Rita Coolidge Movies

Dionne Warwick, Tina Turner, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, and others take the stage to perform some of their best known hits in this collection of rare concert clips featuring some of pop-music's biggest divas. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Narrated by Rita Collidge, this program recalls the young Native American woman who traveled with Lewis and Clark through tribal oral histories, along with Lewis's and Clark's journals. ~ Paul Droesch, Rovi

"I'm in love with a mermaid!" read the opening line of Leonard Maltin's original review for Splash. And with the delightful Darryl Hannah in the lead, who could fault Maltin for his public declaration of ardor? The story begins in 1959, when a young boy is rescued from a watery grave by an adolescent mermaid. Twenty-five years later, the boy has grown up--and lo and behold, it's Tom Hanks. Meanwhile, the mermaid, likewise grown up, has surfaced in search of Hanks, her long-lost love. On dry land, the mermaid is able to walk about on legs; any contact with salt water, and she reverts to her half-fish form. Adopting the name of Madison from a New York street sign, the girl manages to win Hanks' heart. Alas, a secret government lab, populated by such smarmy types as Richard B. Shull and Eugene Levy, captures Madison for research purposes--and possible vivisection. Egged on by his brother John Candy, Hanks rescues his beloved, joining her in the ocean depths as a mer-man (mer-fellow? mer-guy?) A captivating confection from the peerless creative team of director Ron Howard and screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, Splash was a winner all the way--especially at the box office, where the $11 million film racked up a huge profit. Historical sidebar: Splash was the first release from Disney's Touchstone Pictures division. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This (13th) time around, 007 (once again played by Roger Moore) receives the usual call to come and visit M when another agent drops off a fake Faberge jeweled egg at the British embassy in East Berlin and is later killed at a traveling circus. Suspicions mount when the assistant manager of the circus Kamal (Louis Jourdan), outbids Bond for the real Faberge piece at Sotheby's. Bond follows Kamal to India where the superspy thwarts many an ingenious attack and encounters the antiheroine of the title (Maud Adams), an international smuggler who runs the circus as a cover for her illegal operations. It does not take long to figure out that Orlov (Steven Berkoff), a decidedly rank Russian general is planning to raise enough money with the fake Faberges to detonate a nuclear bomb in Europe and then defeat NATO forces once and for all in conventional warfare. John Glen returns again to handle directing duties, the second of five Bond films he lensed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This installment in the series of Christmas specials that, for a time, were a tradition for the legendary Man in Black features musician Johnny Cash performing songs such as "Christmas Can't Be Far Away," and "Ballad Of A Teenage Queen." The special also features special appearances by Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

A former friend betrays a legendary outlaw in Sam Peckinpah's final Western. Holed up in Fort Sumner with his gang between cattle rustlings, Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) ignores the advice of comrade-turned-lawman Pat Garrett (James Coburn) to escape to Mexico, and he winds up in jail in Lincoln, New Mexico. After Billy theatrically escapes, inspiring enigmatic Lincoln resident Alias (Bob Dylan) to join him, the governor (Jason Robards Jr.) and cattle baron Chisum (Barry Sullivan) requisition Garrett to form a posse and hunt him down. Rather than flee to Mexico when he can, Billy heads back to Fort Sumner, meeting his final destiny at the hands of his friend Pat, who, two decades later, is forced to face the consequences of his own Faustian pact with progress. With a script by Rudolph Wurlitzer, Peckinpah uses the historical basis of Billy's death to eulogize the West dreamily yet violently as it is desecrated by corrupt capitalists. Both Pat and Billy know that their time is passing, as surely as Garrett's posse knows that they are participating in a legend. Using familiar Western players like Slim Pickens and Katy Jurado, Peckinpah underscores the West's existence as a media myth, and he even appears himself as a coffin maker. Just as the bloodletting of Peckinpah's earlier The Wild Bunch (1969) invoked the Vietnam War, the casting of Kristofferson and Dylan alluded to the chaotic late '60s/early '70s present; the counterculture has little place in a corporate future. Also like The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett was truncated by its studio; the cuts did nothing to help its box office. Key scenes, particularly the framing story of Garrett's fate, have since been restored to the home-video version. In this director's cut, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid stands as one of Peckinpah's most beautiful and complex films, killing the Western myth even as he salutes it. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Richard Sarafian directed this minimalist chase film, starring Barry Newman as ex-marine, ex-race car driver and cop named Kowalski. He drives into Denver to deliver a car and pick up another vehicle to drive to San Francisco. To make the fifteen-hour drive to San Francisco bearable he pops a load of pep pills and drives off. Almost immediately, he is told to pull over by the police, but Kowalski refuses to stop. Ignoring the cops, a police chase ensues. Egging Kowalski on is a blind black disc jockey, Super Soul (Cleavon Little), who announces his comings and goings on his local radio show, praising Kowalski to the skies as "the last American to whom speed means freedom of the soul." Super Soul's hype makes Kowalski a media sensation and Kowalski fans mount up -- as do the police cars chasing him -- as he races against time to deliver both the car and himself to his San Francisco destination. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi