Tom Wright Movies
Set at a Southern college during the 1950s, three co-eds (Ally Sheedy, Virginia Madsen and Phoebe Cates) re-assess their values in light of the burgeoning civil rights movement. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ally Sheedy, Virginia Madsen, (more)
Keenen Ivory Wayans wrote, directed, and starred in this hilarious parody of blaxploitation films in the comedy I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. Jack Spade (Wayans) returns home from a hitch in the army to find his brother Junebug has died from an overdose of gold chains, leaving his widow Cheryl (Dawnn Lewis) and mother Ma Bell (Ja'net DuBois) alone to fend for themselves. Ma throws two inept thugs (Damon Wayans and Kadeem Hardison) sent by the evil white guy Mr. Big (John Vernon) down a flight of stairs. Junebug owes $5,000 to Mr. Big for his gold-chain addiction and tries to force Cheryl into prostitution to pay off the debt. Jack recruits his old friend to go after Mr. Big to seek revenge. John Slade (Bernie Casey), Hammer (Isaac Hayes), Slammer (Jim Brown) Kung Fu Joe (Steve James) and the former Pimp Of The Year Flyguy (Antonio Fargas) join up with Jack to avenge his brother' death. Chris Rock makes a brief appearance as the annoying customer who risks his life by irking rib joint owner Hammer. Funny and fast paced, the writing, acting, sight gags and cameos by Robert Townsend, Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III, Eve Plumb (Jan from The Brady Bunch), Kim Wayans, and Gary Owens makes this a must-see for any comedy fan. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keenen Ivory Wayans, Bernie Casey, (more)
Independent filmmaker John Sayles creates one of his more artistic works with this period feature about a volatile 1920s labor dispute in the town of Matewan, West Virginia. Matewan is a coal town where the local miners' lives are controlled by the powerful Stone Mountain Coal Company. The company practically owns the town, reducing workers' wages while raising prices at the company-owned supply and grocery. The citizens' land and homes are not their own, and the future seems dim. When the coal company brings immigrants and minorities to Matewan as cheaper labor, union organizer Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) scours the town to unite all miners in a strike. As the crisis grows, strikers and their families are removed from their homes by two coal company mercenaries (Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp, both also featured in Sayles' Eight Men Out (1988)), and the situation heads toward a final shootout on Matewan's main street . Sayles' simple but telling screenplay brings to light the treatment of immigrants and minorities in the early 20th century South, and it draws sharp parallels between the Matewan labor battle and the Civil War some 50 years earlier. The visual feel of the film is real West Virginia backwoods, with much of the credit going to legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler, whose warm, rustic lighting belies the anxiety and terror felt by the oppressed townspeople. ~ Norm Schrager, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Cooper, Will Oldham, (more)
This less-satisfying sequel to the 1982 George A. Romero/Stephen King anthology presents a new trio of King stories, framed in a similar EC Comics-style format -- this time featuring some rather lackluster animated segments involving horror-host "The Creep," who introduces each chapter with pun-heavy gallows humor. The stories vary widely in quality: first there's "Old Chief Wood'nhead," involving a cigar-store Indian who quite literally guards the entrance to an old general store and comes to life to avenge the murders of the elderly couple (George Kennedy and Dorothy Lamour) who owned it. The middle segment, "The Raft," features a group of obnoxious teenagers stranded on a raft in the middle of a lake at the mercy of a murderous oil slick which looks like a bunch of plastic garbage bags stitched together. Both of these suffer in comparison to the closing segment, "The Hitchhiker," in which a bored, promiscuous socialite (Lois Chiles) mows down a hitchhiker who refuses to stay dead, returning again and again to torment her at every turn, rasping "Thanks for the ride, lady!" Despite its strengths -- a livelier pace, some creatively gory set pieces -- this is a much cheaper-looking effort than its predecessor, with the deft guidance of Romero conspicuously absent (long-time collaborator Michael Gornick took up the directorial reins); as a result, King's gross-out sensibilities don't come off as well. Makeup maestro Tom Savini appears in heavy makeup as a live-action version of The Creep, and King pops in for a bit part as a redneck trucker. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lois Chiles, George Kennedy, (more)
This screwball comedy casts real-life couple Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn in a film that finds the latter returning to her roots in a role reminiscent of Private Benjamin (1980). Hawn stars as Joanna Stayton, a snooty heiress who summons carpenter Dean Proffitt (Russell) to her lavish yacht, where she wants an expanded closet constructed that will house her valuable wardrobe. When Dean fails to build the closet out of cedar, Joanna haughtily dismisses him without payment. Later, Joanna falls overboard and is struck by another boat, causing amnesia. Seeing her story on the news, Dean constructs an elaborate scheme to pretend that Joanna is his wife Annie. Soon, the former rich snob is cleaning Dean's home and babysitting his four rambunctious boys. Although at first she's a disaster, "Annie" grows into her role and begins to love being a mom and middle-class wife. When her real husband Grant (Edward Herrmann) comes looking for her, however, her memory is jogged, and she must decide between a life of privileged ease and a life of happy housework. Overboard was the feature film debut of writer Leslie Dixon, the granddaughter of famed photographer Dorothea Lange. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, (more)
In Rappin', Mario Van Peebles is John Hood, a con who when released from jail goes back to his neighborhood to find his girl shacked up with a nasty gang-leader named Duane (Charles Flohe). Duane is on the take with a corrupt contractor who plans to tear down Hood's neighborhood and he and his gang serve as ruffian rowdies who help evict the tenants. John Hood will not put up with this nonsense; he throws a community rap session and gets everybody aligned against the bad guys. His rappin' is so ratin' that he impresses a record company and wins his gal back. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edye Byrde, Rony Clanton, (more)
- 1985
- R
In a sex-and-violence film that emphasizes the physical abuse of young women, director Joan Freeman may raise the shackles as well as the hackles of her distaff viewing audience. Cookie (Melissa Leo) is a young runaway who arrives in New York City with her brother in tow and ends up working as a prostitute for the apparently easy-going Duke (Dale Midkiff). Everything seems fine, at least as much as can be expected, until one of Duke's streetwalkers threatens to quit, and he nearly beats her to death. Sickened and shocked, Cookie runs away with an infuriated Duke hot in pursuit and unsparing of anyone who gets in his way. The murders, the beatings, the stabbings, and other forms of mayhem weigh heavily in the plot's sequences. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melissa Leo, Dale Midkiff, (more)
- 1985
- R
Six sorority sisters are desperate for rent money, so, encouraged and trained by their den mother, they enter a mud-wrestling tournament in Las Vegas. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Gordon, Laura Branigan, (more)
- 1984
- R
This violent follow-up to the sadistic actioner The Exterminator (1980) again features Johnny Eastland (Robert Ginty), a Vietnam vet who is triggered into vengeful killing when his dancer girlfriend (Deborah Geffner) is first badly beaten and permanently crippled and later murdered by a gang of street thugs led by "X" (Mario Van Peebles). Johnny dresses up in a special uniform and helmet, grabs a flamethrower, and aided by Be Gee (Frankie R. Faison), a former vet turned garbageman, the two incinerate their way through the rest of the film. Like other Death Wish clones, this film is derivative, violent, and mindless. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Ginty, Mario Van Peebles, (more)
Jon Chardiet plays a Puerto Rican youth who targets subway walls for his graffiti renderings. For a while, it looks as though Chardiet's problems will carry the plotline, but before long the film's true raison d'etre comes to the surface. Rap-music deejay Guy Davis, in tandem with such like-minded individuals as music student Rae Dawn Chong, endeavor to stage a huge breakdancing presentation, featuring several musical artistes of the period. Harry Belafonte served as coproducer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rae Dawn Chong, Guy Davis, (more)
This stylishly photographed drama is set in the Lower East Side area known as "Alphabet City." There 19-year-oldJohnny has become a drug lord in charge of the neighborhood gangs and pushers. Unfortunately, he too has a boss and when he asks Johnny to burn down the tenement building that houses his mother and sister, the boy refuses and decides to go straight for the sake of his wife and child. This doesn't set well with his boss who sends gangsters out to kill him. Of course, the gangsters have to catch Johnny first. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Spano, Michael Winslow, (more)
- 1984
- R
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Filmmaker John Sayles' first bonafide box-office success, Brother from Another Planet centers on a black escaped slave from a faraway planet (Joe Morton) who finds himself on the mean streets Harlem. Though the locals are put off by the slave's inability to speak, they are won over by his technical wizardry. He is adopted as a "brother" by his new friends, who protect him from pursuing white aliens played by director Sayles and David Strathairn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Morton, Darryl Edwards, (more)
- 1982
- PG
Neil Simon based his screenplay for I Ought to Be in Pictures on one of his more serious theatrical pieces. Walter Matthau is top-billed as Herbert Tucker, a struggling screenwriter who suddenly finds his 19-year-old daughter, Libby(Dinah Manoff), on his Hollywood doorstep. Having deserted his family years earlier, Herbert isn't keen on having his daughter around to cramp his lifestyle, which at this point consists of drinking his meals and telling lies to his faithful girlfriend, Stephanie (Ann-Margret). Libby takes it upon herself to put Herbert's life in order. There are plenty of angry outbursts and recriminations between father and daughter before the tearful, upbeat conclusion. Incidentally, Dinah Manoff is the daughter of actress Lee Grant, who'd previously co-starred with Walter Matthau in Neil Simon's Plaza Suite -- which, like I Ought to be in Pictures, was directed by Herbert Ross. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, (more)
- 1981
This detective drama was shot on location in New York City and chronicles the bloody wake of terror left by a murderous street saxophone player who hides out on the subway. The bizarre string of murders is investigated by a hard-bitten detective. Along the way he meets assorted New Wave scumbags. The mood of the film is heightened by an avant garde musical score. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robbie Coltrane, John Lurie, (more)
The crux of this limited, juvenile comedy is a complex game that begins at midnight and ends by morning. Of main interest is the fact that a young Michael J. Fox plays one of the students involved in the game. Leon (Alan Solomon) has spent a year creating the game and practically needs that long to convince his fellow students to play it. Eventually he wins out, and the various teams of classic stereotypes -- the nerd, the well-groomed hero, the obnoxious sorority sister, the easily duped freshman, and others -- all converge on Los Angeles at midnight. Their treks take them through the Griffith Observatory which because of those odd hours astronomers keep, could conceivably be open. Other locales are interestingly open too, apparently Los Angeles never sleeps. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Naughton, Debra Clinger, (more)
- 1980
The "underground" of the title refers not to crime but to the half-hidden world of two-bit hustlers, "artistic" poseurs, aberrant lifestyles and shattered dreams. Small-time Manhattan opportunist Eric Mitchell latches onto Patti Astor, a once-popular movie star fallen into penury. He briefly lifts her spirits, but in the final analysis betrays her. Astor sorrowfully decides that she'd rather not live any longer. Lensed in 16 millimeter by producer/ director/ star Eric Mitchell, Underground USA is occasionally effective, though for much of the proceedings it suffers from trying too hard to be the Big Apple counterpart to Godard's Breathless. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patti Astor, Eric Mitchell, (more)
