Jason Gedrick Movies
Though Jason Gedrick is primarily a supporting actor, his first role was relatively impressive for a newbie; in 1983, he appeared as an extra in the cast of Bad Boys with Sean Penn, who encouraged Gedrick, then a Chicago high-school student, to further pursue acting. Penn's advice paid off fairly quickly, considering that by 1985, Gedrick had landed leading roles in Iron Eagle, The Zoo Gang, and The Heavenly Kid. In 1988, Gedrick starred as a washed-out basketball player-turned-police officer opposite Meg Ryan and Kiefer Sutherland in Promised Land, and went on to play small roles in Born on the Fourth of July and Backdraft. Between film roles, Gedrick kept busy with stage work, starring with Helen Hunt and Don Ameche in a Broadway production of Our Town, as well as an off-Broadway production of Mrs. Dally Has a Lover with Judith Ivey.Though Gedrick was less successful on the big screen during the mid-'90s, the actor was praised for his television work. In 1996 and 1997, Gedrick starred as a murder defendant in Steven Bochco's Murder One, and later starred opposite Ken Olin and Joe Pantoliano in CBS's critically acclaimed series EZ Streets. Gedrick was also recognized for his work with Danny Aiello and Joe Mantegna in The Last Don and The Last Don II, both six-hour CBS miniseries. Gedrick enjoyed similar success for his lead role in the CBS drama Falcone, which was based on the feature film Donnie Brasco, and would go on to land a lead role alongside Billy Baldwin and Chazz Palminteri in One Eyded King (2002). Gedrick could also be seen in NBC's Boomtown (2002) and the made-for-cable drama A Date With Darkness: The Trial and Capture of Andrew Luster. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- R
Set in the Manhattan street milieu that served him well in West Side Story, Robert Wise’s Rooftops tells the story of T, a quiet, soft-spoken teen-ager who has left his broken home and is living in a makeshift shelter in an old water tower on top of an abandoned tenement building. There are other kids like him, including Squeak, a talented graffiti artist who joins T after an altercation involving his mother’s boy friend. T and Squeak manage to scrape together what little money they need through minor sins (stripping cars, etc.), and at night all these street inhabitants get together in a vacant lot to “combat” dance, in which they use a combination of karate and dancing to force an opponent off of a platform. Into this mix comes Lobo, a drug dealer who moves into T’s building and turns it into a crack house. Lobo’s beautiful cousin Elana serves as his lookout – not because she wants to, but because her father’s heart attack has left her family in dire financial straits. T and Elana become interested in each other, but T and Lobo are at odds with each other – which fact leads to a showdown in which T must put his “combat” skills to good use. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Gedrick, Troy Beyer, (more)
The second of three films by co-writer/director Oliver Stone to explore the effects of the Vietnam War (Platoon and Heaven and Earth are the others), Born On The Fourth Of July tells the true story of Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise), a patriotic, All-American small town athlete who shocks his family by enlisting with the Marines to fight in the Vietnam War. Once he is overseas, however, Kovic's gung-ho enthusiasm turns to horror and confusion when he accidentally kills one of his own men in a firefight. His downfall is furthered by a bullet wound that leaves him paralyzed from the chest down. He returns home, spends an appalling, nightmarish stint in a veterans' hospital, and follows an increasingly disillusioned and fragmented path that ultimately leaves him drunk and dissolute in Mexico. However, Kovic somehow turns himself around and pulls his life together, becoming an outspoken anti-war activist in the process. The film is long but emotionally powerful; many consider it Stone's best work and Cruise's best performance. Both were nominated for Oscars, as was the film itself, but only Stone, who co-wrote the film with Kovic from the latter's book, won for Best Director. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, (more)
Three friends face the disappointments of adulthood in this drama. Growing up in Ashville, Utah, a small town where traditional ideals still cling stubbornly to the hearts and minds of youth, Davey Hancock (Jason Gedrick) is the star of the high school's championship basketball team. Pretty cheerleader Mary Daley (Tracy Pollan) is Davey's girlfriend, and bright Danny Rivers (Kiefer Sutherland) is his best friend. Two years after graduating from high school, reality has dimmed their dreams; while Davey won a college scholarship to play ball, he washed out of the team and ended up back in Ashville, where he's now a police officer. While Davey still sees Mary, she wants more out of life than Ashville or her relationship with him can give her. And when Danny, who has spent much of his time since high school drifting in search of an ambition, returns to town to visit Davey and Mary, he brings along a surprise -- Bev (Meg Ryan), a drug-addled floozy with an unstable personality (and a gun) whom he married in Las Vegas three days earlier. Promised Land was also released on home video under the title Young Hearts. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Gedrick, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
- 1987
- PG
Stacking stars Megan Follows as a Montana teenager struggling to keep her family's farm together. The time is the 1950s, when rural 14-year-olds were supposed to be seen and not heard. But Follows intends to be seen and heard, and in so doing finds several strong adult allies. The film has been unfavorably compared to the strikingly similar theatrical feature Desert Bloom; while it's true that this takes forever to get started, it is saved by the powerful performances of Follows, Frederic Forrest, Christine Lahti, Peter Coyote and James Gammon. Completed in 1987, Stacking (the title refers to the bundling of crops) received its widest exposure when it aired February 15, 1989, over PBS' American Playhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christine Lahti, Frederic Forrest, (more)
A seat-of-the-pants militia attitude gets a boost from this conventional drama about the heroics of a teen son anxious to free his father from captivity in a small Middle Eastern nation. Doug's (Jason Gedrick) father is an Air Force pilot who was shot down on a mission near the border of an Arab country and is now held hostage. Failing adequate U.S. intervention causes a desperate Doug to enlist his school chums in a wild plan to essentially sneak away with two Air Force jets and take off on a mission to rescue his father. He convinces the veteran Chappy (Louis Gossett, Jr.) into flying one plane, while Doug himself flies another (he learned how to pilot from his father). Yes. If audiences believe all this, then the ending should come as no surprise either. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Gossett, Jr., Jason Gedrick, (more)
- 1985
- PG
In a fast-paced teen comedy by Pen Densham, Ben Vereen stars as a former boxer who graduates into a failure as a nightclub owner. The club is called the "Zoo" and a group of homeless waifs want to rent it to start their own profitable business. The trouble is that this group of teens is opposed by a local gang, out to shut down their enterprise. The ex-fighter, known as Old Leather Face, agrees to the teens' deal and then gets further involved by the minute. The final showdown with the gang carries some heavy artillery: thumb tacks and staples. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Vereen, Jackie Earle Haley, (more)
Ever since the "Topper" movies made ghosts likeable and helpful, films like The Heavenly Kid have taken up the theme with varying degrees of success. In this version of life after death, Bobby (Lewis Smith) is a teen who dies in a drag race as he goes over a cliff. He then enters a curious "mass transit" system that will not take him "uptown" until he returns back to earth and gains a little more virtue. And so Bobby is assigned the thankless task of converting Lenny (Jason Gedrick) into a self-confident individual who can date women without fear (not exactly on a par with bringing peace to the world, but this is a teen movie). There are some twists and turns along the way, though nothing shakes up the status quo or ventures beyond the already imagined. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lewis Smith, Jason Gedrick, (more)
- 1984
Starting out as a story of the immediate perils of three couples intent on finding refuge in the countryside after nuclear war has broken out in the Gulf of Oman, the action and pace of this apparent thriller quickly succumb to roughly-drawn caricatures and the rest of the film takes a tumble. As the couples leave for their house far from the city, they worry about their children who have been delayed because of van trouble -- but their worries are nothing compared to the difficulties in store from the mean survivalist leader (Peter Donat). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Bower, Karlene Crockett, (more)
