Chip Taylor Movies
- 1990
- PG13
Diane Keaton, Carol Kane and Kathryn Grody are the title "siblings," three unrelated women who perform as a lounge trio and struggle to come up with the money to buy their own club. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Carol Kane, (more)
- 1987
- PG
After his hippie parents are killed in a botched drug deal, a child is taken in by a bag lady in this implausible drama. Wild Thing (Rob Knepper) grows up to be the champion of street justice, espousing a 1960s philosophy and coming to the aid of the helpless and oppressed. Jane (Kathleen Quinlan) is the concerned social worker who falls for the hero. The hit song Wild Thing by the Troggs is used often but has nothing to do with the story or the hero being portrayed. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Knepper, Kathleen Quinlan, (more)
- 1986
- R
In this James Bond parody, the evil villain is also an evil villainess, Velvet Von Ragner (Gene Simmons), an androgynous, leather-bound cross-dressing criminal genius out to finish off all of L.A. by contaminating the city's water supply. Standing in the way of his/her success is undercover agent Drew Stargrove (George Lazenby), but he does not stand for long. Once he has been slain, his son Lance (John Stamos) takes up the fight assisted by Danja Deering (Vanity) who has the requisite sex appeal for her job. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Stamos, Vanity, (more)
A wildly inventive and entertaining comic nightmare from former Roger Corman prodigy Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs), this screwball odyssey is a ride to remember. Jeff Daniels plays clean-cut New York bond trader Charlie Driggs, who accepts a ride home from a strange but attractive lower-class woman named Lulu (Melanie Griffith). The sexy Louise Brooks lookalike doesn't take him home, but shanghais him for a bizarre roadtrip to Virginia that includes kinky bondage sex, destruction of property, and robbery. Things get stranger when Lulu tells Charlie that her real name is Audrey and takes him home to meet her mother, asking him to pose as her husband. The charade continues until her high-school reunion, where the roadtrip (and the entire film) takes a sharp U-turn into psycho-thriller territory. Audrey's dangerously psychotic ex-con husband, Ray Sinclair (Ray Liotta), shows up. What had been a liberating fling for Charlie turns into a bloody and vicious battle for survival. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith, (more)
Jonathan Demme's breakthrough movie featured the shaggy energy and affection for marginal American eccentrics that marked his earlier Citizens Band (1977) and such later films as Something Wild (1986) and Married to the Mob (1988). Melvin Dummar (Paul LeMat) is a barely-getting-by Nevada milkman. One day in the early 1970s, while driving down a lonely highway, Melvin picks up a shaggy, bearded bum (Jason Robards Jr.) and offers him a ride into town. Melvin gives the bum a quarter at the end of the ride, and that, so far as Melvin is concerned, is that. The story goes off on a new tangent, involving the on-and-off marriage between Dummar and his contest-happy wife Lynda (Mary Steenburgen). During one of the multitude of financial crises endured by the Dummars, Melvin discovers that the tramp he picked up was none other than billionaire Howard Hughes -- and when Hughes dies, Melvin inherits $150 million. The movie's wide acclaim included Oscars for Steenburgen and Goldman's script and New York Film Critics Awards in almost all major categories, including Best Picture and awards for Demme, Goldman, Steenburgen, and Robards. Demme would gain even greater attention in the 1990s as the director of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Philadelphia (1993). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Le Mat, Jason Robards, Jr., (more)
- 1974
- R
Feeling like losers, the bank manager and a boardinghouse manager in a small Vermont town discover a common bond and together plan a heinous crime. They intend to rob the bank of a large payroll which is due, at the same time killing another manager's girlfriend in order to frame him for the murder and the robbery. Things don't work out quite the way they plan, and the consequences are horrible. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
The Feds are hot on the trail of Arthur Blaisdell (Frank Hotchkiss) and Timothy Gage (Solomon Sturges), a pair of gunruners who break into a National Guard armory and steal several M1 rifles. The criminals' next move is to sell the weapons to a gang of extremists--but for what ultimate purpose? Featured prominently in the supporting cast is a decidedly pre-Annie Hall Diane Keaton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
Wayne Newton is the hero of the warm-hearted family feature 80 Steps to Jonah. The piping-voiced Newton is accused of car thievery, but who could doubt the sincerity of that angelic face? On the lam from the cops, he takes a job at a summer camp for blind children. Passing himself off as the new handyman the camp is expecting, the fugitive quickly ingratiates himself with the kids. Soon the cops come calling, but the falsely accused man is rescued by a last-minute confession. Veteran producer/director Gerd Oswald, previously a specialist in taut crime mellers, unexpectedly goes "cute" on 80 Steps to Jonah, though the end result is better than it deserves to be. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Newton, Jo Van Fleet, (more)
