Michael Bishop Movies
While the American punk rock revolution started on the East Coast in the mid-'70s, by 1978 California boasted once of the most interesting and important punk scenes in the world, spawning a number of great bands who would change the shape of underground rock & roll and blaze the trails for the independent music community of the '80s and '90s. Rage: 20 Years of Punk Rock West Coast Style is a documentary that offers a brief but telling glimpse of the formative days of California punk, with film clips of important early bands such as the Germs, the Screamers, and the Weirdos and interviews with important scene figures who discuss the long journey of California punk from an outcast artists community to a sound co-opted by the mainstream record industry in the wake of the multi-platinum success of Green Day. Interview subjects include Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks and Black Flag, Don Bolles of the Germs, Jack Grisham of TSOL, and Harold Bronson of Rhino Records. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Grisham, Keith Morris, (more)
- 1993
In this suspenseful drama, a medium sized plane en route from the U.S. to New Zealand gets hopelessly lost over the vast Pacific after his companion plane crashes. Now his only hope for salvation is the small commercial jet liner with whom the lost pilot is in radio contact. As his plane runs out of fuel, the larger plane must somehow find him before it is too late. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Loggia, Scott Bakula, (more)
- 1992
When a family's boat is capsized by a school of whales, they are left adrift in the shark-infested waters of the Pacific Ocean in this true survival story. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- R
This Austrian sci-fi film set in post-nuclear Earth is about a pair of policemen whose jobs consist (among other things) of executing people who have prematurely used up all their "energy clip" credits in an Orwellian society. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
Disco-gone-Latin, that's what's happening in Salsa, where a grease monkey who's sick and tired of knuckle-busting lives for his nights on the dance floor where he gyrates to the salsa beat. Not much plot but plenty of dancing is the fare here, as the lead guy (Robby Rosa) is out to show he's the Travolta of the Latino swing scene. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robi Rosa, Rodney Harvey, (more)
Basket Case director Frank Henenlotter explores another bizarre symbiotic human-monster relationship in this surreal horror comedy about a young man named Brian (Rick Herbst) who emerges from a night of bizarre hallucinations to find a jovial talking slug attached to his body. The creature, a brain-eating parasite called an "Aylmer" (but who prefers the simpler handle "Elmer") came calling after abandoning his former companions -- a European couple who tried to wean him from human brains by supplying him with sheep brains from the local butcher. Preferring prey of the bipedal variety (and a younger, more mobile host), Elmer hitches a ride with Brian, administering doses of a highly addictive psychedelic drug to keep him under control, and sends him out in search of human gray matter. Understandably, this drives a wedge in the relationship between Brian and his girlfriend, Barbara (Jennifer Lowry), who doesn't buy the monster story but nevertheless begins to recognize Brian's junkie behavior patterns. Fighting a losing battle against Elmer's magic juice (and trying to keep Elmer from munching down on Barbara's skull), Brian is forced into a hideous showdown for possession of his own mind. Clever highlights include horror host John Zacherle as the Bing Crosby-esque voice of Elmer and a cute cameo from Basket boy Kevin Van Hentenryck. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rick Herbst, Gordon MacDonald, (more)
- 1987
- R
A trio of agents are summoned by Interpol to trail the villain Harry Pimm (Sylvester McCoy) in this low-budget spy feature. Elliot Cromwell (Robert Ginty), Sergeant Terry O'Shea (Victoria Barrett), and Major Shan (Shakti) combine forces to track down the international crime boss ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Ginty, Victoria Barrett, (more)
- 1987
- R
Writer Jill Clayburgh wants to remove her coke-addicted daughter Martha Plimpton from the corruptive environs of Manhattan. When assigned to write an article about family trees, Clayburgh, with daughter in tow, heads to the bayous of Louisiana, there to seek out an elusive great-uncle--and, it is hoped, to give Plimpton a new start in life. Upon their arrival in the deep south, Clayburgh and Plimpton are confronted with the uncle's rugged, iron-willed wife Barbara Hershey and her four grown sons. The anticipated culture clash results in tragedy for all concerned. Wavering between the plausible and the outrageous, Shy People makes for fascinating, almost mesmerizing viewing. Released late in 1987 to qualify for the Academy Awards, the film was given a general release in mid-1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jill Clayburgh, Barbara Hershey, (more)
- 1984
Technical flaws abound in this "punk" movie about an imaginary, 21st-century ghetto in Melbourne, Australia created by white-color, middle-class suburbanites to contain all the wild and wooly nonconformists in their society. At the center of ghetto life is a pub that features Sarah (Maryanne Fahey) and Bear (Michael Bishop), by night slamming the suburbanites and by day carrying out covert operations on the outside as the daring Cisco and Pancho. In that guise, the Bear dons various personas, such as that of a government minister, and announces radical changes to the citizenry: children should henceforth be painted green, family cars should be buried, and as winter chills the air, citizens are to sleep with ducks. This send-up of the middle-class is uneven and patchy, with acting that is alternately good and bad and lip-synching that is a misnomer -- but at the same time, this haphazard fluctuation in quality seems to fit right in with the theme of the movie itself -- slick just would not capture the point of it all. Future Schlock is here. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary-Anne Fahey, Michael Bishop, (more)
- 1982
Fresh out of medical school, Paul Armstrong (Simon Burke) has landed a job at an Australian urban venereal and sexual disease clinic. While he understands the medical stuff he learned in school pretty well, he is stuffy and a bit of a prude. Most of all, he hasn't yet adjusted to the idea that homosexuals are real human beings. However, in this fast-paced yet gentle comedy, which focuses on the intern's clinical encounters, he swiftly learns the ropes and changes his tune on a lot of issues, as he encounters women and men with all sorts of social and sexual problems. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Haywood, Simon Burke, (more)
