Jason London Movies
Jason London and his identical twin Jeremy London are both handsome and talented young actors. Though they have shared at least one role, the two could not be on more different career paths. The elder brother by 27 minutes, Jason seeks stardom in cinema, while Jeremy has found success on television playing the moody Griffin on the adolescent-oriented drama Party of Five. Tall, lean, with thick dark hair and sharp blue eyes, Jason typically plays serious boys on the cusp of manhood in dramas. To him, the art of acting is more important than its moneymaking potential and he chooses his roles with care, while Jeremy is very aware that acting can be a lucrative profession.The London brothers were born in San Diego, CA, but raised in Oklahoma with their little sister Dedra and their mother. When they were young, their mother divorced their father, a construction worker. The London children seldom saw their father, who lived near Oklahoma City. Theirs was an itinerant childhood, as their mother kept moving in search of decent work until she finally settled down in De Soto, a middle-class Dallas suburb. In high school, the London brothers excelled at athletics, drama, and speech; later, along with their sister, they attended drama and modelling school in Dallas. Jason made his acting debut in Robert Mulligan's The Man in the Moon (1981). Originally, it was Jeremy who wanted the part and so asked Jason to drive him to the open casting call. At the last moment, Jason decided to try out, too. Though Jason got the role, Jeremy was hired as his stunt double. In 1993, Jason appeared in three films, most notably in the cult favorite Dazed and Confused, an ensemble piece that painted a painfully accurate portrait of adolescence in the mid-'70s, in which London played quarterback Randy "Pink" Floyd. Other notable roles include his funny but touching turn as a small town youth who is too naïve to notice that he has fallen in love with a drag queen (John Leguizamo) in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995) and the role of a teen who falls victim to a vicious bank robber after a prank goes terribly awry in Fall Time (1995). In addition to feature films, Jason London has also appeared regularly on television in made-for TV movies such as Blood Ties (1991), miniseries like A Matter of Justice (1993), and in guest-starring roles in series like Tales From the Crypt. For a while, Jason temporarily replaced his brother in the role of Nathan on the acclaimed series I'll Fly Away. In 1992, the entire London family was deeply shaken when their 16-year-old sister Dedra died in an auto accident. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The compilation film If These Walls Could Talk consists of three short films that each deal with the controversial issue of abortion. Although each of the stories is set in a different decade, the unifying element (aside from the subject matter) is that all three transpire in the same house. The first story stars Demi Moore as the widow of a soldier killer in combat. She becomes pregnant and does not feel it would be morally appropriate to have the baby. Because it is the '50s, she must attempt to secure an illegal abortion. The second story, set in the '70s, stars Sissy Spacek as a mother of a struggling family. Having successfully raised four children on a meager income, Spacek's character must now decide if she should seek an abortion after finding out she is expecting a fifth. The final story takes place in the '90s. Anne Heche portrays a grad student who crosses protestors' picket lines in order to consult a doctor (Cher) about having an abortion. The first two parts, "1952" and "1974," were directed by Nancy Savoca, and the last part, "1996," was helmed by Cher, in her directorial debut. If These Walls Could Talk aired originally on HBO. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
This direct-to-video thriller stars Jason London as a grungy-looking Seattle psychopath setting off bombs so as not to lose his Japanese sweetheart. Lori Petty, sporting a truly odd coiffure which must be her hair growing back from Tank Girl, plays a hard-bitten FBI agent determined to take London down. Subplots include Petty's squabbles with her boss and a visiting Japanese policewoman whose interests conflict with those of the Bureau. Despite its low budget and somewhat cliched plot, the film is well-directed by Keoni Waxman and should please mad-bomber buffs.
~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lori Petty, Jason London, (more)
Jason London stars in this teen wish fulfillment romantic comedy, playing Todd Boomer, a would-be cartoonist who needs a recommendation to Harvard from his smarmy math teacher (Christopher MacDonald). However, calculus is the one subject in which Todd isn't pulling his weight. One rainy night he picks up a woman stranded by the side of the road who needs a ride (Tia Carrere). The woman turns out to be a whiz in his rusty subject, and she begins tutoring him. Only later does he start to fall for her -- and only later does he realize she's the wife of his math teacher. Although they begin a tentative affair, both are constantly worried about being discovered, which could ruin each in different ways. Meanwhile, Todd runs afoul of his own doting girlfriend, Kirsten (Alexondra Lee), as well as his best friend Paul (Zak Orth), who has a crush on Kirsten. The happy trio is splintered by Todd's romantic dalliances. My Teacher's Wife uses Todd's drawings, actually inked by cartoonist Bill Plympton, as loose narration. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason London
- 1995
Jason London, Terri Ivens, and Chris Elliot star in this remake of the Disney classic. A low-level television executive finds himself climbing the corporate ladder when he discovers a pet chimpanzee with an uncanny knack for picking which TV shows will be hits or misses. Susan Seidelman directed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
In this violent thriller, three young men start a joke that quickly becomes more real (and more dangerous) than they'd ever anticipated. It's 1957, and three high school seniors celebrating their graduation think it would be fun to pull a prank; David (David Arquette), Tim (Jason London), and Joe (Jonah Blechman) will fake a robbery by driving up to a bank, "shooting" one of their number with a blank gun, and throwing him in the trunk before speeding away. But just as they're playing their practical joke, Florence (Mickey Rourke) and Leon (Stephen Baldwin) are pulling an actual armed robbery at the same bank. In the confusion, the boys get mixed up with the real criminals, who take the teenagers hostage. Florence, unstable and given to sadistic tendencies, subjects the boys to torture with a clear homoerotic undercurrent; eventually, Florence and Leon tell the boys they'll release them only if they pull an actual bank job. The boys grudgingly agree, but Tim ends up grabbing window teller Patty (Sheryl Lee) instead of the cash. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rourke, Stephen Baldwin, (more)
- 1995
- PG13
- Add To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar to QueueAdd To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar to top of Queue
Patrick Swayze plays Vida Boheme, a classy and long-reigning drag queen. With his understudy Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes), Vida wins a New York drag stage contest and an all-expenses-paid trip to Hollywood. But when Miss Chi Chi Rodriguez (John Leguizamo) cries at having lost the contest, soft-hearted Vida cashes in the airline tickets so the three of them can take a car out West. The film becomes a strange sort of buddy road movie, with the three cross-dressers traveling across the American heartland in a shiny yellow Cadillac. First they tangle with Sheriff Dollard (Chris Penn). He stops them for a minor traffic violation, puts the moves on Vida, and Vida knocks him out, so they flee. Later, they are stranded by car problems in a small town in Nebraska. Renting a room in a hotel, they put some life into the town and its annual strawberry festival. They provide a mousy local woman, Carol Ann (Stockard Channing), with new role models of assertiveness. They also insist on chivalrous treatment from the local good old boys and give lessons on courting to a teenage girl. This film was released on the heels of the more outrageous Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which featured Terence Stamp as a drag queen. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, (more)
A large, dysfunctional family awaits word on a loved one's fate in this domestic drama starring Susan Sarandon as Mag Singer, mother of seven sons. One, Percival (Matt Keeslar) is serving in the Marine Corps, and when news comes that his barracks in the Middle East has been bombed by terrorists, Mag's family assembles at her home, anxious for more information. In the meantime, a series of old wounds are reopened and healed. The prodigious Singers include the father, Patrick (Sam Shepard), unhappily estranged from Mag and prone to bouts of hysterical blindness, and Alfred (Robert Sean Leonard), the responsible, sober eldest, who is engaged to divorced mother Cynthia (Marcia Gay Harden). There's also Simon (Nick Stahl), the intellectual Izzy (Sean Astin), two twins, and guilt-wracked Gideon (Jason London), a track star who outshone Percival athletically, inspiring the latter to join the military. While the Singers deal with minor crises like a neighbor's dog that repeatedly attacks Simon, Percival's fate looms, and Mag deals with her fear by cleaning out the ramshackle garage and drinking Tequila with her daughter-in-law to be, Cynthia, with whom she's surprised to find much in common. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Sarandon, Sam Shepard, (more)
Like George Lucas' American Graffiti, Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused is an affectionate look at the youth culture of a bygone era. While Lucas took aim at the conservative 1950's, Linklater jumps ahead a generation to the bicentennial year of 1976 to celebrate the joys of beer blasts, pot smoking and Frampton Comes Alive. Set on the last day of the academic year, the film follows the random activities of a sprawling group of Texas high schoolers as they celebrate the arrival of summer, their paths variously intersecting at a freshmen hazing, a local pool parlor and finally at a keg party. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason London, Wiley Wiggins, (more)
This passable made-for-cable-TV vampire opus explores the clever concept of a Transylvanian immigrant community in the western United States. Young Cody (Jason London) is introduced to their legacy one fateful night when his parents are awakened, staked, and set on fire by ruthless vampire-hunters. After a narrow escape, Cody seeks out a distant uncle in Long Beach -- who happens to be a key figure in the "Carpathian-American" mob. Cody is eventually inducted into the culture, which is represented by various social strata, from a lawyer/journalist couple (who encourage further assimilation into non-vampire society), to a bloodsucking teenage biker gang. Cody becomes a full-fledged member of the family, learning the real secret which binds the community... but the new path to his destiny is soon blocked by the untimely arrival of the hunters, who have tracked him cross-country to his new family's Long Beach lair. This was originally conceived as a pilot for a TV series, and it shows -- the tendency to lapse into soap-opera conventions is all too apparent -- but benefits from a glossy look, high production values and some interesting plot twists. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
In this made-for-TV drama, Patty Duke plays a mother who vows to do everything possible to keep custody of her grandchild following the murder of her son. Though no one believes her, Duke is convinced that her boy was murdered by his suspiciously worldly ex-wife-to-be. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Sheen, Patty Duke, (more)
In its elegiac nostalgia for the days of childhood innocence, Robert Mulligan's The Man in the Moon recalls another of Mulligan's earlier films, To Kill A Mockingbird. Set in a Louisiana backwater town in the 1950s, the film chronicles the coming-of-age of a young teenage girl. Dani (Reese Witherspoon) is a fourteen-year-old girl who shares a room with her seventeen-year-old sister Maureen (Emily Warfield). During hot summer nights, they sleep on the screened-in back porch of their home, talking about romance, the future, and the meaning of life. Moving into the house next door is a handsome seventeen-year-old boy, Court Foster (Jason London). Court meets Dani at the local swimming hole and they are immediately attracted to each other; through Court, Dani experiences her first true and perfect love. But when Court meets Maureen, the sparks really fly and Maureen falls in love with him too. Now Maureen is torn between holding back her love for Court or accepting his love and betraying her sister. A tragic event makes Maureen's mind up for her. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Waterston, Tess Harper, (more)
- 1991
Though based on fact, the two-part TV movie False Arrest plays more like one of those Linda Blair "babes in prison" flicks. Donna Mills plays Joyce Lukezic, a well-off Phoenix businesswoman/homemaker accused of murder. She knows, and we know, that she didn't do it. The double homicide was the handiwork of her sleazy husband Robert Wagner, who works diligently behind the scenes to make certain his wife is convicted. And with the "guilty as charged" verdict, he leaves Joyce high and dry at the end of part one. Part two of False Arrest was telecast three days later, with Joyce fending off hostile and sexually abusive inmates, courting a nervous breakdown, and battling to have her conviction overturned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Set the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, December focuses on five prep-school students (Wil Wheaton, Balthazar Getty, Brian Krause, Jason London and Chris Young) who are of enlistment age. Though encouraged by their headmaster to enter the army, the boys are wary of battle, and discuss the pros and cons of the situation. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Balthazar Getty, Jason London, (more)
