Robert Rothwell Movies

The Brady Bunch Movie pays tribute to the 1970s TV show while poking gentle fun at it. The Brady family, led by father Mike (Gary Cole), still live in their suburban, split-level home and are still throwbacks to the era that spawned them. Eternally perky wife Carol (Shelley Long) is the perfect homemaker, while the kids' behavior is as wholesome as their loud, time-warp pastel clothes. Meanwhile, the greedy, selfish modern era swirls dangerously around them, embodied in next-door neighbor and real estate agent Ditmeyer (Michael McKean), who wants to buy the Bradys' property and turn the neighborhood into a giant mall. But no amount of money or prodding can persuade the Bradys to give up their home. Director Betty Thomas contrasts the overlit sitcom look of the Brady house interiors (faithfully recreated from the series) with real locations and natural grit for the modern L.A. scenes. The result is a satire that deftly spoofs the idea of staying true to old-fashioned values without ever passing judgment on those values. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

When her Mother breaks her hip and needs full-time care, a married woman is forced to a new understanding of the process of aging and the human spirit. Her Mother becomes resentful and fearful in this powerful affirmation of the dignity of the elderly and the power of a family. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

In this black comedy, a wealthy but flaky family tries to deal with their lives after their bizarre father suffers a fatal heart-attack on Thanksgiving and falls face first into the turkey. Now the family must somehow get their act together enough to pay bills and make funeral arrangements. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Patsy Cline was one of the first great female stars of country music, and her best-known hits (such as "Sweet Dreams" and "Walking After Midnight") not only broadened the audience for country but brought a new sophistication to the Nashville sound. Cline was at the peak of her popularity when she died in a plane crash in 1963, and Sweet Dreams is a biopic which examines her life and career, with a particular focus on her troubled relationship with her second husband, Charlie Dick. Cline (played by Jessica Lange) is unhappily married and playing small-time gigs in West Virginia when she meets Dick (Ed Harris), whose charm and aggressive self-confidence catch her attention. In time, Cline leaves her husband to marry Dick, and she gives up music to focus on raising their children. But after Dick goes into the Army, Cline begins singing again, and after joining forces with manager Randy Hughes (David Clennon), Cline becomes a rising star on the country music scene. However, Cline's success fuels her self-confidence, much to Dick's annoyance, and he becomes increasingly abusive (both physically and emotionally) as she attempts to assert her independence. Rather than attempt to re-create Patsy Cline's vocals, Jessica Lange instead opted to lip-synch with Cline's original recordings. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Sam (Robert Ito) finds it impossible to believe that his friend Steve Yomoshira (Bill Saito), a kind and gentle man, had gone berserk and killed a police officer before taking his own life. The subsequent autopsy reveals that Steve suffered from radiation poisoning, possibly connected with a covert Army experiment to determine a man's ability to withstand torture. With the help of Quincy (Jack Klugman), Sam sets about to learn the truth about this questionable procedure--and in the process, to clear Steve's name for the sake of his widow (Nobu McCarthy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At the beginning of The End, Wendell Sonny Lawson (Burt Reynolds) is informed by his doctor that he's dying from "the same thing Ali MacGraw had in Love Story." Lawson's first reaction is to cry uncontrollably, much to the discomfort of his fellow elevator passengers. He heads to a nearby church to confess all his sins, only to be distracted by the wide-eyed fecklessness of the novice priest (Robby Benson). Attempting to resolve a few issues with ex-wife Mary Ellen (Sally Field), daughter Julie (Kristy McNichol), and his parents (Myrna Loy and Pat O'Brien), Lawson finds that they're all too absorbed in their own problems to pay him any attention. At the end of his rope, Lawson decides to kill himself -- with the help of a nutty mental patient (Dom DeLuise). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Posing as a fugitive from justice, frontier undercover agent John Deakin (Charles Bronson) boards a train to go after a ruthless gang of outlaws. Ingredients essential to the action include an anti-military conspiracy involving gunrunners and Indians, a phony epidemic, and a down-and-dirty traintop fight between Deakin and Carlos (boxer-turned-actor Archie Moore). Breakheart Pass was adapted for the screen by Alistair MacLean from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If anyone is interested in seeing what Kurt Russell used to do before transforming into Snake Plissken in Escape From New York, they can look no further than this labored Disney slapstick marzipan sequel to The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. Kurt Russell, once again, is Dexter Riley, a science major at Medfield College, who, along with fellow science majors Schuyler (Michael McGreevey) and Debbie (Joyce Menges), concocts an invisibility spray. A gang of thieves, headed by A.J. Arno (Cesar Romero), want to get a hold of the formula to use in a bank robbery. The kids find themselves the prey of the crooks, as the bad guys attempt to get the spray. Meanwhile, Dexter employs the spray at a golf tournament, much to the surprise of apoplectic college president Higgins (Joe Flynn). But before Higgins can spout out "Wha? Wha? Wha?,." Arno continues onward with the chase for Dexter and the invisibility spray. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

John Wayne, in the last of his Civil War characterizations, portrays Cord McNally, a Union Army colonel who loses a gold shipment in a Confederate raid, during which a devoted young officer is also killed. After the end of the war, McNally bears no ill-will toward the leaders of the raid, Pierre Cordona (Jorge Rivero) and Tuscarora Phillips (Christopher Mitchum), who were acting as soldiers, but he still wants the two unknown men on the Union side who they say sold them the information about the gold shipments. A year later, McNally crosses paths with one of the men, now a deputy from Rio Lobo, who is about to take Shasta Delaney (Jennifer O'Neill), a seemingly innocent young woman, out of a neighboring town at gunpoint. A shootout ensues, in which McNally's man and three other Rio Lobo deputies are killed, with help from Cordona -- this makes McNally very interested in what's going on in Rio Lobo, and he decides to go there with Cordona and Shasta. They find a whole community under siege from their own sheriff, a sadistic ex-outlaw named Hendricks (Mike Henry). What follows is a series of confrontations and revelations that are alternately suspenseful, sadistic -- with maimings worthy of a spaghetti western and characters even getting blown to bits -- and even occasionally comical. But the pieces all tie together very neatly, despite a convoluted plot that's sort of Rio Bravo (made 11 years earlier, also starring Wayne and directed by Hawks, and scripted by Leigh Brackett) turned sideways and readjusted to a more cynical era. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Not only is Jim Reed (Kent McCord) a rookie cop, but he's also about to become a rookie father--and he is extremely nervous as his wife Jean (Mikki Jamison) is wheeled into the maternity ward. Meanwhile, Reed's bachelor partner Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) hopes to make time with Margaret (Margaret Mason), a new employee at the police station. Tonight's case load includes a somewhat befuddled matador who is flailing his cape and shouting "Ole!" in the middle of heavy traffic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Just coming off his shift, rookie officer Jim Reed (Kent McCord) shoots and kills a teenage sniper. Even though he regards the incident as a clear-cut case of self-defense, Reed must follow procedure and undergo an intense investigation.from a police panel consisting of his superior officers. The more the panel scrutinizes every detail of the killing and relentlessly drills him for additional information, the more Jim begins to question his judgment--and the more he is convinced that his career is over. (Incidentally, Kent McCord landed his Adam-12 role largely on the strength of a guest appearance in Dragnet, playing a young cop who was subjected to a similarly grueling interrogation by officers Friday (Jack Webb and Gannon (Harry Morgan). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Officers Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Jim Reed (Kent McCord) answer a summons from a bemused suburbanite, who can't figure out why over fifty Mexican youngsters have "adopted" him as a surrogate father and camped out on his front lawn. Elsewhere, the two patrolman capture a robber, and try to extricate a sniper from a small bungalow. And it what may turn out to be the most terrifying incident on their shift, Pete and Jim try to break up a fistfight between two drunken middle-aged ladies. Featured in the guest cast are Batman's former "Chief O'Hara" Stafford Repp, and frequent Jerry Lewis costar Del Moore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having struck pay dirt with his 1958 western Rio Bravo, Howard Hawks more or less remade the picture twice in the 1960s. The first of these rehashes was El Dorado, with Rio Bravo star John Wayne back for more. Wayne plays a gunfighter who rides into El Dorado to link up with his old pal, sheriff Robert Mitchum ("It's the big one with the big two!" declared the film's advertisements). Wayne has turned down a job with evil land baron Ed Asner, who'd hoped to drive a family off the land that he needed for its water. That family, headed by R.G. Armstrong, is convinced that Wayne is working with Asner; when Armstrong's son Johnny Crawford dies, Wayne is held responsible, earning him a bullet in the spine from Crawford's sister Michele Carey. A year passes: Wayne returns to El Dorado, in the company of his new saddle pal James Caan. They find that Asner is still up to his old tricks, and that Mitchum has descended into alcoholism. Several plot twists and power shifts ensue, leading to the slam-bang climax, with the partially paralyzed Wayne, the newly crippled Mitchum (on crutches), and the concussion-suffering Caan battling together to stave off Asner's minions. The final long-shot, of Wayne and Mitchum limping off together arm-in-arm, is one of the most enduring images in the entire Hawks canon. If they loved it twice they'll love it thrice: in 1969, John Wayne and Howard Hawks teamed up for a third Rio Bravo derivation, Rio Lobo--which, like the first two films, was scripted by Leigh Brackett. Incidentally, that's famed artist Olaf Weighorst (whose paintings appear in the title sequence) in a cameo as the gunsmith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide