Ronny Cox Movies
An alumnus of Eastern New Mexico University, American actor Ronny Cox received one the best early film showcases an actor could ask for. In 1972, he was cast as one of the four unfortunate rafters in Deliverance; it was Cox who engaged in the celebrated "dueling banjos" sequence with enigmatic albino boy Hoyt J. Pollard. Two years later, Cox found himself in Apple's Way, a homey TV dramatic weekly described as a "modern Waltons". Most of his subsequent roles were in this benign, All-American vein--and then Cox shocked his followers by portraying Jerry Rubin in the 1975 PBS TV drama The Trial of the Chicago Seven. During this telecast, Cox became one of the first (if not the first) actors to mouth a now-familiar expletive of disgust on American television. As his physique thickened and his hairline thinned in the 1980s, Cox was much in demand in films as a corporate villain, notably in Paul Verhoeven's Robocop (1984) and Total Recall (1990). The flip side of this hard-nosed screen image was his portrayal of the apoplectic but scrupulously honest police chief in Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1992
Just in time for the 1992 Christmas season, Next Generation offered the first installment of this two part episode. The story gets under way during a breakdown in the hostile relationship between the Federation and the Cardassians. In order to participate in a dangerous commando raid on a Cardassian stronghold, Picard resigns his command, leaving the Enterprise in the hands of autocratic, no-nonsense Captain Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox). During his mission, Picard is captured and threatened with torture, while back on the Enterprise, Jellico's callous behavior not only angers the crew but threatens to spark an all-out war. Originally telecast December 19, 1992, part one of "Chain of Command" was scripted by Ronald D. Moore from a story by Frank Abatemarco. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this thriller a man falsely imprisoned for murdering his wife, finishes his 15 year sentence and then falls in love with his lovely parole officer who believes in him. Things go well until someone threatens the officer and begins trying to get him back in prison. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Natasha Richardson, (more)
- 1992
The first "Perry Mason" TV movie of the 1992-93 season, The Case of the Heartbroken Bride was the 23rd such production. The wedding of pop star Heather McAdam is disrupted by a drunken interloper. When the party crasher is murdered, Heather is nabbed for the killing. Among the special guest suspects are Ronny Cox, Linda Blair and Diane Baker. Stephen Stills, of Crosby Stills, Nash and Young, has a cameo. As always, Perry Mason is played by Raymond Burr. The Case of the Heartbroken Bride first aired October 30, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
- R
A woman who is trying to recover from a sexual attack is locked in a posh apartment with a dead corpse who's the very man she's been dreaming would murder her. She's barely able to hang on to reality when the objects that surround her seem to be coming to life. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sharon Stone, Steve Railsback, (more)
In Paul Verhoeven's wild sci-fi action movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a 21st-century construction worker who discovers that his entire memory of the past derives from a memory chip implanted in his brain. Schwarzenegger learns that he's actually a secret agent who had become a threat to the government, so those in power planted the chip and invented a domestic lifestyle for him. Once he has realized his true identity, he travels to Mars to piece together the rest of his identity, as well as to find the man responsible for his implanted memory. Verhoeven has created a fast, furious action film with Total Recall, filled with impressive stunts and (literally) eye-popping visuals. Though the film bears only a passing resemblance to the Philip K. Dick short story it was based on ("We Can Remember It For You Wholesale"), the movie is an entertaining, if very violent, ride. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, (more)
Loose Cannons may be a wacky buddy-cop comedy, but it starts with a chilling premise. It seems that a film is discovered that depicts the final moments of Adolf Hitler's life. The climax features young German officer Von Metz, who is seen putting Hitler to death. Von Metz (Robert Prosky) is now running for chancellor of West Germany. If this film gets out, his political career is finished, so Von Metz has arranged for the murder of anyone who has seen the film. The killings have taken place in the Washington area and Mac (Gene Hackman) and Ellis (Dan Aykroyd) are sent to investigate the crimes. Mac is a middle-aged veteran of the force, a professional who gets things done. But Ellis is a different ball of wax. Suffering from a multiple personality disorder, he has spent two years in a Benedictine monastery to recover from his problems. But he is far from cured -- as Mac discovers, whenever Ellis is confronted by violence, he blacks out and begins to assume the characters of popular culture icons like Popeye, Captain Kirk, and the Road Runner. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Hackman, Dan Aykroyd, (more)
- 1990
- PG13
In the film adapted from a book by Frederic Brown, a music composer (Randy Quaid) receives an invitation to score an upcoming science-fiction film. When the piece is accidentally broadcast on the radio, it encourages a rather pedestrian invasion force from Mars. The legion of green men instead cause havoc around the globe just by having fun, and it is the composer's duty to send them packing. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, (more)
- 1989
- R
In this actioner, an L.A. cop speeds off to get revenge upon the dirty drug-dealing dogs who killed his partner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Matuszak, Ronny Cox, (more)
- 1989
This drama chronicles the relationships between eight Northern California high-school graduates living on the cusp of 1960. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1989
In this drama, a father has an affair with his son's girlfriend and finds it difficult to regain the love of his estranged family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1988
- Add In the Line of Duty: The F.B.I. Murders to QueueAdd In the Line of Duty: The F.B.I. Murders to top of Queue
The first of several 1980s TV movies based on official FBI files, In the Line of Duty: The F.B.I. Murders premiered on November 27, 1988. Veteran TV "good guys" David Soul and Michael Gross do a typecasting about-face, playing two vicious, homicidal Miami-based bank robbers. The deadly duo's crime spree was climaxed by a bloody 1986 gun battle. Extremely violent, the film tempers its bloodshed with several instructive scenes showing how the FBI pieced together the clues that enabled them to track down their quarry. Doug Sheehan, Ronny Cox and Bruce Greenwood represent the forces of the Law. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Raquel Welch plays a cocktail waitress whose high-school daughter reveals that her history teacher is espousing anti-Semitic teachings. The waitress-mom takes the hateful teacher to court. The teacher's best defense is to attack the waitress's questionable past which turns this "scandal" into a Peyton Place-type affair. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raquel Welch, Ronny Cox, (more)
- 1988
In this disturbing episode of the made-for-television crime drama anthology In the Line of Duty: The FBI Murders, the Miami division of the FBI embarks upon a desperate search for a murderous pair of thieves who kill for the joy of it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1987
Target: Favorite Son is the 115-minute abridgement of the three-part TV miniseries Favorite Son. Adapted by Steve Sohmer from his own novel, the film stars Harry Hamlin as a freshman senator from Texas who has "greatness thrust upon him" when he is accidentally shot during the assassination of a visiting Nicaraguan contra leader. Almost as if rehearsed, Hamlin delivers an impassioned pro-contra speech--all of which is seen on live TV. Upon recovering, Hamlin is selected by his party to run for the Vice President's post. Meanwhile, FBI agent Robert Loggia investigates the assassination, and what he discovers could--to reuse the cliché--blow Washington DC wide open. Featured in the cast is James Whitmore as the President, whose political enemies do their best to hound out of office so that the supposedly honest-and-aboveboard Hamlin can assume the Presidency. At the time of its first telecast, Favorite Son received a great deal of press play due to a scene wherein Linda Koslowski, playing the ambitious, oversexed mistress of Hamlin's press aide, strips to bra and panties and asks one of her boss' assistants (Lance Guest) to tie her up. Nothing further is shown, of course, but this tiny, almost missable scene ended up as the focal point of the entire series, so long as the clean-up-TV brigades were concerned. Favorite Son originally aired October 30 and 31, and November 1, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Paul Verhoeven's American breakthrough film, Robocop, is an exceedingly violent blend of black comedy, science fiction, and crime thriller. Set in Detroit sometime in the near future, the film is about a policeman (Peter Weller) killed in the line of duty whom the department decides to resurrect as a half-human, half-robot supercop. The RoboCop is indestructible, and within a matter of weeks he has removed crime from the streets of Detroit. However, his human side is tortured by his past, and he wants revenge on the thugs who killed him. The film was later followed by two feature-length sequels and a live-action television series, neither of which were as successful as the original film. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, (more)
- 1987
- R
An alcoholic Vietnam vet who has lost both his wife and his job as a cop while struggling to adjust to civilian life in southern California heads out for unintentionally hilarious revenge against the newly immigrated Vietnamese drug lord who slaughtered his best friend and his family in this campy "Rambo-esque" actioner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1987
This made-for-television drama is based on the true story of a harrowing country abduction. Tracy Pollan stars as Kari Swenson, an Olympic biathlon athlete-in-training who is kidnapped by some reclusive, backwoods mountain men looking for marriage. The movie follows her captivity, the massive search and her recovery from both her physical injuries and the trauma of the experience. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1987
This heartrending TV movie stars John Lithgow and Mary Beth Hurt as the parents of a severely handicapped premature infant. Weighing a scant 20 ounces at birth, the baby girl has no esophagus and very few signs of being able to stay alive without artificial assistance. The desperate couple sign away the responsibility of their daughter to the doctors, who feel that they can pull the girl through with extensive experimental medical work. Within a week of this agreement, the cost to the couple is $71,000, an amount that will triple before the situation can be legally resolved. Though not based on any factual case, Baby Girl Scott maintains an uncomfortable reality throughout. The film first aired on May 24, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lithgow, Mary Beth Hurt, (more)
Detroit cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) has seemingly smoothed out his differences with his Beverly Hills superior Bogomil (Ronny Cox), but there's trouble ahead for both men, not to mention two other holdovers from the first Cop film, officers Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (John Ashton). The "untouchable" heavy this time out is masterminding a series of violent robberies, committed by leather-freak hoods Dean Stockwell and Brigitte Nielsen. Unaccumstomed to this nastiness, Bogomil entreats street-smart Foley to help find the miscreants. But mean-spirited chief of police Lutz (Allen Garfield) will brook no interference from outsiders-especially the profanely insouciant Mr. Foley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, (more)
- 1986
Season Three of Murder She Wrote begins with the first episode of a two-part story, in which mystery writer Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) pays a visit to the Carmody Circus, an extremely small-time operation. It seems that Jessica has evidence that one of the circus' employees, a roustabout-clown who calls himself Carl, is actually her brother-in-law Neil (Jackie Cooper), who has long been presumed dead. No sooner does Jessica link up with Neil than the man is accused of murdering the circus' hateful manager Hank Sutter (Charles Napier). A young Courtney Cox appears as Neil's granddaughter, Carol Bannister. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
In the second half of Murder She Wrote's two-part Season Three opener, Jessica's long-missing brother in law Neil Fletcher (Jackie Cooper), who has been working under an alias with the Carmody Circus, has confessed to the murder of circus manager Hank Sutter. Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is convinced that Neil is innocent, and that he is covering up for somebody else--and this proves to be a reasonable conclusion when a second murder occurs, in which the victim is rival circus owner Harry Kingman (Joe Dorsey). Seriously hampering Jessica's investigation is the stone wall of resistance built up by the highly clannish circus folk--and by the curiously hostile local authorities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This attempt at parodying a world of hookers, child pornographers, and drug cartels never quite gets off the ground. Though these topics are not inherently amusing, director Penelope Spheeris takes the plot of Hardcore as a springboard and develops a few parallel stories that are meant to be funny. Pauline Stanton (Trish Van DeVere) is desperately hoping to rescue her daughter Lori (Robin Wright) who is working for the evil Walsh (Frank Gorshin) as a call-girl. As some policemen work on trying to get the goods on Walsh and send him up for white slave trading, another policewoman is involved in trying to bring down a child pornographer in her neighborhood. Yet another cop, detective Romero (H.B. Haggerty) is after a New York mob boss. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronny Cox, Frank Gorshin, (more)
According to high school wrestler Matthew Modine, a spiritual "Vision Quest" is necessary for him to decide his future. Thus, Modine starts behaving in a manner that amazes even himself. The crowning achievement of Modine's new outlook on life is his romance with 21-year-old artist Linda Fiorentino. Somehow, all of this boils down to the standard "underdog makes good at crucial sports event" finale. Essentially Rocky and Breaking Away redux, Vision Quest is saved by the spirited performances of its young protagonists. Of historical value is the brief appearance by Madonna, whose voice is heard throughout on the film's music track. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Modine, Linda Fiorentino, (more)
Dorian Harewood stars as the legendary black athlete in this made-for-TV biography that follows Jesse Owens from his collegiate career, to his pinnacle at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he won four gold medals--much to the dismay of Adolf Hitler and his squad of Aryan super-athletes. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
