Josh Brolin Movies
Rugged leading man Josh Brolin was raised on a horse ranch in California, a fact that would come to inform his persona as an actor in years to come. But when the 17 year old made his big-screen debut in 1985's The Goonies, most viewers knew him as the son of actor James Brolin. The younger Brolin didn't shy away from his Hollywood roots, and when he relocated to L.A. to pursue an acting career, he moved in with his dad while he studied the craft under the esteemed Stella Adler. He soon followed his appearance in The Goonies with a lead role in the series Private Eye, and though the show didn't last, Brolin decided to stay in TV, starring in the Western series Young Riders.The show ended its three-year run in 1992, when Brolin's marriage to Alice Adair ended as well, and Brolin seemed intent on flying under the radar for the next several years, pursuing mostly smaller, independent projects like My Brother's War and Mimic. In 2004, he married actress Diane Lane. In 2007, he caught on with a new core group of fans when he played the sinister Doc Block in Robert Rodriguez's instant cult favorite Planet Terror, one half of the Grindhouse double feature. Later that same year, however, he would be reintroduced to audiences on a much huger scale when he took the lead role in the Coen brothers' highly acclaimed No Country for Old Men. The sleeper film would become one of the biggest films of the year, winning the Oscar for Best Picture and making Brolin a household name for the first time in over a decade.
Brolin next signed on to play the title role in W., Oliver Stone's satirical biopic about president George W. Bush. Buzz gathered around the project before so much as a trailer was released, praising the actor's complete transformation into what had originally seemed like a strange role for him to play. Although the buzz was that he would garner some awards for his role as the 43rd President, it turned out that a different political film from 2008 would bring him the biggest accolades of his career. His portrayal of Dan White, the man who assassinated Harvey Milk, in Gus Van Sant's Milk garnered Brolin his first Academy Award nomination, as well as a nod from the Screen Actors Guild. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
While one would imagine that the average New Yorker would be used to dealing with bugs after years of apartment dwelling, a scientific experiment gone wrong results in an insect that even Raid can't handle in this sci-fi/horror thriller. In Manhattan, cockroaches are spreading a deadly disease that is claiming hundreds of the city's children, so entomologist Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) uses genetic engineering techniques to create what she and her colleague (and husband) Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) call the Judas Breed, a large insect that will feed on the disease carrying roaches. Since the Judas bugs have been designed so that they can't breed, the mutated species should die out in a matter of a few years. However, Susan, Peter, and their staff severely underestimated the cockroach's ability to adapt to its conditions. The Judas Breed has indeed found a way to reproduce itself, but more importantly, the insect has grown remarkably large (sometimes reaching six feet in length), has developed a taste for meat, and can mimic the appearance and behavior of other creatures with uncanny accuracy -- including humans. Susan and Peter have learned that huge swarms of the Judas Breed are living beneath the city in the subway system, and with the help of Leonard (Charles S. Dutton), a transit system employee who knows the labyrinth of subway tunnels like the back of his hand, they search out the humanoid insects before they can take over the city. Mimic also features Giancarlo Giannini, Josh Brolin, and F. Murray Abraham. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, (more)
Two lonely people learn to say it with flowers in this romantic drama. Lisa (Mary Stuart Masterson) is a business executive who has gotten used to being alone but doesn't like it very much; she was abandoned by her birth parents, and then spent most of her childhood being raised by Stanley (S.A. Griffin), an abusive foster father, after her adopted mother died. One day, Lisa gets word that Stanley has died; alone in her apartment, she breaks down and cries uncontrollably. Later the same day, Lisa gets an unexpected delivery of a dozen roses from a secret admirer. Puzzled, Lisa presses the delivery man for information on who might have sent her the flowers, and he confesses -- he sent them himself. Lewis (Christian Slater) runs a flower shop and often takes long walks through the neighborhood, trying to lose his memories of his deceased wife and child. He saw Lisa crying in her window and hoped the roses would cheer her up. Before long, Lisa and Lewis begin dating, but both have some emotional issues to resolve before their story can have a happy ending. This film offers your only opportunity of the moviegoing week to hear someone say, "Oh, there's nothing worse than a finicky agapanthis." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Slater, Mary Stuart Masterson, (more)
In this highly-charged police drama, Officer Michael Rhoades is becoming increasingly disturbed by the amount of white-on-black violence that has been escalating in his quiet town. He is especially disturbed that much of that interracial brutality is coming from the police. Rhoades calls they FBI but lacks sufficient hard evidence to warrant their involvement. Still determined, Rhoades launches his own investigation, but it is his young partner DeBruler whom makes the shocking discovery that connects the police department with a violent gang of locals. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mario Van Peebles, Josh Brolin, (more)
In this satirical comedy, Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller) has a beautiful wife, Nancy (Patricia Arquette), and a four-month old son, and on the surface his life is good. But something's been troubling him: Mel knows he was adopted, and he can't resolve his issues with the mother who gave him away years ago, much to the annoyance of his adoptive parents (George Segal and Mary Tyler Moore). Mel decides it's time he met his birth parents and resolved his feelings once and for all, and Tina (Tea Leoni), a psychology student, has offered to tag along to capture the event on video for a research project. But after a few minutes with Mel's "real" mother, they discover that a mistake has been made and they've been directed to the wrong person. A second meeting, this time with Mel's supposed dad, also turns out to be a mistake, and it's quite some time before Mel, Nancy, and Tina are finally face to face with Mel's biological parents -- a pair of burned-out hippies (played by Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin) who support themselves by dealing blotter acid daubed onto pictures of Ronald Reagan. It doesn't help that Mel finds himself attracted to the very leggy Tina, or that Nancy's head is turned by a bisexual ATF agent (Josh Brolin). Writer/director David O. Russell previously made a splash with his independent debut feature, 1994's Spanking the Monkey. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, (more)
- 1994
The Road Flower was given a limited release in 1993, then reissued two years later under the title The Road Killers. Essentially a rehash of the old drive-in perennial Hot Rods to Hell, the film stars Christopher Lambert as the taciturn head of a vacationing family. While motoring somewhere in the middle of Nevada, the family man and his loved ones are terrorized by a looney gang of hot-rodders, headed by wild-eyed Craig Sheffer (he did get better). Political correctness be hanged: these dysfunctional drivers must be dealt with, deprived childhoods or no deprived childhoods. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A family on a road trip through the Arizona desert is terrorized by a teenage gang led by a deranged killer. They kidnap the family's teenage daughter, and the father must track down the gang and rescue his daughter. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Made for television, Prison for Children is set in a brutal boys' reformatory. New superintendent John Ritter tries to improve conditions, but finds himself up against a wall of indifference and red tape. The film shows how a supposedly "beneficial" system of incarceration and detention can actually breed more crime than it prevents (nothing new here). Emphasis is given the case of young Rafael Sbarge, who descends deeper into the morass of crime and cruelty the longer he is exposed to reformatory life. Betty Thomas also appears as a compassionate teacher who tries to get through to Sbarge. Filmed at an actual reform school in Colorado, Prison for Children was first telecast March 14, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Leathery old stationmaster Teaspoon Hunter moves his Pony Express way-station from Sweetwater, Wyoming to the larger, more urbanized community of Rock Creek, Nebraska, as The Young Riders begins its third and final season. Now a US marshal, Teaspoon has left the care and maintenance of his station in the hands of his loyal young riders, including The Kid (Ty Miller), Billy Cody (Stephen Baldwin), Jimmy Hickok (Josh Brolin), Ike McSwain (Travis Fine), Buck Cross (Gregg Rainwater), Noah Dixon (Don Franklin) and "token female" Lou McCloud (Yvonne Suhor). Also making the big move to Rock Creek are the station's secretive cook Rachel (Claire Wren) and enterprising storekeeper Tompkins (Don Collier). And in the second episode of the season, a brash 14-year-old Missouri refugee named Jesse James (Christopher Pettiet) signs on with the Pony Express. The most startling event of the season is the sudden death of the taciturn Ike McSwain, who dies while protecting the only woman he has ever loved. Less startling but definitely out of the ordinary is one of the few episodes built around the half-Kiowan Buck Cross, in which he is reunited with the woman of his tribe who'd been promised to him in marriage years earlier--and who now is apparently possessed by an evil-spirit. In the not uneventful series finale, Cody signs up as an Army scout (he's getting closer and closer to those Buffalo!), life turns sour for Noah when he is denied entry in an all-white military regiments, Lou and the Kid finally get married, and hotheaded Jesse James is inveigled into joining his brother Frank in a new and less reputable line of work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Zerbe, Ty Miller, (more)
- 1990
Season Two of The Young Riders finds a few changes of personnel around and about the Pony Express station run by crusty old Teaspoon Hunter (Anthony Zerbe in pre-Civil War Sweetwater, Wyoming. Youthful riders The Kid (Ty Miller, Billy Cody (Stephen Baldwin, Jimmy Hickok (Josh Brolin, Ike McSawain (Travis Fine), and Buck Cross (Gregg Rainwater) are still delivering the mail despite obstacles far more daunting that sleet, snow and hail; likewise, the service's sole female member Lou McCloud (Yvonne Suhor) is still disguising herself as a boy for the sake of convenience, though by this time The Kid has tumbled to her secret and has fallen in love with her. New to the service is a freeborn black teenager named Noah Dixon (Don Franklin); also joining the cast is the station's enigmatic new cook Rachel Dunn (Claire Wren), replacing the previous season's Emma Shannon, who has run off with amorous Marshal Sam Cain. Highlight this season include revelations about Teaspoon's unsavory past; the Riders' efforts to fight a cholera epidemic, and to save an innocent man from lynching in the process; Jimmy Hickok's brief tenure as sheriff in a wide-open town, where he half-hopes to be killed for accidentally causing the death of a young woman; and the end of the trail for local storekeeper William Tompkins' (Don Collier) search for his wife and child, kidnapped years earlier by the Sioux. In an intriguing bit of casting, onetime Bonanza regular Pernell Roberts appears as the burned-out idol of the impressionable Billy Cody; and later on, Richard Roundtree of Shaft fame shows up as the mentor of Noah Dixon, determined to save his former pupil from being sold into slavery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Zerbe, Ty Miller, (more)
Season One of The Young Riders begins in 1860, as a rambunctious teenaged hothead known only as The Kid (Ty Miller) signs on as a rider for the Central Overland Express mail service in Sweetwater, Wyoming. This particular branch of the service is overseen by stationmaster Teaspoon Hunter (Anthony Zerbe, a grizzled-old-codger type who is doing his best to live down his past as a gunslinger. Before long, several other youthful buckaroos have joined up as riders, including natural-born scout Billy Cody (Stephen Baldwin), straight-shooter Jimmy Hickok (Josh Brolin), taciturn mute Ike McSwain (Travis Fine), half-Kiowa Indian Buck Cross (Gregg Rainwater), and short-tempered Lou McCloud (Yvonne Suhor)--who, unbeknownst to anyone (at least at first), is a girl in male disguise. Emma Shannon (Melissa Leo) is the station's cook and resident "earth mother", while local lawkeeper Marshall Cain (Brett Cullen) is Emma's would-be beau. This season, Don Collier makes the first of many recurring appearances as versatile general store keeper William Tompkins, who hopes to one day be reunited with the wife and daughter who'd been stolen by the Sioux years earlier; the taciturn Ike demonstrates time and again that it would take a bolt from Heaven to persuade him to abandon his curious set of values; and the Riders come to the defense of runaway slaves, abandoned and abused children and wrongly persecuted Native Americans, and overall demonstrate a stronger sympathy for the abolitionist North than the slaveholding South in the months leading to the Civil War. As for historical accuracy. . .well, you can't have everything. The season ends with a two-hour finale, involving the Young Riders' dangerous encounter with a vigilante character clearly based on the infamous "Kansas Raider" Quantrill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Zerbe, Ty Miller, (more)
- 1989
James Brolin costars with his son Josh in the made-for-cable Finish Line. The film's ad copy says it all: "His father made him run. The steroids made him win." In a justifiably melodramatic fashion, the film, based on a true story, examines the win-at-any-cost mentality of high school athletes and their parents. As is proven in the wrenching finale, that cost is a precious one. Finish Line premiered January 11, 1989, on the TNT cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
Private Eye was the pilot for the 1987 TV series of the same name. The setting is the Los Angeles of 1956. Ex-cop Jack Cleary (Michael Woods), embittered over his brother's death, becomes a Spillanelike private detective, principally to solve his sibling's murder. A Rock 'n' roll idol (John Brolin) becomes Cleary's largely unwelcome partner when the trail of evidence leads to a scandal in the record industry. The film is partly inspired by the "Payola" imbroglio of 1959, which (so far as we know) resulted in very few murders. Bill Sadler and Lisa Persky costar, while Jay O. Sanders has a fall-on as Cleary's unfortunate brother; the background music was provided by Joe Jackson. Private Eye was first telecast September 13, 1987, while the series proper commenced five days later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Valley boys take on the punk rockers in this teen-age adventure. This time they use skateboards instead of zip guns, knives and fists. The rich Valley kids, "The Ramp Locals," are led by Corey Webster, while the leather-clad, street-wise punks follow Tommy Hook. The trouble begins when Corey falls in love with Tommy's little sister who has come from Indiana for a visit. The rivalry between the gangs culminates during the grueling "LA Massacre," a 20-mile downhill skateboarding race. The winning team will earn a corporate sponsor. For the final race, the filmmakers strapped a camera in front of a skateboard to give viewers a sense of the thrills experienced by the daring "thrashers." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josh Brolin, Robert Rusler, (more)
Leonard Maltin wasn't alone when he noticed similarities between Goonies and the 1934 Our Gang comedy Mama's Little Pirate. Adapted by Chris Columbus from a story by Steven Spielberg, the film follows a group of misfit kids (including such second-generation Hollywoodites as Josh Brolin and Sean Astin) as they search for buried treasure in a subterranean cavern. Here they cross the path of lady criminal Mama Fratelli (Anne Ramsey) and her outlaw brood. Fortunately, the kids manage to befriend Fratelli's hideously deformed (but soft-hearted) son (John Matuszak), who comes to their rescue. The Spielberg influence is most pronounced in the film's prologue and epilogue, when the viewer is advised that the film's real villains are a group of "Evil Land Developers." The musical score makes excellent use of Max Steiner's main theme from The Adventures of Don Juan, not to mention contributions by the likes of Richard Marx and Cyndi Lauper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, (more)
