ABCD (VHS)
ABCD (American Born Confused Desi) focuses on a maturing Indian-American mother and her two twentysomething children who all live in New York City. Years ago, Anju (Madhur Jaffrey) chose to immigrate from India to American to raise her children in America. While she struggles to maintain her Indian cultural heritage and teach her children Hindu values, it is inevitable that her kids choose their own paths. Her beautiful daughter, Nina (Sheetal Sheth), is a cold, sexy, promiscuous, argumentative princess who rolls her eyes at almost everything, including the Indian traditions her mother holds dear. The thought of arranged marriage repulses her, she openly curses Krishna and Kahina, and she rebuffs the palm reader that her mother invites to dinner. Anju`s son, Raj (Faran Tahir), appears to embrace his Indian heritage and agrees to get engaged in an arranged marriage to a beautiful Indian woman. However, when Raj`s white business partner gets the promotion that Raj deserved, and a white woman at work starts flirting with him, he considers breaking his vows and abandoning his faith in Indian traditions. A starkly straightforward film, ABCD sheds light on complex issues surrounding family, work, and marriage.NR"
Director: Krutin Patel
ACTORS: Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening, Michael Gambon, Abraham Benrubi
Without Evidence (DVD)
Based on the true story of Michael Franke, the murdered Head of Corrections for the state of Oregon, WITHOUT LIMITS is a truly unsettling conspiracy film with a pre-GIA supporting performance from Jolie. Just before his murder outside a Pacific Northwest office building, Franke visits his brother and informs him of a drug ring involving his prison colleagues. When Michael is killed, his brother begins his own investigation into the murder, only to be caught in a web of lies.NR"
Director: Gill Dennis
ACTORS: Scott Plank, Anna Gunn, Andrew Prine, Angelina Jolie, Paul Perri
Angels` Wild Women (DVD)
When the Angels, a group of bikers, are away, their women have some fun on their own. A group of four tough women beat up a rapist farmer before falling into the clutches of a mysterious cult, loosely patterned after the Manson gang. Meanwhile their men get in fights and drink. Sexy, rowdy fun from the director of SATAN`S SADISTS.R"
Director: Al Adamson
ACTORS: Regina Carrol, Ross Hagen, Maggie Bembry, Kent Taylor, Vicki Volante
Shaft (DVD) Sensormatic Samuel L. Jackson stars as detective John Shaft, a new-generation black private dick who`s a sex machine with all the chicks in this stylish, action-packed update of the classic blaxploitation trilogy (SHAFT, SHAFT`S BIG ...
Samuel L. Jackson stars as detective John Shaft, a new-generation black private dick who`s a sex machine with all the chicks in this stylish, action-packed update of the classic blaxploitation trilogy (SHAFT, SHAFT`S BIG SCORE!, and SHAFT IN AFRICA) from the early 1970s. Shaft`s nemesis this time around is Walter Wade Jr. (Christian Bale), a cocky, blue-blooded white kid who commits a violent hate crime but still manages to skirt the system. When Wade forms an unholy alliance with powerful Dominican drug lord Peoples Hernandez (Jeffrey Wright) along with two dirty cops from Shaft`s own precinct, Shaft turns in his badge to dispense justice on his own terms. Luckily for him, the original Shaft (Richard Roundtree, who is this Shaft`s uncle) is around to help out, along with Vanessa Williams as a trustworthy cop, Toni Colette as an eyewitness to Wade`s crime, and rapper Busta Rhymes as Shaft`s man-on-the-street Rasaan. Director John Singleton (BOYZ N THE HOOD, HIGHER LEARNING) appears in a brief cameo, as does original SHAFT director Gordon Parks; the only creator missing is Ernest Tidyman, who wrote the novel that started it all. And SHAFT fans, take comfort--Isaac Hayes`s remake of his classic theme is as funky as ever.
R"
Director: John Singleton
ACTORS: Samuel L. Jackson, Christian Bale, Vanessa L. Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Busta Rhymes
