We premiered this film back in February, but in case you missed it, The Cleaner (Sunday at 5pm [ET])airing is probably the best Sam Jackson film you’ve NEVER seen.
As a crime-scene cleaner, Jackson keeps a low profile, that is until he cleans up a crime scene in Eva Mendes’ house. When she gets the inkling that something has gone wrong with her husband and her life, she comes to the man she thinks may have the answers.
Making movies is hard to do, especially if you’re damn near broke. Still, that didn’t stop Robert Townsend who hooked up with a few of his friends to create a modern classic. Hollywood Shuffle, a funny, but scathing look at 1980’s Hollywood treatment of Black actors and Black themes, was financed on Townsend’s credit cards — an amazing feat, especially now since NO ONE can get credit. That’s why Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle made our list of the 100 Greatest Black Power Moves.
Not only did Hollywood have some big comedy stars — including icon Paul Mooney and Franklin Ajaye — but it launched the careers of major talent like Keenan and Damon Wayans, John Witherspoon and Anne-Marie Johnson all who went on to star in features like In Living Color, Friday and I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.
In the end, Townsend’s classic did what so few do. Instead of just complaining about Hollywood, he literally did something about it by creating a new Black Hollywood himself.
© 2009 TVOne
