Kevin Dillon Movies
The younger brother of actor Matt Dillon, Kevin Dillon was a movie leading man by age 20. Originally planning to study art, Dillon became an actor when he was spotted by an agent at the premiere of older brother Matt's Tex (1985). Often cast in lightweight roles (Heaven Help Us [1985], The Blob [1988]), Dillon has distinguished himself in the films of director Oliver Stone with a brace of powerful characterizations: the baby-faced but homicidal teenage soldier Bunny in Platoon (1986), and real-life rock musician John Densmore in The Doors (1991). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- TVMA
- Add Entourage: Season Three Part 1 [3 Discs] to QueueAdd Entourage: Season Three Part 1 [3 Discs] to top of Queue
Up-and-coming movie star Vince (Adrian Grenier) has good reason to celebrate as Entoruage begins its third season: He has landed the title role in "Aquaman", a megabucks epic directed by Titanic's own James Cameron. Likewise luxuriating in Vince's good fortune are his pals Eric (Kevin Connolly and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and his actor brother Drama (Kevin Dillon). The only one not in a celebratory mood is Vince's agent Ari (Jerry Piven), who has been booted from his job at a powerful Hollywood talent agency and is now living a hand-to-mouth existence and working out of an office no bigger than a broom closet. For a while, it looks like Vince will also suffer from a stroke of bad luck when the LA opening of "Aquaman" is repeatedly interrupted by rolling power blackouts. This is the season that Vince adopts a new member of his entourage, an ex-convict named Dom (Domenick Lombardozzi), who promptly comes up with a plan to land Vince the role of a lifetime in the upcoming film "Medelin"--which, alas, would screw our hero out of starring in "Aquaman 2". Meanwhile, Turtle is managing pop singer Saigon and, as usual, is having trouble handling success. Drama is given a shot at TV stardom in his own series, "Five Towns". And after two years of delays, Vince and Eric's independent project "Queen's Boulevard" may finally see the light of day. Unfortunately, once again poor Ari is unable to capitalize on Vince's success, having managed to mess up a proposed film project for The Ramones and subsequently being replaced by new agent Amanda (Carla Gugino)--whose first assignment for Vince is a period drama based on the works of Edith Wharton, not exactly a brilliant career move for the star of "Aquaman." Ultimately, Ari resurfaces out of nowhere with financing for the temporarily-shelved "Medelin", but Vince isn't prepared for the sacrifice he must make to get this job. And while all this is going on, Turtle's fondness for limited-edition sneakers may completely alter the course of his life. Among the celebrities appearing as themselves this season are James Woods, Seth Green, Eric Burns and Pauly Shore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this teen-oriented drama, an impoverished street kid puts on a tough act to hide his loneliness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Charles Purpura scribed this semi-autobiographical tale about his experiences in a Brooklyn Catholic school of 1965. The film focuses on several Catholic school boys who get into ever increasing amounts of trouble with the presiding priests of the Catholic school, St. Basil's. Andrew McCarthy plays Michael Dunn, a newly arrived student who latches onto the class egghead Caesar (Malcolm Danare), who is constantly picked on by the class bully Rooney (Kevin Dillon). Rooney intimidates Michael and Caesar to become his erstwhile chums and, along with a few other quiet students, they receive corporal punishment for minor infractions, disrupting communion and confession and, ultimately, their antics inspire changes in the strict school hierarchy. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, John Heard, (more)
Oliver Stone's breakthrough as a director, Platoon is a brutally realistic look at a young soldier's tour of duty in Vietnam. Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a college student who quits school to volunteer for the Army in the late '60s. He's shipped off to Vietnam, where he serves with a culturally diverse group of fellow soldiers under two men who lead the platoon: Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), whose facial scars are a mirror of the violence and corruption of his soul, and Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), who maintains a Zen-like calm in the jungle and fights with both personal and moral courage even though he no longer believes in the war. After a few weeks "in country," Taylor begins to see the naïveté of his views of the war, especially after a quick search for enemy troops devolves into a round of murder and rape. Unlike Hollywood's first wave of Vietnam movies (including The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and Coming Home), Platoon is a grunts-eye view of the war, touching on moral issues but focusing on the men who fought the battles and suffered the wounds. In this sense, it resembles older war movies more than its Vietnam peers, as it mixes familiar elements of onscreen battle with small realistic details: bugs, jungle rot, exhaustion, C-rations, marijuana, and counting the days before you go home. This mix of traditional war movie elements with a contemporary sensibility won Platoon four Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, and a reputation as one of the definitive modern war films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, (more)
- 1987
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Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam was first telecast April 3, 1988, over the HBO cable service. Based on the book of the same name, the program is devoted to poignant recitations of letters to and from American participants of the Vietnam war. The letters are heard over images culled from news footage, home movies and still photography, with contemporary music added to put things in the proper historical context. The 2-hour film, featuring readings from various well-known actors (see cast list), was a co-production involving Bill Couturie, a previous Emmy winner for Vietnam Requiem, and the Vietnam Veterans Ensemble Theatre Company. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Ellen Burstyn, (more)
After the phenomenal box-office and critical success of David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of The Fly, a series of big-budget remakes of '50s horror favorites rode in on its coattails in the late 1980s -- though none managed to rise above mere camp clones of their elders, albeit garnished with modern makeup effects in an attempt to draw modern teen horror-junkies. One remake that managed to live up to its cheesy inspiration was Chuck Russell's version of The Blob, in which the title goo crashes to earth and promptly begins digesting the residents of a small California town while growing to gargantuan proportions. The clean-cut teen hero originally portrayed by Steve McQueen (his first starring role) is replaced here with a rebellious outsider (Kevin Dillon) whose preppie rival (Donovan Leitch) for the affections of the cute heroine (Shawnee Smith) is quickly eliminated by the all-consuming space-gelatin. No sooner has the plasma menace set up house in the town sewers when a shadowy government Blob Squad shows up under the direction of the grandfatherly Dr. Meddows (Joe Seneca), to clean up the mess... or not. This high-spirited remake replaces the '50s "Daddy-O" conventions of the original with '80s cynicism -- not even likeable characters are spared from the slaughter -- and anti-government sentiment. It also pushes the gore envelope in ways unavailable to its low-budget parent -- e.g. the scene in which one victim is sucked through a sink drain was only hinted at in the 1958 film, but here viewers are treated to the entire bone-crunching ordeal. Though the quality of blob effects seems inversely proportional to the creature's size (some of the climactic "wall-of-blob" footage is painfully cheap-looking), the end result is more blob for the monster-movie fan's dollar. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, (more)
- 1988
- PG
This implausible adventure is for every empty-headed 12-year-old boy who wants a bullet-spewing weapon of destruction. Four teen-age sons of American servicemen taken prisoner during the Korean War set out to rescue their fathers. The crew was captured on their mission to destroy an American submarine rather than have it fall into enemy hands. The four sons, ranging in ages from 10 to 22, steal sealed plans from the Defense Department to help them free the prisoners. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Dillon, Christine Harnos, (more)
- 1988
- R
In Remote Control, a video by the same name is a big-time rental at the video parlors. Too bad for its renters, because when they watch the video, they get hypnotized and then go out on violent sprees. The video store's boss catches on to what's going on and tries to discover who's behind the evil ploy. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Dillon, Deborah Goodrich, (more)
Glenn Close and James Woods star in this artery-clogging schmaltz about a childless couple who desperately want to have a baby. Linda (Close) and Michael Spector (Woods) are an upscale couple who have everything -- except a child. Linda mists over after she takes her temperature, plans the correct time for conception, and then her period starts. Despite medical intervention, the Spectors cannot conceive. They finally decide to adopt a child and meet the pregnant 17-year-old Lucy (Mary Stuart Masterson), who decides that the Spectors can provide a better home for her child than she and her boyfriend Sam (Kevin Dillon) could. The Spectors look Lucy over and determine -- since Lucy's mother died when she was seven -- to take care of her during her pregnancy. The three bond as they await the birth of Lucy's child. But now Lucy has second thoughts about the decision to turn her baby over to the Spectors. The solution for this happy group? Adopt Lucy and become the "immediate family." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Close, James Woods, (more)
- 1989
Made for television, When He's Not a Stranger stars Annabeth Gish as a college freshman who is sexually assaulted by football jock John Terlesky. Ashamed by the incident-especially since she regarded Terlesky as a friend-Annabeth at first tells no one. But after a session with the school's counselor, the girls feel emboldened enough to file a complaint against her attacker, which leads to an avalanche of hostility from her peers. With nowhere else to turn, Annabeth takes her complaint to court. This stark dramatization of the "acquaintance rape" dilemma was first broadcast October 17, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- R
The town of Binger, Montana decides to re-enact the 1889 battle in which the whites massacred most of the Blackfoot Indians in this depressing and violent drama. The white mayor initiates the plan for the benefit of Labor Day tourists to the area predominantly populated by Native Americans. Things get out of control when a drunken white boy fires a loaded gun and kills a young Indian. Five Indian youths quickly avenge their friend's death and take to the woods. A racist posse shoots one and scalps another, and the Governor calls out the National Guard as the situation escalates out of control. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Wirth, Kevin Dillon, (more)
Val Kilmer delivers what was considered one of 1991's best performances as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's hallucinatory bio-pic of the seminal 1960s rock group The Doors. Stone cuts a jagged swath through Morrison's life, starting with a childhood memory where Morrison sees an elderly Indian dying by the roadside. It picks up with Morrison's arrival in California and his assimilation into the Venice Beach culture, followed by his film school days at UCLA; his introduction to his girlfriend Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan); his first encounters with Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan); and the origin of The Doors -- made up of Manzarek, Robby Kreiger (Frank Whaley), and John Densmore (Kevin Dillon). As the fame of The Doors grows, Morrison's obsession with death increases. The band grows weary of Morrison's missed recording sessions and no-shows at concerts. Morrison, meanwhile, sinks deeper into a drug-induced haze, having mystical sexual encounters with Patricia Kennealy (Kathleen Quinlan), an older rock journalist involved with sadomasochism and witchcraft. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, (more)
- 1992
The two-part Australian miniseries Frankie's House was based on photojournalist Tim Page's autobiography Page After Page. Set during the Vietnam war, the story recounted the adventures of Page (Iain Glen) and his erstwhile photographer partner. After numerous scrapes with death, Page managed to survive to tell his tale, but his partner was not so lucky, disappearing without a trace during a 1970 foray into Laos. The program's title referred to a brothel frequented by the principal characters. The two 120-minute episodes of Frankie's House were broadcast by Australia's ABC network in 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on a novel by William Wharton, A Midnight Clear is set in the Adriennes Forest in December of 1944. A group of American GIs, all of whom have been together a bit too long, cling to the vestiges of their peacetime interests to remain sane. None are brilliant soldiers, though Will Knot Ethan Hawke is the one who exhibits the strongest leadership qualities. Billeted at a chateau, the soldiers begin hearing strange noises emanating from a graveyard, the handiwork of a group of mischievous German soldiers. The two enemy camps draw closer to one another as Christmas approaches, due in great part to the influence of GI Vince "Mother" Wilkins Gary Sinise. A sudden, impulsive hostile act results in the wholesale -- and unnecessary -- slaughter of the German soldiers. Though the exteriors are convincingly mid-European, the film was actually lensed in Utah. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, (more)
A man from the future fights to survive in a society thrown back to the dark ages in this sci-fi adventure set in 2022. Capt. Robbins (Ray Liotta) is a military man who, after he's convicted of the murder of his superior officer, is sentenced to a high-tech prison ruled by the Warden (Michael Lerner), a cruel taskmaster who enjoys torturing his inmates. After a scuffle with the Warden, Robbins is transferred to a primitive island penal colony known as Absalom, where the civilization is dominated by two groups, the Insiders, a peaceful tribe led by the Father (Lance Henriksen), and the Outsiders, a pack of violent misfits led by Marek (Stuart Wilson). Robbins runs afoul of the Outsiders and is injured in a skirmish; he escapes to the Insiders' camp, where he plots his revenge. No Escape was based on the novel The Penal Colony by Richard Herley. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Liotta, Lance Henriksen, (more)
- 1995
- R
Young lovers accused of robbing stores and killing their owners flee across the West. Their ordeal begins after Keli (Amy Locane) has a fight with her mother and takes off. Seeing Rafe (Kevin Dillon) thumbing a ride, and not realizing that he has just robbed a gas station, she decides to pick him up. Something clicks between them and after a bottle of wine and a bout of lovemaking they become a couple. The only dark moment comes when Keli discovers a gun underneath Rafe's pillow. She soon learns that he is indeed a robber, but that he has only been stealing drug money from crooked merchants. When the news announces that he is also wanted for killing the storekeepers, the couple realize that they are in big trouble and take off. They are pursued by two FBI men, both of whom have sinister ulterior motives for catching Rafe and Keli before any other law-enforcement personnel. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Dillon, Amy Locane, (more)
- 1995
- R
In this thriller a woman attempts to solve a murder and ends up face to face with a serial killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alicia Silverstone, Kevin Dillon, (more)
- 1996
Were it not based on a true story, this two-part TV movie could well have been dismissed as a grotesque nightmare. The story begins in 1988, when the Chicago home of Cindi and David Dowaliby (Shannen Doherty, Kevin Dillon) is invaded by person or persons unknown, who kidnap and murder their daughter Jacklyn while the couple sleeps. Once the crime is reported, the grief-stricken Dowalibys find themselves accused of their daughter's murder. The authorities are cruel and relentless, public opinion is hostile, the media is doggedly one-sided, and the family's very expensive lawyers more interested in their fee than in justice. Ultimately, Cindi is "cleared", but David is sentenced to a 45-year prison term--and both the couple's surviving child and Cindi's newborn baby are taken away from them. The rest of the film concerns Cindi's tireless and apparently futile battle to win back her children, secure her husband's release and restore the family's mud-splattered reputation. Originally telecast by CBS on February 25 and 27, 1996, Gone in the Night may indeed end on a small note of triumph, but by no means is the tragic situation completely resolved. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel, this adventure follows a mid-18th-century British scout through the wilderness on a mission to sneak into a French fortress. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Dillon, Graham Greene, (more)
- 1997
The double trauma of seeing his wife Vivian (Gail O'Grady) walk out on him and having his government funding eliminated causes nuclear scientist Rogers Henry (John Glover) to go off the deep end. But Vivian doesn't know about her husband's insanity when she agrees to deliver what she thinks is his model of a thermonuclear device called Medusa to the Pentagon. Nor do charter pilot Scott Nash (Vincent Spano) and researched Linda McCoy (Lori Laughlin) suspect anything amiss when Vivian boards Scott's plane en route to Washington. Only when the plane is aloft is it discovered that the "model" is a genuine bomb that has armed itself and will explode should it be taken any more than fifteen feet away from Vivian, whose pacemaker is the bomb's "control." Even worse: There's a hurricane threatening Washington, and the plane is unable to land--and someone on board requires emergency heart surgery! Based on the best selling novel by John J. Nance (who appears in a cameo role), the two-part TV movie Medusa's Child first aired November 16 and 20, 1997, on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A group of ten men come together for a bachelor party that goes horribly wrong in this made-for-TV drama. Mario Van Peebles and John Stockwell star as old friends Michael and Victor, both of them successful, well-off young professionals. The latter is about to be married, so Michael throws him a lavish party complete with booze, drugs, a pair of stripper sisters and some old friends that Michael would actually rather not see, including Pete (Andrew McCarthy), a street-smart drug dealer. When one of the girls is accidentally killed and her handler is shot in the ensuing confusion, the group of men reacts in completely different ways. Timan (John Henson) becomes completely unraveled, while others like Pete and Daniel (Kevin Dillon) keep their cool and try to come up with a viable plan to handle their new "problem." A next door neighbor (Jerry Stiller) who comes over to investigate the noise only compounds the problem. Stag bore almost precisely the same plot as Very Bad Things (1998), a more comic take on the story that was released theatrically one year later. The surviving stripper was played by former pop music star Taylor Dayne. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrew McCarthy, John Stockwell, (more)
- 1998
- R
An American travelling abroad discovers that his brother has been murdered and sets about to discover the truth. The truth, however, is a bit more complex than he was expecting. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Dillon
- 1998
Desperate for a child of their own, a young couple visits the local sperm bank so the wife can be artificially inseminated. The procedure is a success, and the two are blissfully happy until they discover that the donor is a crazed killer obsessed with raising the child himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Dillon, Nick Mancuso, (more)
- 1999
Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) has been plagued with nightmares involving his own father and his sometimes colleague Sgt. Dornan (Richard Gant). Sorenson (Rick Schroder) must determine if the police officer who shot a drug dealer acted properly. Ex-cop Gotelli (Carmine Caridi) solicits the squad's help investigating a shady insurance client -- who promptly turns up dead. And as the episode hastens to its conclusion, there is the disturbing possibility that Sipowicz will fall off the wagon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
