James Karen Movies
Character actor Karen has had a 40-year career as an actor. He made his Broadway bow with Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Elia Kazan. Since then, he has worked continuously in theater, television and film, with such greats as his idol Buster Keaton, and on up to director Oliver Stone. His best-known films include Return of the Living Dead (1985) and Return of the Living Dead II (1988). Karen has also appeared in All the President's Men (1976), China Syndrome (1979), Poltergeist (1982), and Wall Street (1987). He was a regular on Eight is Enough (1977-81), starred in the science fiction series The Powers of Matthew Star as Major Wymore (1983) and had a recurring role on the cable series The Larry Sanders Show. ~ All Movie Guide- 1993
Unsatisfied with the negotiating tactics of his current, more laid-back agent, Larry (Garry Shandling) decides to go for the gusto in his upcoming contract negotiations by hiring a new, more aggressive agent who isn't afraid to deal with the network on his own terms. Guest stars include Barry Levinson, James Karen, John Pleshette, Tommy Newsom, Doc Severinsen, and Bob Odenkirk. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Footage from three separate horror projects was assembled for this semi-anthology, framed by the premise of a mad scientist (Martin Kove) who uses virtual-reality technology to delve into the phobias of three different subjects. The first tale, "Jenny Porter," describes a paranoid woman (Vivian Schilling) trapped in her house by a pack of mad dogs; "The Roommate" features Bill Paxton as a psychotic living companion; and "Mr. Petrified Forest" is the story of a death-obsessed photographer (Sam Clay) who experiences a surreal close call with mortality. There are a few inspired moments -- particularly in the final segment -- but overall the weakly plotted stories will likely fail to maintain viewers' interest. The unrated version contains several minutes of gory footage excised from the R-rated print. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivian Schilling, Martin Kove, (more)
- 1992
The premiere episode of Garry Shandling's searing television satire The Larry Sanders Show finds talk show host Larry Sanders (Garry Shandling) struggling against an intrusive suggestion of on-air advertising. Faced with the prospect of promoting "The Garden Weasel" on his popular late-night talk show, Sanders balks at the prospect and finds himself in a battle of wills with a tenacious network executive. This episode of The Larry Sanders Show features guest stars Deborah May and Robert Hays. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Television contract negotiations are the stuff of legends in the entertainment industry, and viewers get a healthy dose of the outlandish demands of television stars in this episode of The Larry Sanders Show. It's contract negotiation time for Larry's (Garry Shandling) sidekick, Hank (Jeffrey Tambor), and Hank has set his demands at an all-time high. In addition to demanding a raise, it seems that Hank could also use a new golf cart. Guest stars in this episode of The Larry Sanders Show include Robin Williams and George Foreman. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
This made-for-TV thriller stars Ben Gazzara as a publishing magnate framed for murdering the call girl with whom he was having an affair. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
A married woman who has not been able to successfully conceive a child turns to a specialist who succeeds in inseminating her artificially. Before too long, she hears rumors of the doctor's past and present genetic experiments and when she finally aborts the fetus, finds that it is a monster as she had feared--and still alive! ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brooke Adams, Jeffrey Hayenga, (more)
- 1991
In 1988, Nancy Klein, the pregnant wife of Long Island accountant Marty Klein, was involved in a car accident that left her comatose. Convinced that Nancy would never recover if she went to full term with the baby, Marty asked the doctors to perform an abortion. Almost immediately, Nancy Klein became a cause celebre for pro-life and pro-choice activists alike. Made for television, Absolute Strangers recreates this traumatic event and the drawn-out courtroom litigation that followed. Henry Winkler, who produced the film, returned to acting after a long absence to play Klein; others in the cast include Jennifer Hetrick as Nancy, Richard Kiley as Dr. R. J. Cannon, Karl Malden and Audra Lindley as Nancy's parents, and Patty Duke as a lower-court judge. Though it is clear that the filmmaker's sympathies are clearly on Marty Klein's side, the script remains even-handed throughout, observing that the pro-choicers can be just as narrow-minded and contentious as the "absolute strangers" who wish to usurp Marty Klein's rights concerning his wife's wellbeing. Written by playwright Robert Anderson (Tea and Sympathy, I Never Sang For My Father), Absolute Strangers premiered April 14, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Winkler, Richard Kiley, (more)
In this horror film, a number of scary and creepy stories are related as three young boys swap gruesome stories during a backyard camp out. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Marisa Silver helmed this tightly directed hospital drama reminiscent of David Swift's 1962 The Interns. Jimmy Smits plays Dr. David Redding, who guides seven student doctors through their third year of residency at Los Angeles Central's medical school. The cast includes Laura San Giacomo as Lauren Rose, a hard-working waitress putting her uncaring husband Kenny (Jack Gwaltney) through medical school; Kenny eventually breaks down the resistance of cool fellow student Gena Wyler (Diane Lane). Kenny is also competing with doctor's son Michael Chatham (Adrian Pasdar), who wants to become the best surgeon at L.A. Central; Michael, however, has to reconsider his goals when he realizes that he also needs Gena's love. Bobby Hayes (Tim Ransom) and Suzanne Maloney (Jane Adams) are also struggling with medical school, but they are a support team who study, work, and even sleep together. Through all the competitions and love affairs it eventually takes the wisdom of a dying cancer patient (Norma Aleandro) to make the medical students realize the important things in life. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adrian Pasdar, Diane Lane, (more)
- 1990
- R
Businessman Chester Grant (Danny Aiello) will do anything it takes to get the sale, but finds himself getting older and must choose a successor. Instead of the logical man for the position (James Karen), Grant decides that he will invite two rival salesmen to dinner and then make a decision. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Aiello, Michael Paré, (more)
- 1990
"A good man is hard to find. A rich man is worth the effort." This advertising tagline could just as easily have been applied to Gold Diggers of 1933 or How To Marry a Millionaire as to the made-for-TV Rich Men, Single Women. Three attractive women of a certain age decide to pool their resources and land wealthy husbands. The first step is to convince their victims-er, potential soulmates-that they are "the women of their dreams." Suzanne Somers, Heather Locklear and Deborah Adair star as the Gold-diggers of 1990, who, according to one reviewer, "could set feminism back 20 years." Concocted by Aaron Spelling and Douglas S. Cramer-the folks who inflicted The Love Boat on an unwary nation--Rich Men, Single Women premiered January 29, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this wilderness adventure a cartographer and his son head into the wilds to make some maps. They are accompanied by the father's pet eagle. The trouble begins when his son is kidnapped by the villainous One-Eye Hatchett who sells the lad to an Indian village. With the help of his eagle, the father manages to retrieve his son. He and the boy are also befriended by a young Indian girl who ends up following them when a dream tells the father to head West. The film was shot on location in the Oregon wilderness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Shattered Dreams is a "based on a true story" TV movie starring Lindsay Wagner and Michael Nouri. Wagner is a Washington DC attorney; Nouri is her husband, also an attorney, but one with a profound violent streak. Suffering constant beatings, Wagner tries to keep up appearances, but after seventeen years of this treatment she can stand no more. Despite public opinion favoring her husband, now a powerful government official, Wagner successfully brings the facts of her miserable marriage out in the open, then sets about to reassemble her own fragmented life. Shattered Dreams is at its most convincing in detailing Ms. Wagner's life after the split; the domestic violence scenes are only adequately staged. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lindsay Wagner, Michael Nouri, (more)
- 1989
In this black comedy, a wealthy but flaky family tries to deal with their lives after their bizarre father suffers a fatal heart-attack on Thanksgiving and falls face first into the turkey. Now the family must somehow get their act together enough to pay bills and make funeral arrangements. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1989
During the 70th anniversary of Phil's bar, Murphy (Candice Bergen) flashes back to 1977, when she az first auditioned for a job with "FYI"--and her chief competition consisted of her current coworker Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto) and NBC commentator Linda Ellerbee (as herself in both the new scenes and in stock footage from 1977). As a bonus, we get a glimpse of Murphy's producer Miles (Grant Shaud) back when he was a precocious thirteen-year-old (played by Jason Marsden). Meanwhile, back in The Present, Eldin (Robert Pastorelli) develops a crush on Corky (Faith Ford). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- R
With its catchy title and over-the-top premise, this fairly amusing horror comedy plays like a kinder, gentler variation on the type of fare offered by the bad-taste moguls at Troma Studios. The story begins in the thick of a metaphysical battle between a decidedly female Satan (Lezlie Deane) and one of Heaven's less-than-angelic "Chasers" (Twin Peaks, pretty-boy Dana Ashbrook), ending with the former hiding out in the body of timid wallflower Maggie (Liane Curtis), whose blind date turns even more disastrous. Only after the seriously over-vamped Maggie has seduced and destroyed (literally) every man in sight does the Chaser finally catch up to her. The battle ensues with renewed gusto, the bodies and souls of countless mortal bystanders hanging in the balance. It seems this ever-escalating conflict (employing everything from rocket launchers to possessed restaurant entrees) is a mere extension of an ongoing lovers' spat between the devil and her heavenly pursuer, whose obnoxious philandering first incurred her satanic wrath. Fans of camp horror should find ample laughs here -- others need not apply. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liane Alexandra Curtis, Dana Ashbrook, (more)
- 1989
This documentary presents interviews and clips with some of cinema's best loved cult figures. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1988
- R
- Add Return of the Living Dead Part II to QueueAdd Return of the Living Dead Part II to top of Queue
A virtual remake of its predecessor, Return of the Living Dead (1985), which itself was a tongue-in-cheek rip-off of director George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), this follow-up adheres strictly to a gore and gags formula. Jesse Wilson (Michael Kenworthy), is a young boy being bullied by thugs from the neighborhood when all of them discover a sealed drum containing a zombie corpse. The release of a gas from the container reanimates the dead in a nearby graveyard, thus releasing an army of the undead, which mindlessly crave living human brains. As Jesse tries to contact the military to put a lid on the situation, the zombies are dispatched through a variety of gruesome methods. Two stars of the first film, James Karen and Thom Mathews, return in essentially the same parts, but with different names, as their characters were previously slaughtered. Followed by a third entry in the seires, Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Karen, Thom Matthews, (more)
Billionaire Boys Club is the two-part TV adaptation of a book by Sue Horton (unpublished at the time of the film's first telecast). In flashback form, the story recounts the murder of Beverly Hills con artist Ron Levin (Ron Silver). The culprit is yuppie Joe Hunt (Judd Nelson), a sharp young commodities trader who has organized an investment firm with several of his prep school buddies, known as the Billionaire Boys Club. Part one, originally telecast November 8, 1987, traces Hunt's meteoric rise to wealth and power, and the means by which Levin worms his way into Hunt's confidence. In part two, shown the next evening, Hunt has already murdered Levin and carefully disposed of the body. The next step of the scheme is take over where Levin left off by conning an Iranian millionaire out of a huge sum of money. Meanwhile, other members of the Club begin to have qualms over Hunt's finagling. Their whistle-blowing leads to Hunt's arrest and convinction for murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judd Nelson, Ron Silver, (more)
"Greed is Good." This is the credo of the aptly named Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), the antihero of Oliver Stone's Wall Street. Gekko, a high-rolling corporate raider, is idolized by young-and-hungry broker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen). Inveigling himself into Gekko's inner circle, Fox quickly learns to rape, murder and bury his sense of ethics. Only when Gekko's wheeling and dealing causes a near-tragedy on a personal level does Fox "reform"-though his means of destroying Gekko are every bit as underhanded as his previous activities on the trading floor. Director Stone, who cowrote Wall Street with Stanley Weiser, has claimed that the film was prompted by the callous treatment afforded his stockbroker father after 50 years in the business; this may be why the film's most compelling scenes are those between Bud Fox and his airline mechanic father (played by Charlie Sheen's real-life dad Martin). Ironically, Wall Street was released just before the October, 1987 stock market crash. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, (more)
- 1987
Most of the original cast members of TV's Eight is Enough are on hand for the "retro" feature Eight is Enough: A Family Reunion. The single most conspicuous defector is Betty Buckley, who is here replaced by Mary Frann in the role of Abby Bradford. The premise: On the eve of his 50th birthday, Tom Bradford (Dick Van Patten) is in danger of losing his job as a journalist. He is offered moral support by his offspring, who have gathered together to celebrate Tom's half-century mark. Grant Goodeve, Willie Aames, Susan Richardson, Lani O'Grady, Adam Rich, Connie Needham, Dianne Kay and Laurie Walters portray the Bradford kids. The warm-and-fuzzy script is by Gwen Bagni-Dubov, who'd been churning out teleplays since the black-and-white era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
Magnum (Tom Selleck) is devastated when police lieutenant Tanaka (Kwan Li Him in his final series performance) is killed during an undercover assignment. Though the death is officially reported as accidental, Magnum is convinced that there's a police coverup afoot--and in the course of his own investigation, he discovers that Tanaka's demise was inextricably linked with an amazingly wide-spread drug operation. Providing a light touch to these grim proceedings is a winking reference to star Tom Selleck's previous "life" as the insufferably successful private eye Lance White on The Rockford Files. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Invaders from Mars, horror-film director Tobe Hooper's remake of the classic 1950's science fiction film, directed by William Cameron Menzies, centers on a young boy named David (Hunter Carson) who tries to stop an invasion of his town as aliens take over the minds of his parents George (Timothy Bottoms) and Ellen (Laraine Newman), his teachers and the townspeople. With the help of the school nurse (Karen Black), the boy enlists the aid of the U.S. Army to help save the world. With makeup effects supplied by Stan Winston and visual effects by John Dykstra, Invaders From Mars is a wild sci-fi feast that hearkens back to the 1950's invasion films, made popular by the original film and others like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karen Black, Hunter Carson, (more)
Middle-aged family man Frank (Jim Karen) trains teenaged Freddy (Thom Matthews) for his new job at a medical supply warehouse. In an effort to impress and frighten his young charge, practical joker Frank reveals that the warehouse basement contains a cannister full of a mysterious chemical capable of bringing the dead back to life. It seems that the cannister fell off the back of an army truck during an accidental outbreak of zombiedom. Frank and Freddy unwittingly inhale the chemical and release it into the warehouse. Turning to the operator of a nearby crematorium for help in destroying the suddenly undead specimens that surround them, they unwittingly awaken the residents of a nearby cemetary just as Freddy's pals arrive to party amidst the headstones and wait for their friend's shift to end. Meanwhile, Col. Glover (Jonathan Terry) waits for the call that his missing chemical weapon has been unleashed. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clu Gulager, James Karen, (more)
