Jeff David Movies
- 1993
Shot on inferior video stock (but sporting pretentious "letterbox" screen-masking for some insane reason), this painfully cheap and sleazy affair presents a serial killer on wheels, in the form of wheelchair-bound Eugene (Ron Litman), who seeks revenge against the street punks who killed his mother and rendered him unable to walk. When similar thugs rape and kill his aunt (Mary Woronov), Eugene seems to slip into Taxi Driver mode. When his attempts at preparation are thwarted by his infirmity, he is assisted at first by a like-minded homeless man (G.J. Levinson), but when his accomplice chickens out, Eugene kills him and rises to the challenge on his own, building confidence with each attack. Eventually he hits on the ultimate plan of revenge: by poisoning the water supply with a drug that will destroy the city's wealthy populace, literally turning them into bums! Though he is ostensibly directing his revenge on society as a whole, Eugene seems to favor naked or barely-clad female victims -- which seems more indicative of the director's hang-ups than those of his principal character. A waste of time, despite the presence of the always-interesting Woronov. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Martin Scorsese's satirical comedy/drama caustically explores the lengths to which a nobody will go to be as famous as his idol. Practicing his patter in his basement with cardboard cut-outs of his favorite celebrities, mediocre aspiring comedian Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) believes that one appearance on the evening talk show of the Johnny Carson-esque Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis) will be his ticket to stardom. After he helps Jerry escape the advances of amorous fan Masha (Sandra Bernhard), Rupert takes Jerry's patronizing brush-off as a true promise for an audition and begins haunting Jerry's office. Provoked by Masha's needling and a rejection from Jerry's smooth production exec Cathy Long (Shelley Hack), Rupert makes a disastrous trip to Jerry's country house with embarrassed date Rita (Diahnne Abbott), then hatches an even more outlandish scheme to get ahead. With Masha's help, Rupert kidnaps Jerry and demands as ransom the TV appearance that he believes will turn his fantasy into reality. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, (more)
- 1977
The weekly TV series The Hardy Boys kicked off its second season with "The Mystery of King Tut's Tomb." Taryn Power (daughter of Tyrone) plays a young girl who overhears a scheme to pass off phony Egyptian artifacts as real. She is promptly kidnapped and spirited off to an ancient tomb. While exploring in the Egyptian desert, Frank Hardy (Parker Stevenson) and his brother Joe (Shaun Cassidy) stumble upon the tomb's hidden entrance. Cesare Danova and Elyssa Davalos also appear in this 48-minute nail biter, which first aired September 25, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
- PG
Don Siegel took over the directing chores from Peter Hyams on this taut cold war action film, based on the novel by Walter Wager. With the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union thawing, old KGB hard-liner Nicolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence) activates a group of Americans who were brainwashed twenty years earlier to blow up United States defenses when a passage from a Robert Frost poem is recited to them. When bombs go off at an abandoned United States defense installation, the Kremlin realizes that they have a rogue KGB agent on their hands who is trying to re-ignite the cold war. To stop him, the Russians send out KGB agent Grigori Borzov (Charles Bronson). Accompanying him is KGB double agent Barbara (Lee Remick). As the two agents try to stop Nicolai from starting World War III, they find time to fall in love with each other. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bronson, Lee Remick, (more)
- 1976
Jim Rockford's old Army buddy Al Brennan (Ned Beatty) asks Jim (James Garner) to help Marcy Brownell (Veronica Hamel) locate her missing sister. What Jim doesn't know is that the mercenary Al is using him to pull off an elaborate swindle. The key player in this sordid little drama is an ill-tempered gent named John Stabila (Paul Stevens)--and the "Maguffin" on this occasion is a missing Shan-Yin vase, valued at around three million dollars! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
- R
With a storyline evocative of the previous year's smash gay-themed The Boys in the Band, this drama centers on a varied group of homosexuals who meet in a New York bar on a Christmas Eve to talk about their lives, their travails, and relationships. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
