Ross Hagen Movies

With a big nod towards Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita (1990) this action thriller tells the tale of how ex-policewoman Tara McCormick puts ruthless gangster Tony Stomponato on ice. Tara's journey began when she was hired to kill Stompanato and failed. As a result she is tossed into prison where she meets Josie. Knowing that Tara, despite her mistake, is the woman for the job, the government offers her another shot at Tony in exchange for her freedom. She accepts and the hunt is on. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Late stuntman Bernhard Pock wrote, directed, and starred in this gritty modern-day fairy tale about a biker poet on a journey of self-discovery. Pock is Jeremy, a lone wolf who takes on a traveling companion when he happens on a young kidnapped girl (Amber Tamblyn). Together the duo crosses the country, meeting an oddball menagerie of characters along the way. Nancy Kwan also stars. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Cult figure Fred Olen Ray directed this erotic thriller (aired on the Playboy Channel premium cable network) about a telephone lineman who, while on the job, accidentally plugs into a phone call where a woman discusses her plans to murder her sister. When the police tell him there's nothing they can do just yet, the lineman decides he must take action himself, only to discover the two sisters happen to live together. As he tries to figure out which sister has murder on her mind, he becomes sexually involved with both of them, leading him down a path into both forbidden eroticism and life-threatening danger. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

No sooner did Jurassic Park score at the box office than the imitations began turning up like bad pennies. The redoubtable Fred Olen Ray, once more delivering a bankable project at the least possible cost, was responsible for Dinosaur Island. Typical of the Ray ouevre is the presence of several top-heavy young ladies, whose costumes can be mercifully described as immodest. The dinosaurs are rubber novelty-shop creations that wouldn't convince a dim-witted duck, but they serve their purpose in forcing the females in the cast to jiggle past the camera in abject horror. Ross Hagen, a veteran of this sort of fare, heads the cast of Dinosaur Island, doing an excellent job of convincing us that the dialogue he's been given is actually worth reciting. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A frame job corners two TV-station employees trying to recover an important video. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Pretty young Barri Murphy witnesses a gangland rubout, compelling her to head for the hills. The killers want to silence Barri for keeps, not only because of what she's seen but because of possible retaliation. You see, the victim was Barri's boyfriend. The fox-and-hounds pursuit ends up in Texas, allowing for mucho car chases and smashups. No doubt about it: Action USA delivers what the title promises. PS: Are you surprised that Cameron Mitchell and William Smith are in the cast? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This gory medical thriller managed to pre-date an early-'90s spate of direct-to-video exploitation films dealing with sleazy black-market organ banks. The plot centers on the activities of the "Body Organ Replacement Network," a secret criminal organization (led by ubiquitous movie villain William Smith) which obtains donor organs -- by any means possible -- for anyone willing to meet their prices and keep their mouths shut. Their methods usually involve patrolling the city in an ambulance looking for unwilling "donors" (usually female), who are promptly chopped up on the operating table. The sinister wheels are put in motion again when a wealthy family approaches the B.O.R.N. network about obtaining a replacement heart for their ailing daughter. Though not quite as gory as it sounds, this is still a pretty sleazy exercise which plays like a tabloid-flavored version of Robin Cook's novel Coma, without the clever insight of Michael Crichton's 1978 film. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Phantom Empire pokes fun and pays a sly tribute to the sci-fi serials that made Saturday afternoon at the movies such a treat. Featuring plenty of in-jokes, the story centers on the hunt for a lost stash of diamonds that leads the hero into a fabulous subterranean world ruled by a mysterious beauty and scads of scary mutants. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Fred Olen Ray always manages to attract major names to his bargain-basement actioners, and Armed Response is no exception. The scene is Chinatown, where Yakuza boss Mako yearns to get his hands on a stolen jade statue. David Goss, son of retired cop Lee van Cleef and the brother of Vietnam veterans David Carradine and Brent Huff, is hired by Mako to deliver half a million dollars to the crooks who've got the statue. Things go awry, ending in a shootout. Mortally wounded, Goss brings the statue home, at which point a vengeful Carradine picks up the storyline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The original "honor student by day, hooker by night" melodrama, Angel stars Donna Wilkes in the title role. During the daylight hours, the 15-year-old Angel is known as Molly, a model prep school student. Devoid of parents, Molly must find some way to keep up the cash flow, so she hits the Hollywood mean streets as a prostitute. While we thankfully don't see Angel "in action", as it were, the film makes up in violence what it lacks in raw sex. Psycho John Diehl is on the loose murdering prostitutes; detective Cliff Gorman tries to stem the murder spree, but soon the hooker ranks are sorely diminished, leaving Angel the next likely target. With the help of such friends as ex-cowboy star Rory Calhoun and transvestite Dick Shawn, Angel manages to avoid becoming a statistic. We're not giving anything away here: after all, there was a 1986 sequel, Avenging Angel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide