John Zarchen Movies
Airheads is a variation on Dog Day Afternoon, as well as a comic look at the trials and tribulations of both the music business and Generation X. A hapless rock trio consisting of Chazz (Brendan Fraser), Rex (Steve Buscemi), and Pip (Adam Sandler) hits a brick wall with their attempts to get their demo tape played by record label executives. Chazz, on the edge since being thrown out by his girlfriend (Amy Locane), decides it's time to take more serious action, and he leads his bandmates on a mission to invade the local "alternative" rock station, KPPX, and hold it hostage to get the band's tape played on the air. The station staffers don't realize that they're being held with a water gun, and when they finally agree to play the tape, it gets eaten up by a faulty machine. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, (more)
This debut feature film from music video director Dominic Sena is a romp through the world of serial killing, which in its bleakness and moral bankruptcy looks backwards to Terrence Malick's Badlands and forward to Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. Michelle Forbes plays hip, Mapplethorpe-esque photographer Carrie Laughlin, who wants to move to California for a fresh start. Her boyfriend, Brian Kessler (David Duchovny), is a writer who has an idea for a new book, a travel tome on the sites of serial murders. The two plan to go on a cross-country tour of the murder sites, with Brian writing the commentary and Carrie taking the pictures. But they need a couple to share the driving expenses; enter Grayce (Brad Pitt) and his girlfriend, Adele (Juliette Lewis, in a warm-up for her role in Natural Born Killers). Grayce is an ex-con looking to jump parole, while Adele is a childlike naïf. Soon the four are off to California, but the yuppie couple doesn't realize how close they are to their serial killer topic. It seems Grayce has murdered his landlord before their trip and bodies begin piling up disturbingly behind them as they make their way across the country. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, (more)
- 1992
- NC17
Traci Lords stars as Vicki Stewart, an undercover cop on the trail of drug kingpin Salvador (Angelo Tiffe). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
In this youthful drama, Tom, a 14- year-old who's parents have just divorced, is abruptly uprooted from his wealthy Chicago home and sent to the strange land of LA to live in the far-out beach bungalow of his aunt, an aging hippie still stuck in a by-gone era. He is unhappy with the new arrangement and finds his new bohemian lifestyle strange and the activities of his new peers, stupid. His life begins to change a bit when he befriends a young surfer named Fin. At first he thinks of the fun-loving Fin as a real dolt, but later he admits he was wrong. Like the Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn characters on which they are loosely based, the two new friends soon find themselves having a series of adventures, some of them dangerous; by the summer's end, Tom finds himself wiser, accustomed to California, and a lot more grown up. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Landes, Brian Austin Green, (more)
A deliciously nasty black comedy, Heathers is set at a cliquish high school in Ohio. The most exclusive of those cliques is the Heathers, comprised of the prettiest and most popular girls in town. The group's leader is the manipulative Kim Walker, who orchestrates the humiliation of anyone who fails to meet her standards. Eventually, Heathers member Winona Ryder begins to exhibit a conscience; together with her hardcase boyfriend Christian Slater, Ryder plots to avenge all the unfortunate victims of the group. Before long, Heather (Kim Walker) ends up dead along with Kurt and Ram, with poignant suicide notes posted near their bodies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, (more)
Young, ambitious high school students Darcy Elliot (Molly Ringwald) and Stan Bobrucz (Randal Batinkoff) have a hitch thrown into their plans to attend college and pursue professional careers when they discover that Darcy is pregnant. Deciding against abortion or adoption, the couple decides to carry the child to term and to try to raise it themselves; however they are unprepared for the myriad of decisions and responsibilities that they are forced to deal with. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Molly Ringwald, Randall Batinkoff, (more)
- 1987
Rick (Larry Manetti) is arrested for the murder of a hit man who had been hired to kill the missing Ice Pick (Elisha Cook Jr.). Though Magnum (Tom Selleck) would like to prove his friend's innocence, this may be an impossible task: Rick has already signed a full confession. The ending of this episode is curious indeed, suggesting that the producers were preparing to write "finis" to Magnum, P.I. at the close of the seventh season--a theory that would seem to be borne out even further by the NEXT episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
- PG13
This romantic comedy is based on a true story that happened in California in 1944. Sonny Wisecarver (Patrick Dempsey) is 15 year old who has an affair with his older neighbor Judy (Talia Balsam). The two run off and get married, but a stern judge has the union annulled. Sonny is hauled before the same judge when he gets involved with another older woman (Beverly D'Angelo), and the publicity makes him the object of affection for millions of young women who believe Sonny has something special. Michael Constantine and Betty Jinnett play Sonny's concerned parents. Carl Reiner is the uncredited narrator, and the real-life Elliott "Sonny" Wisecarver has a cameo appearance as a mailman. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Dempsey, Beverly D'Angelo, (more)
- 1986
- R
The terror in this chiller is more implied and the blood and gore is minimal as it tells of the strange adventure of an African-American female Army Sergeant and her recruits as they head through the forest of Alabama on a survival mission. It all begins when a lieutenant sees the apparition of a mysterious woman. Next a private finds a skull while others are made nervous by bizarre winds and the strangely burned ground thy find. Eventually the unit finds an empty subterranean bunker and that's when people begin to die. Eventually a mysterious fog rolls in and they see that their killers are the ghostly remains of Confederate soldiers who do not realize that the war is over. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maxwell Caulfield, Nichelle Nichols, (more)
