Carlos Palomino Movies
Jimmy Smits returned to the big screen after a career-reviving stint on the TV series NYPD Blue with this emotional drama about the difficult relationship between a father and his sons. Smits plays Arturo Ortega, a man with lifelong dreams of being a contender in professional boxing. While Arturo had the knowledge, drive, and ambition to be a champ, his career proved short-lived, and, after a brief fling with success, he's a forgotten man. However, Arturo has instilled his passion for boxing in his three sons, who grow up learning the fine art of prizefighting. All three boys begin competing in the ring, with Arturo as their manager and coach, but Johnny (Jon Seda) quickly shows so much promise that other managers and promoters want to take over his contract and put him on the fast track to the championship. Arturo feels betrayed when Johnny wants to work with another manager, while his other two sons resent Johnny for turning his back on his father and wish Arturo had the same belief in their talents in the ring. The debut feature from director Carlos Avila and screenwriter Phil Berger, Price of Glory also features Maria Del Mar, Ron Perlman, Paul Rodriguez, and Clifton Collins Jr.. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Smits, Jon Seda, (more)
Walter Hill directs John Milius's script (co-written by Larry Gross) depicting a revisionist perspective on the "Geronimo Campaign" and how Geronimo, with 34 men, managed to elude 5000 U.S. cavalry men between 1885 and 1886 before his surrender at the Canyon of the Skeletons in September 1886. The film centers upon Charles Gatewood (Jason Patric), the U.S. Cavalry lieutenant who is charged with capturing the elusive Apache leader. Gatewood is torn by a grudging respect for Geronimo and his people and his duty to his country. But then all the white men in the film have a respect for Geronimo, even as they are trying to hunt him down and kill him. General Charles Crook (Gene Hackman), charged with overseeing the forced settlement of the Apaches on reservations, has nothing but admiration for Geronimo. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Patric, Gene Hackman, (more)
- 1993
The nervous witness to a murder committed by the Cepeda brothers proves to have good reason to be scared. Meanwhile, Kelly (David Caruso) tries to find out if his ex-wife, Laura (Sherry Stringfield), is being stalked. As these two plot strands are woven together by a sting operation involving an incarcerated Mob hit man, Roberts (Michael Harney) seeks out Kelly's help in securing work as a private bodyguard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
- R
In this erotic thriller a Hollywood porno director does far worse than seduce aspiring starlets upon his casting couch. His favorite trick is to tape them to chairs, focus a live camera on them and a monitor in front so they can watch while he strangles them to death. The strange series of deaths puts Detective Lewis and his partner Barry on the case. Meanwhile, the psycho director's beautiful neighbor, Nola Carlisle gets rid of her boy friend and begins eyeing the rather shy killer. She approaches him about putting together a promo video for her art and he agrees to it. They eventually end up making love and afterward, he confesses all. He does try to clean up his act, but by then it is too late. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
- R
In this martial-arts actioner a young man is forced to learn physical and spiritual self-defense tactics from a master after he witnesses a gangland murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1991
- R
After he finds himself the target of mysterious assassins, an amnesiac (Michael Biehn) convinces a psychiatrist (Patsy Kensit) to help him remember his past. It would seem he was involved in a CIA operation that the agency does not want him to reveal. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Biehn, Patsy Kensit, (more)
- 1990
- R
Trash-TV pioneer Morton Downey Jr. stars as an evil savings-and-loan financier who is investigated by a private eye (Robert Davi) in this thriller also released as Ladies Game. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- PG
In this actioner, an innocent man is framed and imprisoned for car theft. Six months later he is released and out for vengeance. Car chases and violence ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Cliff (Bill Cosby) refuses to tell anyone what has abruptly soured him on the game of basketball. Not even his old youth-league coach Bill Barry (Tiger Haynes) can get Cliff to open up concerning his disillusionment. Finally, Clair (Phylicia Rashad) pinpoints the source of Cliff's attitude when she watches a videotape of a humilitating hospital hoop match in which Cliff and his fellow middle-aged doctors (portrayed by such former NBA stars as Senator Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Walt Hazzard and Wali "Wonder" Jones) are thoroughly trounced by a squad of young female lab technicians (among them real-life basketball pros Nancy Lieberman-Cline, Teresa Edwards, Stephanie Givens, Rhonda Rompola and Anucha Brown-Sanders)! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- R
It is difficult to believe that this wretched sequel was Monte Hellman's first American film since Cockfighter (1974), and even more difficult to believe that it is the work of the man behind cult classics like Two-Lane Blacktop, The Shooting, and Back Door to Hell. The grown-up Ricky (Bill Moseley from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) comes out of the coma in which he ended the last film and goes on another murderous Christmas Eve rampage despite the fact that his brain is exposed under a glass dome after reconstructive surgery. There's a confused subplot about a doctor (Richard Beymer from Twin Peaks) investigating the dreams of a blind psychic girl (Samantha Scully), whose visions have something to do with Ricky's past. The glass-plated killer shows up at the girl's house, pursued by the doctor and a grumpy policeman played by Robert Culp, for the final standoff. The cast includes Eric Da Re, Elizabeth Hoffman, and Leonard Mann, there are flashbacks to part two (which consisted mostly of flashbacks to begin with), and obligatory in-jokes like several scenes from 1963's The Terror (which Hellman co-directed), and an homage to the original Carnival of Souls. There are some interesting camera angles, and one envisions Hellman thinking he was doing something different with the series, but the script and acting are terrible and Ricky's story had pretty much run its course anyway. The next sequel was a completely unrelated gorefest from Brian Yuzna (Society), whose unique vision -- if roundly rejected by series fans -- was at least a change of pace. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Beymer, Bill Moseley, (more)
- 1987
- R
Rampage delves into the subject of legal insanity, so often the default defense in modern-time gruesome crime trials. Alex McArthur plays an outwardly normal guy who goes on incredible killing and mutilating sprees until (and even after, when he escapes for a short time) he's captured. When he comes to trial, the liberal DA (Michael Biehn) is torn between his own leftist leanings and the reality of the heinous crimes for which the accused is being tried. He must argue for the death penalty. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Biehn, Alex McArthur, (more)
- 1987
- R
Better known as It's Alive III, Island of the Alive details the further exploits of the murderous mutant infants introduced in director Larry Cohen's It's Alive! (1974). Said infants are shipped off to a desert island, where they are completely cut off from civilization. The government intends to eliminate the penned-up infants, but Michael Moriarty, the father of one of the babies, organizes a protest against this wholesale slaughter. It is clear to anyone who can read that director Cohen is drawing parallels between the quarantined children and society's treatment of AIDS victims. The strength of Cohen's direction and storytelling prowess is slightly weakened by some inadequate special effects in the closing scenes, wherein the babies reproduce and wreak havoc on the Mainland. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Moriarty, Karen Black, (more)
- 1983
- R
Strangers Kiss stars Peter Coyote as an obsessive independent filmmaker who will allow nothing to interfere with the completion of his B-flick "masterpiece." Gangster Richard Romanus agrees to bankroll the film, provided that his girlfriend Victoria Tennant is cast in the leading role. Aware that there is no rapport whatsoever between Tennant and leading man Blaine Novak, Coyote stage-manages a real-life romance between the two--even though this will mean disaster for Novak should Romanus find out. Best described as a whimsical roller-coaster, Strangers Kiss doggedly avoids predictability throughout. The film might make an intriguing double feature with Woody Allen's similarly-themed Bullets Over Broadway (1994). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote, Victoria Tennant, (more)
- 1983
- PG
This low-budget jungle adventure tale stars Deborah Raffin as a dedicated anthropologist who hires boozy, woman-hating helicopter pilot Peter Fonda to fly her into the dark inner depths of the Philippine jungle in search of one of her colleagues, who disappeared while searching for the legendary lost tribe of winged dwarf creatures. Re-titled Jungle Heat for video release and packaged like an Indiana Jones-style adventure, this plays like a low-rent, horror-tinged update of The African Queen, focusing more on the constant verbal sparring between the cultured Raffin and the coarse, hard-drinking Fonda than on the weird, gargoyle-like pygmies. The script -- based on the novel by Geoffrey Household -- sacrifices too many potential thrills for plodding exposition and half-baked humor. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
