Michael Ironside Movies
Canadian actor Michael Ironside has specialized in tough, steel-fisted villainous film roles. Ironside played the ruthless brain-splitting cult leader in Scanners (1981), the unethical cop in Cross Country (1983), and the megalomaniacal cyborg in Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1984), among other wicked characterizations. He was also seen as Dick Wetherly in Top Gun, 1986's biggest hit, and as General Katana in Highlander II: The Quickening (1991). He also appeared in such TV series as ER and SeaQuest DSV: 2032. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1983
Jovana (Milena Dravic) is a cross-country runner training for the Olympics with the help of a kindly priest. She meets a poor man on one of her journeys but falls for his black brother-in-law, a worker at the local crematorium. The worker is killed by his jealous brother-in-law and the first man is sentenced to death, but the woman continues her running as if nothing had happened in this dark comedy with tinges of satire and slapstick. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Beymer, Nina Axelrod, (more)
- 1983
The A-Team comes to the rescue of the independent LoneStar cab company, which is being driven out of business by the monolithic Love Cab firm. The villains, led by Crane (Michael Ironside) and Ryder (Brion James), are of course using their own taxis for various illegal purposes. Before the inevitable climax in which a humble cab is converted into a tank, the audience is regaled by the manic machinations of A-Team member Murdock (Dwight Schultz), who in the guise of "Captain Cab" regularly solicits the advice of his puppet friend Mr. Sockie! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
John Heard and Levon Helm play a couple of frizzy-haired leftovers from the sixties. Living by their wits in Spain, Heard and Helm get mixed up in an multimillion-dollar Moroccan drug deal. Their intentions are more honorable than they seem: at stake is the life of a kidnap victim. But as the story develops, the boys discover that they've been set up as fall guys by a smarmy gangster. Eluding the Law, Heard and Helm lay the groundwork for retribution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
- PG
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In this weakly scripted, dull sci-fi adventure, three women have been shipwrecked somewhere in the galaxy on planet Terra Eleven and now Wolff (Peter Strauss), the pilot of a salvage ship, his friend Washington (Ernie Hudson), and the orphaned Niki (Molly Ringwald) are out to rescue them. Along the way, the trio face several life-threatening situations, and as they escape each danger intact, their final encounter with the evil Overdog McNabb (Michael Ironside) draws ever closer. With a wobbly storyline, one-note theme (people versus machines), and unintentionally funny dialogue, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone has a few things going for it: quick-paced action scenes, unusual sets, a 3-D format, a good musical score, and creative sound effects. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Strauss, Molly Ringwald, (more)
A crazed, women-hating killer (Michael Ironside) rapes and brutalizes journalist Deborah Ballin (Lee Grant). When he discovers that his attack didn't kill Deborah, he comes to the hospital to finish what he started. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Ironside, Lee Grant, (more)
- 1982
Based on the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, this modern adaptation follows the trials of a woman who trades her soul for eternal youthful beauty. However, as the woman's appearance does not change, her video screen test ages and decays. This film was made for television ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1981
- R
Based on a novel by Margaret Atwood, this suspenseful psycho-sexual drama chronicles a young woman's quest through the wilderness to find her father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Bottoms, Kathleen Beller, (more)
The title of this David Cronenberg sci-fi horror film refers to a group of people who have telekinetic powers that allow them to read minds and give them the ability to make other people's heads explode. The children of a group of women who took an experimental tranquilizer during their pregnancies, the scanners are now adults and have become outcasts from society. But Darryl (Michael Ironside) decides to create an army of scanners to take over the world. The only person who can stop him is his brother Cameron (Stephen Lack), who wants to forget that he was ever a scanner. Winner of the International Fantasy Film Award at the 1983 Fantasporto Film Festival, Scanners was followed by a pair of sequels, neither of which involved Cronenberg. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, (more)
- 1981
American Nightmare would seem to have been inspired by the 1979 George C. Scott feature Hardcore. In that film, Scott was a midwesterner who discovered that his beloved daughter was appearing in X-rated movies. In Nightmare, we find young Lawrence S. Day in search of his sister Lora Staley. His odyssey takes him into the seamiest recesses of the porn and prostitution scenes in the Big City. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lawrence Day, Lora Staley, (more)
- 1980
- R
This drama is set in Montreal when in the mid-'50s a young woman is impregnated by a petty thief who is caught and given ten years in the slammer. In the meantime, the woman bears a son and marries another. The time passes quickly and the thief is eventually released. He immediately goes to her and this nearly destroys her marriage. Fortunately, he realizes that taking the woman away from her husband will only hurt his son and so backs off. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Dale, Winston Rekert, (more)
- 1979
A middle-aged husband must choose between his wife and family, and the younger woman he is having an affair with in the made-for-TV movie. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1978
This documentary explores Robert Kennedy's 1968 bid for the U.S. presidency. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1978
In this feminist drama, a married woman follows a premonition and abandons her wealthy husband and her child to begin a new life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colleen Collins, Diane Bigelow, (more)
- 1978
- PG
Peter Fonda and Jerry Reed star as truckers pitted against a rival big-rig boss who wants them off the highway. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Fonda, Jerry Reed, (more)
Two misfits find love and support in each other's company, in this show-business comedy with a twist. One of them, Robin Turner (Craig Russell), is a male hairdresser and a gifted female impersonator, who tries out his act in local gay nightclubs. His roommate is Liza Connors (Hollis McLaren), an old high-school friend who is now a mumblingly strange pregnant woman, recently released from a mental hospital where she was being treated for schizophrenia. She is determined never to return to the hospital again, and he wants to be a show-business success with his impressions. When Robin loses his job, the two determine to try their luck in New York. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Russell, Hollis McLaren, (more)
