There are films that profess to be modern heirs to The Godfather, Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. This is a film Martin Scorcese would have filmed had he been born in Rio de Janeiro. City of God. Favela de Deus

Gary Phillips is the acclaimed writer of the Ivan Monk detective novels set in Los Angeles. Nate Hollis, the protagonist of Angeltown is another detective in that vein and in the same city, but the pace is quicker and the relationships a tad funkier, knottier, and the central mystery is spot on for early twenty-first century Los Angeles; it's a blaxpoitation reset with Hollis chasing down an NBA basketball player who disappeared after his wife was found murdered. Martinbrough drew Batman for DC Comics a few years ago and he has a really good handle on spotting blacks and giving it that L.A. Noir shine.

Pam Grier

Pam Grier is no tragic femme-fatale goddess from yesteryear. She is very much alive and well, working, and she can thank Quentin Tarantino for that with his exuberant adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch and changed it to suit his need and hers and called it Jackie Brown. The years have been more than kind. She is still a goddess. This is a woman that survived the blaxpoitation haunts she began her career with, dated the likes of Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Rchard Pryor and Freddie Prinze Sr. There is, and will never be, another bad-ass, funky mamma like the one-and-only Pam Grier.

Best action movie in many a moon. Directed by Steven Soderberg? A great cast led by Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor and a slew of others.This is like a Richard Stark movie with Gina Effin Carano kickin’ ass. If they had asked her to act it'd be another story. This movie rocks. Urr!!