Raja Gosnell Movies
- 1986
- R
This comedy is set in Hollywood in 1961, where a group of young men join the National Guard in an attempt to escape Vietnam. The men basically do nothing while on supposed weekend duty until they get a visit from the Army, which threatens to ship them out on active duty unless they shape up. Their solution is to hire a troupe of actors to portray convincing soldiers, put on a stage show to impress the Army officers, and make sure that enough winsome nurses are around to satisfy the proverbial lecherous tendencies of a certain colonel. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chris Lemmon, Vic Tayback, (more)
A humorous and skilful parody of the cliches and plot contrivances of 50's horror films, this monster movie is set in California, where closets can be large and quite important. The monster (Kevin Peter Hall) is straight out of Alien, if not quite as gruesome. It hides out in closets and wait for victims to unsuspectingly grab a shirt or slacks. After several closet deaths, a San Francisco obituary writer (Donald Grant) is sent to cover the story. He soon teams up with a science teacher (Denise DuBarry) and her son, a super-smart child prodigy, and they set out to solve the murders. The plot thickens when the gruff, brash Gen. Turnbull (Donald Moffat) enters the picture. It seems the monster is bullet-proof, laser-proof and bomb-proof -- a challenge to capture, kill, or subdue. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Donald Grant, Denise DuBarry, (more)
This drama concerns a Vietnam vet who suffers at the hands of the people around him when he returns from the war. Frank Morgan (John Savage) is villified by the townsfolk because he exposed an American massacre of a Vietnamese village. When an offer comes up to pilot a plane carrying weapons to a Latin American nation in the throes of a civil war, Frank takes on the job. Coming with him is the woman who hired him, Beatriz (Maria Socas). After landing the plane, Frank and Beatriz are arrested by one of the fighting factions, and their further involvement in the civil war is guaranteed from then on. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Savage, Maria Socas, (more)
In a comedy as flat as the cardboard cut-outs of movie stars that appear in one scene, Steve Martin plays Larry Hubbard, a wild and lonely guy who has been dumped by his girlfriend. Since misery loves company, he takes up with Warren, a fellow Lonely Guy (Charles Grodin), and eventually both Warren and Larry find some surprising companions, especially after Larry writes a best-selling Lonely Guy Guide. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Charles Grodin, (more)
Based on the long-running comic strip created by E.C. Segar (and less on the animated cartoons created by Max Fleischer, which were decidedly different in tone and approach), Popeye follows the sailor man with the mighty arms (played by Robin Williams in his first major film role) as he arrives in the seaside community of Sweethaven in search of his long-lost father. Popeye meets and quickly falls for the slender Olive Oyl (Shelley Duvall, in the role she was born to play), but Olive's hand has already been promised to the hulking Bluto (Paul Smith), of whom Olive can say little except, well, he's large. Eventually, Popeye and Olive are brought together by Swee' Pea (Wesley Ivan Hurt), an adorable foundling, and Popeye finally meets his dad, Poopdeck Pappy (Ray Walston). Director Robert Altman in no way tempered his trademark style for this big-budget family opus, crowding the screen with a variety of characters and allowing his cast to overlap as much dialogue as they want. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, (more)
- 1979
- PG
Robert Altman, the director responsible for M*A*S*H, came up with another acronymic title for his 1979 comedy H.E.A.L.T.H The letter stand for Happiness, Energy And Longevity Through Health--the name given a health-food convention at a Florida luxury hotel. In the tradition of his earlier Nashville and A Wedding, Altman utilizes the hotel as a gathering place for numerous interrelated, interconnecting plot threads. The unifying theme is a satire of corrupt politics, a la Watergate. Playing the unflappable hotel manager, Alfre Woodard stands out in a stellar cast including Carol Burnett, Glenda Jackson, James Garner, Lauren Bacall, Henry Gibson, Dick Cavett, and Paul Dooley (who cowrote the screenplay with Altman and Frank Barhydt). By rights, H.E.A.L.T.H should have been a real crowd pleaser, but the film's preview went so poorly that its release was held up for nearly a year. Virtually thrown away by 20th Century-Fox, H.E.A.L.T.H has appeared recently on The Fox Movie Channel, but never received a commercial video release, which hasn't helped it it attain a following. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Glenda Jackson, Carol Burnett, (more)
- 1975
The Silence is based on the true story of Stanley Greenberg, a finer West Point cadet who broke one of the Point's most intimidating traditions. Richard Thomas plays Greenberg, a young man to whom being in the right is something of an obsession. Already an unpopular cadet, Greenberg is accused by of cheating by an upper classman and "invited" to leave West Point. He refuses, whereupon he is subjected to "The Silence:" the other cadets not only refuse to speak to him, but pretend as though he doesn't exist. After two years of this treatment, Thomas hires writer Cliff Gorman to publish the details of his ordeal. The result is the legal elimination of West Point's "Silence;" we should be happy at this, but Richard Thomas' portrayal of Greenburg character is so doggedly obnoxious that we don't care one way or another what happens to him. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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