Gary Epper Movies

In yet another sequel to the surprise family hit 3 Ninjas, the three young Ninja brothers, Rocky (Michael Treanor), Colt (Max Elliott Slade), and Tum Tum (Chad Power), are spending the summer with their grandfather (Victor Wong), who is tutoring them in the martial arts. However, there are foul doings afoot -- Jack (Charles Napier), an unscrupulous business tycoon, has been dumping toxic waste on a nearby Indian burial ground and keeping the matter quiet with kickbacks to the local police. When the Ninja brothers try to come to the aid of the local Indian tribe, Jack tries to intimidate them and their Native American friends, a plan that only makes the boys more determined to see that justice is done. 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up was actually shot in 1994, a year before 3 Ninjas Kick Back, and features the same three actors who played the Ninja brothers in the first film. However, 3 Ninja Kick Back, which replaced two members of the original cast, was released first. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A relatively low budget follow-up to the successful original Hidden continues the story with the daughter of the cop who had faced the alien menace 15 years earlier, teaming up with a benign visitor from space to oppose his more hostile compatriots. ~ Mark Hockley, All Movie Guide

Deadbeat dads be damned. Patrick Swayze plays a con man who tries to live up to the ideals of "family values" by kidnapping his son and daughter from the evil clutches of a corrupt orphanage and taking them on a cross-country trip in his vintage convertible. To complicate matters, his daughter has been sexually molested by the head of the orphanage, who fears that she may prosecute if given the opportunity. This family drama is also a zany road movie as the re-united father and children flee the police on a quest to restore their family. ~ Laura Abraham, All Movie Guide

After a scientist creates superhuman warrior Red Skull for the Nazis during WW II, she defects and does the same for the U.S.-- injecting a polio victim to transform him into the titular heroic beefcake. Forty years after a confrontation which left Captain America frozen in Alaska, he is found and thawed and must take on Red Skull once again. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

Kathleen Turner stars as V.I. Warshawski in Jeff Kanew's film version of the hard-boiled detective character from Sara Paretsky's series of crime novels. Warshawski is a freelance private investigator in Chicago, who lives the part of the hard-boiled detective. But in her heart of hearts, she is a softy. One night, while she is drinking at her favorite bar, she meets an ex-Blackhawks hockey player named Boom-Boom Grafalk (Stephen Meadows). The two connect and a romance appears to be in the making. But Warshawski is nevertheless surprised when Boom-Boom appears at her doorstep later that night with his 13-year-old daughter, Kat (Angela Goethals) in tow. He asks Warshawski if she could watch her and Warshawski agrees. Later that night, Boom-Boom is killed in a boat explosion and Kit hires Warshawski to track down her father's killer. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Lethal Weapon 2 reteams Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as, respectively, "loose cannon" LA detective Martin Riggs and Riggs' partner, the cautious family man Roger Murtaugh. The villain this time is a South African diplomat (Joss Ackland) who doubles as a drug dealer. Though Riggs knows what's going on thanks to characterless character witness Joe Pesci, he can't touch the villain because of "diplomatic immunity." After perils too numerous to mention, Riggs and Murtaugh shoot it out with the heavies on the deck of a South African cargo ship. Lethal Weapon 2, of course, contains as one of its comic high-points a now famous suspense scene: Mel Gibson agonizingly attempting to extricate a terrified Danny Glover from a booby-trapped toilet seat. Gibson, Glover, Donner and Joe Pesci would be reunited three years later for Lethal Weapon 3 and in 1998 for Lethal Weapon 4. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After the phenomenal box-office and critical success of David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of The Fly, a series of big-budget remakes of '50s horror favorites rode in on its coattails in the late 1980s -- though none managed to rise above mere camp clones of their elders, albeit garnished with modern makeup effects in an attempt to draw modern teen horror-junkies. One remake that managed to live up to its cheesy inspiration was Chuck Russell's version of The Blob, in which the title goo crashes to earth and promptly begins digesting the residents of a small California town while growing to gargantuan proportions. The clean-cut teen hero originally portrayed by Steve McQueen (his first starring role) is replaced here with a rebellious outsider (Kevin Dillon) whose preppie rival (Donovan Leitch) for the affections of the cute heroine (Shawnee Smith) is quickly eliminated by the all-consuming space-gelatin. No sooner has the plasma menace set up house in the town sewers when a shadowy government Blob Squad shows up under the direction of the grandfatherly Dr. Meddows (Joe Seneca), to clean up the mess... or not. This high-spirited remake replaces the '50s "Daddy-O" conventions of the original with '80s cynicism -- not even likeable characters are spared from the slaughter -- and anti-government sentiment. It also pushes the gore envelope in ways unavailable to its low-budget parent -- e.g. the scene in which one victim is sucked through a sink drain was only hinted at in the 1958 film, but here viewers are treated to the entire bone-crunching ordeal. Though the quality of blob effects seems inversely proportional to the creature's size (some of the climactic "wall-of-blob" footage is painfully cheap-looking), the end result is more blob for the monster-movie fan's dollar. ~ Cavett Binion, 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

As a personal favor, Deputy DA Carol Baldwin (Kathleen Lloyd) asks Magnum (Tom Selleck) to investigate the alleged murder of a young mother, a death witnessed by the victim's little daughter. It is highly possible that the woman committed suicide and that the main suspect may be guilty of an even worse crime, but Carol hopes to spare the youthful witness the trauma of testifying. But how can Magnum get his job done now that he has been deprived the use of Robin Masters' Ferrari? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the earliest feature films to reflect the video-game craze of the 1980s, Disney's Tron stars Jeff Bridges as computer programmer Kevin Flynn, who becomes part of the very game that he's programming. Flynn's principal antagonist is his glory-grabbing boss, Ed Dillinger (David Warner), who likewise metamorphoses into a video-game character. The title character, a computer-generated superhero, is played by Bruce Boxleitner. Though antiquated by 1990s standards, Tron represented the last word in special effects back in 1982. Surprisingly, despite its long-range influence on the movie industry, the film was a box-office disappointment when first released. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Expanding on their Saturday Night Live characters, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd star as Jake and Elwood Blues, two white boys with black soul. Sporting cool shades and look-alike suits, Jake and Elwood are dispatched on a "mission from God" by their former teacher, Sister Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman). Said mission is to raise $5000 to save an orphanage. In the course of their zany adventures, the Blues Brothers run afoul of neo-Nazi Henry Gibson, perform the theme from Rawhide before the most unruly bar crowd in written history, and lay waste to hundreds of cars on the streets and freeways of Chicago. In case you aren't swept up in the infectuous nuttiness of the brothers Blue, you might have fun spotting film's legion of guest stars, including James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Steve Lawrence, Twiggy, Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman), Frank Oz, and Steven Spielberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The story of "red light bandit" Caryl Chessman, previously dramatized in the 1955 film Cell 2455, Death Row (based on Chessman's own book), was adapted for television as Kill Me If You Can. In a radical departure from his usual duties as MASH's Hawkeye Pierce, Alan Alda plays Chessman, who in 1948 was found guilty of robbery, kidnapping and sexual assault. Under the laws of the era, Chessman was sentenced to die in the gas chamber. But by studying the law and publishing four books on his plight, the brilliant (albeit still repugnant) Chessman managed to forestall his execution for 12 years. Though no effort is made in the film to make the sociopathic Chessman any better than he was, John Gay's script comes out squarely in opposition of capital punishment. Kill Me If You Can first aired on September 25, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide