John Nesci Movies
Goldie Hawn makes a change of pace in this downbeat drama about a mother' sacrifice for her family, and her son's attempts to save her from herself. When John Cross (Keith Carradine) returns home to Key West, Florida in 1969 after a tour of duty as a fighter pilot in Viet Nam, he's an emotionally shattered man; he begins drinking heavily and, in an desperate effort to find himself, abandons his wife Tracy (Goldie Hawn) and their 12-year-old son Chris (David Arnott) to live in a monastery, where he takes a vow of silence. Left with no means of support for herself or her son, Tracy takes a job as a bartender at a sleazy strip joint, but when she finds out how much more money the dancers are making, she reluctantly moves on to a career as a go-go girl. When Chris finds out about his mother's new job, he wants to rescue her from a shameful and humiliating (if profitable) career and stars taking odd jobs, including running fresh catch from a local fisherman to the restaurant in a resort hotel. However, Chris soon discovers that's he's actually being making cocaine drops, with the drugs hidden inside the fish; Chris makes the dangerous decision to steal the drugs and sell them himself. The supporting cast features Arliss Howard and Steve Buscemi. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Goldie Hawn, Arliss Howard, (more)
In this second sequel to Robocop, the mechanical humanoid opposes the evil designs of his creators, who have gone corrupt and are trying to take over all real estate in Detroit, kicking the poorer citizens out of their homes and turning them out into the streets. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert John Burke, Nancy Allen, (more)
- 1991
Corbin Bernsen, fresh out of LA Law, plays a real-life attorney in Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story. As Dees, Bernsen goes head to head with the Ku Klux Klan in the Alabama of the 1980s. Despite having his name included on the "hit list" of every wacko white supremacist in the Nation, Dees manages to break the back of the KKK is his own particular corner of the world. Line of Fire is elaborately produced and hits all the right emotional buttons, but falls short of perfection thanks to stereotypical villains and excessive melodrama. The film was first telecast on Martin Luther King Day in 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Aftermath: A Test of Love begins where most TV movies end. Based on fact (as recorded in Gary Kinder's book Victim), the story revolves around the family of Richard Chamberlain, an aloof obstetrician. The family falls victim to a violent, random crime, depicted in gruesome detail. Chamberlain's wife is murdered, and one of his sons is seriously wounded. Surviving this ordeal, Chamberlain must now try to hold his remaining loved ones together emotionally and attempt to reassemble his own battered psyche. The true events which inspired Aftermath: A Test of Love occurred in the 1970s in Ogden, Utah, where this TV movie was partially filmed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
The wife of a policeman hires a private detective to spy on her unfaithful husband in this mystery film noir send-up. The detective finds no proof of infidelity but uncovers a drug-running operation that involves the crooked cop. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Brisbin, Taunie Vrenon, (more)
- 1984
Sheila McLaughlin produced, directed, wrote and starred in this low-budget but heartfelt filmed biography of the tragic stage and screen actress Frances Farmer. Always a maverick, Farmer could never fit in with the Hollywood public-relations mill, nor was she totally at ease with the posing intellectuals of the Group Theatre. Bombarded by unfair pressure from all sides, Farmer eventually loses control over herself and has to be committed to an institution--and then suffers a far worse fate when she is put in the protective custody of her embittered mother. This story was related on a more elaborate scale in the American TV movie Will There Ever Be a Morning? (with Susan Blakely) and the theatrical film Frances (with Jessica Lange). McLaughlin's ambitious version was originally produced for British television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sheila McLaughlin, Victoria Boothby, (more)
