Mike Moroff Movies
A cop teams up with the former head of a drug cartel to avenge the death of the woman he loved in this action-drama. Sean Vetter (Vin Diesel) and Demetrius Hicks (Larenz Tate) are a pair of DEA agents who think they've made the bust of a lifetime when they capture 'Memo' Lucero (Geno Silva), a multi-millionaire drug lord who controlled most of the narcotics traffic along the border of Mexico and the United States. However, with Lucero behind bars, a new and decidedly more dangerous underworld kingpin rises to take his place, and Diablo (Timothy Olyphant), also known as Hollywood Jack Slayton, soon proves to be even more dangerous than Lucero when he orders his gunmen to assassinate Vetter. While Vetter escapes unharmed, his wife is killed, and Vetter is thrown deep into despair. Now Vetter is obsessed with bringing Diablo to justice, and he's willing to do anything to bring him down -- even if it means teaming up with Lucero. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vin Diesel, Larenz Tate, (more)
In this dark comedy, a group of retirees wants to save their homes -- but they're not typical senior citizens trying to make the most of their Social Security checks. Four aging former mobsters -- Joey "Bats" Pistella (Burt Reynolds), Bobby Bartellemeo (Richard Dreyfuss), Mike the Brick (Dan Hedaya), and Tony "The Mouth" Donato (Seymour Cassel) -- live in the same rundown Miami apartment complex, the Raj Mahal. New owners hope to clear out the current tenants and replace them with a younger, more lucrative clientele. But the veteran gangsters don't want to move, so to scrape up the extra rent money, they take a job executing the father of a Miami mob boss. They happen to know he's already dead, so all they have to do is make it look like they did the hit. Their problems start when loudmouthed ladies' man Tony tells too much to Ferris (Jennifer Tilly), a stripper, and soon she's talked him into murdering her mother (Lainie Kazan) in exchange for her silence. The Crew also features Carrie-Anne Moss as a detective and Jeremy Piven as a mob kingpin out to avenge his father's death. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Reynolds, (more)
- 1998
- PG
Fantasist Ray Bradbury wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of his 1957 Saturday Evening Post short story, "The Magic White Suit," previously adapted as a TV drama, a stage musical, and a play. Middle-aged Gomez (Joe Mantegna) hopes to own the beautiful white suit he spots in a store window. Since he can't afford it, he locates four same-size men to each contribute $20. On a Friday evening, the five in turn don the shining suit for an hour, and when they wear the iridescent garment, their wishes come true. Director Stuart Gordon had success 30 years ago with his production of the stage play. The opening titles are in sand animation. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Mantegna, Esai Morales, (more)
- 1998
- NR
One of the quintessential family shows of the late '70s, CHiPs featured two handsome California Highway Patrolmen: Jon, the blonde uptight one, and Ponch, the free-wheeling Latin Lover. Prowling the L.A. freeways for wrong doers and the inattentive, the duo rode cool bikes, witnessed many exciting accidents -- often ending in fireballs -- saved lives, solved mysteries and flirted with pretty girls. Off duty, they often did all the things considered hip during that time, including lots of disco-dancing.
Made-especially for the TNT cable network and featuring most of the original cast and crew, this lighthearted action-adventure is set 15 years from where the old show left off. Jon (Larry Wilcox) and Ponch (Erik Estrada) have not been partners for years, but a puzzling series of car thefts reunite them. Part of the fun of the show is watching the two leads -- no longer sporting washboard stomachs, trim waistlines and smooth faces -- as they try to adjust to the innovations of modern police work, including new bikes and wireless radios that keep them in constant contact with their senior officer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Made-especially for the TNT cable network and featuring most of the original cast and crew, this lighthearted action-adventure is set 15 years from where the old show left off. Jon (Larry Wilcox) and Ponch (Erik Estrada) have not been partners for years, but a puzzling series of car thefts reunite them. Part of the fun of the show is watching the two leads -- no longer sporting washboard stomachs, trim waistlines and smooth faces -- as they try to adjust to the innovations of modern police work, including new bikes and wireless radios that keep them in constant contact with their senior officer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry Wilcox, Erik Estrada, (more)
In this action-horror flick from director Robert Rodriguez and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino, Tarantino stars with George Clooney as a pair of bad-to-the-bone brothers named Seth and Richie Gecko. After a string of robberies that left a river of blood in the Geckos' wake, the sadistic siblings head to Mexico to live the good life. To get over the border, they kidnap Jacob Fuller, a widowed preacher played by Harvey Keitel, and his two children, Kate (Juliette Lewis) and Scott (Ernest Liu). Once south of the border, the quintet park their RV at a rough-and-tumble trucker bar called The Titty Twister, where Seth and Richie are supposed to meet a local thug. After a couple of drinks, they realize that they're not in a typical bar, as the entire place begins to teem with vicious, blood-sucking vampires. With the odds stacked greatly against them, the Fullers and Geckos team together in hopes of defeating the creatures of the night. Makeup artist Tom Savini and blaxploitation star Fred Williamson appear as allies against the vampires, and Cheech Marin fills three different roles. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, (more)
Director Robert Rodriguez picks up where his successful independent debut El Mariachi left off with this slam-bang South of the Border action saga. Bucho (Joaquim DeAlmeida) is a wealthy but casually bloodthirsty drug kingpin who rules a seedy Mexican border town. Bucho and his men make the mistake of angering El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas), a former musician who now carries an arsenal in his guitar case. Bucho was responsible for the death of El Mariachi's girlfriend and put a bullet through his fretting hand, making him unable to play the guitar. Bent on revenge, the musician-turned-killing machine arrives in town to put Bucho out of business, though he finds few allies except for Carolina (Salma Hayek), who runs a bookstore that doesn't seem to attract many readers. Desperado features supporting performances from Cheech Marin as a cynical bartender, Steve Buscemi as the cantina patron who sets up the story, and Quentin Tarantino as a man with a really terrible joke to tell. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, (more)
This ambitious Disney movie uses a remarkable screenplay from Steven L. Bloom and Robert Rodat to tell a rollicking tale of America's transition from a close-to-the-land culture of mythic heroes to a corporate world of real estate tycoons. The strong theme about the decline of folk culture is expressed through a series of high octane adventures experienced by 12-year-old Daniel Hackett (Nick Stahl) at the dawn of the 20th century. Daniel's father, Jonas Hackett (Stephen Lang), runs a farm in a place called Paradise Valley, but his land is coveted by a greedy developer, J.P. Stiles (Scott Glenn). Daniel looks longingly at postcards of New York City while growing increasingly skeptical of his father's tales of legendary folk heroes. Then, through a series of incredible adventures, Daniel meets up with the legends that his father has spoken about -- cowboy Pecos Bill (Patrick Swayze), lumberjack Paul Bunyan (Oliver Platt), and finally, ex-slave and strongman John Henry (Roger Aaron Brown). Each of these heroes hooks up with Daniel and becomes involved in an increasingly bitter and boisterous fight against Stiles, whose plans to buy up land threaten the very strength of the folk heroes and the well-being of the common people. Pecos Bill has a horse named Widowmaker and can lasso a tornado. The giant Bunyan is accompanied by his famous blue ox, Babe. At one point, another legend, the cowgirl Calamity Jane (Catherine O'Hara), joins in the adventures. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Swayze, Oliver Platt, (more)
- 1993
Lorenzo O'Brien wrote this scathing black comedy about a naive Mexican highway patrolman who is irresistibly drawn into corruption and violence. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roberto Sosa, Bruno Bichir, (more)
A more straightforward horror film than the darkly comic Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988), this third chapter in the "Living Dead" saga was directed by Brian Yuzna and is quite similar plot-wise to his earlier film, Bride of Re-Animator (1990). J. Trevor Edmond and Mindy Clarke star as Curt Reynolds and Julie Walker, a young couple in love. Curt's father is Col. John Reynolds (Kent McCord), a scientist working on a top-secret project at a nearby military compound. When Curt steals his dad's security pass and sneaks Julie into the base, they discover that the project involves bringing corpses back to life using the powerful gas Trioxin, responsible for events in the previous films. The military hopes to use the mindless, flesh-consuming zombies as weapons, but the experiment goes gruesomely awry. Later, Julie is killed in an accident on Curt's motorcycle and the grief-stricken boyfriend brings her to the base and exposes her to the gas. As she begins craving human flesh, Curt must try to keep her alive while also facing down a local street gang he's unintentionally crossed, as well as the soldiers seeking Julie, led by his father. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mindy Clarke, J. Trevor Edmond, (more)
- 1992
James Coburn guest stars as Cyrus Ramsey, chief archaeologist of the National Museum of Mexico. Ramsey is among those under suspicion when a hotel owner suspected of dealing in stolen art is murdered. It seems that the dead man was found wearing the Mask of Montezuma, which had recently been pilfered from the museum. Need we add that Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is paying a visit to Mexico City at the time of the murder, and that she will take it upon herself to solve the mystery? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
It doesn't take long for the alleged story line to disappear from this kickboxer feeding-frenzy of a film so the real action can begin. Supposedly the movie is about an Olympic-caliber kickboxer who leaves Paris, headed to "some" southern California school to get an engineering degree and help train a kickboxing team. But it's really an effort to show how many Mexican- American hoodlums one artful foot flinger can dispatch. ~ All Movie Guide
If you've seen TV wrestling, you know what a "caged" bout is. In Cage, it's for real; two testosterone-pumped behemoths are placed in a cage where they duke it out to the death. Lou Ferrigno plays Billy Thomas, the muscle-bound Vietnam vet who is finagled into cage-fighting by a group of mobsters. Scott Monroe (Reb Brown), the man whose life Billy saved in Nam, finds himself (through a series of ludicrous plot twists) facing his former savior in the dreaded cage. We suppose this was meant to be taken seriously, but audiences didn't get the hint; Cage has been greeted with raucous, derisive laughter ever since its 1990 release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lou Ferrigno, Reb Brown, (more)
In this detective yarn, an amiable investigator finds himself entangled with mobsters after he tries to help a woman who is apparently having a run of bad luck. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Paul Verhoeven's American breakthrough film, Robocop, is an exceedingly violent blend of black comedy, science fiction, and crime thriller. Set in Detroit sometime in the near future, the film is about a policeman (Peter Weller) killed in the line of duty whom the department decides to resurrect as a half-human, half-robot supercop. The RoboCop is indestructible, and within a matter of weeks he has removed crime from the streets of Detroit. However, his human side is tortured by his past, and he wants revenge on the thugs who killed him. The film was later followed by two feature-length sequels and a live-action television series, neither of which were as successful as the original film. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, (more)
Charles Bronson, weary and comatose, is trotted out again as the cocked crusader Paul Kersey in Death Wish 4: The Crackdown. Director Michael Winner has jumped ship for this installment, replaced by J. Lee Thompson (who has seen better days). Kersey is back in L.A. and dating attractive reporter Karen Sheldon (Kay Lenz). Of course, the clock is ticking, and the gong goes off when Karen's daughter overdoses on crack. Before you can say "kaboom" the drug dealer, along with a large cast of bit players, are blown to bits by the single-minded vigilante. An enterprising publisher whose own daughter has died from a drug overdose hires Kersey to wipe out the city's two rival drug dealers and their legions of flunkies. Kersey has no trouble agreeing, and using the technique limned in Yojimbo, he methodically eliminates gang members, first from one side and then the other, until one gang's paranoia about the other gang causes the two competitors to engage in a major confrontation that impacts both groups. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bronson, Kay Lenz, (more)
- 1987
A hardened Chicago cop transfers to a Houston precinct where he is teams up with a relaxed cop causing problems between their differing work attitudes. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1987
Hunter (Rick Hunter) and McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) are faced with an ethical dilemma while investigating the murder of Latino crime boss Max Santiago (Fred Asparagus). Early on, the detectives figure out that the killer was a prominent community leader, and are also able to determine the motive for the killing. Painfully aware of the ramifications of revealing this information, Hunter and McCall are on the verge of giving up the case--and quitting the force! Rudy Ramos joins the regular cast in the role of Reuben Garcia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
Two warring Mexican crime families have one thing in common: They both want Magnum (Tom Selleck) dead. This is because a "friend" who has been impersonating Magnum has taken it upon himself to blackmail one of the crime bosses. Needless to say, this turn of events seriously compromises Magnum's efforts to get a pilot's license--and the consequences are even worse for his pal T.C. (Roger E. Mosley)! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Richard "Cheech" Marin, of Cheech & Chong fame, directed and starred in Born in East L.A.. Inspired by Marin's music-video parody of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA", the film casts Cheech as an East Los Angeles repairman. While paying a visit to a sweatshop toy factory, Cheech is caught in the middle when the feds raid the place and cart off all the illegal alien workers. Since he's forgotten to bring his own i.d., Cheech is also shipped off to Mexico-where, having next to no knowledge of the Spanish tongue, he's virtually helpless. Desperate, he takes a job with crooked Tijuana saloon owner Daniel Stern-the first of many "make-do" jobs that he assumes to earn enough money to return home. Along the way, he falls in love with El Salvadorian girl Kamala Lopez, whose English is as fractured as Cheech's Spanish. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cheech Marin, Paul Rodriguez, (more)
Lou Diamond Phillips plays legendary 1950s rocker Ritchie Valens (born Ricardo Valenzuela), in this musical biography. Before scoring radio and concert success with hits like "La Bamba", "C'mon Let's Go", and "Donna", Valens was a 15-year-old migrant worker who worked with his mother Connie (Rosana De Soto). Valens' half-brother Bob Morales (Esai Morales) is a vitriolic ex-con who roars into the migrant camp on his Harley after his release from jail. Valens' musical talents are encouraged by his family -- though later various members of his family react to his fame with varying degrees of pride and envy -- and he soon earns an audition with legendary record producer and former Artie Shaw clarinet player Bob Keane (Joe Pantoliano). Valens soon appears in an Alan Freed rock n' roll teen exploitation film, lip-synching his blistering recorded version of "Ooh, My Head". When a romance with Donna Ludwig (Danielle von Zerneck) is forbidden by her conservative father, Valens pens the famous ballad that bears her name. Tours follow his chart success until the fatal plane crash that claimed the lives of Valens, The Big Bopper (aka J.P. Richardson), and Buddy Holly on February 3rd, 1959. The supporting cast is excellent with power-pop icon Marshall Crenshaw playing Buddy Holly singing "Crying, Waiting, Hoping". Brian Setzer accurately portrays rocker Eddie Cochran, and Howard Hunstberry plays Jackie Wilson and sings "Lonely Teardrops". Additional music is provided by Los Lobos, a band who traces their musical roots directly to Valens and other Mexican influences. Also making cameo appearances are the real-life Mrs. Connie Valenzuela and Bob Morales. Although not 100% historically accurate, La Bamba is much more accurate than 1978s The Buddy Holly Story. The feature turned a new generation on to the influential Tex-Mex rock that was an inspiration to such later rockers as The Bobby Fuller Four as well as Los Lobos. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, (more)
- 1987
In this entry in the long-running mystery series, Perry Mason begins representing a friend of Della's after he is accused of murdering an old madam who is also his wife. As the intrepid attorney investigates, he soon exposes a multi-million dollar banking fraud. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1986
- PG13
Filmed in 1982 in New York, this comedy hinges on a tried-and-true plot device: a man has less than a day to get married or he loses a fortune (no waiting for blood tests or licenses here!). When the fabulously wealthy W.D. Westmoreland (Jonathan Winters) dies, his grandson Luke (Art Hindle) discovers that he will inherit $250 million if he marries before he is 35. Since he turns thirty-five tomorrow, that leaves him less than 24 hours to find a bride and make it legal. Everything impedes his good intentions, including his father, who stands to inherit that money if Luke remains a bachelor. There are a lot of volunteers for Luke's open position of an immediate wife, but what makes matters even more complicated is he has developed an interest in a young, average-looking woman from the countryside. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lissa Layng, Art Hindle, (more)
- 1986
Hunter (Fred Dryer) knows that the murder of a hooker is somehow connected with a huge pharamaceutical theft, but he can't figure out why the woman was killed. In order to get the answers and flush out the villains, McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) goes undercover as a "working girl." This strategy may ultimately prove fatal to both Hunter and McCall, thanks to the deadly persistence of sadistic soldier-of-fortune Johnny Zajak (Vernon Wells). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
A Kenya game preserve is being plundered by a poacher named Madrid (John Calvin), who is working hand in glove with illegal animal trader McKaydoo (John Calvin). When her brother is killed by the villains, attractive game warden Kamora Kaboko (Daphne Maxwell Reid) turns to the A-Team for help. Complications ensue when B.A. (Mr. T) falls in love with Kamora--and is so smitten that he almost overcomes his fear of monkeys! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
