Randy Brooks Movies

In 1992, Reservoir Dogs transformed Quentin Tarantino practically overnight from an obscure, unproduced screenwriter and part-time actor to the most influential new filmmaker of the 1990s. The story looks at what happens before and after (but not during) a botched jewelry store robbery organized by Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney). Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) is a career criminal who takes a liking to newcomer Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) and enjoys showing him the ropes. Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) is a weaselly loner obsessed with professionalism. Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) has just gotten out of jail after taking the rap on a job for Cabot; he's grateful for the work but isn't the same person he used to be. While Mr. Blonde goes nuts during the heist, the thieves are surprised by the sudden arrival of the police, and Mr. Pink is convinced one of their team is a cop. So who's the rat? What do they do about Mr. Blonde? And what do they do with Mr. Orange, who took a bullet in the gut and is slowly bleeding to death? Reservoir Dogs jumps back and forth between pre- and post-robbery events, occasionally putting the narrative on pause to let the characters discuss such topics as the relative importance of tipping, who starred in Get Christie Love!, and what to do when you enter a men's room full of cops carrying a briefcase full of marijuana. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In New Orleans, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) attends the funeral of a legendary jazz musician. She also gets involved in a murder investigation--this one twenty years old, stemming from the unsolved slaying of the late musician's sweetheart. Evidently the reopening of this case also opens a few old wounds, as proven when the musician's favorite bass player also turns up dead. This episode boasts a strong cast of top African American character actors, among them Beah Richards and Julius Harris. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this suspenseful drama, a prominent publishing executive marries a younger man soon after the death of her husband. After the nuptials, the bride realizes she has made a terrible mistake as her charming groom seems to be planning to murder her. The film is also called Marked for Murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Colors stars Robert Duvall and Sean Penn as partners on the LAPD's gang crime division. Duvall had hoped to spend more time with his family, but he's pulled back into active service because of a step-up in gang activity. He makes no secret of his contempt for his novice partner Penn, but eventually comes to rely on the younger man as a valuable street contact. The central crisis is the battle for supremacy between the "Crips" and the "Bloods", with every effort to call a truce stymied by the gang members themselves and by undue police intervention. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Beautiful young women, all living together in one apartment in various states of undress: Yes, we're in Aaron Spelling country again. Made for TV, Nightingales is set in Los Angeles, and centers upon the lives and loves of eight toothsome student nurses. Just to prove that this isn't real life, each nurse has a "past" straight out of the paperback romances (one young lady is the target of a syndicate hit man!) Professional nursing associations had a field day chipping away at the inaccuracies inherent in Nightingales, but the ratings were such that this pilot film graduated into a series in January of 1989. Sensing that few of the eight leading ladies had star potential (with the possible exception of Kristy Swanson), the series added as "cast insurance" Suzanne Pleshette as the director of student nursing, and Barry Newman as the hospital chief of staff. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jeff Bridges plays Matthew Scudder, an LA sheriff who loses his job due to his inability to stay away from booze. While attending an AA meeting, Scudder is invited to attend a party, where he meets the beauteous Sunny (Alexandra Paul). Also at the party is druggie Chance (Randy Brooks), an old enemy of Scudder's. It doesn't take long for Scudder to figure out that Chance is a pimp and Sunny is one of his hookers. She begs Scudder to help her break away from Chance. Not long afterward, Sunny is killed, and Scudder crawls back into the bottle. Eventually sobering up, he vows to avenge Sunny's death. Much blood is spilled before the killer is revealed; along the way, Scudder gets a new lease on life when he falls in love with ex-hooker Rosanna Arquette. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Hoping to produce an animated TV commercial for his dry-cleaning chain, George (Sherman Hemsley) hires a brilliant young artist named Walter (Randy Brooks). Upon discovering that Walter can neither read nor write, Louise (Isabel Sanford) is afraid to tell George for fear that he'll fire the young man. But once the truth is known, it is up to George to goad Walter into finishing his education. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This made-for-television drama chronicles an atypical May-December romance involving a twenty-something doctor and a middle-aged woman. The two soon fall passionately in love and this causes a little friction between the woman and her full-grown daughters. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The made-for-TV Fly Away Home was intended as the pilot for a weekly series. Bruce Boxleitner stars as Carl Danton, a combat photographer assigned to Vietnam. This time around, Danton is compelled to cover the Tet Offensive--and to battle with bureaucratic red tape in order to maintain his journalistic integrity. A subplot concerns internal corruption involving an otherwise respectable Vietnamese family. Featured in the cast as Denton's Vietnamese lady friend Mai is Tiana Alexandra, the wife of the film's producer/screenwriter Stirling Silliphant. Fly Away Home first aired September 18, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Scared Straight! was a 1978 Oscar-winning documentary about the crime-deterring Juvenile Awareness Program set up by the Rahway (New Jersey) State Prison. In this program, incorrigible teenagers were escorted into the prison's maximum security facilities, where a team of "lifers," using the foulest language imaginable, bombarded the kids with threats and admonitions; the intention was to literally scare the young troublemakers "straight." When the documentary was shown on TV in November of 1978, it carried a disclaimer, warning the viewers that the language was uninhibited; a similar warning preceded the 1980 telecast of the made-for-TV Scared Straight: Another Story. The film followed the format of the earlier documentary, with a few exceptions. Another Story was a dramatization, which spent as much time exploring the backgrounds of the kids chosen for the program as it did behind prison walls. Also, Scared Straight: Another Story was twice as long as the original Scared Straight--and while that didn't make the film twice as good, it certainly was head and shoulders over most other TV movies of the 1979-80 season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

An inner-city Chicago community comes together to save their neighborhood from destruction in this '70s era blaxploitation-comedy. The construction of a proposed expressway would tear up their urban home, so a massive block party is planned to protest the action. Meanwhile, fast-talking scam artist Daddy Foxx (Yaphet Kotto) has taken a group of unemployed young men under his wing and is teaching them the tricks of his trade. Foxx's best pupil is 14-year-old Baby D (Kirk Calloway), much to the chagrin of his older brother, Win (Randy Brooks), a drummer who can't land a decent gig. After Win's drum kit and apartment get trashed, he finds no recourse but to join up with Foxx himself, so the gang proceeds to pull various cons on other local crooks. This annoys fellow street hustler Goldie (Rudy Ray Moore), but ultimately everyone has to put their differences aside and cooperate to make sure that their neighborhood isn't demolished by the city's bulldozers. It takes a lot of funky music, cream pies in the face, and petty theft, but together they stand their ground. ~ Fred Beldin, Rovi