Ron Ross Movies

Actor Billy Crystal co-wrote, directed, and starred in this romantic comedy. Forty-something couple Andy (Joe Mantegna) and Liz (Cynthia Stevenson) are about to be married, and as they gather with their friends for dinner not long before the wedding, they are told the story of their mutual friends Mickey (Billy Crystal) and Ellen (Debra Winger) as a cautionary tale of where a relationship can go wrong. Mickey is a top referee with the NBA who has traveled to Paris to bury his father, who wanted to be laid to rest with his Army buddies from World War II. The body is somehow lost in transit, and Mickey has an argument with Ellen, who works for an American airline in France. However, she likes his sense of humor, he is taken with her, and after a few days together in Paris, they decide to marry. However, once they return to Mickey's home in the United States, things get complicated; she's not so sure that she cares for his bachelor apartment ("a shrine to watching ESPN"), or juggling her career against his, while both have problems with their respective families. Several major basketball stars and sports figures appear in Forget Paris as themselves, including Charles Barkley, Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Marv Albert. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Dan (John Larroquette) suddenly sees Phil Sanders (William Utay), the wine-sodden derelict who hangs around the courtroom as something of a general factotum, in an entirely new light after a man (Eric Christmas) who was wiped out in the S&L crisis is hauled into court. Thinking quickly, Phil saves the unfortunate man's life at the cost of his own (which would be a tragic moment if it wasn't played like something out of a "Road Runner" cartoon). It soon comes to light that Phil was no ordinary bum--certainly not as far as his former Wall Street colleagues are concerned! Originally scheduled for January 16, 1991, this episode was moved back a week because of NBC's Gulf War coverage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This provocative drama tells the tale of the relationship between a wealthy, troubled boy and an alcoholic skid row bum with no name ("Emanon" is "no name" in reverse) who turns out to be Christ. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Suffering from an identity crisis--or rather, yet another identity crisis--Bull (Richard Bull) is receptive when a sports promoter gives him the opportunity to fulfill his "lifelong dream" by becoming a professional wrestler. The Night Court gang bands together to convince Bull to change his mind and return to his old job. Former "Incredible Hulk" Lou Ferrigno appears as The Klondike Butcher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The "boys next door" are Roy Alston (Maxwell Caulfield) and Bo Richards (Charlie Sheen), typical California teens freshly graduated from high school. Daunted by the prospect of the real world, the boys decide to go on one last fling in L.A. But it's not all clean, wholesome fun; in fact, Caulfield and Sheen launch their weekend bash by beating up a gas-station attendant, throwing a glass bottle at an old woman, and murdering gay-bar patron Chris (Paul C. Dancer). Somewhere along the line, Bo becomes repelled by their violence spree, but Roy seems to be sexually aroused by all the misery he's causing. And so it goes, without real rhyme or reason, until the bloody denouement. Director Penelope Spheeris later helmed Wayne's World, The Little Rascals, and The Beverly Hillbillies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mel Welles, best remembered for his portrayal of skid-row florist Mushnick in Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors, occupied the director's chair for Joy Ride to Nowhere. Leading ladies Leslie Ackerman and Sandy Serrano play two bored suburbanites who decide to hit the road together. Along the way, they stumble across a fortune in stolen loot. The film is aptly titled; though a lot of ground is covered, it's really much ado about nothing. Completed in 1978, Joy Ride to Nowhere lay on the shelf until 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide