Sharon Compton Movies
When a group of evil, power-hungry people take over a trio of kingdoms, it is up to a young magician to free his lands from their rule. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Carradine, Bobby Jacoby, (more)
Barbarosa is a western starring the unlikely screen team of Willie Nelson and Gary Busey. Nelson is an outlaw, Busey his country-bumpkin buddy. They decide to ride together, since both are on the run from separate family feuds. Directed by Australian filmmaker Fred Schepisi, the screenplay for Barbarosa was written by William D. Wittliff who would later gain acclaim for his adaptation of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Willie Nelson, Gary Busey, (more)
This is a crazy horror-film spoof in which the enthusiastic leads provide laughs just by the strength of their characterizations alone -- and because they are obviously having fun. Oliver Reed is Dr. Heckyl whose lumpy face is so ugly it has kept women away in droves. He works at a podiatrist's clinic and one day attempts suicide by quaffing a whole bottle of a weight-loss elixir. The result? Dr. Heckyl becomes Mr. Hype, the suave ladies man. The only problem is that Mr. Hype is evil incarnate, his urge to kill is greater than any other urge, and so he remains as virginal as ever as he leaves a trail of victims behind. When he goes after the woman he has loved as Dr. Heckyl, serious confusion is in store -- she prefers the good-hearted beast over the rotten charmer. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oliver Reed, Sunny Johnson, (more)
Produced by Roger Corman and scripted by John Sayles, Battle Beyond the Stars is a cheerfully blatant imitation of The Seven Samurai (or at least the American remake The Magnificent Seven). A peaceloving planet is attacked by malevolent aliens. The powers-that-be hire a group of mercenaries, headed by George Peppard, to protect the planet from harm. Peppard's contingent includes squeaky-clean Richard Thomas Jr. and statuesque Sybil Danning. John Saxon goes through his usual paces as the villain, while the supporting players include such dependables as Sam Jaffe, Jeff Corey, and, from Magnificent Seven itself, Robert Vaughn. Keep an eye out for Julia Duffy as "Mol". A deft blend of standard sci-fi action and knowing "inside" humor, Battle Beyond the Stars was one of Corman's biggest hits of the 1980s-not to mention an endless supply of stock footage for future New World Productions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, (more)
David Carradine romps around in a loin-cloth as Kaz Oshay, a good-guy biker who hops on his destructocycle to participate in a sport to the death, in Roger Corman's futuristic gladiator motorcycle film. The film takes place 1000 years after the "Neutron Wars" have decimated civilization, except for pockets of domed cities. Surrounding the cities are vast wastelands called "ranges." Kaz is a "ranger guide" who roams the range riding horses and wielding sabers. The sabers are necessary to fend off the "Statesmen" -- roving hordes under the thrall of Lord Zirpola (David McLean). Zirpola captures Kaz and throws him into a cell, where he meets Deneer (Claudia Jennings), who tells Kaz that a group of mutants have abducted her daughter. Kaz and Deneer escape and set off in search of her daughter as they dodge the Statesmen and their high-decibel motorcycles called "Death Machines." Kaz is finally forced to participate in the "Death Sport" -- a mad free-for-all inside a tunnel in which only one contestant can emerge alive. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Carradine, Claudia Jennings, (more)
When an "I'm-just-makin'-money" developer plops his new ski lodge at the foot of a mountain, the locals warn him about snowslides. So it's not too long before a gigantic avalanche buries the lodge and all the snow bunnies in it. Rock Hudson plays the ski lodge owner and Mia Farrow is his couch-hopping wife in this disaster film. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow, (more)
Why is someone using violence to force Rocky (Noah Beery Jr.) to sign away his lease to Parcel 334, a supposedly worthless piece of property in Coulter County? And what does this have to do with the case of a missing oil driller? That's what Jim (James Garner) wants to find out before he ends up behind bars on a phony murder rap which is tied in with both the land and the missing person. Perhaps that old codger (John Anderson) living in a bomb shelter near Rocky's property can come up with the answers--and then again, perhaps not! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The most narratively loose of Robert Altman's '70s films, California Split details the haphazard lives of two compulsive gamblers searching for that ever-elusive big score. Newly single and soon-to-be-unemployed Bill (George Segal) joins live-wire pal Charlie (Elliott Gould), as the pair moves from Fruit Loops with Charlie's hooker roommates Sue (Gwen Welles) and Barbara (Ann Prentiss) to bets on horses, backroom card games, boxing, and basketball. They make it to Reno, but Bill comes to realize that even the big score may not be the answer to the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life. For Charlie, however, that's all there is. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Segal, Elliott Gould, (more)
Set up like a version of the Maltese Falcon, this routine detective yarn by Roger Corman features Vic Morrow as Harry Black, a hard-living, tough-skinned American in trouble. Two dangerous factions want to get their hands on some engraving plates stolen from the British mint, and Harry is trapped in the middle. The staged car chases, the seductive woman (Suzanne Pleshette) who wants Harry for her own reasons, Monte Carlo and Istanbul locations, the dramatic musical score, and all the earmarks of a low-grade James Bond spy thriller date this drama to the 1960s. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vic Morrow, Suzanne Pleshette, (more)
Shot on a miniscule $50,000 budget, and including footage from a 1959 Russian film that was later purchased by Roger Corman, this science fiction feature finds a tiny planet slowly dying. With the inhabitants in danger of perishing, some kind-hearted astronauts bring a green-blooded female alien back to Earth. The extraterrestrial shows her gratitude by going wild for human blood in the fashion of a blood-sucking vampire. John Saxon, Basil Rathbone and Dennis Hopper are some of the actors sentenced by their vindictive agents to appear in this 1966 film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, (more)


















