Bill Nunn

Eight kidnapped women. All beautiful. All talented. All in danger of having their lives cut short if detective Alex Cross and witness Kate McTiernan can`t locate the killer.

Archie Moses (Adam Sandler) is a small time crook and thief who lives in Los Angeles, and he is working for a local drug lord Frank Colton (James Caan). He is unaware that his best friend Rock Keats (Damon Wayans) is actually an LAPD undercover cop, whose real name is Jack Carter, and who's seeking evidence against Colton, and he is trying to infiltrate Colton's gang. One night, Jack goes out with Moses and gets him drunk, and manages to get info from Moses, and he finds an address for one of Colton's fronts. During a raid on Colton's warehouse, Archie realizes that Jack is a cop, and he tries to escape the warehouse during the police raid, during which an out of control crane hits Moses in the back and he accidentally shoots Jack in the head, but he miraculously survives and makes a full recovery with the aid of his physical therapist Dr. Traci Flynn (Kristen Wilson). Moses then flees the state, and is subsequently found and arrested later on. Moses is brought into custody, and he agrees to testify against Colton, but the trial is at the other side of the country. After Jack's recovery, his superior officer Jensen (James Farentino) orders him to get Moses to transfer him personally to the courtroom. Having been bitter about the accident, Carter harbors resentment against Moses, and problems get escalated since a simple transfer has gone awry when Colton learns through bribed federal agents and Los Angeles Police Department officers of Moses's attempt to testify against Colton. Carter and Moses slowly mend their friendship and are successful in returning back to their local police department. However, Colton apparently holds Flynn hostage, and blackmails Carter into turning Moses over in order to save Flynn. Carter and Moses pretend to comply with Colton and shoot their way through Colton's guards. It is later revealed that Flynn was responsible for leaking Carter and Moses's whereabouts to Colton and was actually on Colton's payroll. Carter manages to distract Colton after Moses gets shot in the shoulder by Colton and after apprehending Flynn and Moses manages to kill Colton. Moses gives the incriminating documents on Colton to Carter, and he heads to Mexico, where he becomes a bullfighter, with Carter and Moses's mother later accompanying him.

Five different criminals face imminent death after botching a job quite badly. Jimmy the Saint's business is videotaping the terminally-ill, so that they will be around to give 'Afterlife Advice' to their survivors. He hasn't been doing too well lately and has had to turn to loan-sharks to accommodate his failing business, as well as his expensive personal tastes. When an evil gangster-overlord buys up his note and demands a favor of Jimmy, in exchange for the interest that he can't afford, Jimmy capitulates. Jimmy is to scare someone for the gangster-overlord--really rough them up. Without giving too much away (spoiler), the scene goes down badly and Jimmy and his crew all end up with contracts on their heads for their trouble. —Tad Dibbern <DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>

A crime lord ascends to power and becomes megalomaniacal while a maverick police detective vows to stop him. The gangster Nino has a gang who call themselves Cash Money Brothers. They get into the crack business and not before long they make a million dollars every week. A cop, Scotty, is after them. He tries to get into the gang by letting an ex-drug addict infiltrate the gang, but the attempt fails miserably. The only thing that remains is that Scotty himself becomes a drug pusher. —Mattias Thuresson A modern-day crime epic focusing on the efforts of two unorthodox police officers to bring down a drug gang at the height of New York City's crack cocaine epidemic of 10 years ago. The film also chronicles the rise and fall of Nino Brown, the antagonist of the film, in a light study of drug proliferation and its effects on poor neighborhoods. As numerous attempts to break the control of the gang fail and violence begins to escalate, how far will the police go to catch Nino Brown? —Emperor Palpatine In 1989, Nino Brown, a small time drug dealer, is convinced by one of his fellow thugs that the wave of the future is in the cocaine derivative, crack. Brown sees potential in crack and sets out to establish himself as chief kingpin by killing off his rivals and even going as far as to take over a whole apartment complex. Out to stop him are undercover cops Scottie Appleton and Nick Paretti. Appleton especially wants to get Nino because of the fact that he murdered Scottie's mother as part of a gang initiation. Also involved is Pookie, a former crack head who wants to bring down Nino as well. —Brian Washington <Sargebri@att.net>

Jazz trumpeter Bleek Gilliam makes questionable decisions in his professional and romantic lives. Bleek Gilliam is a talented and self-centred jazz trumpeteer, whose single-minded concentration on his music leaves many, especially the women in his life, scrambling for his attention. Bleek forms his own band The Bleek Gilliam Quartet, and a rivalry emerges with bandmate Shadow that threatens to tear apart the quartet. Opens with Bleek as a child learning to play the trumpet, his friends want him to come out and play but mother insists he finish his lessons. Bleek grows into adulthood and forms his own band - The Bleek Gilliam Quartet. The story of Bleek's and Shadow's friendly rivalry on stage which spills into their professional relationship and threatens to tear apart the quartet. —David <DGOWERS6@CHECLABA.SCU.EDU.AU>

On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence. This film looks at life in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn on a hot summer Sunday. As he does everyday, Sal Fragione opens the pizza parlor he's owned for 25 years. The neighborhood has changed considerably in the time he's been there and is now composed primarily of African-Americans and Hispanics. His son Pino hates it there and would like nothing better than to relocate the eatery to their own neighborhood. For Sal however, the restaurant represents something that is part of his life and sees it as a part of the community. What begins as a simple complaint by one of his customers, Buggin Out - who wonders why he has only pictures of famous Italian-Americans on the wall when most of his customers are black - eventually disintegrates into violence as frustration seemingly brings out the worst in everyone. —garykmcd Life over twenty-four hours during a heatwave along one small section of Stuyvesant Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn is presented. It is a historically black section, with the exception of Sal's Pizzeria, which has been located there for twenty-five years, Sal, who now operates it with his two young adult sons Pino and Vito, making the very conscious decision on location due to the overabundance of pizzerias in his own Italo-centric neighborhood, in the process doing good business. Sal's customer base has largely been the black residents of the neighborhood, he currently employing black Mookie as a delivery boy. However, the makeup of the neighborhood has slowly been changing with Latinos moving in - Mookie's girlfriend, Tina, also the mother to his son, being Latina - gentrification leading to well-off Caucasians buying properties, and a recent immigrant Korean family opening a general store across the street from the pizzeria. There has been an underlying tension between the races as each tries to stake out his or her place: competing boomboxes blaring Caribbean music from one and black music from another; Pino, in particular among those in Sal's family, not liking the business largely due to the clientele and neighborhood; and contempt by some for the seeming success of the general store operated by a visible racial exception in the neighborhood, despite that property having sat empty for years. But on this day, the seeming spark that may ignite that tension is black Buggin Out taking exception to Sal only posting the photos of ethnic Italian celebrities on the pizzeria's Wall of Fame, instead of including "brothers and sisters" to reflect the makeup of Sal's customer base. —Huggo As the dog days of summer drag on in the Bed-Stuy neighbourhood of Brooklyn, an unexpected incident is about to bring tensions to a boiling point. After all, among the businesses on the lively block, it is hard not to notice Love Daddy's storefront radio station, Sonny's convenience store, and Sal's Famous Pizzeria. And then, in just one day, the residents' once-peaceful interactions become explosive confrontations as pressing demands to give voice to the frustrations of people of colour echo through the streets. Now, there is no turning back. But when you have put everything on the line to make yourself heard, what does it take to do the right thing? —Nick Riganas Salvatore "Sal" Fragione (Danny Aiello) is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise. —maschzentertainment

A not so popular young man wants to pledge to a popular fraternity at his historically black college. In the South of the United States are taking place confrontations between two groups of students who have different ideas and are not able to accept the one of the opponent. —Volker Boehm A contemporary comedic look at black college life. Dap (Fishburne) and Big Brother Almighty (Esposito) conflict over the greek frat system while the Wanna-be's and Jigaboo's conflict over self-identity and self-esteem. —Sandra Hall