Loren Janes Movies

Actor Jack Nicholson, writer Carole Eastman, and director Bob Rafelson re-team 22 years after their classic Five Easy Pieces, for this romantic comedy. Nicholson plays Harry Bliss, a small potatoes security expert unhappily married to a Japanese woman (he sarcastically calls her Iwo Jima during therapy sessions). Harry's life is coming apart at the seams -- not only is his marriage on the rocks, but the IRS and assorted creditors are nipping at his heels. Then opera singer Joan Spruance (Ellen Barkin) contacts him. It seems she wants Harry's help in obtaining an attack dog for her apartment, since an unknown person has been burglarizing her home and attacking her with an ax. Needless to say, Harry and Joan fall in love. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

If you know the Clement Clark Moore poem, you'll know that Prancer is one of Santa Claus' "eight tiny reindeer." When 9-year-old Rebecca Harrell, who still believes in Santa despite the remonstrations of her parents and the taunts of her peers, stumbles across the selfsame Prancer in a remote part of the forest, no one will believe the girl. Later on, Harrell's no-nonsense father Sam Elliot comes across a wounded reindeer, he feels it his duty to put the suffering animal out of his misery. The deer, of course, is Prancer, and it magically vanishes before Elliot's startled eyes. Harrell nurses the deer back to health in secret, with the help of kindly doctor Abe Vigoda and her troublesome older brother John Joseph Duda. Harrell is determined to contact Santa and let him know where Prancer is, but her efforts only result in public humiliation for her father. But this is a Christmas film, and the spirit of goodwill is contagious by fadeout time, even transforming town-recluse Cloris Leachman into a warm-hearted social animal. Filmed in Indiana, Prancer isn't quite a classic, but it's perfect midwinter videocassette entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky's second American film may well be the only existential adventure flick in Hollywood history. Two prisoners, Manny (Jon Voight) and Buck (Eric Roberts), escape from a desolate Alaskan maximum-security facility. They hop aboard a speeding train, making a clean escape. But the engineer has suffered a heart attack, and the train goes out of control. To prevent a disastrous head-on collision, the railroad heads decide to derail the runaway train, killing its occupants to save the lives of hundreds of others. Once Manny catches on to what's happening, he tries to jump off the train, only to be talked out of such a foolhardy act by railroad employee Sara (Rebecca DeMornay). As doom approaches, Manny apparently goes mad, viciously preventing any attempts to stop the train or rescue its passengers: if he's to die, and if the others are to be saved, it will be on his terms, or no terms. Runaway Train was slated as a project for Akira Kurosawa in 1970, but for various creative and scheduling reasons, it remained on the back burner for 15 years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The dark-horse box-office hit First Blood spawned this even more successful sequel in which Sylvester Stallone, reprising his role as ex-Green Beret loner John Rambo, is extricated from prison by his former superior Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) for a top-secret operation to bring back POWs still held in Vietnam. Teamed up with a female Vietnamese freedom fighter (Julia Nickson), Rambo embarks on a "reconnaissance" mission. A love interest develops in the beautiful young guide -- she dies by enemy fire; he seeks revenge. Of course, there are also corrupt American officials behind the mission, and Rambo saves them for last. Over the course of the film, Rambo kills enough communist bad guys to fill the Rose Bowl, using everything from fishing line to exploding arrowheads to rocket launchers. Stallone mumbles, grunts, and groans his way through this laughable and often insulting film intended to exploit anti-communist fervor at the height of the Reagan years. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

This is an unusual entry in the knights-in-armor genre. Set in medieval England, the film follows the exploits of a young swordsman, Talon (Lee Horsley). Working as a mercenary knight, Talon possesses a unique three-bladed sword which fires its two extra blades when he touches a button. By chance, Talon learns that he is a prince who has forgotten his royal heritage. Using his sword and his wiles, he attempts to regain control of his kingdom, which has been taken over by a sadistic tyrannical knight and an evil sorcerer. In doing so, he can save a princess who has been taken hostage by the usurpers. Comedy is interspersed with gory and licentious drama throughout the film, which was directed and written by Albert Pyun. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

In this martial arts film, a twisted cult lead by the evil Reverend Rhee (Bong Soo Han) has kidnapped a young girl, and it is up to renegade Jerry Martin (Joe Lewis) and his friends to rescue her before it is too late. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

This "prequel" to the Newman/Redford vehicle Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was written by TV sitcom veteran Allan Burns and stars Tom Berenger as Butch and William Katt as Sundance. The film, per its title, traces the formative days of Butch and Sundance's careers as soft-hearted western outlaws, and their creation of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. There's no Etta Place this time around; the fictional heroine, named Mary, is played by Jill Eikenberry. Only Jeff Corey, as Sheriff Ray Bledsoe, repeats his role from the original film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With Howard Hawks's Bringing Up Baby (1938) as his blueprint, Peter Bogdanovich resurrected and payed homage to 1930s screwball comedy in What's Up, Doc? (1972). When wacky co-ed Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand, in the Katharine Hepburn part) spies nebbishy musicologist Howard Bannister (Ryan O'Neal in bespectacled Cary Grant mode) in a San Francisco hotel lobby, she decides that Howard and his precious igneous rocks are right up her alley. Too bad Howard already has a fiancée, the propriety-fixated Eunice (Madeline Kahn in her film debut). Using all her arcane knowledge from brief stays at numerous colleges, Judy tries to charm her way to a $20,000 grant for Howard, and Howard himself, at a banquet with grantor Frederick Larrabee (Austin Pendleton). Things get even more complicated the next day when Judy's underwear-filled overnight bag gets mixed up with Howard's rock bag, which gets mixed up with Mrs. Van Hoskins' bag of jewels, which gets mixed up with Mr. Smith's bag of top secret government papers. All sides converge at Larrabee's mod townhouse and the chase begins. Retaining Hawks' machine-gun pace (as well as the sly pop culture referentiality of Billy Wilder), Bogdanovich and writers Buck Henry, David Newman, and Robert Benton updated the opposites-attract screwball convention for contemporary times. O'Neal gently parodied not only Grant but also his own Love Story (1970) preppy, while Kahn represents stiff-wigged 1950s manners as opposed to Streisand's long-haired, pants-wearing free spirit. The happy ending, in which Cole Porter-belting youth wins out over old manners, found favor with audiences, as What's Up, Doc? became one of the most popular films of 1972, and the second hit in a row for Bogdanovich after 1971's The Last Picture Show. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

This very economical remake of the 1952 Errol Flynn vehicle Against All Flags stars Doug McClure in the Flynn role. Cashiered from the royal navy in disgrace, McClure becomes a buccaneer, guiding his loyal crew to an island completely populated by cutthroats. Here he links up with pirate-captain Guy Stockwell and lady-swashbuckler Jill St. John. The plot comes to a head when the pirates conspire to hold lovely Middle-Eastern princess Mary Ann Mobley for ransom. McClure comes to her rescue and routs the rascals, revealing along the way that he's been working under cover on behalf of the king (a fact rather given away by the title). The most fascinating moments of The King's Pirate concern a pair of well-proportioned belly dancers, who keep the other pirates occupied while McClure goes about his business. The camera lovingly and longingly records each bump, grind, and wiggle, allowing the audience to get its mind off the creaky plot contrivances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Directed by versatile standup comedian Lenny Weinrib, Wild Wild Winter is more palatable in its comic scenes than its musical interludes. Essentially a snowbound imitation of American-International's Beach Party series, the film stars such passing fancies of the 1960s as Gary Clarke, Chris Noel and Les Brown, Jr. The plot: Clarke poses as a millionaire to impress Noel, she finds out, everybody lives happily ever after. The musical acts include Jay and the Americans, The Beau Brummels, Dick and Dee Dee and Jackie and Gayle. Man, this sure is a swingin' snow-ball. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in panoramic Cinerama, this star-studded, epic Western adventure is a true cinematic classic. Three legendary directors (Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall) combine their skills to tell the story of three families and their travels from the Erie Canal to California between 1839 and 1889. Spencer Tracy narrates the film, which cost an estimated 15 million dollars to complete. In the first segment, "The Rivers," pioneer Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden) sets out to settle in the West with his wife (Agnes Moorehead) and their four children. Along with other settlers and river pirates, they run into mountain man Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), who sells animal hides. The Prescotts try to raft down the Ohio River in a raft, but only daughters Lilith (Debbie Reynolds) and Eve (Carroll Baker) survive. Eve and Linus get married, while Lilith continues on. In the second segment, "The Plains," Lilith ends up singing in a saloon in St. Louis, but she really wants to head west in a wagon train led by Roger Morgan (Robert Preston). Along the way, she's accompanied by the roguish gambler Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck), who claims he can protect her. After he saves her life during an Indian attack, they get married and move to San Francisco. In the third segment, "The Civil War," Eve and Linus' son, Zeb (George Peppard), fights for the Union. After he's forced to kill his Confederate friend, he returns home and gives the family farm to his brother. In the fourth segment, "The Railroads," Zeb fights with his railroad boss (Richard Widmark), who wants to cut straight through Indian territory. Zeb's co-worker Jethro (Henry Fonda) refuses to cut through the land, so he quits and moves to the mountains. After the railway camp is destroyed, Zeb heads for the mountains to visit him. In the fifth segment, "The Outlaws," Lilith is an old widow traveling from California to Arizona to stay with her nephew Zeb on his ranch. However, he has to fight a gang of desperadoes first. How the West Was Won garnered three Oscars, for screenplay, film editing, and sound production. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide