Queen Latifah Movies
From poignant dramas to rib-tickling comedies, Queen Latifah’s vast filmography showcases her many talents. Read on to discover the best of her films!
Widow Brenda (Queen Latifah) is forced to take her two children, Cam and Kelly, on a road trip across the Southwest when her stoner-slacker brother Reggie steals a bag of money from a local crime lord.
End Of The Road
In a career that spans over two decades, Queen Latifah has had an impressive filmography. She started out in a number of comedies that received positive critical and box office ratings. In the mid-2000s, she had a major breakthrough with Bringing Down the House, which was a critical and commercial success. After that, she continued to star in films such as Scary Movie 3, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Taxi, Kung Faux, Beauty Shop, and Hairspray.
Queen Latifah’s most recent movie is the family road drama End of the Road. It is a well-acted film with some serious plot twists and action scenes. It stars Latifah as Brenda Freeman, a single mother who has lost her husband to cancer and has to pack up her kids Kelly (Mychal Faith Lee) and Cam (Shaun Dixon) and her brother Reggie (Ludacris) and head for Houston. On the journey, they are accosted by racist hillbillies and find themselves in the middle of a drug trafficking war.
Although the film has a few flaws, it is still an entertaining one to watch. Queen Latifah proves that she is a force to be reckoned with as a tough and protective mother in this movie. Ludacris and Dixon are also excellent in their roles.
There is a lot of violence in the movie, so it is not suitable for children. People are shot and stabbed, a character’s head is blown up with a gun, a man gets bleach thrown in his eyes, etc. The movie is rated R for some strong and bloody violence, drug use, sexual content, and language.
End of the Road is a good example of how Queen Latifah has evolved as an actress. She has starred in a variety of different movies and has proved that she can play almost any role. She has also won several awards for her outstanding performances. In addition to acting, she has a singing career and is involved in many other projects. She is also an author and producer. In 2015, she starred in the HBO biopic Bessie Smith, which won her an Emmy award.
The Good Wife
The Good Wife was one of Queen Latifah’s biggest triumphs, both in terms of its impact on the TV industry and its significance for her career. It’s a show that tackled issues that were both topical and timeless, all while maintaining its focus on quality writing and characters, and whip-smart scripting. It also possessed a sense of urgency that many shows can’t seem to muster up.
When it comes to movies and TV, Queen Latifah has been able to take on a variety of roles, ranging from dramatic to comedic. She even delved into the voice-acting arena, lending her voice to the character of Ellie in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
While Latifah’s acting career started out in the music industry, she began to expand her horizons in the early 1990s. She landed her first movie role in 1991’s Jungle Fever, as a waitress with an attitude problem. This small role allowed her to showcase her talent and set her up for bigger roles.
In the years that followed, Latifah took on a variety of film and television projects. She starred in films such as Scary Movie 3, Barbershop 2, Kung Faux, and Taxi, among others. She eventually stepped into the world of television with the hit sitcom Living Single and the biopic Bessie, which won her an Emmy.
Latifah was also well-known for her work on the Broadway stage. She starred in several musicals, including Hairspray and Steel Magnolias. It was with the latter that she earned her first Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.
While the film career of Queen Latifah was thriving, her television career continued to take off. The Good Wife gave her the platform to explore a range of different moods as Alicia FL Orrick, a defense attorney who’s been dragged into a political scandal and thrown out of office.
Over the course of seven seasons, viewers have watched Julianna Margulies navigate Alicia’s many moods. She’s played the saintly wife; the sulking lawyer; the woman who takes on big cases alone; the romantic having an office fling; and the grieving lover drowning her heartbreak in buckets of white wine. Through it all, Latifah has been there as a calming force and a source of strength.
The Best Man Holiday
The Best Man Holiday, the long-awaited sequel to 1999’s The Best Man, opened with a solid $10.7 million on Friday, and went on to be the number two film of the weekend, earning a total of $30.6 million. It’s a pretty remarkable number, considering that most sequels only see their highest earnings in the first weekend of release. The film also earned a rare A+ rating from exit pollster Cinema score, suggesting that it went beyond a strictly black audience and had broad appeal.
That’s exactly the type of movie that Queen Latifah has made a career out of, and it was one of her early roles that proved she was a natural on screen. In the film, she stars as Charlene, an intelligent woman doing time for murder that she claims she didn’t commit. She connects with an attorney in an online chat room and convinces him to fight for her case, but he has his own issues to deal with as he struggles with racism and white supremacy.
Latifah’s performance in this movie is both evocative and memorable, and she gave the character of Charlene an extra layer of complexity that makes her more than just a sympathetic criminal. Her acting in this film helped to set the standard for many other rappers to follow, as they transitioned from music into movies and television.
While the movie didn’t set any major box office records, it was a critical and commercial success that cemented her stardom as an actress. It was also a landmark movie in the way that it dealt with race relations and stereotypes, and it gave audiences an opportunity to see an all-black cast of actors in roles that were both relatable and interesting.
In addition to The Best Man Holiday, Latifah starred in another hit film for Universal, Girls Trip, and had an outstanding supporting role in the critically acclaimed drama Shottas. She has appeared in several other notable films, including Bringing Down the House, Scary Movie 3, Kung Faux, Taxi, and Beauty Shop, and she can next be seen as Chief Ana Lopez on CW’s Black Lightning.
Set It Off
When it comes to the Queen Latifah movies, there is a plethora of genres to choose from. From dramas to comedies, there is something for everyone to enjoy. Her illustrious filmography includes the critically acclaimed drama Chicago (2002), the romantic comedy Bring It On (2000), the television series Living Single (2001-2006), and the movie versions of the stage musical Hairspray (2004), Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2005), Beauty Shop (2006), and Last Holiday (2006).
The 1996 thriller Set It Off is one of Queen Latifah’s most iconic films and a major reason why she continues to be the biggest name in Black cinema. It follows a tight-knit group of blue-collar African American women who decide to start robbing banks after experiencing a series of economic setbacks. Set It Off reveals what it is like to be a black woman in a society that continually presents obstacles that make it nearly impossible to get by.
Unlike other movies about heists and crime, Set It Off does not romanticize the criminal lifestyle. Instead, director F. Gary Gray captures a gritty reality that is both real and raw. The film also features a strong cast of actresses, including the incomparable Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise. Each of these women faces their own personal challenges in the film. Some are raising their children alone, while others struggle to make ends meet. One of them even prostitutes herself to help her brother go to college.
Set It Off is a fierce film that critiques racial, gender, sexual and class politics. It also tackles issues such as police brutality and state violence. The film is important because it refuses to erase the experiences of Black women. It shows that these women aren’t just victims but that they fight for themselves and their communities.
The film’s significance is made all the more clear when it is considered that a remake of Set It Off is in the works. While it is certainly possible that the new version will be a success, I doubt that it can live up to the original. It is important to celebrate and acknowledge the work of black filmmakers, especially those who have been around for awhile.
Dana Elaine Owens – Better Known As Queen Latifah
As a plus-sized, black woman, Queen Latifah challenged Eurocentric standards of body image in early Hip Hop music. She continued to do so in her acting, particularly in the 2002 movie Chicago where she played prison matron Mama Morton.
Her subsequent roles included Bringing Down the House and Taxi. She also starred in the TV movie Life Support and HBO’s Bessie.
Born Dana Elaine Owens
Dana Elaine Owens, better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, actress, model, television producer, record producer, comedienne and talk show hostess. She has earned a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, two NAACP Image Awards and has been nominated for an Academy Award. In 2006, she became the first hip hop artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Despite being a trailblazer in the music industry, Latifah has never been one to rest on her laurels, retooling her musical style with each album release. She shifted genres with 2004’s jazz-themed “The Dana Owens Album,” which netted her a Grammy nomination for best traditional pop vocal album. The following year, she went back to her rap roots with “Persona.”
Latifah’s acting career began with guest appearances on the popular NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and an ongoing role as Tamara in the FOX sitcom Living Single. Her big break came in 1993, when she was cast as Carlotta Brown in the hit film Stranger Than Fiction. The film’s success gave way to a seven-year run as the lead on the CBS sitcom Living With Her.
In the decade that followed, Latifah appeared in a variety of films including New Jack City, Juice, House Party 2 and Jungle Fever. She also starred in the romantic comedy Bringing Down the House, and received critical acclaim for her performance as blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO movie Bessie, which won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.
In 2008, she returned to the big screen with the crime caper Mad Money and a turn as Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray. She also voiced the character of Ellie, a mammoth in the animated film Ice Age: The Meltdown and made a return to drama with her role as Dr. Lisa McPherson in the 2009 film The Secret Life of Bees. In addition to her work in music and film, Queen Latifah has been a tireless activist and philanthropist. She has established her own foundation, the Lancelot H. Owens Scholarship Foundation, which provides scholarships to students in New Jersey who are pursuing careers in science and technology.
Born in Newark, New Jersey
Latifah began rapping in high school and became a member of the female rap group Ladies Fresh. She took on the stage name “Latifah” when she was eight years old, a name that she found in a book of Arabic names and means “delicate and kind.” Her older brother, Lancelot Owens, was a police officer, and Latifah grew up in a family with strong ties to law enforcement.
After winning a talent show, she signed a record deal with Tommy Boy Records and released her debut album All Hail the Queen in 1989. The album was a critical success and made her a household name. The following year, she began appearing in movies and gaining recognition as an actress.
Her film roles in Girls’ N the Hood and Life Support displayed her acting prowess and she began producing. She also hosted a syndicated daytime talk show. Her acting career continues to flourish, as she has received many accolades and nominations for her work. In 2015, she was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Bessie Smith in HBO’s biopic Bessie.
In addition to acting, Queen Latifah is a businesswoman who has managed the careers of such hip hop artists as Outcast, LL Cool J, and Naughty by Nature. She has also starred in several television shows and films, including 1996’s Set It Off, in which she co-starred with Jada Pinkett Smith and Vivica A. Fox as a lesbian bank robber.
Queen Latifah has also delved into the world of politics, hosting the reality show The Queen Latifah Show for two seasons in 2003 and 2007. She was one of the first actresses to sign up as an ambassador for the United Nations Development Program, which she has served since 2012. In late 2013, she became a licensed officiant to perform marriages between same-sex and opposite-sex couples.
Grammy Award, An Emmy Award And A Golden Globe Award
As a performer, Queen Latifah has won a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and two NAACP Image Awards. In addition, she has received several nominations for an Academy Award. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Latifah made her film debut in Spike Lee’s 1991 movie Jungle Fever. She has since appeared in numerous films, including Bringing Down the House, Taxi, Kung Fu Faux, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Last Holiday and Hairspray.
Known as the “Queen of Hip-Hop, Latifah rap career began in high school, where she won a talent show with an all-girls group called Ladies Fresh. She later gave a demo tape to a local DJ, which caught the attention of Tommy Boy Records. Her first album, All Hail the Queen, was released in 1989 and earned her a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. The 1993 album, Black Reign, was an even greater success. Its single, U.N.I.T.Y, decried sexism and violence against women and won a Grammy Award.
In 1998, she co-produced her fourth album with Ro Smith (now CEO of Def Ro Inc.) and released Order in the Court. The album was a critical and commercial hit, and it marked the first time that a woman had led her own group in the hip-hop industry.
Over the next decade, Latifah’s music diversified into reggae and jazz. She starred in several films and founded her Flavor Unit record label and management company. She managed many of the era’s top hip-hop artists, including Outcast, LL Cool J and Naughty by Nature.
In her acting career, she has received numerous accolades for her roles in a variety of films, most notably the box-office smash Bringing Down the House and its sequel. Her other major films include Scary Movie 3, Kung Fu Faux, Taxi, Barbershop 2, Back in Business and Beauty Shop. In early 2006, she starred in the romantic comedy/drama The Last Holiday. Latifah is the creator of her own daytime talk show, The Queen Latifah Show, which ran from late 2013 until early 2015. In 2015, she portrayed singer Bessie Smith in HBO’s Bessie and received a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for her performance.