Gloria Charles Movies
- 1986
- R
- Add Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling to QueueAdd Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling to top of Queue
Popular African-American comedian Jo Jo Dancer is severely burned while free-basing cocaine. Producer/director/writer Richard Pryor insists that the movie is not autobiographical. While hovering between life and death, Dancer flashes back to his childhood, when he grew up in a brothel. Producer/director/writer Richard Pryor insists that the movie is not autobiographical. Dancer decides to become a comic, but has a great many difficulties rising to stardom until he begins making scatological comments about race relations. Producer/director/writer Richard Pryor insists that the movie is not autobiographical. As he rises to fame, Jo Jo has problems controlling his drug addiction and womanizing. Producer/director/writer Richard Pryor insists.....Well, you've caught on by now. If one were able to excise the excruciatingly boring "introspection" scene, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling would stand as an excellent testimonial to Richard Pryor's cutting-edge comic brilliance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Pryor, Debbie Allen, (more)
The seventh cinema adaptation of the venerable stage farce Brewster's Millions stars Richard Pryor as Montgomery Brewster, a third-rate baseball player. Much to his amazement, Brewster discovers that he is related to deceased millionaire Rupert Horn (Hume Cronyn, who appears only in a videotaped "living will"). Even more amazing is the fact that Horn has left Brewster his entire $300 million fortune. The catch? Brewster must spend $30 million within 30 days, or he'll be left with nothing (in the earlier incarnations of Brewster's Millions, the hero was required to spend only a million, but this was, after all, the inflationary '80s). Aiding and abetting Brewster in his efforts to divest himself of his money are his catcher pal (John Candy) and an erstwhile lady friend (Lonette McKee), while his principal antagonist is a snotty attorney (Stephen Collins). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Pryor, John Candy, (more)
- 1985
Heavily disguised for a new assignment, Hannibal (George Peppard) is mistaken for a skid-row wino named Jim Beam (Elisha Cook Jr.)--and vice versa. It soon becomes obvious that someone is trying to murder Beam. . .but why? To solve this mystery, and to rescue Hannibal in the process, the A-Team sets up a skid-row mission called the Road to Hope, with Murdock (Dwight Schultz) tearing a passion to tatters as street preacher Harry Dean Hanover (when he isn't trying to pass himself off as the Invisible Man, that is!). Look for future X-Files regular Mitch Pileggi in a small role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
- PG13
- Add National Lampoon's European Vacation to QueueAdd National Lampoon's European Vacation to top of Queue
Despite the many adventures they suffered in National Lampoon's Vacation, the Griswold family decides to take another crack at having fun. This time, the doltish clan heads across the Atlantic for a whirlwind vacation after winning a game show. Will the monuments of Europe survive? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, (more)
- 1984
McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) takes a sudden leave of absence to prevent her former partner, embittered renegade cop Gus Trancus (David Ackroyd), from fulfilling a contract as a professional hit man. Owing her life to Trancus, McCall hopes that she can stop him before he completely ruins his life--but she may be fighting a losing battle. Meanwhile, Hunter (Fred Dryer) is not only saddled with wimpy Sgt. Terwilliger (James Whitmore Jr.) as temporary partner, but he's also having a great deal of trouble getting the higher-ups off his back long enough to locate Dee Dee and keep her from harm. Arthur Rosenberg makes his first series appearance as Captain Lester Cain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Louise (Isabel Sanford) and Florence (Marla Gibbs) trick George (Sherman Hemsley) into appearing on a new hidden-video TV show titled "Bobbles, Bangles, and Booboos." A great many laughs are to be had when George "accidentally" confronts Louise at a massage parlor. But the joke is actually on Louise: the "TV producers" may actually be a gang of clever burglars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, (more)
- 1984
Originally and imprudently titled The Whorehouse Sting, this fact-based, made-for-TV melodrama casts Beau Bridges as federal agent Frank Powell, who makes it his mission to bring slick but deadly racketeer Oliver Sully (Harold Gould) to justice. This undertaking requires Powell and his fellow government functionaries to set up a phony San Francisco brothel (total price tag: $450,000), thereby setting the stage for an intricate extortion "sting". Putting her life on the line along with Powell is professional call girl Kathy Dunne (Farrah Fawcett), who agrees to pose as the brothel's madam. Laced with moments of unexpected humor and capped by an unexpected denoument, The Red-Light Sting debuted April 5, 1984, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Immediately after his mysterious escape at the end of Friday the 13th, Pt. 2, Jason Vorhees (Richard Brooker, the third of many actors to fill the role) kills a hardscrabble store owner and his nagging wife before heading back to Crystal Lake, this time to terrify rich girl Chris (Dana Kimmell) and her band of summer-cottage guests. Chris, it seems, is haunted by an earlier encounter with Jason, and her romantic entanglements with local boy Rick (Paul Kratka) do little to ease her nightmares. Meanwhile, the gruesome antics of Shelly (Larry Zerner), a chubby practical joker who just wants to be loved (and get laid), leads to an escalating case of the boy who cried wolf. When he's not incurring the wrath of leather-clad motorcyclists, he's annoying the other guests with his mock mutilations. Soon, stage blood turns to real as guests and bikers alike fall prey to the killer lurking in the barn out back. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Kimmell, Richard Brooker, (more)
