Michael Madsen Movies

A certified loser sets out to prove that he's "a real somebody" by procuring the three items that his childhood hero claims every winner has in this morbid comedy from writer/director Simon R. Ennis. Hard as he may try, Robert R. Mutt (Joshua Pearce) can never catch an even break; after failing to take his own life, he's kicked out of Riverside Mental Hospital for being too happy. Desperate to live up to his potential and prove that he's not a loser, Robert seeks out the advice of former local baseball superstar Clinton Manitoba (Michael Madsen). According to Clinton, there are three things a man needs to be whole: a woman, a nice wad of cash, and a championship ring. In no time, Robert has gotten mixed up in the drug racket, hooked-up with a roller-skating transvestite, and entered into an air hockey tournament. It may not be the most conventional path to success, but perhaps if Robert can stay true to his goal he can finally prove that he isn't the biggest nitwit in town. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The owner of a Idyllwild counter-culture radio station finds his modest business unexpectedly threatened when the daughter of a conservative senator comes to town and sparks a heated political tempest by attempting to undermine a push to clear cut a nearby forest. Now, as the unassuming citizens of the sleepy community are suddenly jarred awake due to the fierce debate that rages around town, the radio station owner finds the illusions that have propelled him through life don't have the same power that they did when he was a young idealist. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A man scarred by the horrors of war encounters a new low in human brutality in this extreme horror story. Trevor Lloyd (Jason Connery) is a veteran of the Iraq war who has had a falling out with his wife and has decided to head west to start his life over again. While hitch-hiking through Texas, Trevor gets a ride from Parker Hilton (Randy Spelling), who makes him an offer -- if Trevor wants to make some traveling money, he's welcome to work a few days at Hilton's ranch. Trevor eagerly accepts, but when he and a handful of other hitchers arrive at the Hoboken Hollow Ranch, they discovers they've made a horrible mistake. Weldon Broderick (Mark Holton) and his family of bloodthirsty psychopaths run the ranch with Hilton, and rather than pay laborers, they simply kidnap men unlikely to be found missing anytime soon, and work them as hard as they can for as long as they can. When the abuse and torture become too much to bear, Broderick and his cohorts kill the drifters and make jerky from their flesh. As Trevor searches for a way to escape from this living hell, eccentric local businessman J.T. Goldman (Michael Madsen) is trying to persuade Broderick to sell him his land, but unwittingly discovers the horrible secret of his success in ranching. Hoboken Hollow also stars Dennis Hopper, Robert Carradine, C. Thomas Howell and Jonathan Fraser. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A movie star who is reeling from the pressures of celebrity tries to show the media just how it feels in this independent satiric comedy. Michael Madsen stars as Michael Madsen, a wildly popular motion picture actor who has started to emotionally buckle under the stress of his fame and success, often making a spectacle of himself in public. The tabloid press follows him relentlessly, waiting to capture one of his emotional outbursts on film and printing groundless stories accusing him of everything from secret gay romances to the murder of a young actress. Madsen finally decides he's had enough, and decides to give photographer, yellow journalist, and chief antagonist Billy Dant (Jason Alan Smith) a taste of his own medicine by hiring three documentary filmmakers (Davis Mikaels, Doug Tompos and, Kathy Searle) and having them follow Dant as closely as Dant has been following him. Madsen's plan might work a bit better, however, if he'd teamed up with a less inept team of documentarians. Being Michael Madsen also includes mock-interviews with colleagues David Carradine, Harry Dean Stanton, Daryl Hannah, and Virginia Madsen (the latter of whom is also Michael's sister). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An enormous crocodile terrorizes a Thai beach resort in this tale of terror in the water starring Michael Madsen. As the local begin to mysteriously disappear and various appendages are found floating in the swamps, the locals offer $5000 to anyone able to capture the beast responsible for all the bloodshed. While local crocodile hunter Hawkins (Madsen) is ready and willing to track down the man-eating monster, he begins to suspect that he's dealing with a more powerful force than he ever imagined as the body count continues to rise, and the blood-curdling screams of the locals echo eerily through the treacherous swamps. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

DMX, Michael Madsen, Paul Sorvino, and David Carradine star in first-time feature filmmaker Kobé's thriller concerning a man who is summoned to a remote house in China by his deceased father, only to discover upon arriving that he isn't the only person on the guest list. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Four desperate bank robbers are forced to abandon their lucrative heist plans and become the reluctant heroes when two of their hostages turn out to be psychotic killers who won't stop until everyone in the bank has been ruthlessly slaughtered. As the police surround the building and the killers begin methodically executing the hostages, the robbers enter into a deadly game of cat and mouse with their murderous criminal counterparts. Edward Furlong, Michael Madsen, Arnold Vosloo, and Bai Ling star in a thriller from Suburban Nightmare director Jon Keeyes. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The nine-episode inaugural season of the ESPN poker drama Tilt was heralded by a preview special, taking viewers behind the scenes of the production and detailing various important plot points (without giving away any significant twists or turns). The series proper, which lasts nine episodes, begins with professional gamblers Eddie (Eddie Cibrian), Clark (Todd Williams), and Miami (Kristin Lehman) tensely prepping for their high-stakes showdown with poker king Don "The Matador" Everest (Michael Madsen) at the World Poker Championships, which will be held at Las Vega's Colorado Casino, owned by the fiercely (one could say maniacally) honest Bart "Lowball" Rogers (Don McManus). Before the big game, Eddie tries to infiltrate The Matador's inner circle, hoping to pick up the great man's arsenal of strategies. The Matador likes Eddie's style and invites him to join his entourage, which sets Miami and Clark to worrying that their master plan to topple The Matador will be schneidered before it begins. Adding to the intrigue is the hot romance between Eddie and The Matador's daughter, Dee Everest (Amelia Cooke), and a murder investigation conducted by vengeful out-of-town sheriff Lee Nickel (Chris Bauer). Meanwhile, outside the poker arena, such unpleasantries as deceit, duplicity, and death constantly rear their ugly heads. And, can it be possible that the above-suspicion Lowball has actually allowed some cheating to pass by undetected in his establishment? Matters continue to develop in this same hectic pace until the final confrontation between The Matador and...who? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When a weary detective on the verge of retirement begins receiving ominous messages from a sadistic serial killer determined to stir up the past, the stage is set for a deadly confrontation in an all-star crime drama featuring Michael Madsen, Gary Busey, Meat Loaf, and Michael Rooker. Years on the job have shown Detective Harrison (Michael Madsen) more horror than most normal folks would experience in two lifetimes. As Detective Harrison prepares to pass the baton on to the up-and-coming rookie poised to take his place in the police force, the murder of numerous underworld heavies leave the befuddled veteran and his younger protégé grasping for clues. When the killer begins taunting Detective Harrison with a variety of stealthy clues and grisly photographs left behind at the crime scenes, an unsolved case from the past threatens to bring the sins of the past out of the shadows and into the light of the present. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This made-for-cable Frankenstein was originally intended as the pilot for a weekly series based on Frankenstein: The Prodigal Son, a novel by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson. The story is set in modern-day New Orleans, the home of demented scientist Dr. Victor Helios (Thomas Kretschmann). Helios is in fact the original Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who has kept himself alive these past 200 years by a series of diabolical genetic experiments. During the same two centuries, Frankenstein has managed to keep alive the original Frankenstein's monster, and has also created dozens of other synthetic humans capable of reinvigorating themselves whenever they are "killed." Of course, the doctor's experiments require that a number of innocent people unwillingly give up their own lives -- and when the bodies start piling up in the Big Easy, detective Carson O'Connor (Parker Posey) and Michael Sloane (Adam Goldberg) start putting the clues together. Ironically, in this story it is Frankenstein who is the villain (in standard serial-killer fashion he tantalizes the cops by planting cryptic clues), while the doctor's main monster is the nominal hero, and a good-looking one at that. Dissatisfied with the finished product, Koontz and Anderson took their names off Frankenstein, as did the project's original executive producer, Martin Scorsese. The unsold pilot film made its USA network bow on October 10, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On February 28, 1997, a pair of heavily armed and heavily armored outlaws named Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. and Emil Matasarenu, who had previously cut a crooked swath throughout the Los Angeles area as "The High Incident Bandits," botched the robbery of a bank in North Hollywood. The confrontation that followed has been described as the "most intense shootout in LAPD history," with the police and several SWAT teams trading gunfire with Phillips and Matareanu for three quarters of an hour. The made-for-cable 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shootout is an intense reenactment of this bloody incident, with Andrew Bryniarski and Oleg Taktarov as the bandits, and Michael Madsen, Ron Livingston, and Mario Van Peebles representing the forces of law and order. The final moments of the film includes on-the-spot video coverage of the actual incident. 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shootout originally aired over the FX network on June 1, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A group of dirty cops are forced to cover for one another when a new officer joins the force in this police drama. Captain Ellsworth (Dennis Hopper) has to deal with Sam Steele (Marc Singer), an over-eager new cop who decides to move in on a bank robbery, rather than wait for backup as instructed. Thanks to Steele, the robbery quickly turns into a bloodbath. While Ellsworth and his men are working out how to discipline Steele, the new cop runs across some incriminating information -- a lieutenant on the force (Michael Madsen) is the ringleader of a gang of crooked policemen who are involved with a robbery scheme. Steele allows his silence to be bought, but the underhanded doings don't stay quiet for long. L.A.P.D. also features Charles Durning and Steve Bacic. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide