Joel Stedman Movies
Alan J. Pakula directs the political thriller Rollover, produced by leading lady Jane Fonda's production company, IPC Films. Featuring a racist plot and negative stereotypes about the Arab world, this film reflected the American fear of the Middle East prevalent in the early '80s. Fonda stars as former film star Lee Winters, who inherits a multimillion-dollar company when her corporate bigwig husband is murdered. She teams up with banker Hubbell Smith (Kris Kristofferson) in order to find her husband's killer and survive in the world of high-stakes international finance. They become lovers and travel together to Saudi Arabia to secure a loan and to guarantee Lee's spot as the company's board chairman. However, they end up discovering an Arab company's plan to withdraw money from the world's banks in order to destabilize the Western economy. Rollover also stars Hume Cronyn and Josef Sommer. This story also foreshadowed Jane Fonda's marriage to corporate bigwig Ted Turner in 1991. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, (more)
- 1981
- R
Trying to recreate the screwball comedy success of his collaborations with Peter Bogdanovitch, actor Ryan O'Neal headlined this sporadically funny mixture of light farce and social satire. O'Neal stars as Bobby, an intellectual English professor who leaves his job when his father Jack (Jack Warden) appeals to him for help. A garment manufacturer, Jack is in serious debt to humongous loan shark Eddie (Richard Kiel), and he desperately needs his business to provide the capital to pay Eddie back. Completely by accident, Bobby invents the solution to his dad's problem: see-through denim blue jeans with strategically placed holes in the rear that expose one's backside. The fickle public goes mad over the "sexy" new style, and the money starts flowing in, but Bobby exacerbates his father's problems greatly when he falls for and begins dating the amorous Lira (Mariangela Melato), whose husband is none other than Eddie. So Fine was the feature directorial debut of popular Blazing Saddles (1974) writer Andrew Bergman, who would wait eight years before getting behind the camera again with the much more successful The Freshman (1990). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Jack Warden, (more)
