Ken Campbell Movies

Iconoclastic film director Samuel Fuller spent decades nurturing his dream project, a movie about his experiences in the Army's First Infantry Division during World War II, but it wasn't until 1979 that he was able to finally bring the picture before the cameras. Unfortunately, Fuller was forced by his producers to work with a scaled-down budget, and he did not have final cut on the film; after his first rough cut ran nearly four-and-a-half hours, the studio took over editing on the project, and Fuller was vocally unhappy with the final results. In 2003, critic and film historian Richard Schickel initiated an effort to restore The Big Red One to a form that more closely resembled Fuller's original vision; using a large cache of newly discovered footage and the director's shooting script as a guide, the 113-minute theatrical version was expanded to 158 minutes, adding depth and detail to Fuller's sweeping and episodic tale of a hard-as-nails sergeant (Lee Marvin) and four inexperienced recruits under his command (Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco, and Kelly Ward) as they battle their way across Africa to Europe between 1942 and 1945. Schickel's reconstruction received enthusiastic reviews when it went into limited release in the fall of 2004. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In a small American town called Midland City, Dwayne Hoover (Bruce Willis) -- a loyal father, a successful car dealer, and a respected member of the community --lives with his wife Celia (Barbara Hershey), who's addicted to pills and TV shows, and his son Bunny (Lukas Haas), who is a weakling. What's more, his best friend and employee Harry Le Sabre (Nick Nolte) is a paranoid red-lace-lingerie fetishist. Dwayne finds short-term consolation in the arms of his secretary and mistress, Francine (Glenne Headley). As the American Dream slowly becomes his nightmare, Hoover begins to retreat into a fantasy world, filled with strange voices and fearful visions. It takes only the arrival of third-rate science-fiction writer Kilgore Trout (Albert Finney) -- whose novels are turned into fourth-rate porno comics -- at the Midland City Art Festival for things to explode. Hoover's only hope is Kilgore, whom he has raised to the status of a guru in his fantasies. However, the two men meet when time, space, and reality have already lost their meaning. Now it is only nonsense that makes sense and madness that reigns; the American dream has turned into lunacy. Breakfast of Champions, which had its world premiere during the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999, is the outcome of a project in the making for over twenty years. Director Alan Rudolph wrote the script when the novel by Kurt Vonnegut was first published. However, it took all this time (and perhaps the casting of someone like Bruce Willis in order to get it financed) for the project to be realized. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Set during Halloween, this youth-oriented adventure centers on the efforts of three kids to save an ancient mummy from a criminal. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In A Fish Called Wanda, Jamie Lee Curtis plays an ambitious con artist who uses every ounce of her sexual wiles to obtain a fortune in jewels stolen by her gangster lover Tom Georgeson. First, she romances Georgeson's dimwitted but deadly henchman Kevin Kline (who won an Academy Award for his performance). Then, to clear the path for her getaway with Kline, Jamie woos Georgeson's starched-shirt attorney, John Cleese -- and it's Cleese whom she genuinely falls in love with. Michael Palin, Cleese's former Monty Python cohort, plays a stuttering mob flunkey who continually messes up his one big assignment: killing a little old lady (it isn't that he has any qualms about knocking off the old dear; it's just that her pet dogs keep getting in the way). A Fish Called Wanda was scripted by star John Cleese. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Irreverent British writer Dennis Potter speaks aloud what many literary historians have only postulated in whispers in Dreamchild. The film is set in 1932, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alice in Wonderland creator Lewis Carroll. The guest of honor at the New York-based celebration is 80-year-old Alice Liddell (Coral Browne), who as a child inspired Carroll's whimsical novels. Amidst the cajoling of both devoted fans and fast-buck hustlers, the grim-faced Alice tries to remain calm and dignified. What none of the idolaters suspect is that Alice harbors a long-suppressed secret concerning her "very special" relationship with Carroll -- a secret revealed in an extremely tasteful fashion during a flashback sequence, featuring Amelia Shankley as young Alice and Ian Holm as Charles Dodgson, the virginal, child-obsessed clergyman whom the world knew as Lewis Carroll. The darkness of Dennis Potter's vision is lightened by Muppeteer Jim Henson's marvelous three-dimensional renditions of the Wonderland and Looking Glass characters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A romantic farce that enjoys but never makes fun of its protagonists, this is an entertaining story about the unlikely pairing of a Liverpool factory worker and a Russian sailor. The romantic Teresa (Margi Clarke)works in a chicken factory and looks forward to the men she might meet on the weekends. Her friend Elaine (Alexandra Pigg) is living on state aid and is fairly casual about how she can pick up a little extra cash. One weekend the two women set out for the dancehall with someone else's hard-earned money, lifted by Teresa, and there they meet two Russian sailors, Peter (Peter Firth) and Sergei (Alfred Molina). For Elaine and Peter, it is love at first sight, and they spend the rest of the night talking and the following day wandering around Liverpool, hand in hand. When the dreaded parting of the ways comes at last, Elaine is furious that a small thing like politics has to keep them apart -- so she writes a letter to Brezhnev, with surprising results. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The early ups and later downs in the life of Joshua Shapiro (James Woods) more or less describe the trajectory of this semi-autobiographical film, adapted from the book by Mordecai Richler. Joshua is a Jewish Canadian writer who has returned from living in England for nearly three decades, only to see the major components of his life disintegrate around him. Flashbacks tell the tale of Joshua's childhood -- raised by a father who is an ex-boxer with a creative approach to earning a living (illegally) and a mother who earns her living as a stripper. Leaving this background and his coming-of-age behind him, Joshua flies off to England and gains a reputation as a writer, marrying a politically leftist but socially elite wife. On his return to Canada at the end of the '70s, everything around him collapses. His best friend dies, his brother-in-law kills himself, there is a smear campaign against him, and someone is out to blackmail him. Things only get worse, in fact, before they level off. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Vacillating between the suspense of a thriller and the absurdity of a farce, this uneven story about a demonized telephone company intent on controlling everyone's lives ends up in cinematic limbo -- neither farce nor thriller. When Mavis (Julie Walters) leaves her gay husband to go live in an apartment with her daughter, she receives a call from him saying he is about to come over for a visit. Nothing happens. Then the telephone does other strange things, and as she sets out to discover why, the people she meets are as odd as her phone. She comes across a dwarf with a giant libido and an expert in conspiracy theories who holds his own views (not created jointly with others). The woman would have been better off getting an answering machine, much needed to resolve the plot holes in this story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This British rock musical tells a tale older than dirt -- the saga of the rise to fame of an eager young star, only to discover that fame is not all that it is cracked up to be. Hazel O'Connor is a young punk-rocker, singing her angry diatribes on the splintered stages on third-rate London venues. Soon enough, she meets up with a young, aspiring manager Phil Daniels, and she rises to the top. But success puts a damper on a burgeoning love relationship, and when Jon Finch arrives, playing a sleek and smooth record promoter, the duo's artistic independence is also compromised. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Some of the biggest and brightest stars in British comedy appear in this performance film, which documents a revue staged by John Cleese of Monty Python as a benefit for the human rights group Amnesty International. In addition to Cleese and fellow Python members Michael Palin and Terry Jones (who reprise skits from the Python show as well as its lesser-known predecessor At Last The 1948 Show), The Secret Policeman's Ball includes sketches featuring Rowan Atkinson (shortly before his breakthrough success on the UK television series Not The Nine O'Clock News), Peter Cook (who performs classic material from the show Beyond The Fringe), Eleanor Bron, Clive James and The Kevin Campbell Road Show. The show also includes acoustic musical performances from Pete Townshend of the Who, classical guitarist John Williams (who joins Townshend for a version of "Won't Get Fooled Again") and activist singer/songwriter Tom Robinson. The Secret Policeman's Ball was the third in a series of benefits shows organized by Cleese for Amnesty International, and the name was recycled for several filmed stage shows that followed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide