Robert Davi Movies
Rugged, tall, and heavily pock-marked, actor Robert Davi has built a long career out of playing anonymously ethnic bad guys. Born in Queens, NY, to Italian parents, he studied opera, Shakespeare, and stage acting under the wing of Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler before becoming one of Hollywood's most recognizable villains. His big feature-film break came in 1977, playing opposite Frank Sinatra in the detective drama Contract on Cherry Street. He would go on to appear with other superstars, toting guns as a mobster, corrupt cop, or general villain in numerous action movies. One of his most noticeable roles was as a Fratelli brother in The Goonies. He also played bad guys on television, building a long list of credits in popular series like The Fall Guy, The A-Team, and Wiseguy. Mostly a supporting actor, his first lead role was as a Palestinian terrorist in the TV movie Terrorist on Trial: The United States vs. Salim Ajami. His tough guy career reached its culmination in 1989, in the role of James Bond villain Franz Sanchez in License to Kill. After that, he occasionally broke out of the pattern and appeared in comedies and dramas. His first leading good guy part was in 1996 as FBI agent Bailey Malone in the NBC drama The Profiler. He even went so far as to star in the Rodney Dangerfield comedy The 4th Tenor and Rob Schneider's The Hot Chick. In 2002, Davi appeared in The Sorcerer's Apprentice as Merlin, lent his voice to the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and gained a starring role as Nick in the thriller Hitters. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
This documentary, hosted by Robert Davi, delves into the fascinating subject of the possibility of alien beings living on Earth. Since the first UFO sightings at Roswell, NM, in 1947, the subject of UFOs has captivated the modern sensibility. Are UFOs an exteriorization of a psychic state, as Jungian psychology suggests? Or is there physical evidence that UFOs and aliens really do exist? The film looks at the Air Force's official inquiry into the Roswell incident, and scrutinizes the home movies, videos, and photographs made by citizens. Interviews are conducted with people who claim to have been abducted, and there are re-enactments of the bizarre experiments to which abductees report having been subjected. The film investigates the 1994 incident in Ohio when the police dispatch records show that the police followed UFOs on a long chase through the night. The film's coup de grace is the surgical removal of an alleged alien implant in an abductee's thumb. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Contract on Cherry Street represented Frank Sinatra's TV movie debut--an event deemed worthy of a TV Guide cover story. Sinatra plays NYPD veteran Deputy Inspector Frank Hovannes, in charge of a special unit set up to battle organized crime. The murder of Hovannes' partner, coupled with departmental restrictions and legalities, leads the Inspector to organize a semi-vigilante group with three other like-minded officers. They murder an underworld honcho, in hopes of triggering a mob war that will result in the decimation of every gangster in the Big Apple. Edward Anhalt's script for Contract on Cherry Street can't make up its mind whether to emulate The Godfather or Kojak. Sinatra's own Artanis Productions was responsible for this film, so any praise or blame must ultimately fall upon Ol' Blue Eyes' shoulders. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Martin Balsam, (more)
- 1979
Westerns may have been dead at the box-office in the late 1970s, but the TV-movie market still kept grinding them out. Legend of the Golden Gun includes elements of fantasy in its formula tale of a young man (Jeffrey Osterhage) who becomes the protege of an aging gunman (Hal Holbrook) The plotline contrives to include cameo appearances by guerilla leader William Quantrill (who kills the hero's parents) and General Custer (portrayed a la Douglas MacArthur, corncob pipe and all, by Keir Dullea). That this film is meant to be tongue-in-cheek is indicated by a scene in a frontier saloon, which in the manner of Sardi's restaurant is decorated with the caricatures of famous outlaws and lawmen! TV-movie expert Lee Goldberg has further noted that Legend of the Golden Gun is constructed along the lines of Stars Wars--an appropriate decision, since Star Wars was partially inspired by the western classic The Searchers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Osterhage, Hal Holbrook, (more)
- 1979
Jonah (Jeffrey Bravin) is a lonely deaf child who has been misdiagnosed as retarded. Jonah's mother (Sally Struthers) and father (James Woods) struggle to establish communication from their withdrawn son. As the specialists shake their heads and cluck their tongues, Jonah's parents finally manage to teach the child sign language, thereby opening up his world both intellectually and emotionally. And Your Name is Jonah is proof enough that Sally Struthers once had potential for greatness, and confirmation that James Woods was on the right artistic track as early as 1979. Despite competition from the network premiere of Taxi Driver, And Your Name is Jonah managed to post excellent ratings upon its original telecast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
Husband, father, rapist. All three succinctly describe the character portrayed by David Soul in the made-for-TV Rage. Though he would seem to be a hopeless case, Soul is subjected to prison therapy sessions, on the theory that he might be curable. As the sessions continue under the guidance of therapist James Whitmore, Soul pours out a lifetime worth of anger, revealing the deep psychological wounds that have formed his warped personality. Contrasted with Soul is Yaphet Kotto, as an allegedly rehabilitated prisoner. Based on several case histories as recorded by New Jersey's Avenel Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center, Rage was originally telecast September 25, 1980 ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
Clearly inspired by the theatrical feature Norma Rae, The $5.20 an Hour Dream stars Linda Lavin as a recently divorced woman supporting herself and her 12-year-old daughter. The highest-paying job at the Oregon engine factory where she works is on the assembly line--which has traditionally been an all-male operation. Bucking the system (and several stereotyped "chauvinist pigs"), Lavin eventually wins a place on the line, as do several of her female friends. As always, Linda Lavin (for whom this film was a pet project) looks far too self-reliant to ever be considered a "victim," so the climax of $5.20 an Hour Dream is a foregone conclusion. This made for TV movie received an award from the National Commission of Working Women. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
Filmed on location at Alcatraz Island, this two-part "whole story" actually concentrates on a handful of the denizens behind the cold grey walls of "The Rock". Michael Beck plays the real-life Clarence Carnes, an Oklahoma Choctaw Indian said to be the youngest man ever incarcerated in the notorious maximum security prison. Serving a 99-year sentence for a gas station holdup and murder, Carnes makes periodic attempts to escape, the final attempt being the most violent. Many of the subordinate characters are fictional (as are most of the details concerning Carnes' escape efforts); the one exception is Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz", here portrayed by Art Carney as a gentle, kindly philosopher. Telly Savalas, a costar of the Burt Lancaster vehicle Birdman of Alcatraz, also guest starred in the 1980 film. Originally titled Alcatraz and Clarence Carnes, this made-for-TV movie wavers between gritty realism and "I'm bustin' outta here!" artifice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Beck, Telly Savalas, (more)
- 1981
This action film follows the childhood alliances of "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and "Bugsy" Siegel and their reign as the kings of the 1920s crime scene. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
This standard, tongue-in-cheek, gangsters and good guys saga is carried on the star power and screen presence of Clint Eastwood as Lt. Speer, a taciturn, tough, play-it-by-the-book cop, and on Burt Reynolds as Mike Murphy, Speer's old friend in the force, now turned private eye but still a captivating rogue at heart. With a sub-text of playing their well-known screen personas off each other, Eastwood and Reynolds provide more than a surface interpretation of the characters that made them famous. After Murphy's partner is murdered, he focuses on pitting one mob boss against another in an attempt to have both mobsters kill each other. In the meantime, Lt. Speer -- who has never approved of Murphy's private detective business -- does not really know if Murphy is for or against the two top gangsters. Set in the era of speakeasies and Prohibition, an added layer of "film noir" can be discerned under the complex plot, verbal repartée, and episodes of toned-down violence (a kind of parody in themselves). Although this may not be the best film either star has made, it is still interesting to see them together on screen. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, (more)
- 1984
The A-Team gets the opportunity to officially represent Law and Order when they're deputized to keep the peace in Rivertown, a small village in the South American republic of San Marcus. The village, built to house the workers from a local power plant, has been plagued by mysterious accidents in which several workers have vanished. Among those missing is the brother of Nikki Monroe (Wendy Kilbourne), who is conducting her own investigation--and placing herself in serious jeopardy as a result. The climax involves a secret missile base and a spectacular mine cave-in, not to mention the muscular heroics of good old B.A. (Mr. T). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Leonard Maltin wasn't alone when he noticed similarities between Goonies and the 1934 Our Gang comedy Mama's Little Pirate. Adapted by Chris Columbus from a story by Steven Spielberg, the film follows a group of misfit kids (including such second-generation Hollywoodites as Josh Brolin and Sean Astin) as they search for buried treasure in a subterranean cavern. Here they cross the path of lady criminal Mama Fratelli (Anne Ramsey) and her outlaw brood. Fortunately, the kids manage to befriend Fratelli's hideously deformed (but soft-hearted) son (John Matuszak), who comes to their rescue. The Spielberg influence is most pronounced in the film's prologue and epilogue, when the viewer is advised that the film's real villains are a group of "Evil Land Developers." The musical score makes excellent use of Max Steiner's main theme from The Adventures of Don Juan, not to mention contributions by the likes of Richard Marx and Cyndi Lauper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, (more)
- 1985
After pulling off a million-dollar armored car heist, criminal mastermind Sonny Dunbar (Robert Davi) murders his partner, the better to grab a bigger piece of the prize. Unfortunately for Dunbar, the money is stuffed into the trunk of a car that has been stolen by a band of petty thieves. Determined to retrieve the money and kill anyone who tries to stop him, the shotgun-wielding Dunbar cuts quite a bloody swath through Los Angeles--and this time even the formidable Sgt. Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) may have met his match! Watch for Robert Englund of "Freddy Krueger" fame as a secondary villain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A former FBI agent is recruited to root out the gangsters who killed a fellow agent's son in this Arnold Schwarzenegger action film. After being booted out of the bureau for excessive violence, Kaminski (Schwarzenegger) lives in small-town exile with his bitter wife, Amy (Blanche Baker). He gets the chance to return to the big city, however, when Chicago mobsters murder the son of his old colleague Shannon (Darren McGavin), as well as scads of prosecution witnesses against them in an impending court case. Shannon promises to reinstate Kaminski if he'll help engineer the downfall of gang leader Max (Robert Davi). Working undercover and without government sanction, Kaminski infiltrates the mob by posing as a bodyguard/assassin. Along the way, he tussles with beautiful gambling addict Monique (Kathryn Harrold), who starts off as an enemy but ends up more. The action comes to a head when Kaminski's mob bosses send him to kill none other than Shannon. Released post-Terminator and pre-Predator, Raw Deal is one of several non-science fictional action flicks that cemented Schwarzenegger's '80s box-office appeal. Director John Irvin would return the following year with the gritty Vietnam drama Hamburger Hill. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Harrold, (more)
- 1987
- PG
After his hippie parents are killed in a botched drug deal, a child is taken in by a bag lady in this implausible drama. Wild Thing (Rob Knepper) grows up to be the champion of street justice, espousing a 1960s philosophy and coming to the aid of the helpless and oppressed. Jane (Kathleen Quinlan) is the concerned social worker who falls for the hero. The hit song Wild Thing by the Troggs is used often but has nothing to do with the story or the hero being portrayed. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Knepper, Kathleen Quinlan, (more)
- 1987
- R
This comical adventure pokes fun at Rambo as it chronicles the exploits of Traxx, a Texas Highway patrolman who leaves the state police to become a soldier-of-fortune in Hadleyville where he gets into baking funky cookies and working as a sort of town bouncer helping to clean up the burg. While there he and the Mayor, Alexandria Cray have a passionate affair. Real trouble comes to town in the form of the fearsome Uzi-toting Guzik brothers who have come to throw the do-gooder out. To draw him out, the nefarious brothers kidnap the town Little League team. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shadoe Stevens, Priscilla Barnes, (more)
Ex-football player Carl Weathers stars in this violent action film as Detroit policeman Jericho Jackson. The dedicated but brutal cop is plunged into nefarious doings concerning a crooked industrialist (Craig T. Nelson) and his drug-addicted girlfriend (pop-singer Vanity), breaking many people's bones before solving the case. Sharon Stone stands out in a cast of genre veterans including Nicholas Worth, Sonny Landham, and Robert Davi. Heavy on the sex and violence, this film harkens back to the glory days of 1970s blaxploitation, but is a bit too mean-spirited to be as much fun. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, (more)
It's Christmas time in L.A., and there's an employee party in progress on the 30th floor of the Nakatomi Corporation building. The revelry comes to a violent end when the partygoers are taken hostage by a group of terrorists headed by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), who plan to steal the 600 million dollars locked in Nakatomi's high-tech safe. In truth, Gruber and his henchmen are only pretending to be politically motivated to throw the authorities off track; also in truth, Gruber has no intention of allowing anyone to get out of the building alive. Meanwhile, New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) has come to L.A. to visit his estranged wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), who happens to be one of the hostages. Disregarding the orders of the authorities surrounding the building, McClane, who fears nothing (except heights), takes on the villains, armed with one handgun and plenty of chutzpah. Until Die Hard came along, Bruce Willis was merely that wisecracking guy on Moonlighting. After the film's profits started rolling in, Willis found himself one of the highest-paid and most sought-after leading men in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, (more)
- 1988
There is no question that the Arab terrorist portrayed by Robert Davi is guilty of killing five US citizens in Barcelona. Even his lawyers have zero respect for the rabidly sociopathic Davi. But Jewish defense attorney Ron Leibman is obsessed with the concept of Due Process, and has vowed that Davi will receive a scrupulously fair trial when the terrorist is extradited to America. The defense mounted by Leibman confounds and aggravates government prosecutor Sam Waterston--but he, like Leibman, remains a man of judiciary integrity. Though purely a work of speculative fiction, Terrorist on Trial raises ethical and moral questions that cannot be easily shunted aside with the mantra of "it's only a TV movie." The film was a worthy valedictory piece for the Emmy-winning writing team of Richard Levinson (who died just after the film's completion) and William Link. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Waterston, Robert Davi, (more)
Timothy Dalton is better in Licence to Kill than in his first James Bond endeavor (The Living Daylights), but he still seems uncomfortable on the right side of the law. This time around, Bond is working on his own rather than on behalf of the British Secret Service. His American friend Felix Leiter (David Hedison), an agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration, has been seriously injured by drug dealer Robert Davi, and 007 is out for blood. There is precious little time for the usual Bondian quippery and directorial campiness, resulting in a marked increase in bloodletting (including the "implosion" of secondary villain Anthony Zerbe). A climactic highway chase involving an oil tanker and a helicopter is stretched slightly beyond its value, but is still one of the best action setpieces in any Bond film. Licence to Kill was a refreshingly serious change of pace for the series, albeit one that tended to lessen Bond's box-office value. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Dalton, Carey Lowell, (more)
This special effects-heavy science fiction sequel moves the action from the first film's Amazon forest to the urban jungle of L.A. Danny Glover stars as Lt. Mike Harrigan, an LAPD detective baffled by his latest case, the ritualistic slaughter of several drug dealers by a devastating killer who leaves no traces. As Harrigan and his partners, Danny Archuletta (Ruben Blades), Leona Cantrell (Maria Conchita Alonso), and Jerry Lambert (Bill Paxton), try to figure out who or what killed the criminals, FBI investigator Stephen Keyes (Gary Busey) attempts to warn the team away from investigating further. When two of his team are killed in a particularly grisly way, Harrigan uncovers the truth -- their quarry is an alien creature that hunts humans for sport. Attracted to violence, its latest choice of prey is gun-toting Jamaican drug dealers. Keyes and his team know all about the nasty extraterrestrial and its bloody pastime because they've been studying it for ten years, and they've come up with a possible means of dispatching the beast. When that plan backfires, however, it comes down to Harrigan and an extremely irritated otherworldly foe, slugging it out in a rooftop confrontation. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Glover, Gary Busey, (more)
- 1990
Finnish director Mika Kaurismaki (who also co-wrote the screenplay) made his English-language feature debut with this tale of foreigners adrift in the treacherous labyrinth of the Brazilian jungle. Kari (Kari Vaananen) is driving down the Trans-Amazonica Highway -- actually a two-lane dirt road that leads out of Rio -- with his two small daughters, Nina (Minna Sovio) and Lea (Ailo Sovio). He is fleeing the Brazilian authorities and is already on the lam from his homeland for taking his wife off life support after a car accident left her in a coma. His car eventually runs out of gas, and the family is rescued by Dan (Robert Davi), a bitter American expatriate and bush pilot who involves Kari in a scheme to use an old bulldozer he has discovered for mining purposes. Dan's plan will wreak havoc with the already devastated rainforest, however, and Kari, under the influence of a native woman (Rae Dawn Chong), starts to doubt his involvement in the project. Good performances, an important message, and excellent photography are all wasted on a story that starts out well but becomes unbalanced when one of the main characters suddenly dies, practically eliminating any conflict or confrontation toward which the plot may have been building. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kari Väänänen, Robert Davi, (more)
- 1990
- R
Trash-TV pioneer Morton Downey Jr. stars as an evil savings-and-loan financier who is investigated by a private eye (Robert Davi) in this thriller also released as Ladies Game. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1990
- R
"You have the right to remain silent . . . Forever!" This sequel to Maniac Cop pits Matt Cordell (Robert Z'dar), the crazed, murderous "Maniac Cop" of the first film (now horribly disfigured after a particularly brutal stay in prison), and Turkel (Leo Rossi), a serial killer who likes to murder strippers, against a frenzied NYPD detective, Sean McKinney (Robert Davi), who is just one step ahead of a nervous breakdown. His nerves don't get much relief when officers Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell) and Teresa Mallory (Laurene Landon) insist that Cordell is still alive -- not only alive, but unkillable. Then Jack is murdered and the silent Maniac Cop breaks Turkel out of jail. With a group of rancid prisoners, they take police department psychologist Susan Riley (Claudia Christian) hostage. When the prisoners attempt a massive prison break, McKinney musters his forces to hunt down Cordell and Turkel and save Susan. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Davi, Claudia Christian, (more)
- 1990
- R
Deceptions, a made-for-cable below-average erotic thriller, tells the familiar story of a homicide cop who falls for a beautiful suspect. When wealthy socialite Adrienne (Nicollette Sheridan) kills her husband Douglas (Marshall Colt), she claims self-defense. Nick Gentry (Harry Hamlin), the cop assigned to the case is suspicious but becomes obsessed with the sensual young woman. There is little new here and director Ruben Preuss spends little time with plot or character development, depending on the audience's interest in the extremely attractive cast, including Hamlin and Sheridan who were married at the time. Both Hamlin and Sheridan give stilted, wooden performances and surprisingly generate very little heat in their love scenes. Deceptions is a remarkably predictable, non-erotic thriller with little to recommend it. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Hamlin, Nicollette Sheridan, (more)
- 1990
- R
A woman is caught in the middle of a cat-and-mouse game between fugitive aliens in this sci-fi thriller. A mysterious man named Townsend (Lance Edwards) attempts to steal a gun from a police car; an altercation results, and Townsend is repeatedly shot by the cops. Medical Examiner Dori Caisson (Hilary Shepard) is performing an autopsy on Townsend's seemingly dead body when his wounds suddenly heal, and Townsend forces Caisson to help him escape. Townsend and Caisson are soon approached by Yates (Robert Forster), who attempts to kill them and sends them on a high-speed chase. The next morning, Townsend tells Caisson that he is actually a law enforcement officer from another world, and that Yates is a criminal from his planet whom he is assigned to apprehend. Townsend's ability to resist bullets and heal himself convince her that he is indeed from another world, but she's not so sure who is the good guy. Peacemaker also features Robert Davi as a cop involved with Caisson, and Bert Remsen as Doc. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Forster, Lance Edwards, (more)
