Nicole Ari Parker

Almost Christmas tells the festive story of a beloved patriarch who asks his family for one gift this holiday season: to get along. If they can honor that wish and spend five days under the same roof without killing one another, it will be a Christmas miracle.

Before he found himself standing in front of his friends' house yelling for his daughter's purple security blanket in the middle of the night, Evan Danielson was just your average financial wizard - focused, successful and driven. But when his daughter introduced him to the princesses and their queen living in her imaginary world, Evan followed her on a hilarious adventure that forced him to reexamine the value of their relationship and redefine his meaning of success. Evan and his seven-year-old daughter Olivia find it impossible to connect. He's too distracted by his career demands to understand the value of quality father-daughter time and she has all but given up on her Daddy. When the promotion of a lifetime is suddenly within his reach, Evan finds himself torn between his parental responsibilities and staving off his company... [D-Man2010] A powerful financial executive whose career was sent spiraling down the drain due to sudden lack of confidence finds the answers to his inexplicable setback in an imaginary world dreamt up by his young daughter in a fantasy comedy starring Eddie Murphy and co-scripted by Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson (the writing duo behind "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey"). [D-Man2010] Evan Danielson is a successful financial executive who has more time for his blackberry than his seven-year-old daughter. When he has a crisis of confidence and his career starts going down the drain, however, he finds the solution to all his problems in his daughter's imaginary world. [D-Man2010] Evan Danielson is a very successful corporate businessman, who had been working at the same company for eight years as the top man, that is until Johnny Whitefeather was hired as his rival. Whitefeather seems to have the whole company under some spell as he spiels his nonsensical idioms filled with Native American mumbo jumbo. These top executives seem more content with chanting Indian style noises rather than listen to how they can make money through sound investments. When Evan finally discovers that his daughter is somehow able to tell the future within the business world by using her goo-gaa (blanket) and her invisible friends Princesses Kupida and Mopida, he discovers he has an invaluable upper hand now at the office. In order for Evan to ask these imaginary friends any question he must travel through the imaginary world, through a dense forest, past a dragon, through caves, and even walk through France. Before, Evan who is a part-time father really had no time for his daughter, now is forced to play with her and by her rules. After only a couple of days with her, he rediscovers the inner child within himself and genuinely has a lot of fun playing these imaginary games with Olivia. Johnny Whitefeather and Evan are now competing for the position of heading the western division of the company D.D.E. In order to be prepared for the most important presentation of his life, Evan must once again invoke the use of the Goo-Gaa and meet up with the princesses. The only problem is that Olivia is spending the night at her friends house, and there is no way for Evan to obtain said Goo-Gaa. Also, the presentation showdown will be held on Saturday, the day of Olivias class play. Will Evan choose business over Olivia once again? Does he have a chance to compete with Whitefeather now that he doesnt have the Goo-Gaa blanket? Find out when you watch Imagine That. (scapp70 from epinions.com)

Dr. R.J. Stevens is a talk-show host who visits his family in the Deep South. While there he reunites with his brother Otis, his sister Betty, his cousin/rival Clyde, and his childhood love interest Lucinda Allen.

Jewel thief Miles Logan (Martin Lawrence) participates in a $17 million diamond heist in Los Angeles. He does this along with his crew of accomplices: his right hand and best friend Eddie (John Hawkes), his getaway driver Tulley (Dave Chappelle), and Deacon (Peter Greene), who is the newly acquired member of the group. Miles successfully steals the diamond, but Deacon turns on them, killing Eddie by shooting him off of a tall building and causing him to fall onto a police car, before attempting to take the stone from Miles. As the police arrive, Miles hides the diamond in the ducts of a building under construction (he was in the under construction building as part of their escape plan, which had a rope connected from the top of their target building to the roof of the under construction one); as Deacon flees, Miles is arrested. Upon his release from prison two years later, Miles attempts to reunite with his girlfriend Janiece (Tamala Jones). She breaks it off for Miles lying about being a criminal, which prompts him to retrieve the diamond. Finding the building where he hid the diamond is now an LAPD police station, he goes inside, discovering the diamond is hidden in the ducts of what is now the Robbery/Homicide detective bureau, which requires a key card to access. Miles returns disguised as a pizza deliveryman, steals an access card and visits his forger Uncle Lou (Richard C. Sarafian). The fake badge and transfer papers allow Miles to enter the station, posing as newly transferred police detective Malone. While trying to access the ducts, he inadvertently foils a prisoner escape (Miles was trying to get into the AC duct via the women's bathroom and the prisoner had come in to hide there) and is teamed up with newly appointed Detective Carlson (Luke Wilson). What is supposed to be a quick in and out mission to retrieve the diamond ends up turning into a prolonged endeavor as Miles gets sent out on calls. His knowledge on criminal activity and ability to foil crimes makes him quite popular among his "peers," even getting promoted to detective in charge of the Robbery/Homicide division. He and Carlson are first sent on a burglary call, where Miles quickly solves it as fraud perpetrated by the owner. The owner is a car dealer who claims that $5000 worth of rims have been stolen, but Miles correctly figures that the owner had stolen the rims for insurance claims as their value had dropped on the streets. On the ride back, they stumble upon an armed robbery being committed by Tulley at a grocery store. Miles intervenes, arresting him before he's shot, but Tulley demands $50,000 to keep quiet about who Miles really is (Miles counters with $20,000 and a single night in jail, which Tulley accepts). Miles makes another attempt to locate the diamond (he gets into the vent but finds that the diamond is not at the place where he attached it to the vent wall with a duct tape. He finds that the whole vent was flushed due to a leaking issue and Miles has to search the entire floor to finally locate the diamond inside the vent), but is interrupted by Carlson, who has discovered Miles is not who he claims to be. Convincing Carlson that he is from Internal Affairs, Miles tries to get back to searching for the diamond, but they are sent out on another call. The airport reports a theft of museum artifacts, but Malone knows correctly that this was a drug heist, and the big boys got the drugs out before it hit customs. He knows that the drugs would be in a bonded truck (with a letter B printed on it), as bonded trucks can get into bonded warehouses. Carlson calls in air support to locate the truck, and They capture a truckload of heroin. Afterwards, Miles retrieves the diamond from the AC vent in the evidence locker and finally has it, but accidentally drops it into the load of heroin they seized. The FBI demands the heroin for testing. Meanwhile Deacon tracks Miles down through Lou. A panicked Miles suggests the FBI and his cop's unit use the heroin as bait in a sting. The plan is to deliver the drugs at the destination and wait for the owner of the drugs to appear, so he can be arrested. Malone arranges to be with the heroin in the delivery truck but is soon joined by Tulley (whom he had set free from holding and he got inside the drug delivery truck without being noticed) and Deacon (who had been tracking Miles outside the station); during the drug deal, Deacon exposes Miles as a cop to the drug runners. Deacon had already taken possession of the diamond inside the truck, when Miles had gone in to retrieve the diamond from the drugs pallet. While Miles and Tulley attempt to distract them, the police and FBI raid the deal. Miles saves Carlson from being shot down. Deacon escapes with the diamond in an armored truck and the police and FBI follow as he approaches the border to Mexico. The police and FBI are forced to halt their pursuit at the border, but Miles steals a patrol car and chases Deacon. Miles forces him to wreck the truck and offers him a deal: Deacon gives Miles the diamond and allows him to arrest him in exchange for Miles taking him back to the US and cutting him back in on the diamond. He agrees, and Miles immediately double-crosses him by handcuffing him to the wrecked truck for the Federales and begins to walk back to the border. Deacon draws a gun to shoot him but Miles turns and shoots him dead, avenging the death of Eddie. Miles walks back to the border where both the FBI and police demand explanations; he tells them he is an undercover Mexican officer and has to report back to his fellow Federales. A few inches over the border, Carlson and Hardcastle (William Forsythe) stop him, revealing they know who he really is, but do not arrest him as they are grateful for all of his help and see him as a friend. They also say the FBI can't reach him over international borders, as he is a few inches over the border. After they share a bittersweet goodbye, Miles heads off to Mexico with the diamond.

An adventurous love story between two young women of different social and economic backgrounds who find themselves going through all the typical struggles of a new romance. The story of two girls, Randy and Evie. Randy is a low economic class lesbian living with other lesbians including her aunt. Evie is a wealthy, popular girl with a boyfriend. When Evie befriends Randy, she begins to feel a passion for her she's never felt before. What follows is a sweet, tender romance between the two while Evie is cast away by her friends and Randy is chided by her family. The two don't care, though, because they are in love. —Jason Ihle <jrihl@conncoll.edu>