Lyle Alzado Movies
American actor and former professional football player Lyle Alzado appeared in many television shows and occasionally in feature films. After using steroids and growth hormones for almost two decades, Alzado was diagnosed with brain cancer in the early 1990s. He believed that his drug use and the cancer were linked, and he spent his final days warning youngsters about the dangers of such drugs. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1992
- R
Set in a poisonous, ruined and anarchic 21st-century world ruled by amoral mutants, this "Road Warrioresque" adventure centers on the attempts of a motley band of travelers to cross the desiccated badlands in hopes of finding a mythical city where civilization and order make life peaceful and safe. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Ironside, Vanity, (more)
- 1991
- R
In this actioner, a third-world drug lord seeks to monopolize the narcotics trade in the recently disbanded Soviet Union and post-Communist eastern Europe. To stop the mayhem he is causing from his fortress in Colombia, US agents team up with Russian agents. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lance Henriksen, Lyle Alzado, (more)
- 1991
- R
This Peter Maris action begins at New Mexico State Penitentiary, where a spew of toxic gas from the crash of a tanker truck leads to the evacuation of the prison by the warden (George Kennedy). In the ensuing confusion, anti-social cons Kuttner (Lee De Broux) and Patch (James Tolkan) kidnap prison psychologist Maria Slayton (Kim Delaney) and hit the road with a bus full of prisoners. The group first heads for Mexico but decides instead to take over the town of Sonora and hold its citizens as hostages. The National Guard sends in a state police lieutenant (Yaphet Kotto) and his tough-as-nails Lieutenant Colonel Johnson (Jan-Michael Vincent) to handle the situation. But the National Guard's ineffectual methods leave the situation more volatile than it was before. It is left to two citizens of Sonora -- sheriff Ike Slayton (Brad Davis) and his army pal Bill (Ken Foree) -- to take matters into their own hands and save the town from the kill-crazy prisoners. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brad Davis, Kim Delaney, (more)
The sequel to Zapped!, this comedy follows the wacky events that occur when a mysterious formula endows a geeky high school boy with telekinetic abilities. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Todd Eric Andrews, Marie McCann, (more)
- 1989
When private detective Mike Hammer (Stacy Keach) is blamed for a Las Vegas murder, he sets out to prove his innocence and meets a lovely woman along the way. ~ All Movie Guide
John Candy's popularity from his appearances on the Canadian television series Second City TV did not translate into film success until he made the John Hughes comedy Uncle Buck. Who's Harry Crumb? was released just before the more well-known film, and some SCTV regulars make cameo appearances. In this farcical comedy, Candy plays bumbling Harry Crumb, scion of a family of great detectives, who works as a trainee in the agency his legendary grandparents founded. His slimey boss Eliot Draisen (Jeffrey Jones) assigns the inept young detective to find the kidnapped daughter of a multi-millionaire. The plot twist is that Draisen doesn't want the kidnappers found, for reasons of his own. While Crumb blithely bumbles along through various mishaps, Draisen tries to put the moves on the millionaire's wife (Annie Potts). Fans of Candy will probably enjoy this film, which he dominates with his comedic talents and (literally) large presence. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Candy, Jeffrey Jones, (more)
- 1988
- R
The cast and crew of the low-budget women-in-prison potboiler Big House Dolls sets up shop in an abandoned prison -- the site of a bloody riot that occurred on the night serial killer Ivan Moser (Lyle Alzado) was apparently electrocuted. When the slobbering Moser begins showing up in the nightmares of stuntwoman Susan Malone (Deborah Foreman), it's a given that the lumbering, half-baked madman is soon going to show up, power tools in hand, and do a little crude free-lance editing. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deborah Foreman, Clayton Rohner, (more)
In this high-energy satire of the music biz, Ivan Alexov (John Cusack) and Josh Tager (Tim Robbins) lose their jobs as security guards, and they decide to start their own video production company. Their first gigs are less than inspiring, including a rappin' commercial for a chicken-and-waffle place, a living will, and a right-wing Presidential-hopeful's (Clu Gulager) gala dinner. Eventually, they get to direct a heavy-metal music video which becomes a huge surprise success. But now the politician needs to get back a private videotape from the boys, and the Secret Service is put on their trail. This chaotic romp has cameos from more music celebs than you can shake a tape reel at, as well as a hopping little soundtrack by Fishbone. This is also the film that introduced a conservative folksinger/politician character who later got his own movie, Bob Roberts. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Cusack, Tim Robbins, (more)
Ernest (Jim Varney) gets a job as a fix-it man at a summer camp for troubled boys, but what he really wants to be is a counselor. This juvenile comedy, filled with potty humor and slapstick, chronicles his campaign to get a promotion. A consummate bungler, he ends up causing all kinds of comical chaos. Fortunately, he also ends up helping many of the campers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Varney, Victoria Racimo, (more)
- 1987
In this adventure, an undercover cop must protect an endangered, unemployed Vietnam vet who has become a hitman's target. The story is also titled The Highwayman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1986
- PG
Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas team up one last time in Tough Guys. Harry Doyle (Lancaster) and Archie Lang (Douglas) are two old-time train robbers, who held up a train in 1956 and have been incarcerated for thirty years. After serving their time, they are released from jail and have to adjust to a new life of freedom, now as old men. Harry and Archie realize that they still have the pizzazz when, picking up their prison checks at a bank, they foil a robbery attempt. Archie, who spent his prison time pumping himself up, easily picks up a 20-year-old aerobics instructor named Skye (Darlanne Fluegel). Harry, on the other hand, has to waste away his days in a nursing home. They both have festering resentments --Archie for having to endure a humiliating job as a busboy; Harry for having to endure patronizing attitudes toward senior citizens. The two old pals finally go back to what they know best. After successfully robbing an armored car, they decide to rob the same train that they robbed thirty years ago. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, (more)
This exciting disaster film chronicles the raw courage of five ex-cons and their leader when the South American off-shore oil rig they work upon suddenly explodes and only they can stop the ensuing fire. Unfortunately, they must not only deal with the elements, they must also cope with company bureaucracy and greed and their own considerable personal differences. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1981
This made-for-TV follow-up to 1980's The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything stars Lee Purcell and Philip MacHale as Bonnie Lee Beaumont and Kirby Winter, roles created in the earlier film by Pam Dawber and Robert Hays. Once more, the hapless Kirby is the possessor of a magic watch that can stop time all around him--and once more, the watch causes him and his fiancee Bonnie Lee nothing but trouble. This time, hero and heroine are pitted against evil land baron Hoover Hess III (Burton Gilliam), who isn't above committing foul play to get what he wants. What Hoover wants, by the way, is a patch of valuable land owned by Bonnie Lee's mother (Carol Lawrence). Among the singular pleasures in this whimsical adventure yarn is the appearance of Jerry Mathers, Beaver Cleaver himself, as one of the bad guys! Based on characters created by John D. MacDonald, The Girl, the Gold Watch and Dynamite was first syndicated to local TV stations May 21, 1984, as part of the "Operation Prime Time" series. It was offered as both a 2-hour movie, and as a series of five half-hour programs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Alfred Hitchcock fans need not be reminded that "The McGuffin" is Hitchcock's term for the gimmicks (missing papers, stolen gems, uranium deposits) that motivate the plots of his thrillers. This much is explained by narrator Orson Welles at the beginning of the family-oriented The Double McGuffin. Hitchcock in-jokes abound in this innocuous adventure yarn, which stars Ernest Borgnine as an international terrorist (it's that kind of film). A bunch of kids in a sleepy Southern town tumble to Borgnine's scheme to assassinate a foreign prime minister, but of course the authorities don't believe a word. The kids decide to take matters into their own hands, which includes staging their own kidnapping to arouse the attention of the police. The film comes to a noisy climax during a school assembly, where the targeted prime minister is a keynote speaker. Like Ernest Borgnine, co-stars George Kennedy and Elke Sommer play their scenes straight, allowing full scope to the Saturday-matinee antics of the younger actors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernest Borgnine, George Kennedy, (more)
