Jeana Tomasina Movies
- 1985
Diane (Shelley Long) is pleasantly surprised when Sam (Ted Danson), who never does anything for free, agrees to pitch in a charity softball game. But it's neither pleasant nor surprising for Diane when it turns out that the opposing team is comprised of Playboy Bunnies. Unfortunately for his love life, Sam's competitive instincts win out over his libido. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
- R
In this inane teen comedy, a rafting competition is going to determine whether four friends will graduate or not (an interesting amendment to college practices), and up against their team is a group of offensive rich kids. Meanwhile, a band of expelled military rafters is out to thwart the race as a whole. Bob (Tim Matheson) of the aspiring group of graduates, and Heather (Jennifer Runyon), a convert from the military rafting side, are a hot item, as are many other couples, since sex seems to be the only known activity carried out on land. A game of charades with a dog -- in order to locate a hostage -- is the funniest sequence in an otherwise routine story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Matheson, Jennifer Runyon, (more)
- 1984
Season Three of The A-Team begins as Hannibal (George Peppard), B.A. (Mr. T), Face (Dirk Benedict) and Murdock (Dwight Schultz) head to Miami at the request of two pretty young lasses, Sandy (Kimberly Ross) and Tina Betsy Russell). The girls run a tourist hotel which may be put out of business by gangster Joey Epic (Vincent Baggetta). Taking charge of the hotel for a while, the A-Team finds out that Epic is in league with Prescott (Ben Piazza), a crooked congressman who is pressing for legalized gambling in Miami, the better to take a juicy slice of the proceedings. The climax features the by-now-standard improvised weaponry, including a "machine gun" which shoots nails! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Charles Bronson at 63 or so, continues his vigilante persona in this run-of-the-mill crime drama about a Richard Speck-style killer who knifes young nurses to death. There is no doubt that the film exploits both the heinous, 1966 Speck murder of eight nurses in Chicago and an audience's willingness to go along with the Bronson character, Leo Kessler, when he uses illegal means to entrap criminals. The captured killer, Warren Stacey (Gene Davis) manages to go free because of red tape and the need to wait for the outcome of his insanity plea. When he returns to his murderous predilection, Kessler takes action to permanently stop him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bronson, Lisa Eilbacher, (more)
- 1982
- R
In this low-budget but inventive teen kung-fu melodrama, the diminutive, karate-chopping Lovely (Lucinda Dooling) is out to wreak vengeance on the drug thugs who killed her younger brother, and fortunately she is not alone. Her female karate class and the instructor (Susan Mechsner) are behind her all the way, most notably in the final scenes when a showdown between the kicking teen women and the heavy-duty gangsters almost brings down the docks. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucinda Dooling, John Randolph, (more)
- 1982
In this fairly innocent fare, some wild beach girls throw a super party to help a nerdy guy and an up-tight gal get with the beach blanket times. Though certainly not a shocker, this movie was rated R for nudity. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Debra Blee, Val Kline, (more)
- 1982
- R
Double Exposure is a dull, predictable mystery thriller with a fine cast but hampered by a poor script and bad direction and production. A photographer (Michael Callan) begins to have a series of nightmares concerning bloody, gruesome murders. When those murders become reality, he is the prime suspect and must find the real killer. The cast including Joanna Pettet, James Stacy, Cleavon Little, Sally Kirkland and Seymour Cassel, makes the most of their underwritten and poorly developed characters, but producer/director/writer William Byron Hillman substitutes nudity and lurid, gory special effects for both plot and character. Viewers looking for an interesting thriller based on the same premise might enjoy The Eyes of Laura Mars, and not waste their time with this plodding rip-off. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
When a retired stock car driver, Brewster Baker (Kenny Rogers), meets up with a group of orphans intent on dismantling his car, he takes them under his wing and sets them to work helping him return to the racing scene. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenny Rogers, Diane Lane, (more)
- 1982
- R
Off the Wall is a moderately funny comedy about two young men who end up in a Tennessee jail and then find romance and/or adventure from there. Randy (Patrick Cassidy) and Rico (Billy Hufsey) are hitchhiking through the South when they are picked up by the pretty daughter (Rosanna Arquette) of the governor of Tennessee. Through no fault of their own, the young woman abandons them after a car accident, and the two are put in jail for six months, where Randy falls for the warden's daughter Jennifer (Brianne Leary), and Rico comes to the attention of the jail's top wrestler. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Sorvino, Rosanna Arquette, (more)
- 1981
- R
- Add History of the World -- Part I to QueueAdd History of the World -- Part I to top of Queue
Mel Brooks produced, directed, wrote, and starred in this episodic comedy in the spirit of Monty Python and the 1957 studio travesty The Story of Mankind. The film is divided into five sequences that play like blue-toned Eddie Cantor vaudeville sketches -- "The Dawn of Man," "The Stone Age," The Spanish Inquisition," "The Bible," and "The Future." Also included is a Brooksian depiction of The Last Supper and a long-winded sequence about the French Revolution. The film starts with a 2001: A Space Odyssey parody, narrated by Orson Welles, in which a collection of ape-men learn to stand erect (in more ways than one). The Stone Age reveals the origins of both the first homo sapien and homosexual marriages. Brooks then appears in an Old Testament sequence as Moses, descending from Mount Sinai with three heavy stone tablets bearing the 15 Commandments; after he drops one of these tablets, the laws of God become 10 Commandments. The Roman period picks up with Brooks as Comicus, attempting to get a gig as a "stand-up philosopher" at Caesar's Palace. The Spanish Inquisition is a musical production number with monks torturing Jews to lively Broadway musical strains. The final French revolution section is a broad parody of The Man in the Iron Mask story. The film closes with coming attractions of "History of the World, Part II" that features a rousing Star Wars parody (anticipating Space Balls) called "Jews in Space" that includes a jaunty theme song. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise, (more)
This fun, silly thriller written and directed by Michael Crichton manages to combine the dramatic murders of beautiful models, a secret conspiracy to use TV commercials for mind-control, and an unusual seeing-eye device which makes the wearer invisible. Plastic surgeon Larry Roberts (Albert Finney) becomes the prime suspect after two models on whom he operated are killed. Larry becomes suspicious because both of the women came into his office asking for very precise and seemingly unnecessary physical alterations. Agreeing to operate, because the women's jobs depended on the surgery, Larry must now clear his own name and save his life and career. With the aid of a friend and model Cindy (Susan Dey), Larry discovers and foils the plot led by corporation-head John Reston (James Coburn). Larry must then fight for his life against Reston's thugs who are equipped with the devices, called "Lookers." This is good, if silly fun and Albert Finney does his best with a somewhat implausible script. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Albert Finney, James Coburn, (more)
