John Ashton Movies

In one of his occasional undercover assignments, Kojak (Telly Savalas) poses as a chemist. It's all part of a plan to flush out a gang of crooks who have stolen a valuable shipment of morphine in order to sell it back to the rightful owners for an exorbitant price. Naturally, Kojak pretends to be corruptible enough to attract the crooks' attention--a dangerous game which could cost him his life at any moment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of four miniseries comprising NBC's Best Sellers anthology, The Rhinemann Exchange was adapted from the Robert Ludlum novel of the same name. Stephen Collins stars as American intelligence officer David Spaulding, who under cover of his musician father's concert tours embarks upon a number of fact-finding missions in Europe just before WW2. Once hostilities break out, Spaulding relocates to Aergentina, there to exchange industrial diamonds for a secret gyroscope needed for the American war effort. Naturally, the Nazis are equally interested in those diamonds, putting Spaulding in any number of perilous predicaments. Lauren Hutton costars as Leslie Hawkewood, one of those ravishing "mystery women" so common to espionage fiction. Originally running 5 hours and telecast in three segments on March 10, 17, and 24, 1977, The Rhinemann Exchange was later rebroadcast as a four-hour, two-part "TV movie." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charles Bronson switches from his traditional role as a vigilante to playing an actual lawman in this crime drama. Jeb Maynard (Bronson) is a border patrol agent who is trying to stem the tide of illegal aliens from Mexico into the United States. Jeb is hot on the trail of Hotchkiss (Ed Harris), a "coyote" who brings illegals into the United States for a hefty price and with little concern for their safety. But while Jeb is sworn to keep illegal immigrants out of America, he finds his relationship with Elena Morales (Karmin Murcelo) becoming more than professional. Elena is an illegal alien who wants to cooperate with Jeb by leading him to Hotchkiss, who smuggled her into the United States. But businesslike Jeb soon finds that the plight of Elena and her young son, who are desperate to build a better life for themselves, has touched a soft spot inside him. While the story may sound similar to the Tony Richardson/Jack Nicholson picture The Border, Borderline actually preceded it by two years. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this involved send-up of two American icons -- the automobile and the tourist trap -- the tiny Florida town of Ticlaw strives desperately for success after it has been denied the most essential of all tourist amenities -- a freeway exit. The insane, and mostly successful, schemes of the mayor (William Devane) and other distinctly unbalanced citizens interrupt, often hilariously, the lives of various eccentric travellers forced into a place they never intended to be. Critics disagree violently on whether this is a neglected classic or sophomoric nonsense. The winning record of director (John Schlesinger) (Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man, Cold Comfort Farm, etc.,) and first-class performances by William Devane, Beau Bridges, Beverly D'Angelo, Hume Cronyn, JessicaTandy and a plethora of great character actors -- not to mention the water-skiing elephant and the wild rhino -- argue that it's worth a look. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide

Despite mixed reviews and a disastrous initial release that dumped the film into theaters for a week in the midst of the 1984 Summer Olympics, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eight Dimension went on to become one of the major cult films of the 1980s, developing a rabid following after its release on videotape. Drifting between satire and improbable sci-fi adventure, the film stars Peter Weller as Buckaroo Banzai, the son of an American mother and Japanese father who is a combination physicist, neurosurgeon, martial arts master, secret agent, and rock star who travels with his band of assistants/backing musicians, The Hong Kong Cavaliers. As the story opens, Buckaroo is driving his car through a mountain to test his new invention, the Oscillation Overthruster. However, a race of boorish aliens called the Red Lectroids have been waiting for such an item to become a reality, as they need it to return to the distant planet they call home. One of Buckaroo's arch-enemies, Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow), who has been possessed by the Red Lectroids, attempted to created a similar device decades before; now escaped from an insane asylum, he is back at work with the Lectroids on a plan to control the world. Throw in Rastafarian aliens, unscheduled travel between dimensions, and the odd inexplicable watermelon, and you get a film that defies conventional synopsis. With its fast pace, quotable dialogue ("No matter where you go, there you are"), and barrage of gags (subtle and otherwise), you won't be bored even when you're not sure what's going on. The supporting cast includes Jeff Goldblum as New Jersey, a Cavalier with a snappy cowboy outfit, and Ellen Barkin as Penny Priddy, the twin sister of Buckaroo's late wife. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Adapted from a book by Joan Barthel, A Death in California is a harrowing two-part TV movie based on fact. Cheryl Ladd plays Hope Masters, a wealthy Beverly Hills woman who is forced to watch in mute horror as a criminal sociopath (Sam Elliot) murders her boyfriend (Granville Van Dusen). She is kidnapped by the killer and forced to accompany him on a long and grueling getaway trip. Despite repeated sexual assaults, Hope forms something of a bond with her kidnapper. He allows her to go free, but Hope's ordeal is far from over; when the killer is recaptured, both he and Hope are put on trial for murder. Despite the tawdry nature of the tale, Death in California is handled with taste and tact, allowing the weirder aspects of the case to speak for themselves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Lollar (Charles Grodin) overrides his wife's judgment and takes his family for a vacation on a sunny Caribbean island that just happens to be on the verge of a revolution. Their hotel is not the usual Hilton on the beach but a pick-up joint for singles where the main activities are sex, sex, and sex. In that order. As the horrified father watches almost helplessly, his wife becomes liberated, his daughter falls for a Frenchman who is actually a guerrilla, one of his sons loses his virginity to a buxom, worldly-wise woman, and his other son burns down the mini-camp he was forced to attend. But that's hardly the worst of it -- there is that small matter of a political overthrow about to explode on the scene. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Detroit cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) has seemingly smoothed out his differences with his Beverly Hills superior Bogomil (Ronny Cox), but there's trouble ahead for both men, not to mention two other holdovers from the first Cop film, officers Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (John Ashton). The "untouchable" heavy this time out is masterminding a series of violent robberies, committed by leather-freak hoods Dean Stockwell and Brigitte Nielsen. Unaccumstomed to this nastiness, Bogomil entreats street-smart Foley to help find the miscreants. But mean-spirited chief of police Lutz (Allen Garfield) will brook no interference from outsiders-especially the profanely insouciant Mr. Foley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Martin Brest, of Going in Style and Beverly Hills Cop fame, was in charge of Midnight Run. Robert De Niro stars as Jack Walsh, a hard-bitten bounty hunter offered $100,000 to bring in embezzler Jonathan Mardukas (Charles Grodin). Handcuffed to the wimpy Mardukas, Walsh assumes that the extradition trip from New York to Los Angeles will be an uneventful one. But the prisoner hasn't told Walsh the whole story: the embezzler owes $15 million to a mobster (Dennis Farina), and he's been targeted for assassination. It's a toss-up as to what is the most entertaining aspect of Midnight Run: the slam-bang action and chase sequences or the verbal byplay between DeNiro and Grodin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

American humorist Jules Feiffer and French director Alain Resnais are oddly paired for this satirical comedy about an American cartoonist in Paris. Adolph Green is a stunner as Joey Wellman, a cantankerous American cartoonist traveling abroad for the first time. In tow is Lena Apthrop (Linda Lavin), and the two are ostensibly journeying to Paris to attend a comic-strip exhibition in which Wellman's work is included. But it turns out the exhibition is just an excuse for Wellman to track down his errant daughter Elsie (Laura Benson), who has left Cleveland to take up literature at the Sorbonne. Her professor, Christian Gauthier (Gerard Depardieu) happens to be a big fan of Wellman, and he corrals the cartoonist and Lena to go to the fashionable country estate of his mother Isabelle (Micheline Presle), who tries to put up with her son's American friends. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story, the two-part TV movie I Know My First Name Is Steven tells the tragic story of Steven Stayner. At age seven, Steven was kidnapped by two men who held him captive in a tiny shed for seven years. One of the men, a habitual child abuser named Kenneth Parnell, sexually assaulted Steven on an almost daily basis during the boy's ordeal. At age 14, Steven finally was able to escape and return to his family. But we are shown that Steven's safe return was far from the happy ending it appeared to be. He's forced to adjust to a family he'd never really known, to convince himself that his parents had never forgotten him, and to put his seven-year hell behind him. While I Know My First Name Is Steven ends on an upbeat note, the real Stayner died in a motorcycle accident only a few months after this film was first telecast in May 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Hughes dishes out the sentiment by the ladle-full in Curly Sue. The film stars James Belushi as Bill Dancer, a down-on-his-luck drifter who lives by his wits on the highways and byways of the United States, stealing free meals, slipping into movie theaters, and sleeping in welfare hotels. Bill is also the guardian of cute pint-size moppet Curly Sue (Alisan Porter), a cutey pie cross between Little Orphan Annie and Tatum O'Neal's Addie Loggins character from Paper Moon. Bill and Curly Sue are a perfect con team, and they practice their scams when they need money for food. Pulling a knockdown car-accident scam, Bill makes hard-bitten Chicago lawyer Grey Ellison (Kelly Lynch) think that she slammed into him with her car. She buys dinner for the two mountebanks before being taken away by her snotty boyfriend Walter McCormick (John Getz). But the next morning, Grey actually does hit Bill with her car, and she takes the two back home with her. At first, Grey can't seem to get Curly Sue out of her mind, but then she finds herself falling in love with Bill. They begin to form a perfect family until Walter puts in a call to the Department of Children and Family Services. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide