Len Lesser Movies
Character actor Len Lesser has worked steadily in film and television since his film debut in Shackout on 101 (1955). Lean, dark, and bushy-browed, he is typically cast as a crook or hitman. Fans of the television sitcom Seinfeld will recognize Lesser as Uncle Leo. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Blair Witch aesthetics merge with dysfunctional family comedy sensibilities in director Drew Filus' intimate look at what happens when a happy young couple attempts to capture a special family event on videotape. Devon and Monica have been happily dating for four years, so when Devon's mother and father make plans to renew their marriage vows, she requests that the pair make the trip to California and videotape the big event. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Monica witnesses firsthand just how contentious Devon's family truly is, and begins to have second thoughts about her recent push to finally legitimize their relationship. Even worse, Devon's outspoken mother seems intent on sabotaging her son's relationship - a development that only serves to justify his girlfriend's doubts about the prospect of marriage. Over the course of the weekend, Devon gradually begins to realize just how lucky he is to have Monica, but is that feeling mutual? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Siebel, Robert Cuthill, (more)
In 1971, filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles released his third film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which he wrote, directed, and scored. Despite boasting an all-black cast, an X rating, a low budget, and a decidedly non-Hollywood approach to moviemaking, the ground-breaking independent film went on to gross over ten million dollars while inspiring countless other films of the genre that would come to be called blaxploitation. Mario Van Peebles, the director's son, was 13 at the time and got his first taste of show business with a small role in the film. Over three decades later, the younger Van Peebles directed and co-wrote this film, in which he stars as his father. BAADASSSSS! chronicles the director's struggles to get the film made by highlighting the social roadblocks and production pitfalls Van Peebles faced, as well as the personal sacrifices he was forced to make. Also starring T.K. Carter, Ossie Davis, and Nia Long, BAADASSSSS! premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mario Van Peebles
- 1998
In the concluding half of Seinfeld's controversial series finale, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Kramer (Michael Richards), and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) find themselves stranded in Latham, MA -- and even worse, they are facing arrest for violating the town's new Good Samaritan law (it seems there was this mugging...). Hoping to beat the rap -- and make it to California in time for Jerry to sell his proposed sitcom "about nothing" -- the gang engages the services of flamboyant lawyer Jackie Chiles (Phil Morris). Alas, the prosecution has managed to round up a daunting array of witnesses to bolster their case against the foursome, including Sidra (Teri Hatcher) of "they're real and they're spectacular" fame, the Soup Nazi (Larry Thomas), Marla the Virgin (Jane Leeves), and the Bubble Boy (Jon Hayman) -- while the sour-faced judge (Stanley Anderson) with the familiar-sounding name fumes, and a vengeful Newman (Wayne Knight) chuckles from the sidelines. As for the now-legendary final scene...haven't we had this conversation before? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In NYC's Spanish Harlem, Puerto Rican emigrant Juan Jose (Bryan Burke) enters a new school where he becomes friendly with Joey (Kyle Gibson) and Louie (Mario Renden), who call their new pal J.J. The three unite as a tight trio of close friends, hoping to someday open a bar together. The story leaps 15 years into the future, revealing they never opened the bar. J.J.'s life is beginning to unravel as he moves from cocaine to heroin, and his two buddies take steps to help him. The story features a voiceover narration by J.J., and the soundtrack songs include performances by Otis Rush, Jerry Vale, and Jamie Rollins. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Quattrochi, Loreto Mauro, (more)
- 1998
In the first half of Seinfeld's controversial series finale, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) receives word that NBC is very interested in his concept of a sitcom "about nothing."Almost immediately, Jerry and George (Jason Alexander) draw up plans to move to California -- but not before taking fiendish delight in refusing to take Newman (Wayne Knight) along. Things come to a head in a private jet, as Jerry, George, Kramer (Michael Richards), and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) are forced down in Latham, MA...and then.... ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) confronts Uncle Leo (Len Lesser), who claims "senior citizens' rights" when he shoplifts at a bookstore. Meanwhile, George (Jason Alexander) learns the terrible consequences of taking a big book to the store's bathroom. Kramer (Michael Richards) and Newman (Wayne Knight) combine their talents to open a rickshaw service in the heart of New York (all they need now is a rickshaw). And Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) strives to avoid the designation "office skank" by pretending she is dating the man she made out with at a party, Zach (Jonathan Penner), who also happens to have a drug habit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
While being interviewed on film by Paul (Paul Reiser), great-uncle Marty (Shecky Green) ruins the shot by dropping dead. Marty's garbled final words ("Hummus?" "Cow Moos?" "Hey Miss?") touches off yet another crisis in the Buchman family. Amidst a veritable smorgasbord of famous guest stars, episode director David Steinberg garners some of the biggest laughs in the role of a long-winded rabbi. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
To prove to Mr. Feeny (William Daniels) that he has good business sense, Cory (Ben Savage) takes advantage of Feeny's absence to transform his teacher's home into a Bed & Breakfast. As for Feeny, he and Eric (Will Friedle) unexpectedly become close friends while vacationing at a hotel; in fact, there's a fascinating role reversal when Eric provides comfort and advice to an unlucky-in-love Feeny! And incidentally, where did Shawn (Rider Strong) learn how to speak Dutch? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) goes to great lengths to peek at her diagnosis after visiting a doctor about a rash. Refusing delivery of a package with no return address, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) is faced with a charge of mail fraud -- and worse still, a "basic instinct" moment with Newman (Wayne Knight). Kramer (Michael Richards) urges George (Jason Alexander) to act upon the "fact" that a photo clerk has including a sexy picture of herself in a batch of photos. And Uncle Leo's (Len Lesser) stove explodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
This black comedy centers upon the L.A. theater scene. Steve Maletti owns a small struggling theater. He also directs the plays there. He has just secured two popular TV stars to appear in his newest production. Unfortunately, the actors get a movie deal and fly away to Africa leaving the hapless Maletti, who must close the show. His theater will fold if he doesn't come up with a hit show. He finds his chance when he secures the rights to a Broadway hit. Now he must convince the critics that it's a good production. His toughest job will be convincing the curmudgeonly critic Milton Mandler. Maletti decides to scare him into writing a good review, too bad Maletti literally scared the old man to death. Fortunately Mandler had written a rave review of the play before his heart failed. Maletti must then conceal the critic's death until after the review appears in the L.A. Times. It doesn't take long before a suspicious cop is hot on Maletti's trail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Seymour, Carmen Argenziano, (more)
- 1992
Nothing original or innovative will be found in this slasher flick. The terror begins when a gaggle of coeds decide to celebrate their graduation in a secluded cabin in the woods. The owner of the cabin is an uncle of one of the girls. He was formerly an archaeologist, but one day, while excavating a site in a local cave he finds a big stone head that turns the uncle into a blood-thirsty beast. Back at the cabin, the party begins as the girls and their various guys engage in various erotic activities until the stoned creature comes along and brutally begins murdering them. The blood really starts flowing when a fugitive convict stumbles into the fray. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1990
- R
This gangster satire involves a boss (William Hickey) who turns over the reins of his organization to an incompetent son (Eddie Deezen). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Deezen, Morgan Fairchild, (more)
- 1990
- R
This action film revolves around the adventures that befall a Beverly Hills girl when her parents are killed in a tragic accident. When Faith (Sylvia Seidel) is shuffled off to a nightmarish foster home, she runs off to Hollywood. Once there she meets up with an Italian mobster and they form a friendship that carries them through the story's twists and turns. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Off on a hunting trip, these two city-slicker hunters encounter a sure-'nuff version of the Hatfields and the McCoys who are making moonshine and taking pot shots at one another. When they realize that these guys are for real, our hunters learn they'd better wake up to the ways of the woodsmen if they plan on ever seeing their city streets again. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1989
Spy stars Bruce Greenwood as a defecting CIA agent. Trouble is, Greenwood is privy to classified knowledge about recent atrocities in Central America, masterminded by rogue agents. Knowing that he's a dead man walking the moment he leaves headquarters, Greenwood assumes a new identity and heads for parts unknown. One year after forsaking the espionage business, Greenwood finds himself being stalked...but by whom? An above-average "Who Can You Trust" meller, Spy premiered over the USA cable network on December 27, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
- R
Peter Rader directed this horror film about a teen-aged orphan named Lynn (Kim Valentine) who accompanies her young brother David (Eric Foster) to live on their grandparents' farm after their father dies. Before long, it becomes obvious that all is not right on the farm, and that the grandparents (Ida Lee and Len Lesser) are hiding a dark secret. Cult favorite Brinke Stevens stars as the kids' insane mother, whom the grandparents have drugged to control her homicidal impulses, and screenwriter Peter Jensen provides the atmospheric photography. Some chilling moments and a particularly creepy performance by Lesser make this average slasher film worthwhile. Producer Nico Mastorakis had co-written the story for the abominable The Greek Tycoon (1978) before turning to genre filmmaking. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Foster, Kim Valentine, (more)
- 1984
In 1979, The Runaways were scheduled to star in a low-budget comedy about an all-female rock band called "We're All Crazy Now." The group broke up before shooting began, but guitarist and singer Joan Jett agreed to star in the film, with three actresses standing in for her departed bandmates. The plug was pulled on the project halfway through shooting, but in 1984, after Jett had become a major star as a solo act, producers were looking for a way to make use of the footage from the uncompleted film. Alan Sacks, who was a producer and writer for the television shows Welcome Back, Kotter and Chico and the Man, took on the project, and the result was this one-of-a-kind cinematic crazy-quilt. Dubeat-E-O (Ray Sharkey) is a perpetually wired film director who is working on a movie about Joan Jett. However, he's borrowed money from a notorious gangster to finance the project, and now his "investor" has announced Dubeat-E-O must have the final cut of the movie finished in thirty-one hours - or else. Dubeat-E-O holes up in his shabby studio with his editor, Benny (Derf Scratch), and Sharon (Nora Gaye), a woman who happened along by mistake, and we're treated to a mind-bending collage of Dubeat-E-O's rants, still photos, footage of Jett and the fake Runaways (among them Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith), performances by The Mentors and Joanna Went, random images of sex and violence, and much, much more. Meanwhile, Sachs and a group of friends (including El Duce of The Mentors) offer a running commentary on the film in progress. Tex and the Horseheads and Social Distortion are also featured prominently on the soundtrack; Jett would make her proper acting debut in 1987, in the drama Light Of Day. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Sharkey, Joan Jett, (more)
Set in the '30s, Mountie Millen (Lee Marvin) is assigned to track down accused murderer Johnson (Charles Bronson), who has escaped in the high passes of the Canadian Rockies. Johnson, a trapper, has extensive knowledge of wilderness living, but Millen has the resources of the Canadian police at his beck and call. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, (more)
Inspired by Johnny Paycheck's song of the same name, Take This Job and Shove It is a comedy/drama of big business vs. little guys. His corporate employers put Frank Maclin in charge of a project to shape up a newly acquired brewery. It just so happens that this places him back in his Iowa hometown after ten years of being away. He soon is faced with a dilemma and he must consider both his position with the company and the interests of the blue-collar employees. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hays, Art Carney, (more)
Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal attempt to recapture the screwball spark of What's Up, Doc? in the labored farce The Main Event. Streisand plays Hillary Kramer, a bankrupt perfume executive who discovers that one of her tax write-offs from more prosperous times was the ownership of prizefighter Kid Natural (Ryan O' Neal). Kid Natural is now a driving instructor who wants nothing to do with boxing, but Hillary is determined to resurrect the Kid's less-than-spectacular boxing career. She installs herself as the Kid's manager and tries to get him in shape to go the distance. Along the way, the two fall in love. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, (more)
Recently widowed Dr. Nichols (Walter Matthau) finds himself ill at ease in re-entering the singles scene. Then he meets Ann Atkinson (Glenda Jackson), a patient recuperating from a jaw operation. Freshly divorced from a philandering spouse, Jackson is as reluctant to inaugurate a lasting commitment as Walter--but inaugurate they do, in a hilarious scene wherein Jackson and Walter try to emulate those romantic couples in 1930s movies who were forced by the censors to keep one foot on the floor while lying in bed. It is Jackson who encourages Matthau to stand up for his ideals during a lawsuit involving senile head physician Dr. Willoughby (Art Carney, who is unbearably funny at times). Richard Benjamin rounds off the cast of polished farceurs who add so much sparkle to House Calls. The film was later adapted into a TV sitcom starring Wayne Rogers in the Matthau role, Lynn Redgrave (and later Sharon Gless) in the Jackson counterpart, and David Wayne as a less aphasiatic version of the Carney character. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, (more)
- 1978
- PG
Mel Welles, best remembered for his portrayal of skid-row florist Mushnick in Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors, occupied the director's chair for Joy Ride to Nowhere. Leading ladies Leslie Ackerman and Sandy Serrano play two bored suburbanites who decide to hit the road together. Along the way, they stumble across a fortune in stolen loot. The film is aptly titled; though a lot of ground is covered, it's really much ado about nothing. Completed in 1978, Joy Ride to Nowhere lay on the shelf until 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Quincy, M.E.'s fourth season begins several hundred miles away from Los Angeles, home turf for feisty medical examiner Quincy (Jack Klugman). After he and his girlfriend Barbara (Sharon Acker) are nearly run off the road in a very minor car accident, Quincy discovers that the driver, a woman, is dead. Since the accident was hardly fatal, Quincy does a quick examination and learns to his horror that the woman's body is infected with a fatal toxin which has already killed two others--and may very well cause the death of Quincy's assistant Sam Fujiyama (Robert Ito). The series' real-life technical advisor Marc Scott Taylor) makes the first of several acting appearances in this episode as the temporary subsitute for the stricken Sam in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
