Rick Johnson Movies
- 2003
When the female admissions officer of an extremely exclusive private school is murdered, the detectives are plunged into a world where one's future social status is determined upon getting into the most prestigious school at the earliest possible age. Cell-phone evidence indicates that the murdered woman had plenty of enemies, most of them parents of children who'd been rejected for enrollment. But the key to the solution of the case is in the hands of the dead woman's snobbish employer Wyatt Scofield (Roger Rees), whose high-toned arrogance quickly has the detectives and the lawyers alike contemplating a little mayhem of their own. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2002
Recent scandals within the rarefied world of Little League baseball provided the inspiration for this episode. The murder of a private eye leads the detectives to unearth a case of fraud involving a youthful ballplayer from South America and a phony birth certificate. A ruthless Little League coach may have been responsible for the scam -- but is he also capable of murder? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Professional football player-turned-actor Rick Johnson makes his directorial debut with this small-town drama. Johnson plays -- naturally -- an ex-NFL star named Billy Stagen. Now working as a sheriff in rural Alabama, Stagen is thrown for a loop when a young girl arrives claiming to be his illegitimate child. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2001 Method Fest, Rustin also stars Meat Loaf Aday. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rick Johnson, Ashley Johnson, (more)
- 1995
A mad bomber is on the loose in the seamy Downbelow section of Babylon 5. As a result of an explosion, Londo and G'Kar are trapped in together in an inoperative transport tube. And when a religious group arrives at the station to study the worship customs of other cultures, Ivanova is drawn into a mystery. Guest stars include Patrick Kilpatrick as Carlson and Louis Turenne as Brother Theo. Written by J. Michael Straczynski, "Convictions" made its American TV debut the week of November 13, 1995. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, (more)
- 1992
Fatal Attraction plus Basic Instinct equals Fatal Instinct. We're sure the producers would deny this equation, but listen to the plot. A handsome cop investigates a brutal murder, in which a mysterious, erotically inclinded woman is involved. Before long, he falls prey to the woman's obsessiveness. Viewers can see this one in either an R rated version or an unrated cut. Stars Michael Madsen and Laura Johnson have both been far better elsewhere. This 1992 Fatal Instinct should not be confused with the 1993 Carl Reiner spoof of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Madsen, Laura Johnson, (more)
- 1965
Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) must act quickly when Caleb Reymer (Steve McNally) shows up on the land owned by little Jimmy Whitlaw (Michel Petit), the orphaned son of Jason's old friend. Claiming to be Jimmy's uncle, Caleb also insists that the land belongs to him. The only person who knows the real story is the boy's Native American housekeeper Neela (Maria Seldes)--and she refuses to talk. Featured in the cast as the town doctor is Walter F. O'Malley, the then-president of the Los Angeles Dodgers (and thus an old "baseball buddy" of former pro ballplayer Chuck Connors). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1964
Erich Kastner's oft-filmed children's story Emil and the Detectives was given the Disney treatment in 1964. Though the plot is still set in Berlin, the younger characters have been extensively Americanized, none more so than the title character (played by Bryan Russell) and aspiring teenaged detective Gustav (Roger Mobley). Travelling by bus to visit his aunt, Emil loses an envelope of money to sneak thief Grundeis (Heinz Schubert). The boy enlists the aid of a gang of young detective-story aficionados, led by Gustav, to locate the thief. This leads to a perilous adventure when it turns out that Grundeis is in league with an erudite master criminal known as The Baron (Walter Slezak), who is planning a major heist. The film waves uncertainly between pure-and-simple kiddie entertainment and a dead-serious "caper" effort; surely some of the worldly, cynical dialogue spoken by Walter Slezak went way over the heads of Disney's 8-to-14-year-old target audience. Still, the performances are lively and the Berlin locations well chosen. Emil and the Detectives wasn't as successful as Disney's previous release Mary Poppins, but it managed to make back its cost overseas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Slezak, Bryan Russell, (more)
After an excruciatingly humiliating in-flight experience that culminated in a messy breakup and the untimely death of a dog, Nashawn Wade (Kevin Hart) sues the airline for all it's worth. This turns out to be a more than profitable move on his part; the lawsuit brings him a settlement in the hefty amount of 600 million dollars. Eager to prevent his experience from happening to another -- and perfectly willing to reap the financial benefits of the cash cow he believes his plan to be -- Nashawn decides to launch NWA, an all African American airline complete with sensuous stewardesses, an onboard dance club, and a bathroom attendant. Far be it from giving "flying the friendly skies" a new meaning, however, chaos ensues in the form of a white family with the unfortunate last name of Hunkee. The Hunkee patriarch (as played by Tom Arnold) and his antics prevent the flight from going as smoothly as intended. The feature debut of music video director Jessy Tererro, urban comedy regulars Snoop Dogg and Method Man co-star. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Hart, Tom Arnold, (more)
Noted R&B artist and producer Kenneth (Babyface) Edmonds served as executive producer for this tough urban drama. After a shooting incident in a neglected inner-city school leaves a police officer wounded, a group of students holds the cop hostage, in a desperate effort to force improvements to their school. The cast includes another R&B hitmaker, Usher, as well as Forest Whitaker, Vanessa L. Williams, and Rosario Dawson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Usher Raymond, Forest Whitaker, (more)
Combining drama, comedy, and romance, Jerry Maguire was a critical and commercial success built on an original script by writer/director Cameron Crowe and an Oscar-nominated performance by Tom Cruise. Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is an agent with a major sports management firm. He's enthusiastic, successful, a great negotiator and people like him. But it begins to dawn on Jerry that there's something wrong with what he's doing, and not long after a troubling encounter with the son of an injured athlete he represents, Jerry has a serious crisis of conscience. In the midst of a sleepless night, Jerry writes a memo calling on himself and his colleagues to think more about the long-term welfare of the clients they represent and less about immediate profits. While everyone around him applauds the sentiment, Jerry's superiors think his ideas are bad for business; Jerry is fired, and, rather than standing in solidarity with him, his "friends" in the firm scramble like sharks to claim Jerry's clients. At the end of his last day, the only people willing to join Jerry as he strikes out on his own are staff accountant Dorothy (Renee Zellweger), a single mother secretly in love with him, and Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a football player whose pride and arrogance have gotten in the way of his reaching his potential. Jerry Maguire earned an Academy Award for Cuba Gooding Jr.'s performance as Tidwell and provided a breakthrough role for Renee Zellweger; it also made "Show me the money!" an unavoidable catchphrase for several months. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding, Jr., (more)
Four men just barely on the right side of the law step into a web of danger and corruption in this drama. In the early 1950s, Max Hoover (Nick Nolte) is a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department who leads what's been dubbed "the hat squad," a group of sharp-dressed cops who are ordered to stamp out organized crime using any means necessary, with legality and delicacy not much of an issue. Hoover and his partners Ellery Coolidge (Chazz Palminteri), Eddie Hall (Michael Madsen), and Arthur Relyea (Chris Penn) are looking into the brutal murder of a young woman named Allison Pond (Jennifer Connelly). In the course of their investigation, they discover that Allison had a lively sexual history, and she possessed explicit films of herself with her lovers, including Gen. Thomas Timms (John Malkovich), leader of the newly-formed Atomic Energy Commission. Timms becomes a key suspect, and he reveals the first of a long trail of troubling secrets, but Hoover has secrets of his own that he's trying to keep covered in the process -- including the fact that he and Allison were once an item. Popular vocalist Aaron Neville has a cameo as a singer at a night spot. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, (more)
- 1994
- R
A French boy goes to Virginia and finds love with an intelligent black girl in this nostalgic French drama set in 1955, and based on the popular 1986 novel by Philippe Labro. The movie was filmed in both Paris and Virginia. The film contains many references to blues and jazz, Faulkner, Chandler and Salinger. The French student Phillippe Le Clerc meets many interesting characters when he becomes a foreign exchange student in a Virginia college. Of all the people he meets, the one he loves the most is April, a highly educated "Negro girl," who must clean faculty houses when she is not in school. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marco Hofschneider, Robin Givens, (more)
A talented kick-boxer attempts to retire and finds himself framed for murder in this stylish action thriller. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorenzo Lamas, Anthony Geary, (more)
Two siblings find themselves competing on and off the racetrack in this action-packed drama. K.C. Carlyle (Steve Howey) and his kid brother, Trip (Mike Vogel), are both racers in the rough and tumble world of supercross, a revved-up variation on motocross racing in which specially modified motorcycle negotiate specially built dirt tracks that send riders through tricky twists and turns, over rough terrain, and off high-flying jumps. Both are talented racers, but K.C. has a wilder and more reckless approach, while Trip follows a more cautious path. A more profound difference between them arises when K.C. is offered a lucrative deal to ride for a factory-sponsored team; he takes the deal, and leaves his brother behind to race on his own dime. However, when an accident takes Trip out of the running on the supercross circuit, he and K.C. set aside their differences as Trip helps coach his older brother so he can succeed in his drive to the championship. Made with the cooperation of a leading supercross race promoter, Supercross: The Movie also stars Sophia Bush and Cameron Richardson as the brothers' love interests, and Robert Carradine as a determined race coach. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Howey, Mike Vogel, (more)
Screenwriter Darryl Quarles follows up his smash hit Big Momma's House (2000) with another raucous Martin Lawrence collaboration. Lawrence stars as Jamal Walker, an employee at a medieval-themed mini-golf course who wakes up in 14th century England after a blow to the head. Jamal has soon allied himself with a peasant girl and a broken-down ex-knight to defeat the evil King Leo (Kevin Conway) and his bullying minion, Sir Knolte (Tom Wilkinson). In the meantime, Jamal busts some modern dance moves on the medieval dance floor and encounters such intriguing residents of the period as knaves, peasants, archers, jousting knights, maidens, a princess, and even a giant. Black Knight (2001) is the sophomore directing vehicle of longtime television producer Gil Junger, who joins Lawrence in replacing the team originally attached to this comic vehicle, director F. Gary Gray and star Chris Tucker. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Lawrence, Tom Wilkinson, (more)
In this epic Ron Howard film, Joseph Donelly (Tom Cruise) is an impoverished 19th-century Irish tenant farmer who has recently lost both his father and his home to the agents of his unscrupulous landlord. On a mission to avenge his family's injustice at the hands of the ruthless land baron Joseph meets the landlord's daughter and the two run off to America together where the girl expects to claim a piece of land for herself in the Oklahoma Land Rush. After she is robbed on the boat that carries them to America, they arrive with nary a penny and struggle just to keep their heads above water in the slums of Boston. After a series of serious set-backs they do eventually work their way out West, where Joseph must fight to realize his dream and claim a piece of the American Dream for himself -- and where they finally acknowledge their love for each other. Shot in wide-screen Panavision, the movie was filmed on-location in Ireland and Montana. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, (more)
- 1998
- PG
Hawaiian surfer dudes Stew (Steve Van Wormer) and Phil Deedle (Paul Walker), fraternal twins, are about to be expelled from school, so their wealthy and concerned father (Eric Braeden) offers summer camp in Wyoming as a solution. Arriving in Jackson Hole with their wet suits, the Deedle twins are like fish out of water, and a series of accidents put them in a hospital. Mistaken for new recruits by Yellowstone Park ranger Capt. Pine (Douglas Ashton), the duo go along with the error after meeting their training officer, the attractive Lt. Jesse Ryan (A.J. Langer), but they are unprepared to adapt to life in the wild, as they cope with mountainside rappelling, sleeping in tents, eating worms, and dealing with hordes of prairie dogs unleashed by ex-ranger Frank Slater (Dennis Hopper), who seeks vengeance for his past problems in the park. There are several pop-culture references, including a cameo by Bart the Bear (of The Edge). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Van Wormer, Paul Walker, (more)
Everybody's favorite underdog youth hockey team hits the ice for a third adventure in D3: The Mighty Ducks. This time out, the Ducks' improbable success under lawyer-turned-hockey player Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez) has earned the group of misfits a certain degree of fame, and the entire team is given scholarships to attend Eden Hall Academy, an upscale private school with a rich and snobbish student body. The Ducks are dismayed to discover that they have a new coach, Ted Orion (Jeffrey Nordling), and they soon learn that, as freshmen, they get precious little respect from the Varsity team, and the team's melting-pot lineup makes them stick out like a sore thumb in the white, upper-class surroundings of Eden Hall. However, by the film's final reel, the Ducks will have taught their fellow classmates a lesson about teamwork and overcoming adversity. This proved to be the last film in the Mighty Ducks series, but it was followed by an animated television series that improbably turned the team into hockey stars from another dimension. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emilio Estevez, Jeffrey Nordling, (more)
- 1991
- PG
In this earnest, socially conscious drama, a prominent young lawyer rethinks his yuppie lifestyle and risks it all to become a staunch defender of homeless people's rights. Look for Martin Sheen (a strong advocate for the homeless) in a cameo role as a street person. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
After Billy Robinson (Robert Krantz) finds success as a professional motorcycle racer, he returns to his hometown where he faces adulation and jealousy as a result of his success. When a local motorcycle race is put together, Billy must compete against his best friend (Don Michael Paul) for the prize. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Michael Paul, Kathleen York, (more)
