Paul Gleason Movies
Wiry character actor Paul Gleason attended Florida State University before making his first off-Broadway appearance in a 1973 revival of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Gleason's inaugural movie role was Long Tom in Doc Savage (1975), after which he worked extensively in Roger Corman productions. He is best known for his scowling, obstreperous portrayals of minor authority figures: the principal in The Breakfast Club (1985), the police chief in Die Hard (1988), and so on. He was at his most abrasive--and his funniest--as FBI agent Clarence Beeks in Trading Places (1982). A familiar TV presence since his days as David Thornton on the ABC serial All My Children, Paul Gleason has had recurring roles on such nighttimers as Spooner, Supercarrier and One West Waikiki. Throughout the '90s Gleason continued to work steadily as a character actor appearing in films as diverse as National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, Running Cool, Maniac Cop 3, and Nothing to Lose. Like his Breakfast Club co-star Molly Ringwald, Gleason willingly spoofed his most iconic performance in the 2001 comedy Not Another Teen Movie. In May of 2006, at the age of 67, Gleason perished from mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer often suffered by people exposed to asbestos. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on the late Charles Willeford's series of hard-boiled crime novels featuring Miami cop Hoke Moseley, the Jonathan Demme-produced Miami Blues opens with the prison release of Frederick Frenger Jr. (Alec Baldwin), a deranged killer who has barely de-boarded his plane before he's killed a Hare Krishna in the airport. Checking into his hotel, Frenger meets up with Susie Waggoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a young prostitute with dreams of domestic life, and the two quickly become romantically involved. Meanwhile, the Hare Krishna murder case is given to Moseley (Fred Ward), a grizzled vet who vows to hunt down Frenger, but may be getting too long in the tooth for the demands of his job. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Baldwin, Fred Ward, (more)
- 1990
In this complicated and exciting above-average made-for-cable suspense thriller, a woman searches for her missing husband with surprising results. When Valerie's (Mimi Rogers) husband Darryl (Cliff De Young) leaves for work one morning and never returns, she hires private-eye Shepard (Mark Harmon) to find him. Valerie learns that David has a second identity and might be hiding out. As the investigation continues, Shepard and Valerie become increasingly attracted to each other and begin an affair. Director Ivan Passer gets an excellent performance from Mimi Rogers who makes the most of her enigmatic character. This thriller delivers when it needs to and builds a great deal of suspense with some surprising plot twists. Fourth Story was also released as Basic Deception. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- R
Night Game is a sweetly irreverent, low-key comedy which is also an engaging crime thriller. Mike Seaver (Roy Scheider), an ex-ballplayer who's now a homicide detective with the Galveston police, has to solve some vicious grappling-hook murders, somehow linked to hometown-wins by the Houston Astros baseball team. Engaged to cute, young, blonde concession-owner Roxy (Karen Young), Steve must juggle his romance with Roxy while at the same time watching out for her. Roxy is just the type of woman who the murderer stalks, brutally murdering them and leaving their bodies by the boardwalk where Roxy manages her concession with her mother Alma (Carlin Glynn). While the premise of the plot is somewhat hard to believe, the entire cast turns in solid performances as colorful, offbeat characters. The script, by Spencer Eastman and Anthony Palmer is well-written and highly amusing with a level of gallows wit uncommon in a crime thriller. The climax, although obvious to all but the most unsophisticated movie-goer, doesn't spoil the fun of this unusual film which is stylishly staged and sufficiently gripping. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Scheider, Karen Young, (more)
- 1989
Jessica (Angela Lansbury) accuses the wife of a Palm Springs real estate developer of murdering her philandering husband. Shortly thereafter, the accused woman commits suicide, and her sister bitterly accuses Jessica of driving the woman to her death. Teaming up with police detective Hanna (Elliott Gould), Jessica tries to find out if she indeed condemned an innocent person--and in the process, the two sleuths search high and low for the $3 million allegedly embezzled by the murder victim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Spooner stars Robert Urich as a forger, recently escaped from prison. Urich cooks up a phony resume and assumes the identity of a high-school teacher. He becomes the wrestling coach for a group of misfit kids with the lowest of low self esteem. In urging the kids not to give up, Urich's eyes are opened to the possibility of his turning his own life around. Jane Kaczmarek and Brent Fraser costar in Spooner, which premiered over the Disney Channel cable service on December 2, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Featuring shots of aerial adventure and excitement, this is the pilot for a television series that chronicled the exploits of a group of specially trained Navy fighter pilots who live aboard a gigantic aircraft carrier and struggle daily to keep the world safe for democracy. The story centers on the pilots' fight to contain a devastating virus. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Johnny Walker (Anthony Michael Hall) is a hot-shot high-school quarterback who receives intoxicating offers from spirited college recruiters in this adolescent teen comedy. Bathroom humor and sight gags are strung together in a story involving booze, broads, and other benefits for the coveted quarterback. Robert Downey Jr., Uma Thurman, and Paul Gleason co-star. Even cameos from Jim McMahon and Howard Cosell can't save this feature from itself, though it isn't the fault of the cast. Originally rated PG-13, it was reedited to R (with scenes added) for a home video release. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey, Jr., (more)
It's Christmas time in L.A., and there's an employee party in progress on the 30th floor of the Nakatomi Corporation building. The revelry comes to a violent end when the partygoers are taken hostage by a group of terrorists headed by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), who plan to steal the 600 million dollars locked in Nakatomi's high-tech safe. In truth, Gruber and his henchmen are only pretending to be politically motivated to throw the authorities off track; also in truth, Gruber has no intention of allowing anyone to get out of the building alive. Meanwhile, New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) has come to L.A. to visit his estranged wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), who happens to be one of the hostages. Disregarding the orders of the authorities surrounding the building, McClane, who fears nothing (except heights), takes on the villains, armed with one handgun and plenty of chutzpah. Until Die Hard came along, Bruce Willis was merely that wisecracking guy on Moonlighting. After the film's profits started rolling in, Willis found himself one of the highest-paid and most sought-after leading men in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, (more)
An aspiring writer faces up to the responsibilities of marriage and family in this romantic comedy from writer, director, and producer John Hughes. Despite the misgivings he pours out to best friend Davis McDonald (Alec Baldwin), Jake Briggs (Kevin Bacon) marries high-school sweetheart Kristy (Elizabeth McGovern). After an abortive attempt at graduate school in New Mexico, the couple settle in suburban Chicago. Jake fakes his way into a job as an advertising copywriter, while Kristy settles into her own corporate job. The couple face the typical ups and downs of any new marriage, especially after Davis visits with a bimbo on his arm, regaling his pal Jake with tales of the good life. A few years later, Kristy decides to stop taking her birth-control pills -- and tells Jake about it three months later. Plagued by doubts, unfulfilled ambitions, and images of a fantasy girl (Isabel Lorca) he once spotted in a club, Jake resists the idea of fatherhood. Then he finds out he has low sperm count and, his manhood thus challenged, lines up for fertility clinic-assisted stud duty. The birth doesn't go as smoothly as Jake expected, however, setting the stage for climactic realizations. Edie McClurg, who played the nosy school secretary in Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off, makes a cameo appearance as an officious neighbor. In addition, a who's who of other Hughes alums and Hollywood stars lend their faces and voices to a series of closing-credits shots in which each suggests a name for the titular baby. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth McGovern, (more)
An ambitious father thinks nothing of using his own son to achieve his political goals in this adolescent comedy. The lonely boy has spent the last seven years tucked away and ignored by his parents, Senator Tom Morgan and his social-climbing wife Nancy, in a distant boarding school. As the story begins, he receives the depressing news that once again they will be too busy to have him home for the holidays. But then, out of the blue, they change their minds and invite him home to stay there for good. The boy is elated, but soon after his arrival, he learns the bitter truth: his father only brought him back because it is an election year and his campaign manager thought he might do better if the public saw him as more of a family man. The boy then decides that it is high time some changes were made around the house and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jon Cryer, Lynn Redgrave, (more)
- 1987
- PG
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A seldom-seen freshman effort from Roland Emmerich, co-writer and director of mega-budget '90s blockbusters Stargate, Independence Day and Godzilla, this lightweight comedy reveals a vague glimmer of the director's flair for fantasy filmmaking. The story involves a group of young would-be filmmakers in Los Angeles, one of whom inherits an antique clock possessed of the benevolent spirit of his late grandfather's butler. The ghost eventually takes the form of a cute alien creature from the set of a future film project who helps the kids solve a mystery involving their grandfather's hidden fortune -- which sparks the attention of a greedy film producer. Reasonably entertaining for young audiences, this project is something of a follow-up to the director's earlier Poltergeist-inspired film Making Contact. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Lively, Tim McDaniel, (more)
In this comedy, a young German woman named Elaine Hines (Hanna Schygulla) moves to New York City with dreams of becoming a writer. Elaine becomes entangled in a mystery and falls in with a group of gangsters who lead her through a series of crazy adventures. Released on video under the title Crazy Streets, this movie featured an appearance by Deborah Harry and was Alec Baldwin's first screen appearance. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hanna Schygulla, Deborah Harry, (more)
- 1987
- R
The lonely wife of a struggling tobacco farmer succumbs to temptation and sleeps with a transient harvester in this drama set in Depression-ravaged North Carolina. The drifter offers her more excitement than the bored young mother has felt in years and it is no surprise that she and he begin plotting to murder her hard-working husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lori Singer, Anthony Edwards, (more)
- 1986
The title character in this episode is a boozy ex-boxer (played by Paul Gleason), who is currently being persecuted by a gangster named Fats (John Hancock). At the request of his old pal Hulk Hogan, B.A. (Mr. T) tries to help Fats out for the sake of the old drunkard's son Jeffrey (Billy Jayne). Former Chicago Bears player William "Refrigerator" Perry also appears in this episode, in which the A-Team manages to get kidnapped twice -- by two different gangsters! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
This expensively wrought TV movie was the sequel to the 1984 offering Ewok Adventure, which in turn was inspired by those furry little extraterrestrials introduced in the 1983 theatrical feature Return of the Jedi. On the forest moon of Endor, a little girl (Aubree Miller) is protected by the Ewoks -- and by human hermit Noa (Wilfred Brimley) -- against such enemies as space-witch Charal (Sian Phillips). Like all previous chapters in the "Ewok" saga, The Battle for Endor was executive-produced by George Lucas. And, like Ewok Adventure, the film copped an Emmy nomination. First telecast November 24, 1985, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor was preceded two months earlier by the animated Saturday-morning series The Ewoks, which later evolved into The Ewoks and Star Wars Droids Adventure Hour. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
The Challenge of a Lifetime is Hawaii's Ironman Triathalon. Unless you're an ironman, the outcome of this competition may not be of paramount importance to you. But it is crucial to Penny Marshall, a divorced mother seeking to prove that she's more than just an adjunct to her family. Marshall enters the 140-mile triathalon, which requires her to run, swim, and navigate a bicycle. Most of those who caught this TV movie's premiere on February 14, 1985, had tumbled to its outcome before the second commercial. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Penny Marshall
- 1985
Based on William Bayer's novel Switch, the made-for-TV Doubletake introduced Richard Crenna to his oft-played role of detective Frank Janek. As always, Janek is assigned to a particularly gruesome and profoundly puzzling murder case. A prim lady schoolteacher and a hooker are both killed on the same evening; their bodies are decapitated, and their heads are switched! The first installment of this two-part movie details the early stages of the investigation, as well as the growing relationship between Janek and photographer Caroline Wallace (Beverly D'Angelo), the daughter of a cop who'd died in a mob hit. Part two reveals the "dark side" of the case, exposing corruption in the highest police circles and implicating someone very close to Janek in the double murder. Doubletake was originally telecast on November 24 and 26, 1985, and has since been reissued as a single three-hour film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
John Hughes wrote and directed this quintessential 1980s high school drama featuring the hottest young stars of the decade. Trapped in a day-long Saturday detention in a prison-like school library are Claire, the princess (Molly Ringwald); Andrew, the jock (Emilio Estevez); John, the criminal (Judd Nelson); Brian, the brain (Anthony Michael Hall); and Allison, the basket case (Ally Sheedy). These five strangers begin the day with nothing in common, each bound to his/her place in the high school caste system. Yet the students bond together when faced with the villainous principal (Paul Gleason), and they realize that they have more in common than they may think, including a contempt for adult society. "When you grow up, your heart dies," Allison proclaims in one of the film's many scenes of soul-searching, and, judging from the adults depicted in the film, the teen audience may very well agree. Released in a decade overflowing with derivative teen films, The Breakfast Club has developed an almost cult-like status. ~ Dylan Wilcox, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, (more)
- 1984
At the behest of Robin Masters, Magnum (Tom Selleck) is forced to allow pesky novelist Betty Windom (Cassie Yates) to accompany him on an insurance-fraud investigation. As the story progresses, Betty decides that the case at hand is excellent grist for her creative mill, and thus she formulates the plotline of a novel based on the investigation, in which Magnum is reborn as the dashing "Sebastian Steele" and she herself is the lucious "Colette". Alas, in her innocent zeal to transform fact into fiction, Betty has placed herself and Magnum in a potentially deadly situation! The episode's final moment is a glorious takeoff of the "beach scene" in From Here to Eternity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
The A-Team heads to the small town of Haleyville to aid female fire chief Annie Saunders (Stepfanie Kramer), whose job may be taken away from her by unscrupulous, mob-connected rival chief Roy Kelsey (Paul Gleason). In their efforts to help Annie and find out what Kelsey is REALLY up to, our heroes must avoid capture by Col. Briggs (Charles Napier), the latest in a long line of military antagonists. The best scenes involve "Little Squirt", a revolutionary fire-fighting apparatus (actually a glorified seltzer bottle!) created by the redoubtable Murdock (Dwight Schultz). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall), a once-famous country western singer, wakes up broke, alone and hung over in a tiny Texas motel run by widowed Rosa Lee (Tess Harper). Having nowhere else to go, Sledge takes a job at the motel, and through the kindness and faith of Rosa he changes his self-destructive ways. He marries Rosa (after he's baptized at her urging) and becomes a father/pal to her son (Allan Hubbard). Given an opportunity to make a comeback, Sledge considers leaving his new family behind, but after a reunion with his own unhappy daughter (Ellen Barkin), he vows never again to ruin anyone else's life. A simple story simply told, Tender Mercies is a warm, persuasive tale of redemption, with Robert Duvall giving one of his finest performances. Also appearing is Betty Buckley as Duvall's ex-wife, a Dolly Parton-type country star, and Wilford Brimley as Duvall's former manager. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, (more)
The "nature-nurture" theory that motivated so many Three Stooges comedies is the basis of John Landis's hit comedy. The fabulously wealthy but morally bankrupt Duke brothers (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche) make a one-dollar bet over heredity vs. environment. Curious as to what might happen if different lifestyles were reversed, they arrange for impoverished street hustler Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) to be placed in the lap of luxury and trained for a cushy career in commodities brokerage. Simultaneously, they set about to reduce aristocratic yuppie Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd to poverty and disgrace, hiring a prostitute (Jamie Lee Curtis) to hasten his downfall. When Billy Ray figures out that the brothers intend to dump him back on the streets once their experiment is complete, he seeks out Winthorpe, and together the pauper-turned-prince and prince-turned-pauper plot an uproarious revenge. With the good-hearted prostitute and Winthorpe's faithful butler (Denholm Elliott) as their accomplices, they set about to hit the brothers where it really hurts: in the pocketbook. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, (more)
- 1981
- PG
The mysterious 1971 hijacking of an airliner by a bold thief who parachuted into legend over the Pacific Northwest became fodder for this action comedy that's mostly speculative. Treat Williams stars as Jim Meade, an ambitious former Army man who devises a clever scheme to hold up an airliner for $200,000. Masquerading as "D.B. Cooper," he succeeds, and after landing safely in the deep woods, he seeks out his wife Hannah (Kathryn Harrold), whom he had left months earlier. They reconcile and head for the Mexican border. However, Jim soon has two people hot on his trail. Bob Gruen (Robert Duvall) was Jim's sergeant in the armed forces. Now an insurance investigator, Bob becomes convinced that only his talented former underling could have pulled off the job and sets out to capture him. At the same time, Jim's seedy former Army pal Remson (Paul Gleason) comes to the same conclusion and pursues the Meades, hoping to get a cut of the loot. Based on the book by J.D. Reed, the film failed to ignite interest at the box office, despite a publicity stunt by Universal Pictures offering a million dollars for information leading to the arrest of the real Cooper. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Duvall, Treat Williams, (more)
