Philip Bruns Movies

If, in the world of the movies, a dog can play basketball and a donkey can play football, why can't a chimp play baseball? That question is answered in the family comedy Ed. Jack "Deuce" Cooper (Matt LeBlanc) is a struggling baseball pitcher who has great natural talent but keeps choking under pressure. Traded to a class A minor league team, Deuce is appalled to discover his third baseman -- and roommate on the road -- is a chimpanzee named Ed Sullivan. While Ed can actually hold his own on the diamond, Deuce feels there's something a bit undignified about having to look after a monkey, and it doesn't help that Ed has poor hygiene and a chronic case of flatulence. Ed was Matt LeBlanc's first starring vehicle following his success on the TV series Friends. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a pair of disparate yuppies attempt to bridge the considerable disparities between them and have a relationship. During their tempestuous struggles, their two best friends offer expert commentary. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Television anchor Barry Barron (Elliott Gould) is killed after he becomes involved with a breaking story, but is raised as a zombie by a voodoo spell. Not quite the stumbling idiot that most of the undead are known for, Barron has to solve his own murder and uncover the story. He is helped in his quest by a spiritualist (Mabel King). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Who's innocent in Betrayed by Innocence? Is it filmmaker Nick DeLeon (Barry Bostwick), who loves his wife but also his work? Is it Nick's working wife Sharon (Lee Purcell), who spends more time at the office than at home? Or is it nubile, underage coed Marisa Vogel (Cristen Kauffman), who has an affair with Nick? Paul Sorvino co-stars as Marisa's policeman father, whose rallying cry is "statutory rape." Made for television, Betrayed by Innocence originally aired March 1, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Blood Feud was a two-part TV drama, originally presented as an "Operation Prime Time" special. Robert Blake is disturbingly convincing as labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, engaged in a decade-long war of words with attorney (and later attorney general) Robert F. Kennedy. Cotter Smith makes his TV debut as Kennedy, a role he'd repeat on future occasions. Thoroughly compelling when sticking to the facts, the drama falls apart whenever indulging in flight of fanciful speculation (Sample: two of Hoffa's lieutenants watch the live telecast of Lee Harvey Oswald's murder, then celebrate the fact that Oswald will never be able to reveal their complicity in the JFK assassination!) Blood Feud was syndicated to local TV stations beginning April 24, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Benjamin's directorial debut is an engaging slice of nostalgia, purportedly based on an incident in life of Mel Brooks. Mark Linn-Baker stars as Benjy Stone, junior writer on the popular 1950s TV comedy/variety series The King Kaiser Show. Kaiser (Joseph Bologna)'s guest star this week is Hollywood matinee idol Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole), a swashbuckling Errol Flynn type, right down to his indiscriminate womanizing and fondness for mass quantities of booze. Stone is assigned to keep the actor out of trouble during rehearsals and deliver him sober to the performance. Becoming fast friends, Stone and Swann alternate baby-sitting responsibilities: Swann takes the young writer to the Stork Club and on an early-morning jaunt through Central Park with a "borrowed" police horse, while Stone takes Swann to his home in the Bronx, where the star is fawned over by Benji's mom (Lainie Kazan) and asked embarrassing questions about his love life by Uncle Morty (Lou Jacobi). Despite a few anxious moments, all goes well until Swann, panicking at the discovery that King Kaiser's show will be telecast live and not on film, walks out just before airtime. Shamed by Benjy into honoring his committment, Swann makes a spectacular, timber-smashing entrance, saving the show and rescuing Kaiser from being rubbed out by a gangster (Cameron Mitchell) whom the comedian has offended. Though it fluctuates between wistful realism and the manic exaggeration of a TV comedy sketch, My Favorite Year holds together quite well, delivering a plentitude of solid laughs. Jessica Harper, usually the star of bizarro films like Inserts and Suspiria, is quite appealing as Benjy Stone's girlfriend; that lady dancing with O'Toole at the Stork Club is 1930s film star Gloria Stuart, later an Oscar nominee for Titanic; the King Kaiser Show wardrobe mistress is played by Selma Diamond, a real-life comedy writer for Sid Caesar. My Favorite Year was converted into an unsuccessful Broadway musical in the early 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted from Paul Brodeur's novel, Richard Rush's story of a Machiavellian movie director and his accidental employee takes a darkly comic look at movie reality vs. "real" reality. Running from the law, Vietnam vet Cameron (Steve Railsback) stumbles on a movie shoot just in time to interfere with a staged accident, causing (perhaps) the stunt man's death. Rather than turn Cameron in, director Eli Cross (Oscar nominee Peter O'Toole) makes him an offer he can't refuse: replace the dead stunt man in return for safe harbor. Despite objections about Cameron's inexperience, Eli keeps him on, figuring that a vet will add an extra charge of realism to the World War I opus that he's filming. As leading lady Nina (Barbara Hershey) returns Cameron's affections, and Eli becomes ever more inscrutably mercurial, Cameron begins to wonder how far Eli will go to get the screen effects he wants, and if he would think twice about killing the stunt man. Placing a Vietnam vet in the midst of movie-making chaos, Rush adds a pointedly contemporary spin to Cameron's confusion; the war experience that makes Cameron a good stunt man wreaks havoc on his life. Rush in turn disorients the audience by seamlessly interweaving scenes from Eli's movie with scenes of its being made. Made two years before Rush found a studio to release it, The Stunt Man opened to raves for its wily narrative and O'Toole's messianic director. Its sly commentary on the blurred boundaries between movies and life became all the more striking at the dawn of the Reagan '80s. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

The Corvette Ken Dantley's (Mark Hamill) class has been restoring in their high-school shop class is nearly completely fixed up. One day, the students walk in and it is gone - apparently stolen. Ken is larking about in Las Vegas when he spies a car that looks suspiciously like the Corvette he knows so well. He begins looking for the car, but in the meantime Vanessa (Annie Potts), propositions him on the street. Intrigued, he follows the girl back to her van, which is equipped with a waterbed. She hopes to use the van as a travelling brothel, with herself as the bill of fare. Instead, she helps him look for the missing car, and as they search, the two of them fall in love. Though praised by critics, Mark Hamill's second starring feature did poorly at the box-office, and stalled his career. Corvette Summer marks the first star appearance by Annie Potts, perhaps better known for her role in the U.S. television show Designing Women. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Robert Redford plays Waldo Pepper, a former World War I pilot who exaggerates his accomplishments in order to impress the rabble. After a brief rivalry with air-show entrepreneur Axel Olsson (Bo Svenson), Pepper teams with Axel to barnstorm all over the Midwest; later, after a series of unexpected (and calamitous) events, Pepper gets a job as a movie stunt pilot. On the set, he meets the film's technical advisor: former German ace Ernst Kessler (Bo Brundin), a man whom Pepper has been claiming falsely to have fought during the war, thereby advancing his own reputation. He is as disillusioned with civilian life as Pepper is, and ignoring the entreaties of the film's director, stages a genuine dogfight (sans live ammo) with his old "opponent." The Great Waldo Pepper represented the third filmic collaboration between star Robert Redford and director George Roy Hill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A duo of daring lawbreakers, who call themselves Flash (Roger Davis) and Firecat (Tricia Sembera), speed, steal, and evade the grasp of the local law enforcement officers as they high-tail it around California in their dune buggy. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

A gang of scurrilous sailors go into the smuggling business, bringing some valuable jade into the country by illegal means. When a jewelry-store owner balks at the sailors' monetary demands for the contraband jade, the sailors kill the man and begin stalking the only witness, the victim's daughter Meg Foster). Keller (Michael Douglas) is likewise targeted for extermination when he is assigned to escort one of the criminals to prison. The episode's highlight is a bravura display of villainy from a young, pre-stardom James Woods. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When the strapped-for-cash Lamont (Demond Wilson) takes an outside job at a haberdashery, Fred thinks that the saga of "Sanford and Son Salvage" is at an end. To prevent this, Fred poses as an eccentric millionaire and heads to Lamont's place of business, intending to buy all the clothes and put the haberdashery out of business. Is it really necessary to note that the scheme backfires spectacularly? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Kojak (Telly Savalas) and his colleagues are perplexed by a mad bomber who has been striking various targets on Manhattan island. Not only are clues virtually nonexistent, but the bomber doesn't seem to be following any sort of pattern. However, the audience knows something Kojak doesn't: the perpetrator is targeting people whom he regards as personal enemies because they have done harm to his friends. A pre-stardom Dabney Coleman appears in a significant supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide