''Strictly Business'' is a 1991 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by Kevin Hooks and starring Tommy Davidson,

Joseph C. Phillips Joseph Connor Phillips (born January 17, 1962) is an American actor, writer, and conservative Christian commentator. He is best known for his role as Martin Kendall on the long-running NBC sitcom ''The Cosby Show'', and as Justus Ward on the ...

, and

Halle Berry Halle Maria Berry (; born Maria Halle Berry; August 14, 1966) is an American actress. She began her career as a model and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and coming in sixth in the Mi ...

. The supporting cast includes Anne-Marie Johnson, David Marshall Grant, Jon Cypher, Kim Coles, and Samuel L. Jackson. The film follows the ways of a mail clerk as he tries to hook his executive friend up with his clubbing girl pal and plays on comedy, business, romance, and ethics. It features a young

Sam Rockwell Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for appearing in independent films and also as a character actor portraying a wide variety of roles both comedic and dramatic in films such as ''Lawn Dogs'' (1997 ...

, and the R&B group Jodeci right before their musical success. The film was shot at various locations in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The prime location used in shooting the film was

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. The film was released on November 8, 1991 and was made available for a selected audience rather than being widely released.

Plot

Party boy Bobby is a low-level mail clerk in a big real estate investment

firm A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared ...

, but he has a trump card—an executive at the firm he works for: Waymon Tinsdale, an uptight

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

in middle management who is on the verge of making partner in the firm. They make a deal in which Waymon will try to move Bobby to the trainee broker program if he will help him meet beautiful party girl Natalie, the girl of his dreams. There's only one problem: Everyone will have to adapt.

Cast

* Tommy Davidson as Bobby Johnson: Bobby is a mail clerk at a major

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more genera ...

firm in New York City who is care free. He is a party type who is always going out even when he has to work the next day. Despite his meek background and his club status he has some big time connections. He agrees to introduce Waymon to Natalie, as long as Waymon makes Bobby his trainee. *

as Waymon Tinsdale III: Waymon is a big business man who is about to be made a partner at the firm if he can close out a big deal. He is stuck in an unhappy relationship and by chance bumps into the woman of his dreams while out to lunch one day. His friend Bobby holds the key to hooking both of them up because he knows both of them and how to connect them. * Anne-Marie Johnson as Diedre: She is the girlfriend of Waymon. She doesn't really love him but is with him because they make a good team. She is very controlling and is very materialistic. * David Marshall Grant as David: He is a big business man and works at the firm with Waymon and Bobby. He pretends to be Waymon's friend but is actually racist and is plotting against him to fail in his latest deal. *

as Natalie: She is Waymon's dream girl. She is a club promoter. She also has dreams of owning her own club some day. * Jon Cypher as Drake: He is the owner of the firm that Bobby and Waymon work at. He is the one who will promote Waymon if the deal goes through. * Samuel L. Jackson as Monroe: He is the supervisor of the mailroom. He is a person who tries to assert his authority at all given times and also tries to suck up when the high ups are around. He is always looking for a reason to get rid of Bobby. * Kim Coles as Millicent *

as Gary: A St. John's graduate (who is also Bobby's Friend/former co-worker) who got a promotion (to work upstairs) by David. *

Annie Golden Annie Golden (born October 19, 1951) is an American actress and singer. She first came to prominence as the lead singer of the punk band the Shirts from 1975 to 1981 with whom she recorded three albums. She began her acting career as Mother in t ...

as Sheila

Soundtrack

A soundtrack containing hip hop music was released on October 29, 1991 by Uptown Records. It peaked at 64 on the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated ...

Box office

On its first weekend the film made $2.4 million and ended earning $7.7 million.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Strictly Business (Film) 1991 films 1991 comedy films African-American comedy films Films directed by Kevin Hooks Films set in Manhattan Films scored by Michel Colombier Warner Bros. films 1991 directorial debut films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films