Morton Downey, Jr. Movies
In the late '80s, Morton Downey Jr. was more notorious than genuinely famous for his riotous talk show The Morton Downey Jr. Show (1988-1989). On the short-lived series, Downey was abusive, rude, and caustic to guests and audience members, whom he would occasionally egg on to violence by playing devil's advocate. Despite the controversy he generated on the air, the show was not terribly popular. After its demise, Downey appeared in a couple films, like Meet Wally Sparks (1997), as himself. As an actor he appeared in television movies such as Thanksgiving Day (1989) and in features like Silencer (1992). His father, Morton Downey, was a popular singer/actor and early television performer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Is it a routine delivery job, or the first stage of the apocalypse? No one is quite sure in Palmer's Pick-Up, a bizarre road comedy from writer/director Christopher Coppola. Bruce Palmer (Robert Carradine) and his pal Pearl (Richard Hillman) run their own small trucking service and are doing none too well, so when they get offered a large paycheck for hauling an huge crate, contents unknown, from California to Florida in time for the millennial New Year's Eve, they leap at the chance. However, the farther they go, the more people are trying to stop them, and they start picking up just enough details from the increasingly bizarre interlopers they encounter en route to wonder if perhaps they're transporting the Devil himself across state lines (after all, Florida is near the Bermuda Triangle ...). Palmer's Pick-Up features a remarkable supporting cast which includes Talia Shire, Morton Downey Jr., Soupy Sales, Alice Ghostley, Rosanna Arquette, Clu Gulager and his sons John and Tom, and Grace Jones in the role of a lifetime as one half of a pair of Siamese twins. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Carradine, Richard Hillman, (more)
- 1992
In this third version of the Nerds theme, the next generation of Nerd boys have by now taken control of Adams College and one of the college trustees is sick of seeing the geeky nerds running everything so he schemes a plan devoted to the return of jock power. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Carradine, Ted McGinley, (more)
Music video director Amy Goldstein made her feature film debut in this revenge thriller that plays like a knockoff of La Femme Nikita and Ms. 45. Lynette Walden stars as Angel, a woman from the streets dressed up in leather togs, who has been programmed to kill all men who get their kicks exploiting women. She receives her assignments through a video arcade game called "Silencer" in an upscale Los Angeles bar. After Angel receives her marching orders, she efficiently dispatches a collection of low-life pimps and batterers and spends her downtime with Tony (Paul Ganus), a man obsessed with Christian iconography. But a cog is thrown into Angel's smooth-running death machine by George (Chris Mulkey), an ex-lover who stalks her as she performs her killings. Clearly, a confrontation with George is at hand. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lynette Walden, Chris Mulkey, (more)
- 1991
- PG
It probably takes an intimate acquaintance with East Germany's famously awful car, a smoky, noisy two-cylinder lawnmower on wheels, the Trabant 601, to fully appreciate the jokes in this extremely popular, celebrity-filled comedy. In the story, Gunther (German television star Thomas Gotttschalk) is an East German inventor who has journeyed with his homely car to an inventor's convention in Hollywood: he has figured out a way to get his Trabbi to run on turnip juice and zoom like a sports car. When his odd car is stolen, he tries to get it back, but L.A. and it's culture are alien to him and he is very much a fish out of water, despite the friendly advice he receives from Billy Dee Williams as a knowledgeable parking-lot attendant. Look for cameos by Milton Berle and Dom DeLuise, among others. This Trabbi film is a sequel to the enormously popular comedy Go, Trabi, Go. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Gottschalk, Billy Dee Williams, (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
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)
- 1989
In this black comedy, a wealthy but flaky family tries to deal with their lives after their bizarre father suffers a fatal heart-attack on Thanksgiving and falls face first into the turkey. Now the family must somehow get their act together enough to pay bills and make funeral arrangements. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
