Daniel Chapman Movies
At the time of its release, Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia was the first big-budget Hollywood film to tackle the medical, political, and social issues of AIDS. Tom Hanks, in his first Academy Award-winning performance, plays Andrew Beckett, a talented lawyer at a stodgy Philadelphia law firm. The homosexual Andrew has contracted AIDS but fears informing his firm about the disease. The firm's senior partner, Charles Wheeler (Jason Robards), assigns Andrew a case involving their most important client. Andrew begins diligently working on the case, but soon the lesions associated with AIDS are visible on his face. Wheeler abruptly removes Andrew from the case and fires him from the firm. Andrew believes he has been fired because of his illness and plans to fight the firm in court. But because of the firm's reputation, no lawyer in Philadelphia will risk handling his case. In desperation, Andrew hires Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), a black lawyer who advertises on television, mainly handling personal injury cases. Miller dislikes homosexuals but agrees to take the case for the money and exposure. As Miller prepares for the courtroom battle against one of the law firm's key litigators, Belinda Conine (Mary Steenburgen), Miller begins to realize the discrimination practiced against Andrew is no different from the discrimination Miller himself has to battle against. The cast also includes Antonio Banderas as Andrew's partner, Joanne Woodward as Andrew's mother, and Stephanie Roth as Joe's wife. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, (more)
- 1990
This paranoid thriller begins as Eric Roberts' girlfriend (Janine Turner) is taken away in an ambulance and he can't find her. She's been taken prisoner by Eric Braeden, a crazed doctor who kidnaps people and sells their bodies for spare parts. Roberts hooks up with pretty cop Megan Gallagher to solve the mystery. A campy, action-packed thriller from cult director Larry Cohen (It's Alive), The Ambulance features a cameo by Marvel Comics prez Stan Lee and lots of tongue-in-cheek humor. It's as quirky as Cohen's other genre forays, and is entertaining enough for a rainy day rental, with clever photography by Jacques Haitkin and a tense score by Jay Chattaway. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Roberts, James Earl Jones, (more)
- 1989
- R
The future of the insurance business is profiled in this horror/thriller, where agents literally collect heads if members don't pay their premiums. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- R
Cheech Marin and Eric Roberts play two draft-dodging hippies who flee to a commune in Central America where they stay for 20 years. When they return in 1989 and seek out some of their old NYC buddies, they find they've turned yuppie and things just aren't what they'd expected. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cheech Marin, Eric Roberts, (more)
- 1989
Tin Star Void is a difficult film to classify, as it blends elements of post-apocalyptic films, action films, westerns and science fiction. The story is set in a timeless Western town, complete with a saloon/whorehouse, where people drive around in 1950s roadsters. Hero Wade Holt (Daniel Chapman, a guitar slinging cowboy (played by Daniel Chapman) sets out to avenge the death of his sheriff brother at the hands of local crime boss Hawk Loren Blackwell. Wade's quest for revenge gets him a long spell in prison, but after the U.S. economy collapses the jail is shut down and he's free to resume his mission. Director Tom Gniazdowski was the producer of Sid and Nancy. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Chapman, Ruth Collins, (more)
Mississippi Burning is an all-names-changed dramatization of the Ku Klux Klan's murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. Investigating the mysterious disappearances of the three activists are FBI agents Gene Hackman (older, wiser) and Willem Dafoe (younger, idealistic). A Southerner himself, Hackman charms and cajoles his way through the tight-lipped residents of a dusty Mississippi town while Dafoe acts upon the evidence gleaned by his partner. Hackman solves the case by exerting his influence upon beauty-parlor worker Frances McDormand, who wishes to exact revenge for the beatings inflicted upon her by her Klan-connected husband Brad Dourif. Many critics took the film to task for its implication that the Civil Rights movement might never have gained momentum without its white participants; nor were the critics happy that the FBI was shown to utilize tactics as brutal as the Klan's. The title Mississippi Burning is certainly appropriate: nearly half the film is taken up with scenes of smoke and flame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, (more)
- 1988
A countrified musician (Gary Knox) cultivates a new, sophisticated image in the Big City. One thing he hasn't refined from his system is the urge to kill. Thus, he's open to the proposition made by the wife (Zoe Tamerlaine Lund) of a very wealthy man (Daniel Chapman). The woman suggests organizing a murder-for-hire operation...and further suggests that her relationship with the country boy need not be confined to office hours. This is certainly a far cry from Double Indemnity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zoe Tamerlis, Gary Knox, (more)
Former boxer Jake LaMotta stars Hangmen along with Rick Washburn and Doug Thomas. The scene is New York's East Side, which according to this film is a hotbed of intrigue. An elite corps of ex-CIA agents form a covert terrorist team known as The Hangmen. When the hero (Washburn) finds out about this, he is targeted for elimination, but the villains forget that he's been trained by the CIA as well. Hangmen later received a home-video release due to the presence of Sandra Bullock as the heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rick Washburne, Jake LaMotta, (more)
- 1987
- R
This soft-core T&A comedy concerns an attempt by Russian spies to rob a sperm bank for the frozen seed of Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison. Porn director Chuck Vincent (Roommates) peppers his cast with blue-movie stars like Jane Hamilton (aka "Veronica Hart"), Jamie Gillis, Jennifer Delora, and Annie Sprinkle, but fails to generate any heat, the peculiar but altogether typical result of attempting to turn what are basically stunt persons into actors. Vincent retired from hardcore in the mid-'80s and turned out a number of numbing soft-core entries such as this one under his Platinum Pictures banner before succumbing to AIDS ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Marie, Alan Fisler, (more)
- 1987
- R
Three Big Apple prostitutes decide to give up streetwalking and find themselves fabulously wealthy husbands by becoming more cultured. Unfortunately, they are sorely lacking in sophistication, so they go to a highly cultured transvestite for a few lessons in how to be a real ladies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
