Tony Epper Movies

For his third feature outing, director Sydney Pollack helmed this comedic western starring (Burt Lancaster) as fur trapper Joe Bass. While heading for the trading post for his pay after a successful hunting season, Bass runs into a band of Kiowa Indians, who offer to trade the educated slave Joseph (Ozzie Davis) for Bass's furs. Severely outnumbered, the uneducated Bass reluctantly agrees to the swap at gunpoint. Bass and Joseph then follow the Indians in hopes of retrieving the furs. Along the way, the Indians meet up with Jim Howie (Telly Savalas), who not only steals the furs from the Indians, but Joseph from Bass. From there, Jim and his mistress Kate (Shelley Winters) head for Mexico, a move that is fine with Joseph because slavery is outlawed there. But they may not make it south of the border, as the Indians have regrouped and are on their trail with plans to take back the furs. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Sometime after the events of the first Planet of the Apes, the climax of which is repeated frame for frame at the beginning of this sequel, another set of astronauts arrives on the far-future Earth that is the titular planet. This time it's Brent (James Franciscus) who survives the crash landing and learns that evolved simians have taken over the world, post-apocalypse. After hooking up with Nova (Linda Harrison), the mute, fur bikini-clad beauty who spent the first film being squired by astronaut Taylor (Charlton Heston), Brent confers with Zira (Kim Hunter) and Cornelius (David Watson, giving Roddy McDowall his only break during the five-film series), the ape scientists whose adherence to scientific principles makes them friendly to the possibility of intelligent human life. Something of a military coup has taken place among the apes, who dispatch an army to the desolate "Forbidden Zone" where Taylor has coincidentally disappeared. With the apes and the humans both rooting about in the ruins of 20th century civilization, it's only a matter of time before they all find out what happened to the other survivors of the nuclear holocaust. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

The fourth Planet of the Apes film is set in 1991, 20 years since the assassination of talking, time-traveling apes Cornelius and Zira at the end of Escape From the Planet of the Apes. The couple's infant son, Caesar (Roddy McDowall), has grown to adulthood in the care of kindly circus owner Armando (Ricardo Montalban). Meanwhile, a plague has wiped all dogs and cats from the face of the Earth; speechless primitive apes have therefore been domesticated and turned into first pets, then servants of humankind. Caesar becomes outraged at the treatment of these simian slaves and accidentally reveals his powers of speech in front of the militaristic authorities, who kill Armando when he tries to protect his friend's identity. His cover blown, Caesar kick-starts a revolution that pits chimps against humans, paving the way for eventual ape ascendency. Caesar was the second of McDowall's three Planet of the Apes characters; he also portrayed Cornelius in the first and third films and Galen in the short-lived 1974 television series. After taking over the franchise with this picture, Hollywood veteran J. Lee Thompson would become the only director to helm two Planet of the Apes films when he returned for the fifth and final installment. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

A decidedly pre-Naked Gun Leslie Neilsen guest stars in this episode as veteran cop John T. Connor. Upon learning that he has a terminal illness, Connor vows to murder the slick racketeer whom he has been unsuccessfully trying to put behind bars for the past eighteen months. Thus are Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) forced into the uncomfortable position of saving a notorious criminal from one of their own colleagues. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In The Island of Dr. Moreau, which is based on a novella by H.G. Wells, Braddock (Michael York) is a decent young Englishman who has unaccountably been saved from being thrown overboard from a ship sailing in a remote area of the Pacific by the mysterious Dr. Montgomery (Nigel Davenport). Dr. Montgomery is accompanying a cargo of animals destined for a tropical island. At first an "honored guest" (prisoner) on that island, he is finds his contacts with the natives increasingly disturbing, for they are not like any men he has ever seen. Eventually it transpires that these "men" are experimental reconstructions from wild animals made by a particularly sinister scientist, Dr. Moreau (Burt Lancaster). He feels that he is in danger from the animal/men and from Dr. Moreau himself and does not know where to turn. This story was also filmed in 1933 as The Island of Lost Souls, starring Charles Laughton as the monomaniacal Dr. Moreau and was remade yet again in 1996 with Marlon Brando in the title role. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

After emigrating to the United States in 1969, Czech-born director Ivan Passer finally broke through to American audiences with his fourth film, a unique blend of mystery and social commentary. Cutter's Way is set in Santa Barbara, CA, a community of wealth and power. Its main characters, however, are among the town's have-nots: Richard Bone Jeff Bridges, a beach-boy gigolo starting to go to seed; Bone's best friend Alex Cutter (John Heard), a Vietnam veteran maimed in body and spirit; and Mo (Lisa Eichorn), Cutter's alcoholic wife. When Cutter spots one of the community's most prominent citizens in the act of covering up a murder, Bone insists that the police would never take their word over that of a man of wealth and prestige. Cutter seizes the opportunity to blackmail the killer, as a means of striking back at a system he thinks sent him off to an unjust war and ruined his life. The film was fortunate to fall into the hands of United Artists Classics, a new division of the company crippled by the financial disaster of Heaven's Gate. UA Classics adroitly marketed Cutter's Way, riding a wave of rave reviews and good word-of-mouth among more discriminating filmgoers to modest box-office success. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

This low-budget entry into the sword-and-sorcery cycle of the early '80s wasn't successful during its initial release, but has steadily built a strong cult following over the years. The Beastmaster tells the story of Dar (Marc Singer), the son of a king who was stolen from his mother's womb by a witch under the command of vicious sorcerer Maax (Rip Torn). A poor villager saves Dar from being sacrificed and raises him as his own son, teaching Dar how to fight and witnessing the boy's ability to telepathically communicate with animals. Their happiness is destroyed when their village is attacked by the evil Jun horde, a race of beast-like warriors controlled by Maax. Dar vows revenge and journeys to his father's former kingdom to destroy Maax. Along the way, he falls in love with gorgeous slave girl Kiri (Tanya Roberts) and teams up with former royal guard Seth (John Amos). Dar also uses his powers to enlist the aid of an eagle, a panther and two adorable ferrets named Kodo and Podo. Together, Dar and his unlikely but brave team square off with Maax in an impressive two-part finale that involves a swordfight on the side of a pyramid and a showdown with the Jun horde near a flaming moat. The resulting film was full of action and eccentric surprises, but failed to make an impression at a box office already glutted with fantasy films. However, The Beastmaster eventually became a serious cult favorite thanks to home video and extensive exposure on cable (it is the second most aired movie on TBS after Gone With the Wind). This enduring popularity led to two sequels and a syndicated television series chronicling the further adventures of Dar. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide

Season Two of A-Team begins with a nailbiting episode that owes more than a little to the French film classic The Wages of Fear. Though still officially outlaws and fugitives, the A-Team manages to avoid the American military authorities and make its way to Zulabwe, Africa, there to help Toby Griffith (Kristen Meadows), daughter of a murdered diamond-mine owner. The villains, led by Jonathan Fletcher (Albert Salmi), are determined to drive Toby off her property and claim it as their own. In exchange for ten percent of Toby's earnings (plus an uncut diamond), the Team agrees to transport explosives to her mine, navigating some of the most treacherous terrain ever seen on a TV program. And of course, a stolen helicopter figures prominently in the climax! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky's second American film may well be the only existential adventure flick in Hollywood history. Two prisoners, Manny (Jon Voight) and Buck (Eric Roberts), escape from a desolate Alaskan maximum-security facility. They hop aboard a speeding train, making a clean escape. But the engineer has suffered a heart attack, and the train goes out of control. To prevent a disastrous head-on collision, the railroad heads decide to derail the runaway train, killing its occupants to save the lives of hundreds of others. Once Manny catches on to what's happening, he tries to jump off the train, only to be talked out of such a foolhardy act by railroad employee Sara (Rebecca DeMornay). As doom approaches, Manny apparently goes mad, viciously preventing any attempts to stop the train or rescue its passengers: if he's to die, and if the others are to be saved, it will be on his terms, or no terms. Runaway Train was slated as a project for Akira Kurosawa in 1970, but for various creative and scheduling reasons, it remained on the back burner for 15 years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pretty boy actor C. Thomas Howell stars in this dark, violent suspense film about the strange psychological bond between a traveling serial killer and one of his intended victims. Driving cross-country from Chicago to San Diego, Jim (Howell) narrowly avoids an accident when he falls asleep at the wheel. He picks up a hitchhiker to help stay awake, but within five minutes, the erratic John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) has threatened not only Jim's life, but also his manhood, brandishing a switchblade to the boy's crotch and ordering him to keep driving. Jim manages to escape, but soon Ryder begins a game of cat-and-mouse across the Texas highways, taunting the lad from the windows of passing cars, then leaving the corpses of his victims in their vehicles by the side of the road for Jim to discover. A sympathetic face arrives in the form of Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the waitress at an otherwise deserted truck stop in this bleak, abandoned landscape, but the local police soon arrive, intent on hanging Jim out to dry for the string of grisly murders. The stakes continue to mount in Ryder's little game until Jim finds himself embroiled in a statewide manhunt with Nash at his side. Former cinematographer Robert Harmon made his directorial debut with this popular thriller; screenwriter Eric Red, also making his debut, would go on to write similarly brooding genre fare including Near Dark, Bad Moon, and Alien 3. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Hunter (Fred Dryer) and McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) want to find out why a teenage girl named Angie (Lar Park Lincoln) was involved in a gunstore robbery in which she was wounded and left for dead by her accomplices. It turns out that Angie is the daughter of Brother Hobarts (Dean Stockwell), leader of a dangerous neo-Nazi organization called the Aryan Brothers. Ultimately, both Hunter and McCall are captured by Hobarts' minions--and their only hope for escape is to scale a treacherous mountain, with the well-armed Aryan Brothers hot on their trail. Featured in the cast as "Randy" is pro wrestler Big John Stud. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two women with serious differences are forced to look out for each other in this anarchic comedy. Sandy (Bette Midler) and Lauren (Shelley Long) are a pair of struggling actresses who don't get along especially well -- and are even less fond of each other when they discover that they're both dating the same man, Michael (Peter Coyote). However, when Michael suddenly goes missing, they discover that he's actually an espionage agent working with a foreign government, and as they set out to find him, they learn that he has implicated them in his schemes. Now Sandy and Lauren are stuck with each other as they look for Michael while trying to outrun the law. Outrageous Fortune also stars George Carlin as Frank, a burned-out '60s holdover who the women meet along the way. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide