Richard Chaves Movies
A drug deal gone bad spells trouble for a low-level drug delivery boy and a young girl searching for her missing sister in this action effort from visual effects artist-turned-director Marc Kolbe. When Asako's search for her sister leads her to a seedy Hollywood nightclub, her desperate quest is nearly ended in a hail of gunfire. As the smoke clears and Asako learns that she and lowly drug courier Angus (Bentley Mitchum) are the sole survivors of the massacre, the two take the money and the drugs and seek refuge at the halfway house of former gangster Carl Brubaker (Sam Jones). Unaware of the radio transmitter hidden in the stolen stash, Angus, Asako, and Carl are caught off guard when a pair of mafia hitmen storm the safe house and kidnap Asako while reclaiming their drugs. As the hitmen make way for their hideout in Mexico with Carl and Angus in hot pursuit, it's a deadly game of kill or be killed in which only the winner survives. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1994
Susan discovers that her ex-lover Malcolm Biggs (Tristan Rogers) is a member of the Homeguard, a radical pro-Earth terrorist group. The Homeguard intends to rekindle old prejudices by assassinating Minbari poet/ambassador Shaal Mayan (Nancy Lee Grahn). Meanwhile, a young Centauri (Rodney Eastman) balks at the prospect of a tradtional arranged marriage. Written by Star Trek fixture D.C. Fontana, "The War Prayer" first aired on March 9, 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael O'Hare, Claudia Christian, (more)
- 1989
Producer/director Michael Mann, kappelmeister of the trendy TV series Miami Vice, tried to impose his MTV mentality on Tinseltown with L.A. Takedown. Los Angeles cop Scott Plank is on the trail of master thief Alex McArthur. After McArthur pulls off "the score of a lifetime," the crook and the cop spend the rest of their screen time in a deadly game of one-upsmanship. The usual Michael Mann trademark of style over substance prevails throughout L.A. Takedown. But the vogue had passed, and this TV pilot film failed to graduate into a series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A crazed sniper picks off motorists at random, then taunts the authorities by providing cryptic clues to a radio psychiatrist. Sarah "Sunny" Harper (Darlanne Flugel), the fiancee of one of the victims, tries to piece together the evidence without official help, hopefully to beat the psycho at his own game. Directed by Francis Delia, Freeway was inspired by a series of real-life freeway shootings in the Los Angeles area. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Darlanne Fluegel, James Russo, (more)
Part One of this four-hour TV movie adaptation of Peter Evans' biography suggested that Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis spent every waking hour commiserating in bed with lovers of all sexes. Part Two of Onassis: The Richest Man in the World hunkers down to the Main Event: The showdown between Onassis' longtime lover Maria Callas (Jane Seymour, who screamed and tantrummed her way to an Emmy) and his future spouse Jackie Kennedy. We then move onward (but not upward) to the tragic death of Onassis' daughter; our tepid journey through the cesspools of the Rich and Famous ends with the public bickering over the tycoon's will after his own 1975 demise. As ill-suited as Raul Julia is for the starring role of Aristotle Onassis, Francesca Annis' portrayal of Jackie Kennedy is even worse. Onassis: The Richest Man in the World was originally foisted upon the TV viewing public on May 1 and 2, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Season One of the lavishly produced sci-fi series War of the Worlds begins with a two-hour pilot episode, establishing the fact that the Earth had first been visited by aliens from the planet Mortax in 1938, and that the two planets waged a violent war in 1953, with the Earth emerging triumphant and the Mortaxian "casualties" entombed in steel drums and buried in various nuclear testing sites throughout the world. And why wasn't this common knowledge to the public. Well, thanks to mass hypnosis, Mankind had been convinced that the 1938 visitation was merely a radio hoax perpetrated by a young actor named Orson Welles, and the 1953 war--which ended with the aliens being killed off by bacteria--was nothing more than a Hollywood movie produced by George Pal! Unfortunately, the Mortaxians are not dead, only hibernating, and after awakening they escape to an abandoned nuclear site in Nevada, there to receive orders from their leaders, the Advocates (played this season by such actors as Richard Comar, David Calderisi, Isle Von Glatz and Michael Rudder). Those orders are simple and two the point: Proceed with the original mission to conquer the earth! Simplifying this task is the fact that the aliens can absorb the bodies of human beings and assume their identities, thereby moving about without detection--at least until the high radiation level in their systems cause them to literally melt into nothingness. Alone among his colleagues, Dr. Harrison Blackwood (Jared Martin) suspects that the "myth" of the Mortaxians is a reality, and he tries vainly to alert the world that the aliens are alive, well, and dangerously close to taking over. Expressing high skepticism over Blackwood's theories are his astrophysicist colleague Suzanne McCullough (Lynda Mason Green), a divorcee with a young daughter named Debi (Rachel Blanchard). Similarly, martinet Native American military officer Col. Paul Ironhorse (Richard Chaves) finds Blackwood's notions hard to swallow. Only when paraplegic computer whiz Norton Drake (Philip Akin), who manages to get about with the help of his computer-activated wheelchair, "Gertrude", punches up evidence that the aliens are burrowing their way towards their old warships, still held in storage, do Suzanne and Ironhorse begin to come over to Blackwood's side--and then, it still takes several violent "close encounters" to win the hearts and minds of the disbelievers. The rest of the season's 22 episodes finds Blackwood and his team coordinating their counterattack against the Mortaxians from their hidden headquarters, The Cottage. Along the way, Blackwood wins several more converts to his cause, and also crosses paths with other aliens who have either cast their lot with Mortaxians or who side with the humans. And throughout it all, it is very, very difficult to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys--even for the viewers at home! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jared Martin, Lynda Mason Green, (more)
- 1988
To Heal a Nation is the true story of Jan Scruggs (Eric Roberts), a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War. In 1979, Scruggs, employed by the US Department of Labor, becomes obsessed with the dream of erecting a monument to those who died in Vietnam. In pursuit of this dream, Scruggs and his fellow fundraisers run up against bureaucratic indifference and public hostility-not to mention the reservations of certain veterans who disapprove of the monument's "radical" design. On November 13, 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is erected in Washington DC-an intensely emotional moment, vividly recreated by combining dramatizations with actual news footage. Originally presented as GE Theater TV production, To Heal a Nation debuted May 29, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
This made-for-TV movie is the second follow-up to the astonishingly successful Kenny Rogers as the Gambler (1980). Rogers returns as Old West gambler Brady Hawkes, while Bruce Boxleitner, Rogers' co-star in 1983's The Gambler: The Adventure Continues, is also back as Hawkes' sidekick Billy Montana. Others in the cast include Linda Gray as adventuress Mary Collins, Jeffrey Jones as Buffalo Bill Cody and George American Horse as Sitting Bull. This time around, Brady and Billy try to protect the Sioux Nation from corrupt, treaty-breaking cavalry officers who've been stealing cattle and shifting the blame to the Indians. The Gambler III: The Legend Continues debuted November 22, 1987, an occasion celebrated by a TV Guide cover story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has a code of honor which he will not violate, even when his life depends on it. Paradoxically, his code of honor gives him the backbone to survive as a military special forces operative when he is sent on a covert mission to rescue another group which was sent in to assist some nefarious U.S. government plan in a Latin American country. Once there, he encounters an old army buddy (Carl Weathers) who has gotten too deep in the CIA's good graces for Dutch's comfort. When he and his team go into the jungle to rescue the others, they get involved in a pitched battle with local guerillas, but they are more than capable of besting these vicious fighters. However, not long after that, they encounter signs that the equally capable men they were sent to rescue were all killed unawares and in an unusually gruesome fashion. Given their training, it should have been impossible for anyone to best all of these commando warriors. Soon, the men from Dutch's own team get picked off one by one, as they grow aware that they are up against something uncanny, not of this world, something that is hunting them for sport. Why? Because their skills make them worthy opponents for the perfectly camouflaged Predator. This carefully paced action movie was given poor reviews by many movie critics, but was sufficiently satisfying for its (largely male) audiences that a successful sequel (Predator 2) was released in 1990. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, (more)
- 1987
- Add Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam to QueueAdd Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam to top of Queue
Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam was first telecast April 3, 1988, over the HBO cable service. Based on the book of the same name, the program is devoted to poignant recitations of letters to and from American participants of the Vietnam war. The letters are heard over images culled from news footage, home movies and still photography, with contemporary music added to put things in the proper historical context. The 2-hour film, featuring readings from various well-known actors (see cast list), was a co-production involving Bill Couturie, a previous Emmy winner for Vietnam Requiem, and the Vietnam Veterans Ensemble Theatre Company. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Ellen Burstyn, (more)
- 1986
Tony Richardson, who in his days of prominence directed the Oscar-winning Tom Jones (1963), demonstrated in 1986's Penalty Phase that the intervening years did not dim his talent in the least. Peter Strauss stars as a liberal judge, in the midst of a re-election campaign. Strauss has been under fire from his enemies for being too soft on criminals. He intends to prove otherwise while presiding over the case of a vicious mass murderer and rapist (Richard Chaves). Shortly after a guilty verdict is reached, Strauss is tipped off anonymously that the defendant right's may have been violated during interrogation. While the jury enters "the penalty phase" wherein they must decide on proper punishment, Strauss undergoes a profound moral dilemma: Should he honor the letter of the law, thereby incurring public wrath and losing all hopes for being re-elected? Scripted by former lawyer Gail Patrick Hickman, the made-for-TV Penalty Phase was originally telecast November 18, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In Peter Weir's thriller Witness, Samuel (Lukas Haas), a young Amish boy, witnesses a murder in the restroom of a Philadelphia bus station. Harrison Ford stars as John Book, the police detective investigating the murder. When Book discovers that the crime was part of a conspiracy involving several officials in his department, he flees Philadelphia to the Amish community where Samuel lives with his widowed mother, Rachel (Kelly McGillis). Slowly assimilating himself into the Amish community, Book eventually finds himself falling in love with Rachel in the midst of his investigation. Eventually, the corrupt police track Book down, and he is forced to confront them, while also trying to protect Rachel and Samuel. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, (more)
- 1985
- R
In a thought-provoking treatment of the deep-rooted turmoil of war veterans, debut director (David Nutter) has fashioned a fast-paced story about Vietnam vet Tim Murphy (Don Johnson) and his struggle to regain both self-respect and emotional equilibrium. Tim suffers from nightmares, and there is nothing his loyal wife Paula (Lisa Blount) can do to prevent them, nor can she do much to help him get a job. She is hampered even further by Tim's bad temper -- he flies off the handle at friends and family alike. One day, Tim meets a fellow Vietnam vet in the unemployment line, and the two quickly become good friends. When tragedy later strikes, Tim faces an important decision about his future on his own. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Johnson, Lisa Blount, (more)
- 1981
A 1962 novel by Edward Abbey was the source for this 1981 TV movie. Buddy Ebsen plays a stubborn oldster who refuses to leave his mountain property when it is targeted for a government missile base. Not even a promised $100,000 compensation will induce Ebsen to leave. Young land developer Ron Howard is sent to vacate Ebsen, but soon Howard joins the older man in defying the military. Soon it boils down to a battle of wills between Ebsen and the equally bullheaded army officer Michael Conrad. Fire on the Mountain may have your typical "all-TV" cast, but it's a good one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Howard, Buddy Ebsen, (more)
