Roger Corman Movies
A former engineering student, Roger Corman entered the picture business as a messenger and ended up a producer/director after a stint as a story analyst and a brief detour to Oxford University. After returning to Hollywood, he saw an opportunity to make money and gain experience by making low-budget films to feed the drive-in and neighborhood theater circuits, which had been abandoned in large part by the major studios. Working from budgets of as little as 50,000 dollars, he quickly learned the art of creating bargain-basement entertainment and making money at it, producing and directing pictures for American International Pictures and Allied Artists. Five Guns West, Apache Woman, The Day the World Ended, It Conquered the World, Not of This Earth, The Undead, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Doll, Machine Gun Kelly, The Wasp Woman, and Sorority Girl were only a few of the titles, and they were indicative of their subjects. These films were short (some as little as 62 minutes) and threadbare in production values. (Reportedly, distributor Samuel Z. Arkoff used to look at the film footage at the end of each day of shooting and call Corman, telling him, "Roger, for chrissake, hire a couple more extras and put a little more furniture on the set!") But his films were also extremely entertaining, and endeared Corman to at least two generations of young filmgoers.During the early '60s, Corman became more ambitious, and made the serious school desegregation drama The Intruder. Adapted for the screen by his brother Gene Corman from Charles Beaumont's novel, it was the only one of his movies to lose money -- because few theaters would book it -- although it was one of the finest B-movies ever made. Corman also began working in color, most notably on a series of adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe stories starring Vincent Price that won the respect of younger critics and aspiring filmmakers alike. Corman also employed many young film students and writers during this period, including Francis Ford Coppola, Curtis Harrington, and author Robert Towne. His output decreased as his budgets went up, and Corman moved away from directing and into producing. In the 1970s, '80s and '90s, Corman was still producing exploitation films (such as Humanoids From the Deep), but his New World Pictures also distributed several important foreign movies, including Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers and the groundbreaking Jamaican crime drama The Harder They Come. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
At the time of its release, Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia was the first big-budget Hollywood film to tackle the medical, political, and social issues of AIDS. Tom Hanks, in his first Academy Award-winning performance, plays Andrew Beckett, a talented lawyer at a stodgy Philadelphia law firm. The homosexual Andrew has contracted AIDS but fears informing his firm about the disease. The firm's senior partner, Charles Wheeler (Jason Robards), assigns Andrew a case involving their most important client. Andrew begins diligently working on the case, but soon the lesions associated with AIDS are visible on his face. Wheeler abruptly removes Andrew from the case and fires him from the firm. Andrew believes he has been fired because of his illness and plans to fight the firm in court. But because of the firm's reputation, no lawyer in Philadelphia will risk handling his case. In desperation, Andrew hires Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), a black lawyer who advertises on television, mainly handling personal injury cases. Miller dislikes homosexuals but agrees to take the case for the money and exposure. As Miller prepares for the courtroom battle against one of the law firm's key litigators, Belinda Conine (Mary Steenburgen), Miller begins to realize the discrimination practiced against Andrew is no different from the discrimination Miller himself has to battle against. The cast also includes Antonio Banderas as Andrew's partner, Joanne Woodward as Andrew's mother, and Stephanie Roth as Joe's wife. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, (more)
This Roger Corman production was undoubtedly conceived to capitalize on the success of Francis Ford Coppola's romantic vampire epic Bram Stoker's Dracula, though the Count himself is not actually a character. The story involves LA artist Theresa (Stacey Travis), who has fallen under the sensual spell of darkly handsome Vlad (Christopher Atkins). Since their first enigmatic meeting, she has been troubled by sexually tinged nightmares involving the mysterious stranger, and she cannot shake the idea that they have met before. Later, while on assignment in Eastern Europe restoring a macabre, Gothic monastery named "The Church of Lost Souls," Theresa encounters Vlad again -- incurring the ire of her Mephistophelean employer Alec (Doug Wert) and leading Theresa to believe that there is also a strange bond between the two men. As her dreams and visions become more disturbing and detailed, she discovers that they are intimations of a former life in which Vlad and Alec were bitter rivals for her affection -- a love which led to her death. With the aid of Vlad's vampire father, the pair became vampires themselves in order to while away the centuries before her soul could return -- which leads to the inevitable climactic confrontation between the two powerful foes in modern times. Deftly lit and photographed, with some effectively surreal dream sequences, this modest production succeeds thanks to a character-based screenplay that never lapses into the usual Cormanesque exploitation formula. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
An FBI agent finds himself the target of both his agency and arms dealers when his undercover gig is found out and he loses his memory after an attack. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1992
- R
A couple suffering marital problems are terrorized by a mad killer who takes the wife as a hostage in their motor home after he wounds and leaves her husband behind. Travelling across the desert, she tries again and again to stop the crazed kidnapper as her husband attempts rescue. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1992
- R
Sgt. Duncan (Eb Lottimer) and his special squad of soldiers are sent off into the jungles of Vietnam in a last-ditch effort to find stranded strategy-expert Major Wilson (Jim Moss). In a race against time, Duncan must stage his rescue before the enemy is able to capture Wilson and extract vital military secrets from him. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1992
- R
Raiders of the Sun is a Filipino variation of Mad Max. In a post-apocalyptic world, warrior Richard Norton does what he can to survive. Since society was laid low by a biological mishap, provisions are at a premium, and the villains will do anything to grab up all they can for profit. Norton is a bit more altrustic: he wants to restore world order, even if he has to rearrange a few faces to do so. The all-purpose leading lady in Raiders of the Sun is Brigitta Steinberg, dressed in as close to nothing as possible. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
- PG
A loose sequel of the 1987 Munchies film, this movie turns the tables by offering the travails of a good Munchie (voice by Dom DeLuise). Found in an abandoned mine by a young boy (Jaime McEnnan), the creature offers to make all of his dreams come true, including help with bullies and bad grades. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loni Anderson, Dom DeLuise, (more)
- 1992
In this martial arts actioner a brave fighter travels from LA to Honolulu to the Southeast-Asian jungle to get revenge upon those who murdered his brother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Don "The Dragon" Wilson from the Bloodfist series is back in another Roger Corman-produced action film. Here, he uses his martial-arts prowess to defend rock-and-roll singer Shanna (Deirdre Imershein) from a vicious serial killer (Mathias Hues). It's filled with stock characters like the "corrupt record producer" (Richard Beymer of Twin Peaks), and the killer is, naturally, a deranged Vietnam veteran. Never one to let a successful idea rest, Corman let director Charles Phillip Moore remake this in the Philippines as Angel of Destruction the same year, as well as funding a sequel, Blackbelt 2: Fatal Force. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don "The Dragon" Wilson
- 1992
- R
Scott Valentine stars as an assistant D.A. who has an affair with an office intern (Vanessa Angel), who is the homicidal niece of his ill-fated boss. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1992
An army commander on a dangerous mission with a special forces naval unit in the Mekong River Delta is sidetracked when he risks his life to save a beautiful American reporter. ~ All Movie Guide
In this martial arts thriller, a repo man accidentally brings back the wrong car and finds himself in deep trouble with the LAPD, both national security organizations, and a ring of international gun runners. When someone kidnaps the repo man's daughter, he uses his fists of fury to get bloody revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Cat Sassoon fronts this Roger Corman produced martial arts adventure that tells the tale of a tough LA cop who heads to Manila to investigate the murder of her sister. She was working there as a kickboxing FBI agent who photographed the execution of a US military man. Before she is killed, she hands the potentially damning film to a stripper so she can keep it from the perpetrators, the notorious freedom fighters of the Black Brigade. Once officer Katara arrives she is immediately warned by the government to stay out of the situation, but she disobeys and creates all sorts of problems for everyone involved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
In this political espionage thriller, a rookie CIA agent is unofficially assigned to keep a fanatical Lithuanian assassin from vengefully killing Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader whom the killer blames for the death of his own family. The film was made during the Eastern bloc political tumult of the early '90s and was shot on location in Germany, Bulgaria, and the former Soviet Union. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Rusler, Theodore Bikel, (more)
- 1991
- R
This sci-fi actioner is set in a future that is ruled by technology and gigantic corporations. It centers on a woman's attempts to solve the puzzling murder of her husband, a prominent engineer who has found out far too much about a company that has been dealing in valuable human body parts. To assist her search, the wife hires kick-boxing "cyberon" (the former android police force that guarded the corporations) bounty hunter Walker to help her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1991
- R
The third film in this war series focuses on the exploits of a band of rebel U.S. soldiers who do battle in Vietnam. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1991
- R
In this futuristic film, a drought-ridden Earth is besieged by bands of outlaws who prey upon the small cities in a hope to obtain any water they might possess. When the renegades attempt to take over the town of Chinle, a mysterious warrior named Michael (David Carradine) leads a band of fighters to ward off their attack. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1991
A young stud has to raise $3,000 in three weeks if his father is to allow him to leave his company. He and his friend fail miserably at selling tanning cream but for some reason, are very successful at magnetizing bikinied babes. The two are offered big money by a few nerdly losers to teach them how to be cool enough to pick up the chicks. Will it work??? ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Calvert, Leah Lail, (more)
- 1991
- R
This sex-horror film from producer Roger Corman was filmed in Spain with a mostly American cast. Cliff De Young (Shock Treatment) is Michael, the heir to a cursed castle, who marries pretty Susan (Maryam d'Abo) and moves her in. Unfortunately for the newlyweds, an oversexed succubus named Diana (Shari Shattuck) is out to break up the couple. Director Herve Hachuel's film is mostly an excuse for Shattuck to be naked a lot, but undemanding genre devotees should find the film entertaining enough to watch on a rainy night. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1991
- PG13
A new principal is imported to Rock 'n' Roll High to put the clamps on the rock-inspired rebelliousness that has the local school board quite concerned. The lady principal is a terse-lipped brute who's up against the predictable shenanigans concocted by school rebels. Will it be rock and roll forever, or will the Muses be forever squelched? ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Corey Feldman, Mary Woronov, (more)
- 1991
Action hero Don "The Dragon" Wilson appears in this third, quickie sequel to Bloodfist. Wilson plays Jimmy Boland, who has been sentenced to a California maximum-security prison for a murder that he didn't commit. When he sees some black prison inmates sodomizing his friend, he flies into a rage and kills the gang leader. The prison warden, in an effort to do Jimmy in, transfers him to the black wing of the prison, where he is sure the black prisoners will dispatch him quickly. This looks to be a safe bet, since the gang member Jimmy had killed was a drug supplier to Blue, the leader of the black prison gang. Wheelhead, a white inmate and leader of a group of white supremacists, takes Jimmy under his wing and offers Jimmy support if he joins the gang. Jimmy refuses, preferring to stay neutral. Meanwhile, Jimmy warms up to his cellmate Stark (Richard Roundtree), and Stark invites Jimmy to join a multi-racial group of prisoners who tend the rooftop prison garden. Jimmy has managed to maintain his neutrality, but at a price. Now both Blue and Wheelhead want to see him dead. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Richard Roundtree, (more)
- 1990
- R
One of a few abortive attempts by B-movie legend Roger Corman to recapture the questionable glory of his 60s Edgar Allan Poe films as well as his 70s sexploitation romps, this is definitely the least entertaining of the lot. Taking massive liberties with Poe's tale, the plot involves lovely young Lenora (Nicole Eggert) being possessed by the ghost of her mother (Eggert again), who was tortured and crucified as a witch when Lenora was an infant. After a series of flashbacks, it is also revealed that Morella had intended to sacrifice her child as part of a Satanic ritual designed to give her eternal life. Lenora's creepy governess Mrs. Deveroux (Lana Clarkson) is revealed as Morella's partner in crime, as she conspires to make Lenora's possession complete -- just in time for her to collect a sizable trust on her 18th birthday. Conceived primarily as softcore exploitation, this makes Corman's earlier bastardizations of Poe's works seem positively inspired by comparison. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David McCallum, Nicole Eggert, (more)
- 1990
High in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona, a cache of stolen bank money was hidden back in the 1960s. LA based lawyer Bill Paxton, whose security-guard father (David Michael-Standing) has long been held responsible for the heist-he was the only survivor when his armored car was ambushed-conducts a search for witnesses in order to clear his dad's name. Working from his late father's notes, Paxton and his mentally handicapped brother Todd Field attempt to reconstruct the crime and recover the loot. Expressing inordinate fascination in Paxton's efforts are mysterious hitchiker Apollonia Kotero, as well as local sheriff Luke Askew, whose brother was murdered during the robbery. A great many hidden truths and deep dark secrets come to surface during a final bloody confrontation in the mountains. All evidence indicates that director John Kincade intended Back to Back as a tribute to filmmaker Sam Peckinpah-as evidenced by the presence of Peckinpah regular Ben Johnson in a pivotal role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
- PG
A teenage boy takes major steps toward manhood after he is stranded in a dense wilderness forest following a plane crash and is forced to use his wits to survive and make it safely back to civilization. He eventually finds some company in a pair of orphaned grizzly bear cubs. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jared Rushton, Pamela Sue Martin, (more)
- 1990
- R
In this sequel to Watchers, an extremely intelligent dog attempts to warn his human buddy, Paul Ferguson (Marc Singer), that a deadly monster is on the loose. When the monster comes after the duo, they must find a way to stop it. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marc Singer, Tracy Scoggins, (more)
