Strictly Business

I remember seeing this movie back in 1991, and a couple of times on TV, then it just disappeared. I was surprised to find that it was still in print on VHS, and I purchased it immediately! Tommy and Joseph are great in their roles. Not to mention it's great to see Halle Berry in her dope early '90s fashion, complete with ripped knee jeans and a leather jacket. Samuel Jackson plays his role great too as the boss from hell! This is a fun movie, and is very enjoyable to watch multiple times. It would be great to see it available on DVD in the future, but the VHS still looks great even after all of these years.

I must say, they surprised me. They surprised me by saving this movie. This movie was headed down the toilet and in the final hour (figuratively) they saved it.

Waymon Tinsdale (Joseph C. Philips) is a financial broker for a big time New York firm. He is successful, Black, and extremely square. They went way over the top in conveying that he was not hip and "whiter than the whitest white man" as stated by his friend Bobby (Tommy Davidson). It was just cringeworthy how out of place they made Waymon around other Black people. I wanted to scream looking at him attempting to fit in.

Then, for as intelligent as he was, they conveniently made him brainless trying to chase after Natalie (Halle Berry). Now, it's not out of the realm of possibility that a man would lose his head over Halle Berry, not at all. I'm sure there are a plethora of brilliant men that have lost their marbles over a beautiful woman, but it didn't fit in this instance.

As the story and the actions of Waymon seemed to get more and more outlandish they flipped it for a fairly brilliant ending. In fact, I was on my way to rating it a 3/10 or less but the ending prompted me to rate it a 7/10. I had a problem with some of the tropes but they were bearable. "Strictly Business" was a very positive movie after all with showing African Americans in a positive light regardless of what side of the tracks they grew up on.

(1991) Strictly Business ROMANTIC COMEDY DRAMA

Waymon Tinsdale (Joseph C. Phillips) works for a real estate firm in which he is supposed to look for potential clients willing to invest. And as a result of being unhappy with his current girlfriend who is shallow and artificial, upon having lunch with his boss, he does stumble onto a young woman he became infatuated with who had gotten fired from the very restaurant she was working at. And after dropping her pictures on the ground, he would then go on a crusade to find her, and he is unable to do it without the help of his friend, Bobby (Tommy Davidson) who sort of acts like an intern for the firm. And he would upgrade Bobby to a much higher position in exchange for more information about her as well as meet her.

Sketches from the everyday life of a successful New York office, with varying results achieving its goals by selling real estate, ranging from detached expensive buildings to entire neighborhoods. There are two African Americans on its staff. The first is a trader named Wayon, drowning in work 24/7, aiming for the position of a business partner, «whiter than other whites». The second is a typical street slob and party animal, leading his way, apparently, from somewhere in Harlem, in his own way reflecting the context of his era, a guy named Bobby. He barely holds on to the role of a messenger, delivering and sorting documents of varying importance, periodically causing the wrath of the episodically appearing boss in the person of Samuel L. Jackson.

One day, opposites working in the same structure, but coming from different worlds, will have to collide, as Wayon really liked an unfamiliar beauty in the person of Halle Berry. Bobby will help Wayon find «his dream», and Wayon will help Bobby move up a few notches in business, where the term «stepping on heads» is not rude at all, but a factual reality. In general a fairly standard and classic plot twist, with some adjustments for the «street» specifics, a light melodrama, with a dash of comedy.

Actually, this very «lightness» becomes the other side of the coin - there is no high-flown dramaturgy or conventionally complex messages here, and you can't expect anything in the spirit of Spike Lee's «Jungle Fever», released in the same 1991, where Halle Berry also managed to make her mark in one of her earliest and rather atypical roles. The film also does not claim the laurels of «Wall Street» (1987). To a greater extent, there is a set of purely situational, topical sketches, strung together on a common, rather conventional plot line and placed in a not very long running time of one hour and twenty minutes, but devoid of any depth. The film is generally not bad, but does not stand out in any special way.

"Bobby" (Tommy Davidson) is a young black man working as a mail clerk in a large firm with aspirations of getting ahead. Unlike his mentor, "Waymon Tinsdale III" (Joseph C. Phillips) he doesn't have the temperament it takes to work in a management position. He's too brash and hip. However, he has connections and one of them just happens to be "Natalie" (Halle Berry) who Waymon is just dying to meet. So Waymon promises Bobby that he will get him into the training program if he will introduce him to Natalie. At the same time however, Waymon is working on a huge business deal which can either make or break his career. Along with that there is at least one person named "David" (David Marshall Grant) who would rather have him fail miserably. Anyway, so much for the plot which has been used in one scenario or another many times before. That said, there really wasn't anything special or unique about it. The acting was adequate but the only person who stood out was Halle Berry who was absolutely gorgeous. The bottom line is that this is a film that is a bit light on comedy but cute all the same. It's not great-but it's not bad either. I rate it as average.