Strays (1997 Film)
''Strays'' is a 1997 American drama film written, directed, produced by, and starring Vin Diesel, which follows a drug dealer and Pimp, hustler who is fed up with the repetitious lifestyle he leads and begins looking for meaning in his life. It marked Diesel's feature film directing debut and takes a hard look at his own adolescence and upbringing in New York City. Synopsis Frustrated by the repetitious grind of one-night stands and aimless hustling, Rick (Vin Diesel) is looking for meaning in his life. Like his testosterone-tweaked buddies, Rick is a stray looking for a traditional family structure and wrestling unconsciously with his own father's absence. He sells small amounts of marijuana to cover the expenses of his own use but insists that he is not doing it for a living. When he meets Heather (Suzanne Lanza), the girl next door, he suddenly perceives a new avenue and an opportunity for a new, committed relationship. Trying to assimilate into Heather's world, Rick takes heat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vin Diesel
Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for playing Dominic Toretto in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise. Diesel began auditioning for roles in the early 1990s but struggled to gain roles and instead decided to make his own low-budget film. In 1995, he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the short film '' Multi-Facial''. In 1997, Diesel made his first feature length film '' Strays'', which he also wrote, produced and directed. Director Steven Spielberg took notice of Diesel after seeing him in ''Multi-Facial'' and cast him in a small role for his 1998 war epic ''Saving Private Ryan. Diesel subsequently voiced the titular character in ''The Iron Giant'' (1999) while gaining a reputation as an action star after headlining the ''Fast & Furious'', ''XXX'', and ''The Chronicles of Riddick'' franchises. Diesel portrays Groot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe su ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Suzanne Lanza
Suzanne Lanza is an American actress and model. Biography Lanza was born in Los Angeles, California on March 12, 1965. In acting class, her teacher referred her to an agent at the Wilhelmina Modeling Agency and she began working as a model at the age of 16, right after graduating high school, with a GC shoot by Herbert Ritt. Later in life she graduated from UCLA with degrees in History and Art History. She is the director of Kaleidoscope, a non-profit organization, and Blue Ladybug Social, a social media company. She currently models for Iconic Focus. She adopted a daughter. She has appeared on the covers of Elle, Marie Claire, ''Vogue'', ''Cosmopolitan'', Glamour, and Harper’s Bazaar. She was a Victoria's Secret model from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. Her first television appearance was as co-host of Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes show on MTV, in 1987. As an actress Lanza has appeared in Friends and Dexter and on Ellen. Her credits include ''Red Shoe Diaries'' (1992), '' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Joey Dedio
Joey Dedio (born September 11, 1963) is an American actor of Puerto Rican and Italian descent. Early life Dedio was born in New York City on September 11, 1963. Career While in his 20s, Dedio appeared in the NBC soap opera '' Another World'' and the television version of ''The Karate Kid'', as the voice of Daniel LaRusso. He provided the voice of lead character Wheeler in the environmentalist cartoon show ''Captain Planet and the Planeteers''. He voiced a drug dealer in an anti-drug special ''Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue'', which was introduced by then-President George H. W. Bush and his wife, First Lady Barbara Bush. His other voice roles include ''Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw'', ''Extreme Ghostbusters'' and ''Denver, the Last Dinosaur''. He later appeared in '' Sunset Beach'' and guest starred on ''Law & Order'' and ''Chicago Hope.'' In theatres, he appeared in off Broadway productions like SoHo Reps ''Skin'' and workshopped for Joe Pintauro's Broadway bound '' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mike Epps
Michael Elliot Epps (born November 18, 1970) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He played Day-Day Jones in ''Next Friday'' and its sequel, ''Friday After Next'', and also appeared in ''The Hangover'' and ''The Hangover Part III'' as "Black Doug". He was the voice of main character Boog in ''Open Season 2'', replacing Martin Lawrence, with whom he starred in the comedy ''Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins'', playing "Reggie", cousin of Roscoe (played by Lawrence). He played Lloyd Jefferson "L.J." Wade in the films '' Resident Evil: Apocalypse'' (2004) and '' Resident Evil: Extinction'' (2007). He has had starring roles in the sitcoms ''Uncle Buck'' and ''The Upshaws''. Early life Epps was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, the son of Mary Reed and (the late) Tommie Epps. In his adulthood, Epps moved to Brooklyn to star in ''Def Comedy Jam'' in 1994. Career Stand-up comedy Epps began his professional career by joining the ''Def Comedy Jam'' tour in 1995 and starre ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Darnell Williams
Darnell Williams (born 3 March 1955) is a British-born soap opera actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Jesse Hubbard on the ABC soap opera '' All My Children'' from 1981 to 1988, and from 2008 to 2011, a role which has earned him two Daytime Emmy Awards. Personal life Williams was born in London, England. In the mid-1970s, he was a regular dancer on TV's '' Soul Train''. Career Williams began portraying Jesse Hubbard on '' All My Children'' in 1981. His character became involved in a love affair with upper middle class Angie Baxter (Debbi Morgan). The characters eventually married and thus Darnell Williams was one half of the first African American supercouple on an American soap opera. Williams won two Daytime Emmy Awards for his work on ''All My Children'' in the 1980s. During the mid-1980s, both he and Morgan co-hosted a dance show titled "New York Hot Tracks," that also featured music videos. In 1988, Williams left ''All My Children''. However, he returned to soap ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gordon Bijelonic
Gordon Bijelonic is a Serbian/American film producer known for the feature films ''Laggies'' and ''Kid Cannabis'', and for his work as a senior executive at One Race Films. He also produces 3D documentaries for the IMAX theatre venues. Career Born and raised in New York City, Bijelonic has produced over forty films, involving over 100 million production dollars. He has worked with actors such as Vin Diesel, Robert De Niro, Forest Whitaker, John Travolta, Christopher Plummer, Robin Williams, Mila Kunis, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Burstyn, and 50 cent. Bijelonic began his career as a New York City theater actor, before seguing into production work. At the request of Vin Diesel, Bijelonic executive produced the actor's first feature film '' Strays'' in 1997, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. The independent film was directed, written by and starred Diesel. Bijelonic became a senior executive for ten years at Vin Diesel's production company One Race Films. While he was the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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First Look International
First Look Studios was a former American independent film distributor, that specialized in home video releases of films and television series. History In 1980, Robert and Ellen Little founded Overseas Filmgroup as a film sales company for foreign markets. Overseas Filmgroup expanded towards film financing to give the company greater control over its output. From the beginnings, it competed with fellow, also-defunct film producers J&M Film Sales (later J&M Entertainment), Manson International and Producers Sales Organization as the most successful company with film sales. Overseas Filmgroup decided to paid $3 million in order to set up operations for different areas such as Spain, Arizona, Texas, Taiwan, Italy, southern California and Colorado in the mid-1980s, and by 1986, the company became active, setting up a number of domestic theatrical, home video and television syndication sales with New World Pictures and other distributors. In 1987, while other sales companies is gaini ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Drama Film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-genre, macro-genre, or micro-genre, such as soap opera, police crime drama, political drama, legal drama, historical drama, domestic drama, teen drama, and comedy-drama (dramedy). These terms tend to indicate a particular setting or subject-matter, or else they qualify the otherwise serious tone of a drama with elements that encourage a broader range of moods. To these ends, a primary element in a drama is the occurrence of conflict—emotional, social, or otherwise—and its resolution in the course of the storyline. All forms of cinema or television that involve fictional stories are forms of drama in the broader sense if their storytelling is achieved by means of actors who represent ( mimesis) characters. In this broader sense, drama ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pimp
Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still extensively been used for female procurers as well) or a brothel keeper, is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The procurer may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing and possibly monopolizing a location where the prostitute may solicit clients. Like prostitution, the legality of certain actions of a madam or a pimp vary from one region to the next. Examples of procuring include: * Trafficking a person into a country for the purpose of soliciting sex * Operating a business where prostitution occurs * Transporting a prostitute to the location of their arrangement * Deriving financial gain from the prostitution of another Etymology ''Procurer'' The term ''p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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One-night Stand
A one-night stand or one-night sex is a single sexual encounter in which there is an expectation that there shall be no further relations between the sexual participants. It draws its name from the common practice of a one-night stand, a single night performance by an entertainer at a venue. The practice can be described as "sexual activity without emotional commitment or future involvement".Jeffrey S. Turner, ''American Families in Crisis: A Reference Handbook'' (2009), p. 47. Views The one-night stand is the most common form of infidelity and is often used in research, polls and surveys to define the level of promiscuity in a society at any given time. It has been suggested that such an act can be as threatening to a relationship as a long-term affair: Some women have suggested that women who feel sexually insecure or unfulfilled should seek out one-night stands for personal growth and fulfillment. One writes, " one-night stand is the erotic manifestation of carpe diem ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1997 Films
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic (1997 film), Titanic'', the List of highest-grossing films, highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of the most observed comet, comets of the 20th century; Golden Bauhinia Square, where sovereignty of Hong Kong is Handover of Hong Kong, handed over from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China; the 1997 Central European flood kills 114 people in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany; Korean Air Flight 801 crashes during heavy rain on Guam, killing 229; Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner (rover), Sojourner land on Mars; flowers left outside Kensington Palace following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris., 300x300px, thumb rect 0 0 200 200 Titanic (1997 film) rect 200 0 400 200 Harry Potter rect 400 0 600 200 Comet Hale-Bopp rect 0 200 300 400 Death of Diana ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1997 Drama Films
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of '' Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of the most observed comets of the 20th century; Golden Bauhinia Square, where sovereignty of Hong Kong is handed over from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China; the 1997 Central European flood kills 114 people in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany; Korean Air Flight 801 crashes during heavy rain on Guam, killing 229; Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner land on Mars; flowers left outside Kensington Palace following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris., 300x300px, thumb rect 0 0 200 200 Titanic (1997 film) rect 200 0 400 200 Harry Potter rect 400 0 600 200 Comet Hale-Bopp rect 0 200 300 400 Death of Diana, Princess of Wales rect 300 200 600 400 Handover of Hong Kong rect 0 400 200 600 Mars Pathf ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |