Bo Hopkins Movies

Written and directed by Max Myers, Don't Let Go reflects on the musical past of siblings Jimmy Ray (Scott Wilson) and Billy Joe (Justin Shilton), who headed a rockabilly band called "The Texas Tumbleweeds" in the late '50s. Unfortunately, Jimmy Ray (Wilson) leaves the band for the bottle after his brother is murdered in a dispute over a woman. Forty years down the line, Jimmy Ray is an alcoholic and a distant father to his two children, young Billy Joe (Levi Kreis), and Johnny Blue (Brad Hawkins). At first, Jimmy Ray refuses to attend the concerts of his sons, who are burning up the rockabilly circuit themselves as leaders of "The Texas Two-Tones." The young band decides to hold a fundraiser in honor of the late Billy Joe (Shilton), and as a tribute to the 40 year anniversary of their father's former band. Though it seems that there is no chance of their father attending, Jimmy Ray happens upon his brother's old guitar in a junk shop and slings it over his shoulder in spite of himself. Don't Let Go also features Katharine Ross and Irma P. Hall. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Some young people lost in the woods pick the wrong cabin while looking for help in this story of horror and suspense. Jeremiah (Rodger Hewlett) was raised by his mother (Tracy Scoggins), a woman with a paranoid fear of strangers and outsiders, in a small cabin in a remote woodland community. Mother's fears became all too real one day when an intruder broke into her home, raping and murdering her as Jeremiah looked on. Since then, Jeremiah, deeply disturbed, has never left the house and has had almost no contact with the outside world. A group of college students led by Lehman (Mario Lopez) set out on a weekend of hiking and camping when they encounter a few rather eccentric locals, and before long they find themselves lost. They discover a small cabin in the woods, and decide to take a look inside, where they discover Jeremiah -- and find he doesn't take kindly to strangers. Crack in the Floor also features Gary Busey, Rance Howard, Bo Hopkins, and David Naughton. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Popular country & western singer and well-regarded character actor Dwight Yoakam steps behind the camera for this revisionist Western, his first effort as a director and screenwriter. Valentine Casey (Yoakam) is the sheriff of the town of Los Tragos in the Arizona Territory. Valentine, an orphan, was raised as a child by Leland Henry (Luke Askew), a notorious outlaw, but while Henry's sons Taylor (Vince Vaughn) and Arvid (Paul Reubens) have followed their father into a life of crime, Valentine dedicates himself to putting Henry and his gang behind bars. But when the Henry gang knocks over a bank, Valentine and his posse are hopelessly outnumbered (and intimidated by Leland's Gatling guns). Years later, word has circulated that Valentine died while fighting in the Spanish-American War, but he mysteriously appears in an Arizona border town, winning the affections of a visiting actress named Adalyne (Bridget Fonda) and attracting the wrath of Brigadier Smalls (Billy Bob Thornton), Adalyne's beau and a mysterious figure with a troubling secret. South of Heaven, West of Hell also features supporting performances from Bud Cort, Michael Jeter, and Bo Hopkins. Dwight Yoakam also wrote the film's original score, in collaboration with his longtime producer and sideman Pete Anderson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Premiering in the dramatic competition at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, Getting to Know You is director Lisanne Skyler's first narrative feature, following her 1995 Sundance Film Festival documentary No Loans Today. The film takes place in one afternoon at a bus depot where Judith (Welcome to the Dollhouse's Heather Matarazzo) and her brother Wesley wait for the bus. There Judith meets Jimmy (Michael Weston), a kid with a great imagination and nowhere to go. Jimmy tells Judith stories about the lonely people who are sitting at the depot, and his tall tales become flashbacks in the film. As the story progresses, Jimmy and Judith start falling in love and finally reveal the secrets of their own lives: Jimmy's father was a cop who was killed in a simple domestic disturbance call, and Judith lives with her aunt following a spousal argument that put Judith's father in prison and her mother (Bebe Neuwirth) in a mental institution. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide

Richard Linklater's fifth feature is a major departure from his previous work -- his first big-budget picture, it's also the first of his films since his 1987 Super-8 effort "It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books" not set during his signature 24-hour time frame, offering instead a ravishing bankrobber period piece buoyed by a gentleness of spirit rare among movies of any genre. Its true story tells of the four Texas-born Newton brothers, who between 1919 and 1924 were the most successful robbers in the U.S.; led by the newly-paroled Willis Newton (Matthew McConaughey, in arguably his strongest performance to date), the gang -- siblings Jess (Ethan Hawke), Joe (Skeet Ulrich) and Dock (Vincent D'Onofrio), as well as nitroglycerin expert Brentwood Glasscock (Dwight Yoakam) -- embarks on a crime spree which spreads across the U.S. and into Canada, heisting bank vaults only at night in order not to hurt or kill anyone. (As Willis figures it, the bankers -- all covered by insurance -- are merely thieves themselves anyway.) A sweetly contemplative film, The Newton Boys is almost an anti-crime caper -- no one gets killed, and the violence which does occasionally erupt is handled with a light comic touch. By no means a master storyteller, Linklater has instead crafted a movie tailored to his own strengths, among them his skillful direction of actors, his flair for period detail and his unerring sense of rhythm; like all of his work, The Newton Boys is also informed by its maker's deep and abiding love for the film medium itself, complete with any number of striking visual and emotional references to classics ranging from Greed to Jules et Jim. While viewers expecting slam-bang action typical of the genre will undoubtedly be disappointed, those seeking a more humane and poetic alternative will be utterly charmed. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Oliver Stone directed this John Ridley screenplay adapted from Ridley's novel Stray Dogs. A drifter (Sean Penn) eludes Las Vegas collection agents and arrives in a small town where he decides to linger after his car has a breakdown. Here he gets involved with the locals, including an unhappily married couple -- a businessman (Nick Nolte) and his seductive, femme-fatale wife (Jennifer Lopez). A trailer trash teen (Claire Danes) also approaches him in an effort to get away from her abusive boyfriend (Joaquin Phoenix). Tensions in the town escalate, eventually leading to murder. Stone wanted to change the title from U-Turn back to Stray Dogs but encountered a problem with Akira Kurosawa, who felt it was too similar to his detective classic, Stray Dog (1949) with Toshiro Mifune. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Oscar-winning character actor Ben Johnson was never as well known as other stars, and yet for many industry insiders, he was the epitome of cowboy actors. Of Cherokee and Irish heritage, Johnson was born in Oklahoma and became a cowboy at age eleven. He grew up to become the only movie cowboy to win both an Oscar and a rodeo championship. This documentary tells the fascinating, colorful story of his life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this actioner a beautiful designer journalist uses her black-belt in karate to stop an assassin from continuing to kill presidential candidates. Journalist Jennifer Barron begins her fight while doing a story about the optimistic Senator Ashton and his running mate Kahn. They are both victims of the killer. When Barron's lover John gets killed in an amusement park, and someone begins stalking her in hopes of taking a computer disk that she may or may not possess, the chop-socky writer has no choice but to defend herself and bring them to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Another Tom Clancy political thriller is put to film with this made-for-television movie. Harry Hamlin stars as Paul Hood, the new director of an obsolete government crisis management center. Hood is assigned to downsize the center, but during first day on the job some nuclear warheads are hijacked by terrorists. Hood has to rise to the occasion and prove himself as a leader in unfamiliar territory. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV western stars Kelly Preston as Rebecca Carver, who is travelling west with her husband Matthew (Charles Powell), trying to outrun the draft for the Civil War. Needing to rest for the night, they stop at a trading post run by Barkley (Dan Haggerty), where they encounter a pack of buffalo hunters as well as several Cheyenne braves who seem to know Barkley well. Worried that there could be trouble and afraid of the Indians, Matthew warns the hunters about the Cheyenne, which soon leads to a furious battle leaving only two survivors -- Rebecca and Hawk (Pato Hoffmann), a Cheyenne warrior who was severely injured in the fighting. With no one to protect her, Rebecca realizes that her survival may depend on Hawk, so she nurses him back to health; the two make their way across the prarie as they try to escape the bitter onset of winter, and find that their mutual distrust soon grows into love. Roger Corman served as executive producer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Ballad of Little Jo is based on a true story -- several true stories, in fact. Suzy Amis plays demure young Josephine Monagan, who in 1866 is run out of her home town after bearing an illegitimate child. Fleeing westward, Josephine is terrified by stories of how treacherous the frontier can be for a woman alone. As a result, upon arriving in the muddy burg of Ruby City, she disguises herself as a man, going so far as to scar her face to suggest that she's been in a few scrapes. In this guise, "Little Jo" does just fine by herself for nearly 30 years! Almost as good as Suzy Amis is Bo Hopkins as gunslinger Frank Badger, Little Jo's best buddy (if only he knew....) Written and directed by Maggie Greenwald, The Ballad of Little Jo does a marvelous job conveying the people and places of its period; and, unlike Bad Girls (which was released around the same time), we aren't bludgeoned to death by feminist revisionism. Unfortunately ignored when it went out to theatres in the fall of 1993, The Ballad of Little Jo has fared rather better on video. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Craig Clyde, the filmmaker behind The Long Road Home, helms another family adventure with this story of three rambunctious youngsters who are accidentally kidnapped by a pair of bumbling crooks. Successfully driving the bad guys up the wall, the kids are eventually dropped off and left to fend for themselves in the wilderness. Luckily for them, they've got a mystical Indian spirit on their side to help them get home and settle the score with the no-good criminals. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide