Houshang Touzie Movies
A young man who only wants to dance finds that isn't so simple when you're an Iranian in America in this independent drama. Houshang (Mansour) isn't much different than a lot of teenagers living in Southern California in 1979; he likes disco, thought Saturday Night Fever was a great movie, and wants to be able to take over the dance floor just like John Travolta. However, Houshang also happens to be an Iranian immigrant who works at a Middle Eastern grocery owned by his uncle (Akbar Moazezi); Houshang's uncle doesn't think much of his nephew's fondness for nightlife, and with the hostage crisis in Iran dominating headlines, it's not a good time to be of Persian descent, even among the dance club crowd. Sahmi (Houshang Touzie), a friend of the family, tells Houshang that he has connections at one of L.A.'s hottest dance spots and can get him and his friends inside for a price; Houshang agrees, but he soon learns that Sahmi has a shady past and isn't always good to his word, which leads to both disappointment and danger for Houshang and his pals. America So Beautiful was the first feature directed and co-written by Babak Shokrian, himself a Iranian immigrant who came to the United States in 1971. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mansour, David Diaan, (more)
- 1989
A U.S./Netherland co-production, Guests of the Hotel Astoria is set in an Istanbul hotel that functions as a transit point between Iran and the Outside World. Shohren Aghadashloo and Mohsen Marzban play a young married couple hoping to secure exit visas to Cuba. Because the woman (Aghadashloo) has a brief affair with a terrorist at the Hotel Astoria, she is detained by the Turkish police. Both the man and the woman suffer horribly before they finally arrive in New York, but one final ironic blow awaits them. Director Reza Almaehzadeh, himself an Iranian refugee, knows whereof he speaks in the depressingly credible Guests of the Hotel Astoria. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mohsen Marzban, (more)
- 1987
- R
It is difficult to pinpoint Iranian-born director Parvis Sayyad's point of view in Checkpoint, but perhaps this is intentional. Set in 1980 during the Iran hostage crisis, the film is set on the U.S.-Canadian border. A busload of college students is detained by the authorities, who take their sweet time checking out the visas of the eight Iranian students on board. As this minor irritation blossoms into a full-scale confrontation, the Iranian students begin taking sides and espousing their individual ideologies. Dogmatic but undeniably involving, the American-financed Checkpoint was first shown at the Locarno Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Apick, Houshang Touzie, (more)
- 1986
The fifth and final season of The A-Team opens with a three-part story, as an injured Hannibal (George Peppard) is captured by the mysterious General Hunt Stockwell (Robert Vaughn). Threatening to put Hannibal on trial for his life if his demands aren't met, Stockwell orders the A-Team to rescue a group of hijacked hostages in Spain. Among those hostages is movie special-effects expert "Dishpan" Frankie Sanchez (Eddie Velez), who was responsible for the on-set "accident" which allowed Hannibal to fall into Stockwell's hands, and Vietnam veteran Josh Curtis (Sandy McPeak), the only person able to confirm that the A-Team had been ordered to rob a bank in Hanoi during the war, and thus were unfairly sentenced to prison. Unfortunately, one of these two worthies will end up stabbing the Team in the back! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Filled with enough cameos to keep film buffs entertained, this otherwise routine action-comedy by John Landis boasts Michelle Pfeiffer as one of its major attractions. She plays Diana, a woman prone to having affairs with some very dangerous men, and Jeff Goldblum is Ed Okin, an aerospace engineer whose lot is thrown in with Diana's when the woman is caught in a bind at the airport. The beautiful Diana is an airhead on the scale of the Hindenberg, her only concerns are clothes and men -- which she either most attractively wears or wears out, depending. While Ed is at the airport one day trying to sort out his life, Diana arrives with six smuggled emeralds in tow and is immediately welcomed by several hired assassins. Fear and expediency propel her into Ed's car, and the two are off on a series of narrow escapes that has them pursued by everyone from Iranians to baddies played by well-known international directors (Roger Vadim) or singers (David Bowie) or comedians (Dan Aykroyd). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer, (more)
- 1983
Producer, writer, editor, director, and star Parviz Sayyad has fashioned a story about an Iranian political assassin who comes to know and like his target so much that his own ideology is brought into question. When Iranian Daoud Moslemi (Sayyad) is given the assignment of killing off a political enemy in the U.S. someone else beats him to it, and so he is given another target instead, a former army colonel. But while tracking this man, Daoud inadvertently is on the scene when the former officer is mugged and is forced to help him -- a gesture that gets him an invitation to come to dinner. Once at the ex-colonel's home, Daoud meets his two children and his really attractive sister-in-law -- and after spending some time with these people, the reasons for the assassination start to dissolve in the face of their kindness and humanity. The erstwhile assassin's dilemma is what he should do about this new conflict between his feelings, his old beliefs, and the dangerous men who are his superiors. The story itself -- although filled with a little more political dialogue than would suit some viewers -- outpaces the technical side of the film, limited because of budget restrictions. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Parviz Sayyad, Mary Apick, (more)
