Dan Resin Movies

Jessica Lange plays an attorney whose affable Hungarian-immigrant father Armin Mueller-Stahl is arrested. He is threatened with deportation for lying about his activities during World War II; part of the charge is that Mueller-Stahl was a Nazi collaborationist, guilty of wartime atrocities. Absolutely convinced that her father is being railroaded by a revenge-seeking Hungarian communist government, Lange handles Mueller-Stahl's defense, expertly blowing huge holes in prosecuting attorney Frederic Forrest's case. But in doing her own research, Lange discovers that her father has spent a lifetime paying off a blackmailer. Why? In contrast to the fervency of his earlier Z, Costa-Gavras refuses to make things easy by proselytizing in The Music Box (nor does screenwriter Joe Esterhas indulge in his usual right-between-the-eyes fervency). Everything in the film is offered on the same calm, collected level, making the ultimate horror of the story all the more effective. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this rather routine adaptation of the French hit, The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, Richard (Tom Hanks) is a bicycling violinist who is innocently drawn into a nasty struggle for control of the CIA. Cooper (Dabney Coleman) is the unscrupulous current head honcho of the notorious U.S. agency, Ross (Charles Durning) is his nemesis, and Maddy (Lori Singer) works for Cooper. After Richard the violinist is forced into the picture, Maddy fights off an attraction to the rather dull man, and complications introduce enough gadgetry to fill a James Bond movie, almost. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The smash success Caddyshack became a prototype for countless other wacky T&A-tinged teen comedies of the early 1980s. At an exclusive country club for WASPish snobs, an ambitious young caddy (Michael O'Keefe) from an overpopulated home eagerly pursues a caddy scholarship in hopes of attending college and, in turn, avoiding a job at the lumber yard. In order to succeed, he must first win the favor of the elitist Judge Smails (Ted Knight), then the caddy golf tournament which the good judge sponsors. Of course, there are love interests as well -- one good, one naughty -- not to mention several foes he must vanquish along the way. The story itself serves to string along a series of slapstick scenes involving an obnoxious nouveau riche land developer (Rodney Dangerfield) who wants to turn the site into a condominium community; an oddball, Zen-quoting, millionaire slacker/golf ace (Chevy Chase); and a psychotic groundskeeper (Bill Murray) with a gopher-fixation. Caddyshack was a bona fide hit; throughout the '80s and '90s, director Harold Ramis would continue to create such hits as Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, and Analyze This. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

Released theatrically as God Told Me To, this inventive film from "B"-movie auteur Larry Cohen was later re-named Demon after television distributors refused to air it under the original title. The convoluted, tabloid-flavored storyline (predating the kind of stories frequently featured on The X-Files) involves a series of motiveless murders committed by various New York residents: a sniper picks off targets from a water tower; a mild-mannered father murders his entire family; and a cop (Andy Kaufman, of all people) opens fire during a St. Patrick's Day parade. The only consistent pattern to the crimes involves the perpetrators' calm admissions of guilt, explaining, "God told me to." While investigating the murders, devoutly-Catholic police detective Peter Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco) is increasingly troubled by evidence of a Christ-like figure named Bernard Phillips (Richard Lynch) who appeared to each of the killers and can't seem to shake the feeling that his own fate is inexplicably linked to this mysterious being. As he comes closer to the truth, his worst fears are confirmed -- particularly after a telling conversation with Bernard's tormented mother (Sylvia Sidney), who reveals the horrifying secret of her son's unnatural birth. Cohen has often used the "B"-movie format to address rather lofty concepts, and this is certainly no exception -- tackling no less than the existence of God and the nature of human beliefs -- but clumsy editing and an outrageous FX-heavy finale tend to obscure this film's unique vision. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Lynn Redgrave stars as New York madam Xaviera Hollander in this romp based on Hollander's rise to the top of the sex-for-hire industry. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

One of Terrence Malick's early screenwriting efforts, this loosely-structured road movie finds a questionably sane long-distance trucker named Cooper (Alan Arkin) winding his way through the heart of America. An employee of a questionable hauling outfit who has been assigned to drive a newly hijacked rig to an as-of-yet undisclosed-location, Cooper quickly ditches his partner and points his eighteen-wheeler westward. Picking-up a hitchhiker (Paul Benedict) for some company in the cab, the unstable trucker's journey westward grows increasingly surreal as he runs into numerous eccentric characters, portrayed in cameo roles by such noted names as Ida Lupino, George Raft, Charles Durning, Loretta Swit, Richard Kiel and future director John Milius. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Any resemblance between the U.S. president in Hail and Richard M. Nixon was purely intentional. Faced with rebellious teenagers and college students, paranoid chief executive Dan Resin comes up with a brilliant idea: lock all the malcontents in concentration camps. Unfortunately, this leads to ramifications that turn the Good Ol' USA into an armed stockade. Amusing at first, the film's satirical content is compromised by repetition and predictability. Also known as Hail to the Chief and Washington BC, Hail was released in 1973 -- though, incredibly, it was completed before the Watergate incident. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide