Joe Stewardson Movies
- 1991
- R
A campus under siege from a deranged rapist calls on a kickboxing champion (Kevin Bernhardt) for assistance. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Ray Sharkey makes one of his last film appearances in 1989's Act of Piracy. Sharkey plays a contemporary buccaneer whose cutthroat gang swipes contractor Gary Busey's technologically advanced yacht. The pirates also inadvertently abduct Busey's children, who remained hidden during the siege. With no money to ransom his captive offspring, Busey undertakes his own rescue mission. Slow going until the slam-bang finale, Act of Piracy is acceptable nonthink entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Busey, Belinda Bauer, (more)
- 1988
- R
William Katt plays Steve Shephard, a Vietnam Green Beret who has continued to fight on alone for 15years after the withdrawal of American forces. He's a renegade, seeking to avenge his fallen comrades and wearing spooky, white Kabuki-style makeup (hence the title) as he wages his one man war in a Vietnamese-Cambodian border area. As the film opens, the Pentagon receives a coded signal from Shephard that he's ready to come home. Ex-Green Beret Captain Walker (Wayne Crawford is dispatched with a team of vigilantes to find and return Shephard. The complication is that Walker and Shephard had clashed bitterly years earlier while in the same unit. White Ghost was filmed in Zimbabwe, doubling for the Southeast Asian locations. The film was planned for theatrical release by its original producers, but a merger with another company resulted in a direct-to-video release. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Katt, Rosalind Chao, (more)
- 1987
- PG13
Tom Reed (Kenneth Gilman) is a University of Florida ornithologist whose interest in vultures causes him to be mistaken for an international secret agent know as "vulture man." With his former flame and neighbor Kimberly Blake (Brenda Bakke), Tom is tracked by the CIA, the KGB, and African drug runners throughout the dark continent. The duo tries to survive in this low-budget comedy spy thriller. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth David Gilman, Brenda Bakke, (more)
- 1987
- R
South African medical examiner Joe Stewardson investigates a rash of prostitute murders, all with the same gruesome MO. While pursuing this case, Stewardson is pressured by the government to declare that the death of a known black activist, killed while in police custody, was due to heart failure. Sympathetic to the activist's cause, Stewardson refuses to falsify his report. Then he learns that the prostitute killings are the handiwork of other black extremists, who argue that they're justified in venting their wrath on the white establishment by whatever means possible. Unable to determine who's right or wrong anymore, Stewardson pulls out of the controversy-and, simultaneously, out of life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Stewardson, Ian Yule, (more)
- 1982
This socially conscious film, set in South Africa, presents an interracial love story between a German geologist and a young mulatto woman. The German is only visiting South Africa. He meets his new love in a grocery store where he hires her as his part-time housekeeper. She soon becomes his lover and this infuriates their nosy neighbors who report them to the police. The cops come to his home and then proceed to forcefully examine the woman for signs of sexual activity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Stewardson, Denise Newman, (more)
- 1979
Follow That Rainbow is a strange amalgam of musical and travelogue. Heroine Memory Jane comes to believe that a pop singer Joe Stewardson is actually her father. She leaves her exclusive Swiss girls' school to follow the singer to the ends of the earth. She gets as far as South Africa, where all the loose plot strands are tied up. Also featuring Joan Bickhill, Follow That Rainbow is good, harmless fun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
African Rage is a comparatively little-known political thriller, set in an African hospital. Top-billed Anthony Quinn plays a male nurse, assigned to care for a powerful tribal leader (Simon Sabela). With many threats against his well-being, the leader is heavily guarded around the clock. But Quinn manages to kidnap his patient, leading to a series of curious and occasionally confusing plot twists. African Rage was completed in South Africa in 1976 as Tigers Don't Cry, but not put into general American release for nearly nine years. Other alternate titles include Target of an Assassin, The Long Shot, and Fatal Assassin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Flatfoot was also released as The Knock-Out Cop. By any name, this Italian crime meller stars Baldwyn Dakile as Bodo, a tough, no-frills police officer. Determined to bring a gang of drug smugglers to justice, Bodo is ordered to lay off by his superiors. It's not likely that he will obey orders, of this one can be sure. The larger-than-life escapades of the "flatfoot" are made palatable by director Stefano Steno's tongue-in-cheek approach to the material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- PG
In this sports-oriented drama from South Africa, a former Olympic marathon champion pushes his sons to be as successful in competition as he was and emphasizes victory above all else. However, one son is killed and another severely injured in an auto race, and the family turns against him. In the film's climax, the father races his son and loses, learning a valuable lesson. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- 1968
In this uneven color drama, a shipping magnate and his son are devastated by the death of another son. The surviving boy tries to be like the deceased one, but the grieving father resents this insinuation. Later the young man begins working on the docks. There he falls in love with a young woman suffering from leukemia. The trouble begins when the man discovers that the woman's father, a first-mate, was behind his brother's death. The boy tells his father and the two reconcile. They then go to confront the killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gert Van Den Bergh, Joe Stewardson, (more)
The South African After You, Comrade was directed by Jamie Uys, of The Gods Must be Crazy fame. Uys himself stars as a Russian delegate to a worldwide peace conference. Unable to settle their differences through the usual diplomatic avenues, Uys and American delegate Bob Courtney agree to resolve their conflict in a winner-take-all walking race. The two contestants start out in Athens, and end up in Paris, with several chucklesome side trips along the way. After You, Comrade ends up as the usual Jamie Uys blend of satire, slapstick and social commentary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Uys, Bob Courtney, (more)
