A Thin Line Between Love and Hate

Martin Lawrence stars as nightclub manager Darnell, a perpetual playboy and hopeless male chauvinist. Darnell is a crude-but-smooth talker and lady's man who doesn't take no for an answer. He works for a nightclub called Chocolate City and aspires to be its owner. He trades VIP privileges at the club for favors from women. Though he is an expert at conning women, he sometimes worries about what his childhood sweetheart Mia (Regina King) thinks of his adventures.

When the classy, elegant Brandi (Lynn Whitfield) steps out of a limousine to enter the club, Darnell feels that he's met his ultimate prize. She rejects his come-ons, which only fuels his appetite. He pursues her, showing up with flowers at her real estate office. He finally wins over Brandi, only to find out that he's really in love with Mia. But Brandi doesn't take kindly to rejection, and becomes an obsessed femme fatale stalking him, even taking all four wheels off his SUV to ground him from his rounds. Cutting off his engagement to Mia is not enough to satisfy Brandi, who finally administers Darnell's punishment for his misogyny. Darnell quickly learns the hard way that when you "play", you have to "pay." The film ends much like the last verse of the song A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, with an injured Darnell in hospital pondering over what happened to him and deciding to change, and a mugshot of Brandi and Darnell's voice saying "Damn I'm truly sorry about what happened to Brandi I hope po' baby lands on her feet, but they better make damn sure they fix that dent in her heart before they let her out".