Malinda Williams

Two bungling, petty criminal BFFs try to rob a church, but someone from staff beat them to it. They spend the night with the church staff to get the money. Durell Washington and LeeJohn Jackson are best friends and bumbling petty criminals. When Durell learns that his ex-girlfriend plans to move to another state with their son Durell Jr.--unless they can get her $17,000 to pay off a debt--Durell and LeeJohn ultimately come up with a desperate scheme to rob their neighborhood church. When the duo fumbles their way through the break-in, they discover someone has beaten them to the punch. In order to get their hands on the money, Durell and LeeJohn are forced to spend the night in the presence of the Lord and his followers, including Ricky, the eccentric choir director --and end up getting a lot more than they bargained for. —Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}

A mechanic and his family are struggling to make ends meet with his ex-girlfriend and her drug dealing boyfriend He struggles to get custody of his children during the way he falls inlove with his attorney. A mechanic (Idris Elba) enlists the help of a successful but lonely attorney (Gabrielle Union) while trying to win custody of his three daughters from his treacherous ex-wife and her larcenous boyfriend. Along the way, the working relationship between the blue-collar dad and his uptown attorney grows into something more. This is a simple, touching story of two people trying to overcome their different backgrounds to find love, a down-on-his-luck man struggling to protect his children from abuse and neglect, and a community looking to purge itself from the criminals terrorizing their neighborhood. —edhuds0n Monty is a mechanic who wants to buy the garage where he works. He also has three daughters who live with their grandmother. But when she gets sick, she tells Monty that he needs to take them, because who knows what will happen to them if they end up with their mother, who is now with a known drug dealer? But Monty lacks the resources to fight her. Monty gets a job driving a lady lawyer around and asks her to help him get his daughters. At the same time they grow closer. —rcs0411@yahoo.com A rich, lonely lawyer meets a blue-collar single dad who has a mysterious past. They develop a relationship while trying to get his three daughters away from their mother, who is now dating a known drug dealer. The relationship hits a snag when his past secret is exposed. As he continues to try to gain custody of his three girls from his bitter ex-wife, he learns what taking a stand means. In the process, the truth is revealed, and love saves the day. —Sassyjdk A hardworking mechanic (Idris Elba) falls in love with his attorney (Gabrielle Union), who does everything in her power to help him fight for custody of his three beautiful daughters, knowing that he needs to get them away from their mother, who is a local hoodlum who does drugs with her abusive new boyfriend.

At a sexy, sizzling nightclub, pianist Percival lives life by the rules, while Rooster, the club's flashy lead performer, struts his stuff on the stage. But all changes when greed, fame and murder threaten to destroy them and the joint. A musical set in the Prohibition-era American South, where a speakeasy performer and club manager Rooster must contend with gangsters who have their eyes on the club while his piano player and partner Percival must choose between his love, Angel or his obligations to his father. —CCC

While dealing with a friend's cold feet on his wedding day, a writer reminisces about his youth with his best friends. On the wedding day of a writer's friend, things aren't looking good when the groom goes missing before the ceremony. During his and his other male friend's effort to retrieve him, that writer named Mike can't help but tell the story of his youth with his friends. Ever since he met them on his first day at a new school, they shared the common experiences of growing up and life's discoveries. —Kenneth Chisholm <kchishol@execulink.com> Inglewood, an L.A. burb, is the Wood, home to a largely Black middle class, where Mike, Slim, and Roland have been best friends since junior high. It's three hours before Roland is to marry, and he has very cold feet. Mike and Slim must sober him up and help him decide if he wants to go through with the wedding. In flashbacks, they recall key moments of their friendship, the rites of passage of boys to men. Mike is the principal narrator, arriving in the Wood from North Carolina, nervous and shy. In addition to male friendship and wedding-day jitters, the story explores Mike's long-term connection to Alicia, his lovely and together first sweetheart. —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Richard Clark has just left the well-known Wellington Academy to teach at Marion Barry High School. Now, he will try to inspire the D-average students into making good grades and try to woo a fellow teacher.