Richard Russell Ramos Movies
- 1996
Several people are senselessly murdered at a clothing store. Investigating detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) end up arresting James Smith (Denis O'Hare), a schizophrenic who hasn't been taking his medication. Unfortunately for the D.A.'s office, Smith turns out to be a lawyer -- and an unusually clever one, as he proves when he defends himself in court. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Bruce Willis returns as misfit cop John McClane in the third film in the Die Hard series. McClane has fallen on hard times; after moving to New York City and breaking up with his wife, he's developed a drinking problem and has been suspended from the NYPD. However, his past comes back to haunt him in the form of Simon (Jeremy Irons), a terrorist bomber who has been using McClane as his contact as he plants a series of bombs in public places and gives McClane inane "clues" to their whereabouts in the form of riddles and bizarre games. McClane soon discovers he's been involved in Simon's scheme as part of a personal grudge; while associated with an international terrorist group, Simon is also the brother of the man McClane threw off the side of a skyscraper several years back (in the original Die Hard). Now McClane, with the help of a Harlem shopkeeper named Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson), has to find out where Simon has planted the bombs, guess where he'll strike next, and try to find his base of operations before more bombs go off and thousands of people die. The supporting cast features Graham Greene and Colleen Camp; singer Sam Phillips made her acting debut as a member of Simon's terrorist group (Phillips never speaks, so as to not to reveal her Texas accent). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, (more)
- 1991
A Lebanese gunrunner is murdered, and the most likely suspect is Ian O'Connell (Anthony Heald), an Irish Republican Army terrorist. This poses a dilemma for detective Logan (Chris Noth), who wonders if his own pro-Irish sentiments may prevent him from conducting an impartial investigation. Originally scheduled to air on January 22, 1991, this episode of Law & Order was bumped forward to March 26 of that year (curiously, only nine days after St. Patrick's Day). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1990
Richard Crenna returns as Lt. Frank Janek of the NYPD in the TV movie Murder in Black and White. As in his previous appearances in Doubletake (85) and Internal Affairs (89), Janek is called upon to solve a bizarre and baffling murder. This time the victim is Janek's own boss, the new commissioner of police. The lieutenant deduces that this murder is tied in with the killing of a physician, which occurred only a few hours earlier. Diahann Carroll plays the commissioner's widow, who may or may not be privy to a departmental cover-up. Murder in Black and White was the first made-for-TV movie to be telecast in 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Jack Noah (Richard Dreyfuss) is all actor: Self-possessed, obsessive, vulnerable, and an addict for praise, his soul burns with "the craft." Having just finished a grade-Z straight-to-cable crime thriller in the fictional South American country of Parador, he gets the ultimate acting challenge (though it's more like an offer he can't refuse) from Roberto Strausman (Raul Julia), the Paradorian dictator's chief advisor. The challenge: impersonate the country's dictator, whose just died. Strausman knows just how to manipulate Noah: He takes him to a meat locker, shows him the director's body (actually Dreyfuss' brother, Lorin), threatens to kill him, and he brings clips of Noah's best reviews. Thus enticed, and bearing a striking resemblance to the man, Noah accepts the job. Under the exacting direction of Strausman, he follows the script precisely. Noah immediately enjoys the job's perks, not least of which is the dictator's scorching mistress, Madonna (Sonia Braga), but of course cannot conceal his real identity to her. A close call with Parador's revolutionaries and Madonna's brimming social conscience push Noah to take command of the role. He starts pushing a kinder, gentler social agenda, and incurs Strausman's wrath. It begins to look like Noah will play the dictator's last act, but a chance meeting with a stunt man friend (Michael Greene) inspires a caper that will change all of the characters' fates. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Raul Julia, (more)
- 1987
Augustus Saint Gaudens was a celebrated sculptor of the American Renaissance. Assembling quotes and letters from the artist's contemporaries and Saint Gaudens himself, Saint Gaudens: Masque of the Golden Bowl profiles the artist's life and body of work. Shot in Boston, New Hampshire, and New York, the dramatization reconstructs Saint Gaudens' life during a time of great change and excitement in American culture. The program is produced in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ~ Betsy Boyd, Rovi
Gene Wilder stars as Michael Jordon, an architect on the run from false murder charges, who hooks up with Kate Hellman (Gilda Radner), the sister of a recent suicide victim. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, (more)
- 1982
- R
Larry Cohen wrote the screenplay to this updating of Mickey Spillane's notorious 1947 novel. Cohen was originally engaged to direct the film as well but was pulled from the director's chair after a week's worth of shooting because he had already run up the budget by $100,000; he was replaced by television director Richard T. Heffron. In this 1982 I, the Jury, Mike Hammer (Armand Assante) is a Vietnam veteran who wears hip duds and drives around in a bronze Trans Am in much the same way as Robert Mitchum's Philip Marlowe was refurbished for Michael Winner's re-make of The Big Sleep. After a cheesy rip-off of a James Bond-style credit sequence, the story kicks in. One-armed detective Jack Williams (Frederick Downs) is murdered. Jack was Hammer's best friend, and Hammer decides that he will become a one-man vigilante squad and seek vengeance on the person responsible for his death. He enlists the aid of his vivacious secretary Velda (Laurene Landon) and is also helped and hindered by police-chief Pat Chambers (Paul Sorvino). Hammer latches on to the killer's trail, then the film veers in a radically different direction from the book, introducing government conspiracies and mind-control techniques by the CIA and the Mafia. Also introduced is Hammer's love interest Charlotte Bennett (Barbara Carrera), an administrator of a kinky sex clinic (depicted as a psychiatrist in the original novel). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Armand Assante, Barbara Carrera, (more)
- 1979
- R
This Peabody award-winning documentary profiles American composer Charles Ives. Ives is considered by many to be the most revolutionary and important composer of the early 20th century. A businessman who spent his nights composing, Ives produced a vast body of work. His Symphony No. 3 won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 and his innovative music often contained bi-tonal and polyrhythmic forms. The biography is presented in dramatized format, aided by the use of photographs and Ives' own compositions. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, Rovi
- 1977
Good Dissonance Like a Man is a 60-minute quasi-documentary on the life of avant-garde composer Charles Ives. The scenario is based on Ives' own memos, as well as interviews with friends, relatives and fans. Though founded on fact, most of the scenes are staged for the benefit of the camera, using professional actors. John Bottoms portrays Ives, while Richard Ramos appears as the composer's equally inventive musician father George Ives. Theodore Timreck both wrote and directed Good Dissonence Like a Man, a film that might not win any new fans for Charles Ives, but does go a long way in explaining his hold over his diehard devotees. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1976
Soon-Teck Oh guest stars as Dr. Syn Paik, a captured North Korean surgeon. As weary of war as his American counterparts Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and B.J. (Mike Farrell), Dr. Paik begs for a chance to tend to his wounded countrymen. Hawk and Beej oblige by trying to pass Paik off as a South Korean--but xenophobic Frank Burns (Larry Linville) smells a rat. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
The first part of his "paranoia trilogy," Alan J. Pakula's 1971 thriller details the troubled life of a Manhattan prostitute stalked by one of her tricks. Investigating the disappearance of his friend Tom Gruneman (Robert Milli), rural Pennsylvania private eye John Klute (Donald Sutherland) follows a lead provided by Gruneman's associate Peter Cable (Charles Cioffi) to seek out a call girl who Gruneman knew in New York City. The call girl is Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda), an aspiring actress who turns tricks for the cash and to be free of emotional bondage. Klute follows Bree's every move, observing the city's decadence and her isolation, eventually contacting her about Gruneman. Bree claims not to know Gruneman, but she does reveal that she has received threats from a john. As Bree becomes involved in Klute's search and realizes that she is in danger, she reluctantly falls in love with Klute, despite her wish to remain unattached to any man. When she finally comes face to face with the killer, however, she is forced to reconsider her detached urban life. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, (more)
- 1968
Staten Island's Andy Milligan, notorious for 16-millimeter backyard horror projects -- often incorporating thrift-shop period costumes and plentiful fake-looking gore -- applies his signature brand of awfulness to the Ten Little Indians scenario with this amateurish whodunit. The plot requires six potential heirs to spend the night in their late patriarch's allegedly-haunted estate, after which the survivors (if any) will claim his inheritance. Before long, the guests are being murdered in a variety of messy (and unconvincing) ways, including impalement, decapitation, burning alive and bisection with a two-handed saw. The usual Milligan touches abound, from dead bodies seen breathing or blinking their eyes to four-tined pitchforks which somehow become three-tined when plunging through a victim's body. The entire scenario -- including the pleasant seaside setting -- was handled far more deftly in Mario Bava's excellent thriller Bay of Blood in 1971. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
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