Xander Berkeley Movies
Brooklyn-born Xander Berkeley made the rounds on numerous TV shows throughout the '80s, '90s, and 2000s, not just as an actor, but as a makeup artist. The actor has put his uncanny talent in the makeup department to use on the sets of many shows, like on 24, where he designed his own makeup to depict his character's affliction with radiation sickness.Berkeley got his start in show business in the early '80s, appearing on shows like Moonlighting, The A-Team, and M*A*S*H. He went on to appear in movies, as well, like The Rock and Apollo 13, but he frequently returned to the small screen for memorable roles like George Mason, head of the Counterterrorist Unit on 24, and Sheriff Roy Atwater on CSI. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
This bizarre comedy spoof on spaghetti westerns was made in a hurry on location in Almeria, Spain. Simms (Joe Strummer), Willy (Dick Rude), and Norwood (Sy Richardson) are inept hitmen who decide to rob a bank. They encounter the MacMahon's (The Pogues), a quintet of caffeine-addicted gunslingers who ride motorcycles across the range wreaking havoc. Elvis Costello has a reoccurring role as a waiter who is always ready with a new tray of coffee. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sy Richardson, Joe Strummer, (more)
Alex Cox directed this hallucinatory bio-pic starring Ed Harris as 19th-century American adventurer William Walker, who abandoned a series of careers in law, politics, journalism, and medicine to become a soldier of fortune and eventually a Nicaraguan dictator. When his deaf wife (Marlee Matlin) dies of cholera (but not before she utilizes sign language to tell Walker "To Hell with Manifest Destiny"), Walker is backed by multi-millionaire banker Cornelius Vanderbilt (Peter Boyle) to lead a band of mercenaries to Nicaragua in 1855 to make the country safe for Vanderbilt's steamships. When Walker subdues the Nicaraguan opposition, he sets himself up as president and rules the country with unfeeling repression. Finally the Nicaraguans rise up against him, figuring out that "the mad gringo is ripping us off." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Harris, Marlee Matlin, (more)
- 1986
The Temptations make a surprise appearance in the teaser for this episode, which focuses appropriately enough on the world of music (for a while, anyway). David (Bruce Willis) has purchased a pair of symphony tickets from a shady character whom he met on the street. Unfortunately, those tickets were stolen--and now both David and Maddie (Cybill Shepherd) are up to their necks in international intrigue, thanks to a most inquisitive FBI agent (Linda Thorson). The story also involves the assassination of a Russian prizefighter--which explains the presence of Don King! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Punk rock's first great embodiment of the motto "live fast and die young," Sid Vicious joined The Sex Pistols when they were already established as the most controversial rock band in British history; and it soon became apparent that he couldn't play his instrument, had a magnetic attraction to chaos, and possessed a dangerous thirst for booze, drugs, and violence. Sid and Nancy opens shortly after Sid (Gary Oldman) joined the band, when he meets an obnoxious American punk groupie named Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb). Nancy claims that she can get drugs, and Sid naively gives her his money. Nancy doesn't show up with the goods, but when Sid runs into her a few days later, she has a tall tale about getting ripped off - and Sid sympathizes with her. Before long, Sid and Nancy have fallen in love, and while they argue with uncommon vehemence, they also depend completely on each other. When The Sex Pistols break up, Sid has few prospects and an increasingly voracious appetite for heroin, and Nancy's attempts to "manage" his career only hasten his downhill slide. Former Clash leader Joe Strummer wrote the film's theme song, "Love Kills," and The Pogues, The Circle Jerks, and Pray for Rain contributed to the soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Oldman, Chloe Webb, (more)
Tom Hanks and John Candy were reunited for the first time since Splash in this period comedy about Peace Corps worker during the optimistic period of the Kennedy presidency. Lawrence Bourne III (Tom Hanks) is an upper-class heel who has to flee the country to escape his gambling debts and so sneaks aboard an airplane filled with Peace Corps volunteers en route to Thailand. On the plane he is befriended by well-meaning Peace Corps worker Tom Tuttle (John Candy). Once in Thailand, the workers become involved with building a bridge, and Lawrence becomes involved with the local Communists, an opium lord, and the CIA. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Hanks, John Candy, (more)
- 1984
Given one last chance to capture the A-Team, Col. Lynch (William Lucking, in his final series appearance) makes a beeline to the Wild West show run by Captain Winnetka (Morgan Woodward). It seems that Winnetka's daughter Carrie (D..D. Howard) has lodged a complaint of being victimized by a gang of crooks passing themselves off as the A-Team. Naturally, the real Team can't stand imitations, and decide to thwart the crooks on their own, adopting disguises straight out of the Village People playbook: Hannibal (George Peppard) as a flashy sharpshooter, Face (Dirk Benedict) as a clown, and Murdock (Dwight Schultz)as an Indian. The climax involves another jerry-built weapon, this one shooting wads of taffy! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
The A-Team sets about to rescue the passengers of a hijacked 747 with Hannibal (George Peppard)and Face (Dirk Benedict) posing as airline executives so they can trade themselves for the hostages. As it turns out, retrieving the plane is the easy part: The trouble arises when, while escaping from the villains, B.A. (Mr. T) goes into cataleptic shock at the prospect of flying, Hannibal is helplessly trapped in the airport tower, and a temporarily blinded Murdock (Dwight Schultz) is at the 747's controls! Without tipping the ending, it can be noted that a climactic action sequence was lifted from the theatrical feature Airplane (and we haven't even mentioned the possibility that "Howling Mad" Murdock may finally be declared sane--much to his dismay). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1982
- PG
Students at a college with obviously low graduation requirements spend their time and energy playing a game that involves mock assassinations with rubber-tipped darts fired from plastic guns. If you are shot, you are assassinated and out of the game and whoever remains alone at the end wins. When Gersh (Bruce Abbott), the odds-on favorite is about to do one of his opponents in, the hapless victim drops his dart gun, it misfires, and bonks a dart at Gersh - who is pushed over the edge, pulls out a real gun and kills his unfortunate opponent. Gersh drags the body to his room and stuffs it in his closet. Having killed once, the blood-thirsty student goes on a rampage, killing as many of these players as he can and stuffing them all in his closet. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Carradine, Linda Hamilton, (more)
- 1981
A 1962 novel by Edward Abbey was the source for this 1981 TV movie. Buddy Ebsen plays a stubborn oldster who refuses to leave his mountain property when it is targeted for a government missile base. Not even a promised $100,000 compensation will induce Ebsen to leave. Young land developer Ron Howard is sent to vacate Ebsen, but soon Howard joins the older man in defying the military. Soon it boils down to a battle of wills between Ebsen and the equally bullheaded army officer Michael Conrad. Fire on the Mountain may have your typical "all-TV" cast, but it's a good one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Howard, Buddy Ebsen, (more)
When her adoptive mother Joan Crawford died in 1977, erstwhile actress/author Christina Crawford and her brother Christopher were left out of Joan Crawford's will, "for reasons which are well known to them." Industryites have suggested that it may have been this posthumous act of rejection rather than an alleged lifetime of parental abuse that inspired Christina Crawford to pen her scathing autobiography Mommie Dearest. The 1981 film version of this tome was evidently meant to be taken seriously, but the operatic direction by Frank Perry and the over-the-top portrayal of Joan Crawford by Faye Dunaway (whose makeup is remarkable) has always seemed to inspire loud laughter whenever and where-ever the film is shown. According to the film (and the book that preceded it), Joan Crawford was a licentious, child-beating behemoth, who stalked and postured through life as though it was one of her own pictures-more Strait-jacket than Mildred Pierce. This is the film with the notorious "wire coat hanger" scene, just in case you need a reminder. Surprisingly, one emerges from Mommie Dearest with more sympathy for the monstrous but intensely vulnerable Crawford than for her whining daughter (played as an adult by Diana Scarwid, and as a child by Mara Hobel). Our favorite scene: Joan Crawford dazedly replacing her ailing daughter in the cast of a daytime TV soap opera. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, (more)
- 1981
Going directly to the top, Hawkeye (Alan Alda) complains about the war in general and recent events at the 4077th in particular in a letter to President Harry Truman). Among Hawk's bones of contention is the capriciousness of Col. Ditka (Stefan Gierasch), who will provide the camp with a much-needed new water heater only on condition that the staffers participate to a "beautification" project. It is tough enough to clean up the grounds, but it is torture beyond belief to overhaul one's own personal hygiene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
