Hoodlum

Genre:
Action-gangster, Motion Picture

Cast:
Vanessa Williams as Francine Hughes, Laurence Fishburn, Tim Roth, Andy Garcia

Produced by:
Frank Mancuso, JR.

Directed by:
Bill Duke

Timeline:
First release date was in January ´97
Finally released in the US, August 29, 1997

Vanessa´s appearance:
Vanessa plays Bumpy´s chick, it isn´t such a big role but you can see her in several scenes throughout the whole movie. This is a typical gangsters movie, a lot of shooting and only few romantic scenes, but Vanessa performs as far as the script allowed it a credible character and it´s just good acting.

What´s special about this one:
The first title for this movie was "Gangster", they changed it to "Hoods" before it finally reached the name that it has now.
Although the movie had a lot of "man" power (3 famous actors) as well as action (usally is a better seller), it made only about 25 million dollars in the US Box Office. It wasn´t even released in many country´s and went for instance in Germany directly to video rental in Febuary 1999!!! (No kidding)

US gross - $23.5 Million

"Hoodlum" Links:
Official Hoodlum Website
Internet Movie DataBase

Story:
In 1930´s New York, Bumpy Johnson (Fishburne) rules the Harlem numbers racket with a rare combination of honor, dignity and raw strength. But when savage ganster, Dutch Schultz (Roth), threatens his reign with a series of bloody attacks, Bumpy knows that the only way to win is to play Dutch´s deadly game. As a vicious war spins madly out of control, so does Bumpy´s personal life, and soon the mobster realizes that his only way out is to instigate a dangerous plan involving one of the most feared and powerful gangsters in history...mob chieftain Lucky Luciano (Garcia).