Brad Armacost Movies
Writer/director John Sayles' dramatization of the most infamous episode in professional sports -- the fix of the 1919 World Series -- is considered by many to be among his best films and arguably the best baseball movie ever made. This adaptation of Eliot Asinof's definitive study of the scandal shows how athletes of another era were a different breed from the well-paid stars of later years. The Chicago White Sox owner, Charlie Comiskey (Clifton James), is portrayed as a skinflint with little inclination to reward his team for their spectacular season. When a gambling syndicate led by Arnold Rothstein (Michael Lerner) gets wind of the players' discontent, it offers a select group of stars -- including pitcher Eddie Cicotte (Sayles regular David Strathairn), infielder Buck Weaver (John Cusack), and outfielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (D. B. Sweeney) -- more money to play badly than they would have earned to try to win the Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Sayles cast the story with actors who look and perform like real jocks, and added a colorful supporting cast that includes Studs Terkel as reporter Hugh Fullerton and Sayles himself as Ring Lardner. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Cusack, Clifton James, (more)
- 1987
A "geek," in carnival side-show parlance, is a performer who does things that make audiences' flesh crawl and stomachs heave, like biting off the heads of live chickens, or inserting foot-long pins into their cheeks or arms. In this thriller, also released under the title Backwoods, a yuppie couple on a camping trip fail to follow the sound advice of a park ranger and become the objects of a terror campaign by a psychopathic family of microcephalic and badly inbred country types. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brad Armacost, Christine Noonan, (more)
- 1987
Backwoods, also released as The Geek, is a direct-to-cable slasher film, where a hillbilly farmer and his mentally-defective son terrorize a group of campers. Directed by Dean Crow, and filmed entirely in Indiana on a tiny budget with a cast of unknowns, Backwoods is a routine, "gore" thriller with little new or different about it. Some of the effects are good, but the lack of a plausible story or interesting characters makes this mediocre less-than-average film poor viewing even for lovers of the genre. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
