5. Jaws: The Revenge. (1987). The long suffering wife of Chief Brody decides she’s had enough of Amity and heads off to the Caribbean to join her son, daughter-in-law and grandchild. However, the shark with an attitude just won’t leave her alone. Did it follow her? Is it the same shark? Who cares.

There’s blood, guts, screaming and Peebles does all three. In fact, Jake (Peeble’s character) does such a great job that test audiences forced the director to follow his “C’mon, you big overgrown goldfish, come to Jake!” death scene with a rescue scene. That’s right folks. MVP brought his character back to life. Brilliant!

4. New Jack City. (1991). The gangster Nino has a gang who call themselves Cash Money Brothers. They get into the crack business and make millions. The crew is pursued by a copy who tries to get into the gang by letting an ex-drug addict infiltrate them, The trial fails and the copy becomes a drug dealer. What a story!

Now, you might think that the real star of the film is Wesley Snipes or Ice-T or Chris Rock or Judd Nelson or Vanessa Williams, but you’d be wrong. The movie is carried whole-heartedly by the spot-on acting of MVP. His “Stone” character pulls you in to the drug culture and makes you believe that New Jack City is a documentary. How does he do it?

3. Heartbreak Ridge. (1986). Sergeant Tom Highway (Clint Eastwood), a hardened, tough veteran of Korea and Vietnam returns to the United States for his last tour of duty with the U.S. Marine Corps. He is assigned to training a recon, and has to take them to the battlefield thanks to the Grenada invasion. MVP plays Corporal “Stitch” Jones, a hip, jive-talking grunt who gives Eastwood a hard time and eventually becomes a man thanks to Clint’s guidance.

Have a look. Most of the shots are of Clint, but there are some choice MVP bits. I think you’ll agree when I ask, “How did MVP not get the Oscar for this one?”

2. Posse. (1993). Directed by MVP, Posse is about a group of mostly black infantrymen who return from the Spanish-American War with a bunch of gold. They travel to the West where their leader, Jesse Lee, (MVP) searches for the men who lynched his father.

Peebles does such a great job he drowns out the acting by both Stephen Baldwin and Billy Zane. I know, right. How can that be? I could hardly believe it myself. But MVP pulls off one helluva performance. Btw, not only did MVP play the lead role, he also directed the show. Genius!

1. Solo. (1996). My favorite Martin Van Awesome movie hands down. I mean, how can you not like a movie with a tagline, “Part man. Part machine. Total weapon. Prepare to go Solo!” You can’t because it’s fantastic.  In his finest work to date, MVP stars as an emotionless android/killing weapon designed by the military and utilized to enter into a Latin American war to destroy rebels. What? Holy cow! This is off the hook!

And, as most android movies go, Solo starts to feel and thus develops an affinity for the villagers. I nearly cried when he turned part-human. Well, when Solo decides to help the rebels fight back his creators send another, more powerful android to bring him back – dead or alive.  While I can’t host the entire movie, I can show you the trailer. After which, you will undoubtedly seek out and watch MVP’s finest 90 minutes.