Lexie (2004)

I can't remember how I first got wind of this. It may have been through a search of Gary Busey on imdb. It may have been through a search of Fred Williamson. It may have been through a search of Ice-T. Who knows? Anyway, I found it, and found out it had all three stars, so I knew I needed to give it a look.

Lexie has the first ADA from Law and Order as a dude who's a stockbroker, but used to be a major recording star until drugs derailed his career. His boss takes him to Ice-T's exclusive club, and he meets one of the chicks from En Vogue there. She inspires him to start his music career again. There're issues with the chick's ex-husband and father of her daughter, with Fred Williamson the music mogul signing him to another contract, and at his stock firm with the head honcho, Gary Busey, who thinks a major deal he brokered for Ice-T was fishy. It ends with a hilariously awesome song.



This movie hits you with the triple bait-and-switch: minuscule amounts of Ice-T, Fred Williamson (who also directs), and worst of all, Gary Busey. I was left with a Lifetime drama. No doubt, it had its moments, as all Lifetime dramas do, but that's not enough for me. I can see those anytime I want on the Lifetime Movie Network. I wanted some action, fighting, killing, explosions. That's what I want when I see those names on the cover.

As I've said before, I'm trying to make a concerted effort here at the DTVC to get hall of famer Gary Busey more posts. This movie was an attempt to do that, but I almost feel wrong in tagging him for this film, because he's only in it in one scene. I'm serious, one scene. I guess putting it up here so no one falls for the Busey bait-and-switch is a solid reason. Do not watch this for Busey, because it's almost a zero on the Abusive scale. What a waste.



Fred Williamson directed this. I understand what he was trying to do. This was supposed to be commentary on the direction the black community's going, and also the trappings of taking the easy money instead of following one's heart. Williamson couples this commentary about the future of the black community with a further message that the children of this Hip Hop generation aren't bad, they just need the proper guidance, especially males in the form of male role models. On that level, he actually does a solid job. At points it does come off Lifetime-ish, like I said above, but at least I was able to get it. The problem was the distributors, who packaged this as an action/suspense thriller with gangs and crime lords and sketchy record execs, when it really wasn't.

Ice T is only one off Daniel Bernhardt's number of most posts for a non-Hall of Famer. Looking in the pipeline, neither has a film up for a while, so it could be months before Ice-T overtakes him, but it's probably a matter of when, not if. He's done way more than Bernhardt, and he's an Albert Pyun mainstay, which means he has more opportunities being so closely linked to a Hall of Famer. As far as this film goes, he's not in it much, but he's really good when he's in it. It's kind of frustrating, because it seems like the movies where he's really solid are the ones that barely feature him.



The song at the end of this was awesome. It has the chic from En Vogue, and the dude from Law and Order. The dude from Law and Order comes in later than the En Vogue chick, but when he does, his voice is amazing: it's extremely deep and out of place. My roommates came in late for that one, so they were laughing, asking "what the fuck is this?" They know what kinds of films I enjoy, so it wasn't so surprising to them, but hilarious just the same.

If you're curious to see Fred Williams' directorial work, check this out. Otherwise, it's not worth it. He has some great social commentary, but the movie which acts as the vehicle for that message falls short, and the scant parts played by the three main stars prevents them from making up for the film's shortcomings.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0400602/