Julien, Max

The Mack (New Line Platinum Series)

The Mack, a 1973 pimping epic, is at once a laughable, schlock classic and a harbinger of more serious black-themed films to come. Starring the now-forgotten Max Julien as Goldie, the preening ex-con whose dream is to rule the streets with a fine Cadillac and a fleet of topnotch hookers, this film is full of whip-crack, mostly improvised dialogue and hilarious stereotypes (the evil white cops, a wisdom-spouting blind man, and more trash-talkin' pimps than you could shake a walking stick at).

Not only is the film one you can chuckle at in the postmodern, ironic mode, it is also a window on the world of today's rap superstars, many of whom have sampled, invoked, or quoted lines from this gaudy paean to pandering. In other words, The Mack is a kind of godfather to a future stark frankness about life on the streets. But forget the sociological hooey and dig into the piece as an urban costume picture with a greasy/funky score by R&B genius Willie Hutch.

Also, it features an amazing supporting turn by Richard Pryor, who, playing Tonto to Julien's Lone Ranger, unleashes torrents of nearly incomprehensible verbiage in the film's finest moments. Mind you, such brilliance is a direct comedy-organ transplant from Pryor's stand-up act: he was performing his "Pimp on Blow" routine at about the same time The Mack was filmed. Seventy percent of this piece is dross, but the other 30 is the apex of urban surrealism. One vignette to tantalize: Goldie hypnotizing his "ladies" into docile submission as they sit in a planetarium, mechanically repeating his words: "I will remain a lady at all times..." --David Was

It takes a street fighter to clean up the streets. It takes The Mack and his pack to do it right! Packed with raw power The Mack takes an uncompromising look at big city street life and survival. Don't miss the action because the action never stops! Year: 1973Running Time: 110 min.System Requirements: Running Time 110 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 794043556623

American Pimp

There's a fascinating film to be made about the pimp culture and the myth of the outlaw sexual entrepreneur. American Pimp, a slick and entertaining but rather timid documentary by filmmaking brother act Allen and Albert Hughes (Menace 2 Society, Dead Presidents) isn't quite it, but it's a captivating document nonetheless. Flashy, garrulous real-life characters with names like Charm, Rosebudd, Too $hort, C-Note, and the "internationally known" Bishop Don Magic Juan take over their interviews with silver-tongued charm, spinning self-aggrandizing, often contradictory stories of life in the trade. The Hughes never challenge those contradictions and give only token representation to the women in the life (who have either bought into the myth or are too cowed to say differently). Apart from a few unguarded statements by less cagey subjects, the film avoids the seedy flip side to the so-called benevolent relationship between pimp and "ho." More to the Hughes' point is the fluid relationship between media image (as celebrated in such blaxploitation classics such as The Mack and Willie Dynamite) and street image. Simultaneously embracing and decrying their outlaw status, these pimps transform themselves into peacocklike fashion statements inspired by the very images they find so denigrating. They are undeniably dynamic characters playing out a bizarre fantasy of wealth, power, and swaggering sexuality, but if the film shows the cracks in their masks, it never manages to reveal the men under the money or expose the fallacy behind the fantasy. --Sean Axmaker

Urban auteur filmmakers the Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society Dead Presidents) hit the mean streets with an "incredibly entertaining and charismatic" (Shout) expose on real-life pimps. A "snappy stylish documentary" (The New York Post) containing "blunt raw power and stylistic energy" (The Hollywood Reporter) American Pimp is "a primer on pimp craft and culture" (Shout) that takes you into the shadowy world of prostitution "putting on the screen everything you ever wanted to know about pimps" (Nuart).Cutting straight to the heart of the world's oldest profession this intimate portrait of infamous "mack-daddies" like Filmore Slim C-Note Gorgeous Dre and Rosebudd is eye-opening and shocking. From the dirty streets of New York L.A. and San Francisco to the "Players Ball" in Milwaukee you'll walk the boulevard of broken dreams and hear every heart-wrenching story and hilarious anecdote. It's an exclusive ride you've never experienced - and won't soon forget.System Requirements:Directed By: The Hughes Brothers. Running Time: 87 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2001 MGM Studios.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: R UPC: 027616854803 Manufacturer No: 1001189

How to Be a Player

Psych-Out / The Trip

Psych-OutTune in. Turn on. Psych out! Take the ultimate in psychedelic trips with Susan Strasberg Dean Stockwell Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern! When a deaf runaway (Strasberg) visits swinging San Francisco in search of her brother she teams with the aptly named Stoney (Nicholson) and his out-of-sight hippie band Mumblin Jim. But the more she succumbs to that music and danger-filled Flower Power scene...the more she realizes that reality is a rotten place to be!Running Time 89 MinThe TripHedonism isn t just for breakfast anymore. Or so learns TV commercial director Paul (Peter Fonda) on his first LSD trip a mind-blowing passage through surreal images and stroboscopic light shows. Written by Jack Nicholson and directed by Roger Corman The Trip takes you to a whole new world of extreme beauty and sheer terror on a passport the size of a stamp!Running Time 79 MinSystem Requirements: Running Time 168 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 027616885555 Manufacturer No: 1004485

How to Be a Player

Psych-Out [Region 2]