John Garber
The can't-miss teaming of Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn is squandered on a clumsy, illogical romantic melodrama. Running across her old boyfriend Gibson at a Wisconsin gas station, Hawn is astounded that he seems not to recognize her. How could she have known that Gibson was put into the Witness Relocation Program after testifying against a homicidal mob boss (say, don't they usually alter your appearance when they put you in that program?) Curious over Gibson's furtive behavior, Hawn unknowingly sets herself up as a target for the bad guys. The whole affairs culminates in an after-hours showdown at a zoo (a plot device vastly improved upon in the 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Eraser). While Bird on a Wire admittedly has its moments of enjoyment, most of the film is on a par with Gibson's embarrassing, homophobic scene with a pair of epicine hairdressers. And whoever heard of the Chinatown section of Racine, Wisconsin? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mel Gibson, Goldie Hawn, (more)
Ernest Thompson, the playwright responsible for the Pulitzer Prize winning On Golden Pond, makes his directorial debut with 1969. Kiefer Sutherland plays a draft-age youth who undergoes an epiphany when one of his friends is killed in Vietnam. Sutherland's subsequent antiwar stance causes a great deal of tension within his own family, though his mother, Mariette Hartley, tries her best to understand. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Downey, Jr., Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
Struck by lightning, an endearing little robot known only as "Number 5" escapes from an experimental electronics firm. Technician Steve Guttenberg and his indecipherable East Indian assistant Fisher Stevens set out to locate Number 5 before the military can go through with its plans to destroy the robot. Number 5 takes refuge with loopy Ally Sheedy, who is convinced that the mechanical man is an extraterrestrial. Hoping to teach the "alien" all about Earth, Ally fills Number 5's memory banks with reams of pop culture--and then the real fun begins. Short Circuit is so carefully contrived to push the right audience buttons that one is made to feel ungrateful if one doesn't laugh. This E.T. wannabe was popular enough to warrant a 1988 sequel, titled (brace yourself!) Short Circuit II. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, (more)
It takes a fierce three-day bicycle race up in the mountains to reunite two formerly feuding brothers in this film written by Steve Tesich, the creator of another cycle movie, 1979's Breaking Away. This film will please the cycling lovers out there, as it includes actual footage taken from the famous Coors International Bicycle Classic, held in the Colorado Rockies. The plot revolves around the suspicion that one of the two brothers -- either the pragmatic sports doctor Marcus (Kevin Costner) or the impudent, driven David (David Marshall Grant) -- is likely afflicted with an inherited tendency toward cerebral aneurysms. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Costner, David Marshall Grant, (more)
Ex-Vietnam chopper pilot Roy Scheider is now in charge of Blue Thunder, a high-tech copter designed to quell possible terrorism during the 1984 LA Olympics. His onetime comrade-in-arms Malcolm McDowell, now his bitter enemy, will stop at nothing to neutralize Blue Thunder and expedite an armed takeover of the United States. Well, there's the plot: now sit back and enjoy those eye-popping aerial scenes. Blue Thunder was later adapted into a weekly TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Scheider, Malcolm McDowell, (more)
Once more, a wise-guy teenager tries to prove he's smarter than any adult-and nearly destroys the whole world in the process-in WarGames. Computer-game aficionado Matthew Broderick inadverently taps into a hush-hush Pentagon computer, then proceeds to inaugurate his favorite game, "Global Thermonuclear War". What we know, but Broderick doesn't, is that the Pentagon, hoping to eliminate the chancy "human element" in the event of an actual war, has given its computer total, irreversable control over the launching of nuclear weaponry. Broderick and government official Dabney Coleman race against time to reverse the computer's resolve to send bombers to Russia. WarGames scored a hit, especially with teenage filmgoers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, (more)
TV director James Burrows made his feature debut with this unusual film that's a situation comedy-style twist on both The Odd Couple (1968) and Cruising (1980). The murder of a male model in a gay, beachfront enclave of L.A. warrants an undercover investigation, so police officer Benson (Ryan O'Neal), a straight, macho, law-and-order type, is assigned to partner with file clerk Kerwin (John Hurt), a mild-mannered homosexual. Benson and Kerwin are to pose as a gay couple who have just moved to the area. At first, Benson's slovenly ways drive the fussy Kerwin to distraction, while Kerwin's sexual orientation and prissy manners are a source of constant frustration for straight-arrow Benson. However, the two eventually become friendly roommates, if not exactly friends, and Benson even begins to see the world through Kerwin's eyes. Although he carries a badge, the fussy Kerwin is essentially a civilian, but as he and Benson close in on the murderer, Kerwin reveals himself to be a far more capable cop than Benson assumes him to be. Partners was written by Francis Veber, author of La Cage aux Folles (1978) and The Man with One Red Shoe (1985). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, John Hurt, (more)
Stepping into the role made famous on Broadway by Tom Conti, Richard Dreyfuss stars as a profoundly handicapped sculptor in Whose Life is it Anyway? Left a quadraplegic after an auto accident, the embittered Dreyfuss feels utterly useless, as both an artist and a human being. He doesn't want his family's love, or his doctor's care, or his nurse's ministrations. Dreyfuss simply wants to die-but this is impossible, given the legal state of things in the 1970s. Whose Life is It Anyway? may be the only film in which a person's right to self-destruction is regarded as a happy ending. Not as depressing as it sounds, Whose Life Is It Anyway is perversely hilarious at times, with Dreyfuss at his acerbic best. The film was scripted by Reginald Rose and Brian Clark from Clark's stage play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, John Cassavetes, (more)
"You've got to ask yourself a question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" Dirty Harry provoked a critical uproar in 1971 for its "fascist" message about the power of one, as it also elevated Clint Eastwood to superstar status through his most enduring screen persona. Harry Callahan (Eastwood, in a role meant for Frank Sinatra) is a sardonic, hard-working San Francisco cop who can't finish his lunch without having to foil a bank robbery with his 44 Magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the world." When hippie-esque psycho Scorpio (Andy Robinson) goes on a killing spree, Harry and new partner Chico (Reni Santoni) are assigned to hunt him down, but not before the Mayor (John Vernon) and Lt. Bressler (Harry Guardino) admonish Callahan about his heavy-handed tactics. Racing against a deadline to save a kidnap victim from suffocating to death and unbothered by the niceties of Miranda rights and search warrants, Callahan brings in Scorpio, only to see him released on technicalities. "The law's crazy," opines Harry in disgust, before taking it upon himself to ensure that Scorpio doesn't kill again. Directed in violent and efficient fashion by Don Siegel, with a propulsive score by Lalo Schifrin, Dirty Harry was the fourth Siegel-Eastwood collaboration after Coogan's Bluff (1968), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), and The Beguiled (1970). Critics at the time strongly objected to the heroic image of a cop's violations of a suspect's Miranda rights, forcing Siegel and Eastwood to deny that they were right-wing reactionaries. All the same, Dirty Harry proved to be highly popular and spawned four sequels: Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, (more)
