Ron Nix Movies
Combining influences from Tex Avery cartoons to Sam Raimi horror movies to 1940s B-movies, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen followed up the stylish film noir of their debut, Blood Simple (1984), with this frantic screwball comedy. H.I. "Hi" McDonnough (Nicholas Cage) is a philosophical but slightly dim career criminal who has been arrested so often that he gets to know "Ed," short for Edwina (Holly Hunter), the officer who takes his mug shots. Hi takes a shine to Ed and promises to go straight if she marries him. She accepts, and they move to the Arizona desert, where Hi holds down a factory job and blissfully watches the sunsets with Ed. Their serenity is shattered when the couple decides that they want a child and discover that, as Hi puts it, "Ed's womb was a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase." (One of the film's many delights is Hi's unexpectedly flowery dime-novel narration.) Ed goes into a severe depression until she sees an item in the news. Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), owner of a chain of unpainted furniture stores, has become the father of quintuplets, and he and his wife joke that they now have more children than they know what to do with. In what seems like a perfect "helps you, helps me" situation, Hi and Ed kidnap one of the Arizona infants, figuring that they'll have a baby and the Arizonas will have less of a burden. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, (more)
Newly divorced Emma Moriarty (Sally Field) moves herself and her young son to a small Arizona town, hoping to establish a horse farm. Town pharmacist Murphy Jones (James Garner), the town's most eligible bachelor, develops a platonic friendship with Emma, but he decides to keep his distance when her ex-husband Bobby Jack (Brian Kerwin), who claims he's changed his irresponsible ways, moves back in with her. At a party at Emma's ranch, Murphy and Bobby Jack get into a verbal row, but nothing is settled until Wanda (Anna Levine) shows up with two babies in tow, claiming that Bobby Jack is the father. Once rid of her ex, Emma commisserates with her friend Murphy at his drug store--and is quite surprised to discover that she's fallen in love with the older man, and he with her. Murphy's Romance is a very gentle romantic comedy; even Murphy's cast-away lady friend (Georgann Johnson) behaves like a civilized human being instead of a woman scorned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Field, James Garner, (more)
- 1975
- PG
In this action film, trucker Carrol Jo Hummer (Jan-Michael Vincent) borrows money to purchase a truck of his own, only to discover that part of his "payment plan" includes smuggling goods on his trips. When Carrol refuses to participate in the underhanded scheme, a group of thugs threaten his wife, leading Carrol to fight back with a vengeance. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jan-Michael Vincent, Kay Lenz, (more)
- 1974
- PG
After Billy Jack belatedly became a box-office smash two years after its original release and The Born Losers, the biker film in which Tom Laughlin created the Billy Jack character, had enjoyed a highly successful re-release, Tom Laughlin brought everyone's favorite martial arts hero turned Native American mystic back to the screen for a third go-round in The Trial of Billy Jack. As Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin) awaits trial for murder, Jean Roberts (Delores Taylor) continues to operate her "Freedom School" on an Indian reservation, where the student-operated television station comes under fire for airing a series of hard-hitting political exposes (just how an alternative school run by threadbare hippies obtained cameras, broadcasting equipment and an FCC license is not explained here). The attempts to silence the student journalists and run Billy Jack out of town lead to a deadly confrontation between the kids and the National Guard. Tom Laughlin wrote and directed The Trial of Billy Jack, though on-screen credit is given to his son, Frank Laughlin; similarly, Laughlin also directed the first two films under the name T.C. Frank. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor, (more)
