Hal Landon, Jr. Movies
- 2002
Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) and Niles (David Hyde Pierce) embark upon a sentimental journey as they visit their childhood home. But amidst all the nostalgia, the Crane boys unearth a few clues to what may have been a murder. Suddenly, Frasier and Niles forget all about their own past as they try to "reconstruct" what they think is the Crime of the Century -- assuming that any such crime occurred in any century. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ashley Thomas, Cameron Bowen, (more)
- 1992
When her modeling school goes belly-up, Kelly (Christina Applegate) gets a job at the "TV World" theme park, which includes such attractions as the "Delta Burke 'Let's Get Big' Exhibit". Unfortunately, her performance ratings are so bad that she is demoted to playing The Verminator in "Commercial Land." Meanwhile, Al (Ed O'Neill) takes the annual Bundy World Tour around his own living room; and series regular Ted McGinley (Jefferson) is subjected to several nasty jokes about the number of TV appearances he's made on cancelled shows ("Jump the Shark", long before that phrase existed!) This episode was featured on the MTV documentary Backstage With the Bundys. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Maverick director Walter Hill, who had a big hit with 48 Hrs., indulges his customary yen for violent and disturbing scenes in this overlooked action film, which was also released under the name Looters. Set in the economically-depressed town of East St. Louis, IL, the film's release was delayed several months because its riot scenes were too similar to those that actually took place in the summer of 1992 in L.A. Bill Paxton plays Vince and Bill Sadler plays Don. They are a couple of good-old-boy firefighters who are tipped off that some stolen gold treasures have been hidden in an old warehouse. They find and enter the building but witness a brutal murder. The gangland killing is part of a turf battle between two rival drug lords. When one of them finds out that the firemen have seen the execution, he orders the witnesses murdered. But they have found the treasure and have kidnapped one gang leader's brother. An elaborate and violent series of skirmishes and chases ensue. Rapper-actors Ice-T and Ice Cube have roles as leading gang members. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Paxton, Ice-T, (more)
Albert Brooks wrote, directed, and stars in this philosophical comedy about a man having a hard time making a case for himself in the afterlife. When advertising executive Daniel Miller (Albert Brooks) finds himself in a fatal car crash minutes after taking delivery on a new BMW, he's whisked away to Judgment City, where the recently dead are put on a sort of trial to decide their fate. If in your time on Earth you were able to face your fears and learn from your mistakes, you get to move on to a life in a better world. However, if you didn't, you have to go back to Earth and try again. As he spends the next several days watching various episodes from his life, Daniel gets the impression he doesn't stand much of a chance of moving on -- and his representative, Bob Diamond (Rip Torn), seems to have little confidence in his case. In the meantime, he frequents Judgment City's many restaurants (where the food is delicious and you can eat all you want without gaining an ounce), pays a visit to the Past Life Pavilion, and meets Julia (Meryl Streep), who seems so kind, sweet, and noble that her advancement is practically assured. Daniel and Julia fall in love, but what's going to happen if they don't end up in the same place? Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep make a witty and engaging romantic team in Defending Your Life, and Shirley MacLaine appears in a highly appropriate cameo. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep, (more)
Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey find the two obtuse pals battling The Grim Reaper, God, robots, great philosophical questions, and girls -- although not necessarily in that order. In this loose parody of the Terminator movies, directed by Peter Hewitt, the ultimate has happened -- at Bill and Ted University of the future, for many years now the people of the world have been "excellent to each other." But fed-up with Bill and Ted's peaceful world and even more fed up with heavy metal, the evil De Nomolos (Joss Ackland) decides to do something about it. De Nomolos creates a cyborg Bill and Ted, who travel back in time to kill the original Bill and Ted, win the Battle of the Bands and pave the way for the hellish reign of De Nomolos. In the past of 1990, Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are immediately dispatched by the time-traveling cyborgs. And while the cyborgs Bill and Ted make time with the real Bill and Ted's girls (Sarah Trigger and Annette Azcuy) and prepare to take the real Bill and Ted's place in the Battle of the Bands, Bill and Ted are forced to deal with Hell ("Just like an Iron Maiden album cover"), the Grim Reaper (William Sadler), and God himself. When Bill and Ted are asked the secret of the universe, they get it right and as a reward a pair of Martians construct a set of "good" Bill and Ted robots to go head-to-head with the "bad" Bill and Ted robots at the Battle of the Bands. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, (more)
Australian star Paul Hogan just couldn't seem to come up with a hit comparable to his 1986 international hit Crocodile Dundee. Hogan's Almost an Angel was a nice try, but no cigar. The star plays a lifelong thief who suffers a potentially fatal accident. While "in limbo", Hogan is visited by God (amusingly played by Charlton Heston-well, why not Charlton Heston?). When he recovers, Hogan is convinced that he'd been returned to the land of the living in order to do God's work. He turns over a new leaf, coming to the assistance of wheelchair-bound Elias Koteas and his pretty sister Linda Kozlowski (the real-life Mrs. Hogan). At first suspicious of Hogan, Kozlowski is finally won over by his new-found sincerity. So lightweight that it threatens to float away at any moment, Almost an Angel is held together exclusively by Paul Hogan's star appeal. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to insure a box-office success. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hogan, Elias Koteas, (more)
John Schlesinger directed this upscale horror film about a landlord with the ultimate problem tenant. Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith) and Drake Goodman (Matthew Modine) are a middle class couple who lie on their financial statement in order to buy an old Victorian house in San Francisco, planning to renovate it and rent it out. Unfortunately, they select as a tenant Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton), a psychotic real estate bargain hunter who plans to drive Patty and Drake into foreclosure proceedings and then buy the house cheap. Carter starts the ball rolling by refusing to pay his rent and driving out a couple who had rented the rear flat by hammering and sawing all night -- and then releasing a tidal wave of cockroaches. What follows is a psychological war between Carter and the Yuppie couple, with Carter succeeding not only in provoking Drake into more extreme means of eviction, but also causing a rift between Drake and Patty. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Keaton, Melanie Griffith, (more)
- 1989
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With only a few days before their high-school graduation, it looks like airheaded rock star wannabes Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are doomed to flunk all their finals. The boys' long-suffering teacher (Bernie Casey) gives them one more chance. If they can ace an oral exam on the topic of how a famous historical personality might react to modern times, they will be allowed to pass. If not, Ted's dad will plunk the boy into military school, thereby breaking up the boys' garage band permanently. Bill and Ted receive unexpected aid from a very unexpected source: Rufus (George Carlin), an Emissary from the Future. It seems that in Rufus' time, Bill and Ted's rock music is the basis of all society-and if their band is aborted, Rufus' world will no longer exist. Thus, Bill and Ted are whisked off in a time machine (actually a telephone booth) to retrieve a few historical characters--including Joan of Arc, Abe Lincoln, Napoleon and Beethoven--as "eyewitnesses" for their crucial oral exam. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure inspired both a sequel (Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey) and a Saturday morning cartoon series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, (more)
- 1988
- R
Prison guard Ethan Sharpe (Lane Smith) watched as Burke (Viggo Mortensen) dies in the electric chair in 1964. Over two decades later, Sharpe is the warden, and Burke returns from the dead to exact revenge on the wicked warden when the prison re-opens. Two victims drip blood while dangling in barbed wire in a macabre dance of death, and the guards and inmates suffer at the hands of the malevolent Burke as he seeks his supernatural vengeance. The film location was the Wyoming State Prison. Built at the turn of the century, the jail became a tourist attraction in 1981. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lane Smith, Viggo Mortensen, (more)
- 1988
Made for television, Winnie is adapted from the fact-based book Winnie: My Life in the Institution by Jamie Paster Bolnick. Meredith Baxter-Birney plays Winnie Sprockett, who at age 6 is adjudged moderately retarded and confined to an Iowa mental institution. After being locked away for 30 years, Winnie campaigns for her release, attempting to write a book of her experiences. At one point she escapes with a fellow patient (David Morse). Through the intervention of a compassionate administrator (Barbara Barrie), Winnie is at last allowed to re-enter the outside world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Carla (Rhea Perlman) wants to win the dance contest at the annual Boston Boppers reunion, but her partner of choice, ex-husband Nick (Dan Hedaya), already has a date (his wife). Intending to show Nick up, Carla chooses another partner, who is unfortunately sidelined by an injury. Thus it comes to pass that loyal old Sam (Ted Danson) escorts Carla to the dance floor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this made-for-TV comedy an unemployed stand-up comedian is tossed out by his girl friend and so gets a job driving a limo. He is still determined to win her back, and nothing, not even his inadvertent involvement with two hit men, will stop him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1979
- PG
When millionaire Vincent Price dies, he leaves a riotous will which amounts to a scavenger hunt, the winner of which receives the entire willed fortune. So 15 potential heirs are sent on a zany quest where they must outrace and outsmart one another to inherit the big bucks. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Benjamin, James Coco, (more)
Filmed intermittently over the course of a five-year period, David Lynch's radical feature debut stars Jack Nance as Henry Spencer, a man living in an unnamed industrial wasteland. Upon learning that a past romance has resulted in an impending pregnancy, Henry agrees to wed mother-to-be Mary (Charlotte Stewart) and moves her into his tiny, squalid flat. Their baby is born hideously mutated, a strange, reptilian creature whose piercing cries never cease. Mary soon flees in horror and disgust, leaving Henry to fall prey to the seduction of the girl across the hall (Judith Anna Roberts). An intensely visceral nightmare, Eraserhead marches to the beat of its own slow, surreal rhythm: Henry's world is a cancerous dreamscape, a place where sins manifest themselves as bizarre creatures and worlds exist within worlds. Interpreting the film along the lines of Lynch's claims that it's the product of his own fears of fatherhood may make Eraserhead easier to digest on a narrative level, if need be. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, (more)
- 1964
Barney is on another of his anti-speeding crusades ("I'm gonna nip it-nip it in the bud!"), but the Mayberry police force has only one patrol car. To improve departmental efficiency, Barney purchases a WW1-vintage motorcycle and sidecar. Before long, Barney is zipping all over town, merrily issuing tickets for the slightest infraction-and of course, driving everyone crazy. Written by Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, "Barney's Sidecar" originally aired on January 27, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1947
Republic's Springtime in the Sierras bestows upon star Roy Rogers two leading ladies. The first is his usual vis-a-vis Jane Frazee; the second is statuesque Stephanie Bachelor, playing the head of a poaching gang. Bachelor, it seems, has murdered a game warden who happens to be Rogers' closest chum. Rogers, Frazee and even Andy Devine get to sing in this one. Originally running 75 minutes, it was released to TV in a 54-minute version retitled Song of the Sierra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephanie Bachelor, Roy Barcroft, (more)
- 1946
As with his previous music Western vehicle, Moon over Montana (1946), former radio crooner Jimmy Wakely composed the title song for this film. With Wesley Tuttle and His Texas Stars as his backup group, Wakely also warbled Paul Westmoreland's Detour, De Camptown Ladies, by Stephen Foster, and I Miss You Since You've Been Gone by Arthur Smith. The girl Wakely "missed" was Jean Carlin, whose prospector grandfather (Budd Buster) is being harrassed by an unknown force. Wakely and his usual sidekick Lee "Lasses" White investigate and soon determine that the mystery villain is actually a villainess, Flora Carter (Iris Clive), a ruthless lady rancher who holds the mortgage to grandpa Buster's property. In between crooning the aforementioned tunes and winning the big race on his wild mustang, Wakely manages to discover enough evidence to convict the unscrupulous Ms. Carter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
