Joe Don Baker Movies

This made-for-television drama is based on the true story of a harrowing country abduction. Tracy Pollan stars as Kari Swenson, an Olympic biathlon athlete-in-training who is kidnapped by some reclusive, backwoods mountain men looking for marriage. The movie follows her captivity, the massive search and her recovery from both her physical injuries and the trauma of the experience. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

The Living Daylights represents the first appearance by Timothy Dalton as "Bond...James Bond." Based very, very loosely on an obscure Ian Fleming short story, the film finds Bond assigned to aid in the defection of KGB agent Jeroen Krabbe. 007 must prevent an unknown sniper from killing Krabbe before he can reach the West. The mysterious assailant turns out to be the luscious Maryam d'Abo, who like practically everyone in the film except Bond is Not All That She Seems. The plot wends its way through a scheme to trade several million dollars' worth of diamonds for weapons, which will be shipped off to mercenaries worldwide. The climax takes place high above the clouds in a cargo plane loaded with opium. Dalton would play Bond one more time in License to Kill (1989) before handing the franchise over to Pierce Brosnan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The British government's nuclear policy is in for a royal drubbing in the tense BBC TV miniseries Edge of Darkness. Bob Peck stars as London police detective Ron Craven, whose political-activist daughter is murdered right before his eyes. Meticulously following the trail of clues, Craven uncovers a dark conspiracy involving the government and the powerful American CEO of a nuclear power plant. Joe Don Baker and a young Joanne Whalley co-star. The six-part series became a cult favorite in England, where it originally aired in November and December of 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cycle-flick habitue Greydon Clark warmed the director's chair for Final Justice. Joe Don Baker stars as a Texas sheriff attempting to stem corruption in his own community. Failing this, the sheriff (Baker) is compelled to follow the mob perpetrators all the way to Italy. It is hardly uplifting entertainment, but it certainly delivers the goods in terms of bloody action. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The film version of The Natural pulls off the neat trick of conveying the spirit of the Bernard Malamud novel upon which it is based, even while changing both the outcome and the meaning of Malamud's closing chapters. In his first film appearance in four years, Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs, a farm boy with a hankering to be a great baseball player. With his faithful homemade bat "Wonderboy" in hand, Roy heads to the big city. En route, he arouses the fascination of the mysterious Harriet Bird (Barbara Hershey). Luring the boy to a hotel room, Harriet asks Roy what he wants out of life. Roy brashly responds he wants to be "the best there is," whereupon Harriet whips out a gun and shoots Roy down. Sixteen years later, a humbler Roy Hobbs emerges from the bush leagues to become a 35-year-old "rookie" on the 1939 lineup of the New York Knights. He soon becomes the team's star player, and in so doing once more attracts enigmatic woman Memo Paris (Kim Basinger), the glamorous niece of the Knights' manager Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley) and the mistress of Rothstein-like gambler Gus Sands (a curiously unbilled Darren McGavin). Roy's fascination with Memo compromises his ability to play, but this time he finds salvation in the form the angelic Iris Gaines (Glenn Close), his childhood sweetheart. From this point forward, the script for The Natural bears very little resemblance to the Malamud original. Without giving anything away, it can be said that Roy Hobbs is given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compensate for the mistakes of his youth, despite the demonic intrusion of inexplicably spiteful sports writer Max Mercy (Robert Duvall). The Natural elevates the art of slow-motion photography to new heights; while this technique would become precious and boring in later baseball films, it works beautifully here, as does the decision by director Barry Levinson and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel to convey the symbolism inherent in the story in purely visual rather than blatantly verbal terms. (If the characters told you that the story was a retelling of the Camelot legend in baseball terms, would you have watched?) Another plus is the pastoral theme music by Randy Newman, which has been well utilized on sports broadcasts and "human interest" TV documentaries ever since. The baseball scenes in The Natural were staged at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, New York. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Designed as a spoof of slasher movies, this gory comedy is set in a town that more than a decade ago was home to the infamous lawnmower killer. Set just before the big Halloween soiree at the local high school, it follows officer Dick Harbinger as he desperately tries to convince the town that the dreaded mechanical reaper is about to return for more bloodshed and horror. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A female cop and a male private detective team up to bring car thieves to justice in this actioner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this adventure set during the Civil War, a traveler and an Irish-Indian named Half Moon O'Brien find a dying man who tells them of a large cache of diamonds he buried somewhere in the mountains. The two, joined by a man and a woman, begin searching for the treasure. Half-Moon senses that they are being followed. The members of their search party begin disappearing one-by-one. Soon they learn that the gems are cursed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this supernatural western, Confederate veterans of the last battle of the Civil War set out to find a hidden treasure: a cache of diamonds hidden in a cave. However, the soldiers find out that the cave is guarded by a covey of hawks -- and they begin to suspect that the hawks might actually be agents of the Devil, in disguise. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

Director Robert Clouse, maker of the martial-arts masterpiece Enter the Dragon returns with The Pack, a well-directed, interesting little horror film about a pack of pugnacious puppies who run amok on an island resort. Veteran action star (Joe Don Baker) plays the marine biologist forced to deal with the dilemma when the dogs begin to exhibit their killer instincts by hunting down and killing resort patrons, a result of neglect by their human owners. Although the prospect of dying in the jaws of a West Highland Terrier may seem improbable, Clouse imbues the film with genuine suspense and provides a few legitimate shocks, a testament to his skill at the helm. Released around the same time as Jaws amidst a slew of killer animal rip-offs, The Pack was undeservedly dismissed by critics. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

A tough-guy cop (Joe Don Baker) pursues two drug runners (Martin Balsam, John Saxon) across the city to bust a large syndicate. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

This martial arts film has an interesting twist. The conflict is over a mythical 30-inch-tall statue with very special properties. Protruding from the sculpture are seven golden needles. If the needles are inserted into a man's body in the precisely right positions, he will become a sexual superman. If the position is incorrect, the man will instantly die. Despite the risks, several men begin fighting over the precious object. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide