection Program. When witnesses start to turn up dead, only the Angels can stop the perpetrator.

Mays Gilliam (Chris Rock) is the alderman for the 9th Ward in Washington, D.C. Gilliam works a tough neighborhood with a high crime rate. The local residents trust him as he genuinely understands their problems and tries his best to help people. A local woman's home Miss Pearl is due for demolition after she was paid $40,000 for it. The woman comes back on the day of the demolition as her cat is stuck inside the house. As Gilliam tries to argue with the demolition crew, Miss Pearl goes inside the house and Gilliam learns that the demolition countdown cannot be stopped. Gilliam risks his own life to rescue Miss Pearl before the house is demolished. Gilliam learns that is likely to lose his job as the Mayor hates him. The tendency to help people costs money and it makes the Mayor look bad. So, the Mayor evicts Gilliam out of his office. Even Gilliam's lawyer Bernard Cooper (Keith David) asks Gilliam to fit in. Gilliam is also getting dumped by his girlfriend, Kim (Robin Givens). Kim leaves Gilliam as she thought he had potential, but now she believes that he is stuck in a rut. But then Gilliam is unexpectedly chosen as the Democratic Party candidate for the 2004 presidential election after his party's original presidential and vice-presidential nominees die in a plane crash, and Gilliam is being hailed as a hero by the media for saving Miss Pearl. Assuming the election was already lost to incumbent Republican vice-president Brian Lewis (Nick Searcy), the Democrats (led by Senator Bill Arnot (James Rebhorn), Debra Lassiter (Lynn Whitfield) and Martin Geller (Dylan Baker)) decided to pick a likable but unwinnable minority candidate to improve their chances in the 2008 presidential election. All the other options for the Presidential ticket had one vice or another and were too open to attack on the campaign trail. With Gilliam, Bill reckons that the minorities will be happy with the Democrats and will again vote for them in 2008. Bill intends to run for President in 2008 and offers the running mate position to Debra to get her support. Debra convinces Gilliam that Congressmen and Senators are politicians and Alderman work with the people, hence he is perfect for the role. Bill says that in every situation Gilliam cares about the little people and this would be his chance to make a difference on the biggest stage of all. Mr Earl (Jude Ciccolella) is assigned as Gilliam's security director. Nicollette "Nikki" White (Stephanie March) is assigned as the executive director of Internal Liaison. Martin explains that Nikki's main job is to sleep with Gilliam as the campaigns cannot afford sex scandals. Mays even finds time to romance Lisa Clark (Tamala Jones), a gas station attendant he crosses paths with (she works a second job as a cocktail waitress and Gilliam meets her at one of the fund-raising events), and who has been a huge supporter of Mays. Just as Gilliam hits the campaign trail, Kim returns to Gilliam and claims that they are engaged. Gilliam calls in security to remove her. At first, Gilliam feels he will not be able to succeed as president because he would be representing the entire African American populace and does not want to do anything to damage his reputation. Gilliam is given vague and similar sounding speeches to make at every public rally and his support is stuck at 10%. His brother Mitch joins the campaign trail before his rally in Chicago. Mitch is a bail bondsman. However, Gilliam begins to rise in the polls after his brother Mitch (Bernie Mac) persuades him to speak out for what he believes in. He ditches the bland, boring, and uncontroversial speeches prepared for him and begins to talk honestly about major issues such as welfare, health-care, income inequality, pension reforms, education, and society overall. He knows that most people work 2 jobs just to be broke. He coins the catch phrase "That A'int Right" for everything that he finds wrong with American society and economy. Gilliam changes the entire tone of his campaign to represent him and gives his support to niche minority groups such as gays and escorts. After Lewis runs a series of attack ads including one saying Gilliam supports cancer, Gilliam begins to fight back using what he claimed was "kissing" his opponent (taken from Bugs Bunny-Elmer Fudd cartoons). A part of this strategy includes dubbing a videotape of Osama bin Laden saying he hates America but loves Brian Lewis. This strategy gains Gilliam even more points in the polls. As Gilliam gets to 30 points in the poll, even if he loses, he will be the front-runner for 2008. Bill wants Debra to kill Gilliam's campaign, but now even she supports him and refuses to toe the line with Bill. Lewis refuses to have a debate with Gilliam. Bill gets his investigators to release news footage that show Gilliam in association with known drug peddlers and criminals. As election day draws closer, Gilliam eventually learns the reason why he was chosen as the party candidate, fires campaign operatives Martin and Debra. Martin reconciles with him afterwards and says that he really wants to help Gilliam. Martin convinces Gilliam to come back stronger in his campaign and chooses his brother as his running mate. Mitch again brings the attention back to the main campaign topics and helps erase the negativity around Gilliam. Gilliam hounds Lewis till he agrees for a debate. Gilliam reaches out to Debra to help prepare for the debate. Gilliam manages to win the crowd over by speaking truth about American life. He talks about educating the kids by disciplining them, as much as needed. He suggests putting guns laws on video to educate the people about them. Gilliam talks about paying farmers not to grow food, while millions go hungry, about heroine being cheaper than AIDS medicine, and about spending billions overseas without any impact. Gilliam argues that the country was built by people who were doing things for the first time. Finally, Gilliam ends up winning the presidency, and proposes to Lisa by saying he wants to make her his First Lady.

In the beginning of the movie, Willie is shown in a alcohol bar discussing how bad his life is. He goes outside of the bar in the snow and vomits. Willie and his employee Marcus are hired at a mall in Phoenix, Arizona and Willie's vulgar remarks shock the prudish mall manager Bob Chipeska who brings Willie to the attention of security chief Gin Slagel. At a bar, Willie initiates a passionate love affair by charming bartender Sue, who has a Santa fetish. During his shift as Santa, Willie is visited by Thurman, an exceedingly naive, overweight boy, who believes Willie is actually Santa and is the target of taunts from a skateboarding gang. When Willie is in the parking lot, he is attacked by a man (Ajay Naidu) who watched him in the bar insisting he is not gay; Thurman believing Santa needs his assistance intervenes, and the man not wanting to expose the kid to adult matters, leaves. Willie gives Thurman a ride home, answering Thurman's endless questions, and walks into the boy's affluent house living with just his very senile grandmother. Thurman reveals that his mother passed away, and his father is away "exploring mountains" (when he is actually in jail for embezzlement). As Thurman has no suspicion that Willie is not Santa, makes no resistance when Willie breaks into the house safe and takes his father's BMW. When Bob overhears Willie having anal sex with a woman in a mall dressing room, informing Gin sets him investigating. When Willie goes to his motel room and sees someone ransacking his room, he inquires a by-standing prostitute as to who is in his room and she suggests a cop. Willie then takes advantage of Thurman's naivety and takes residence in his house enduring Thurman's relentless barrage of questions and breaking down in verbal abuse to a never offended Thurman. Marcus berates Willie for taking advantage of a kid, and states his disapproval of Willie's "serial fornicating" and endless drinking. Thurman visits Willie during his shift as Santa after receiving a wedgie from his bullies and changes his request of a pink stuffed elephant, not a purple one. After seeing Thurman hurt himself by accidentally cutting his hand, Willie grows fonder towards him, showing him how to defend himself against bullies. Later, while Willie gives Thurman a letter, telling him to give it to the police to explain what will really happen on Christmas Eve at the mall, he notices Thurman has a black eye from the kids who bully him. As a result, Willie attacks the bullies to get them to leave Thurman alone. Whilst Willie and Sue are fooling around, Thurman interrupts in order to give Willie his present a wooden pickle he made himself. Gin's investigation of Willie includes visiting Thurman's imprisoned father. Gin reveals his figuring out of the con scheme to the two with blackmailing them for a half cut to keep silence. When Willie is home with Thurman, Marcus and his wife Lois murder Gin as a way of keeping all the money for themselves. After hearing Thurman sadly insult himself, Willie sternly tells him that he's not really Santa Claus, and that Santa does not exist. Thurman reveals that he's always known there is no Santa but thought that Willie would like to give him a present anyway because they were friends. On Christmas Eve, Willie, Marcus and Lois break into the mall as planned. It takes Willie longer than usual to crack open the safe; Marcus notices this and after successfully opening it, Marcus reveals to Willie that he has become too unreliable and was planning on killing him. Before Marcus can take his shot, a police squad appears and starts shooting at all three of them. Willie makes an escape with a pink stuffed elephant as Thurman's Christmas present. He escapes and frantically drives back to Thurman's house with a convoy of police in hot pursuit. However, before he can make it to the front door, the police shoot him. The epilogue is told through a letter that Willie sent to Thurman. It explains how he's going to be out of hospital soon, and will work as a police sensitivity counselor as Thurman gave the police the letter, which proved Willie's innocence. Marcus and Lois are arrested while Sue is granted guardianship over Thurman and his house. The one bully with the blonde hair shows up and tries to bully Thurman but Thurman kicks the bully in the balls and whips him the middle finger and gets on his bike and pedals away, on the back of his shirt, it reads 'shit happens when you party naked'. The credits roll.

Less than 24 hours after being paroled, Danny Ocean handpicks a team to pocket $150 million in one night! The mark: the man who controls the three biggest casinos in Las Vegas!

Kevin Caffrey, a thief and connoisseur is at a local auction looking for things worth stealing. He meets Amber Belhaven who is auctioning off her father's painting to pay a hotel bill. When Kevin asks Amber about her hotel room which leads to Amber asking if he was trying to sleep with her, Kevin blinks rapidly and lies while also telling her that when he blinks he lies. When Kevin asks Amber if he could see her sometime Amber pretends to have the same thing Kevin has and says yes. While knowing what hotel she was staying in, he shows up to her room with the painting she auctioned off, having stolen it. Kevin tells Amber about his stealing business which shocks Amber at first but she accepts it in order to be with Kevin, and she later gives Kevin her father's lucky ring. Elsewhere, Max Fairbanks, a snarky businessman whose company, TUI, is going into bankruptcy, is going over with his lawyer Walter Greenbaum on how to save his company. Walter is exhausted as Max does not take the proceeding seriously and still spends freely even asking to declare bankruptcy immediately without trying to budget so his assets are protected. He tells his wife Lutetia Fairbanks that his company is in a technical procedure to disguise what his company is really going into. Kevin goes to a local bar which his Uncle Jack owns to see Amber. Whilst inside he also runs into his friend Berger, who is also a thief and happens to know what places to hit. While having Kevin going outside to tell him about Max Fairbanks, he shows him an article about Max's current situation with his company, as well as what he couldn't access due to the critical condition of the chapter 11 bankruptcy code which includes going into his beachfront mansion. Kevin and Berger go to the house to rob it, but Max captures Kevin. Before the police take Kevin away, Max spots Amber's ring and tells the police that the ring was also stolen. Kevin is forced to hand over the ring. After escaping from the police, Kevin returns to the beach house to get his ring back from Max, but fails to find him. Angry at Max, Kevin finishes off what he started by robbing Max of the valuables inside the house and one of Max's three cars outside. Kevin tells Amber that the ring was stolen from him. The next day an exasperated Walter informs Max he was banned from his summer house, and his being there breached the terms of his bankruptcy. Max flippantly says he'll be fine as the ring is his lucky charm. Meanwhile, Kevin and Berger hire Shelly Nix, a computer hacker, to track Max's whereabouts by hacking into his e-mail. During an airplane flight, Max talks to his associate Gloria, a psychic, about the ring. Gloria consults her cards, and draws a king with five daggers on his head. Shocked at the result, Gloria doesn't tell Max what she drew and pretends that her phone connection is breaking up. Max meets a judge that he thought he paid off to keep his house, but his insults lead to the judge ordering him to sell his house and his contents at a public auction. Upon knowing Max's plan to go to a cocktail party and then head to his beach house for one final visit, Kevin and Berger, with the help of their partners Windham and Edwina, rob another one of Max's houses. The next morning Max finds out that his house has been robbed and meets with Detective Alex Tardio of the Robbery Division. Having enough of Kevin stealing from him, he calls his head of security, Earl Redburn. Kevin finds out from Shelly that Max is going to Washington, D.C., for a Senate hearing and has an apartment there. Kevin and Berger go to Washington to try and rob Max's apartment. There, Kevin learns that Max intends to secretly bribe the senators, and replaces the bribe money with insulting notes in Max's name. Max and Earl later storm into the apartment, having deduced Kevin's presence there. In the ensuing scuffle, Kevin tries to steal back the ring, but instead steals Max's wedding ring. Afterwards, Amber decides that Kevin's feud with Max has gone too far and that she no longer cares about the ring. While Max later addresses the Senate Committee he gets a call from Kevin who tells him that if Max will give him his ring back he will give him back his. Max refuses and proceeds to repeatedly curse at Kevin. To the senators, and other viewers, it appears he is speaking to them, with the result being that the hearing ends very badly for Max. While going back to his apartment in Philadelphia, Walter quits as his lawyer and Earl tells him that he was hacked; Max tells Earl his plan to get Kevin once and for all. Kevin goes to Jack to find out where Amber is; Jack tells Kevin to stop robbing Max out of personal conflict and to forget about the ring. But when Berger tells Kevin about Max's bankruptcy auction and for how much his auction full of valuables is worth, Jack wants in on it too. Max gets a call from Lutetia about Max's behavior on TV, and tells him not to come home, while Amber breaks up with Kevin due to his obsession with Max and the ring. Lutetia finds Amber at Jack's bar wearing a jacket of hers that Kevin stole from their house and confronts her, Amber tells her that Max stole the ring she gave to Kevin. Knowing that they are both in the same situation, they come up with a plan. Gloria, thinking about Max, still draws the same card and decides to come clean. Noticing how bad it is, she tells him to put an end to it, but Max still refuses to give up Kevin's ring. Realizing Max's arrogant determination to keep the ring, she quits being his associate, and goes to Tardio to give him Max's company records. At the bankruptcy auction, Lutetia tells Max that she wishes him well and sends him a masseuse. While Earl keeps looking out for Kevin through his monitors, Berger, Jack, Windham, and Edwina set their scheme in motion. Edwina and Windham are disguised as waiters, with the real waiters bound and gagged in their truck. Berger is disguised as the auctioneer, while Jack is his associate, having tied up and gagged the original auctioneer. Shelly hacks into Max's security system. The crooks steal as much as they can, and later flee. Windham plants smoke bombs to obscure their escape and calls the fire brigade. At 2:00 Shelly plants a video of Kevin delivering a message to Max that he was being robbed without him being there on Earl's monitors. Angry and enraged, Max goes out into the smoke to find Kevin, but a firefighter, actually Kevin in disguise, drags him out of the smoke, stealing the ring in the process. Kevin steals Max's boat to escape, but Max jumps onto the boat and struggles with Kevin to get back the ring. While hitting a buoy, causing the boat to sink, Kevin and Max find out that the ring is a fake, the ring having an inscription inside it that said: "Grow up." a message that they both got from their lovers. Max realizes that Lutetia had induced the masseuse to steal the ring during his massage. When Tardio finds Max and Kevin, Kevin tells Tardio that he was saving Max, while Max corroborates his story, telling Tardio that he had never met Kevin. Kevin thanks Max and tells him that he owes him one. While going back to the hotel where Amber used to be before she moved in with Kevin, she shows him the ring, revealing that she was the masseuse. She tells Kevin that the ring had bad luck and that he should throw it away. Kevin agrees and flings the ring out of sight and gets back together with Amber. Kevin, pretending to be Max's lawyer, fixes the Senate hearing and goes into the press conference victorious. When it is over Max and Kevin part ways, but as they do so, Kevin steals one of Max's watches.

A concert film featuring four major African American stand up comedians. February 26 and 27, 2000, the Original Kings of Comedy play Charlotte, NC. The themes are Blacks and Whites, men and women, old-school and hip-hop. Steve Harvey emcees, celebrates '70s music and lyrics of love, and pokes at folks in the front row. D.L. Hughley mines racial differences and talks about his marriage. Cedric the Entertainer riffs on a Black president and on being grown up. Bernie Mac, who says he expresses what's in the back of our minds, closes with reflections on being 42 (new aspects to his sex life and his attitude toward children). Spike Lee's camera takes us backstage and off-stage with the Kings and into the crowd where everyone's laughing. —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

In 1932, two strangers are wrongfully convicted and develop a strong friendship in prison that lasts them through the 20th century. In the mid-1990s, two inmates bury the burned bodies of two lifers at Mississippi's infamous Parchman Farm as a third old-timer relates their story. They'd served 65 years for a murder they didn't commit, framed by a local sheriff while buying moonshine whiskey for a Manhattan club owner to whom they owed money. Flashbacks depict how this odd couple was thrown together (Ray is a fast-talking con man, and Claude is a serious man about to start work as a bank teller), the loss of Ray's watch (sterling silver, from his daddy), the murder and trial, the hardships of Parchman, and the love/hate relationship of Claude and Ray as they spend 65 years bickering and looking for a way to escape. —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Leon in this film plays basketball by himself with no ball