Jerry Campbell Movies
- 1992
Carolina Skeletons is based on a prize-winning novel by David Stout. Louis Gossett Jr. plays a former Green Beret colonel who returns to his home town after thirty years. As a child, Gossett was forced to look on in horror as his brother was tried and executed on a trumped-up murder charge. Now that he's back, Gossett seeks out new evidence, intending to bring the real killer to justice. Unfortunatel, there are several people in town who'd prefer that the past remained buried-and aren't averse to burying Gossett should the need arise. Made for television, Carolina Skeletons debuted September 30, 1991. An R-rated version was later prepared for cable TV. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Composer Richard Parker (Kevin Kline) and his wife Priscilla (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) live an ordinary suburban life until they meet their new neighbors Eddy (Kevin Spacey) and Kay (Rebecca Miller). The two couples become friends until some mate-swapping is suggested by the men. The plot takes a nasty turn, however, when Richard sleeps with Kay -- who turns up, the next morning, bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. Soon, Richard is charged with the crime and must prove his innocence. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Kline, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, (more)
- 1991
In White Lie, a drama based on Samuel Charters' novel Louisiana Black, Gregory Hines plays Len Madison Jr., a New York-based mayoral press secretary who learns that his father was lynched in the South three decades earlier. Madison returns to the South, where he is intent on learning the truth about his father's death. Along the way, he is helped by a doctor (Annette O'Toole), the daughter of the white woman whom Madison's father allegedly raped and killed. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Hines, Annette O'Toole, (more)
- 1989
- PG13
Two wacky guys find both romance and fortune in the hamburger business in this comedy. Augie (Clark Brandon) and Drew (Randal Patrick) are a pair of longtime students at Hopkins University who've been making a living by pulling one semi-legal scam after another for years, but one day the dean (J. Don Ferguson) decides he's had enough of their antics and gets rid of them the best way he knows how -- he graduates them. Forced into the real world, the guys are looking for something resembling a career when Augie gets surprising news. His cousin Samantha (Tracy Griffith) runs a gas station where he works part time, but she's considering selling the place to Wrangler Bob Bundy (Jim Varney), the owner of a local burger chain who is convinced the gas station would be the perfect location for a new franchise. Drew figures if the place would be the right spot for a burger joint, they should open one themselves, and eventually Augie and Drew persuade Samantha to go along with the idea. The business gets off to a slow start, but things pick up when Drew's buddy Calvin (Lanny Horn) cooks up a special sauce for the burgers which has aphrodisiacal side effects. Wrangler Bob isn't about to give up without a fight, though, and hires corporate spy Dixie Love (Traci Lords) to get the inside scoop on the burger stand's sudden popularity. Fast Food also stars Kevin McCarthy, Michael J. Pollard, and Pamela Springsteen (Bruce's younger sister). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Brandon, Randal Patrick, (more)
- 1989
Set in the early 1900s in a small Southern town, this made-for-cable television romance centers on the "scandalous" love affair that blossoms between a free-thinking, strong-willed Northern widow and the much older owner of a local general store. The plot is based on a novel by Olive Ann Burns. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
John Lithgow sets aside his patented drooling villainy to play the sympathetic title character in Traveling Man. Beset by business and marital problems, salesman Lithgow feels as though he's at the end of his rope. But it's at this point that he avoids the Willy Loman syndrome by realizing that there's more to life than a smile and a shoeshine. Fade-out salvation arrives in the lovely form of Margaret Colin. Jonathan Silverman co-stars as Lithgow's eager-beaver assistant, while John Glover is slime personified as the sales manager. Written for television by David Taylor, Traveling Man debuted June 24, 1989, over the HBO Cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Since Chattahoochee is a story based on true events, it may seem absurd to suggest that the actual events of Chattahoochee are pirated from other true-life tales like Gideon's Trumpet. But it certainly seems as if true stories are just as derivative as any fictional narrative coming out of Hollywood. The Chattahoochee saga details the Emmett Foley (Gary Oldman) story. The film takes place in 1955, when Foley, a Korean war veteran depressed and shattered by continual unemployment, snaps and shoots up his neighborhood, hoping that the police will come and shoot him down like a crazed dog so that his wife Mae (Frances McDormand) can collect on the insurance money. Instead of being gunned down by the law enforcement officers, he is sent to Chattahoochee, a notorious prison for the mentally ill which makes The Snake Pit look like a vacation in Bermuda. The gruesome conditions in the jail send Foley into listlessness. But then his anger gets the better of him and, encouraged by a friend, Walker Benson (Dennis Hopper), he begins sending letters to the authorities protesting the sub-human conditions in the mental facility. Due to his efforts, a state commission is formed to investigate conditions in Chattahoochee, and Foley has a chance to tell the world of the horrible conditions. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, (more)
Friends in Georgia are broken up when an enticing teenager comes between them as told in this true story. ~ All Movie Guide
In this romantic comedy fantasy, an angel (Emmanuelle Beart) with a heavenly body falls into the swimming pool of Jim Sanders (Michael E. Knight). Hung over from his bachelor party, his encounter with the angel has Jim questioning his upcoming marriage to Patty (Phoebe Cates), the daughter of a wealthy cosmetics mogul (David Dukes). After he helps the injured celestial being, Jim must protect her from his lecherous friends and his curious fiance. Beart's beauty and performance is the highlight of the film even though she does not speak. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael E. Knight, Phoebe Cates, (more)
When a retired stock car driver, Brewster Baker (Kenny Rogers), meets up with a group of orphans intent on dismantling his car, he takes them under his wing and sets them to work helping him return to the racing scene. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenny Rogers, Diane Lane, (more)
- 1981
- PG
A would-be Nashville star finds himself in hot water during a stay in Georgia in this drama based (very loosely) on the hit song of the same title. Travis Child (Dennis Quaid) is a country singer looking for his big break, crisscrossing the country playing honky-tonks with his younger sister (and manager), Amanda (Kristy McNichol), in tow. Travis has a bad habit of drinking too much and putting the moves on the wrong women, leaving tough-as-nails Amanda to bail him out. One night Travis runs afoul of Seth Ames (Don Stroud), the sheriff of a small Georgia town who isn't against using his fists to teach lawbreakers a lesson; thanks to Ames, Travis ends up behind bars, but Amanda is able to persuade a sympathetic state trooper, Conrad (Mark Hamill), to help raise bail. In exchange, Travis has to work off his debt as a bartender at a local watering hole (where he hopes he might get to play a few tunes for the customers), and between drawing beers and pouring shots, he meets a beautiful local girl amed Melody (Sunny Johnson). However, as romance begins to bloom between them, Travis find himself in trouble again when he discovers Melody already has a boyfriend -- Seth Ames. Both Dennis Quaid and Kristy McNichol do their own singing in The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, with Quaid also writing several of his character's tunes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kristy McNichol, Dennis Quaid, (more)
Tim Conway as woeful boxer Bags and Don Knotts as his dim-witted sidekick Shake are out to save a gym and do the impossible in this predictable, cliched comedy from director Michael Preece. The setting is the 1930s and Bags is trying to make it as a boxer. Gangster Mike (Robin Clarke) decides to take advantage of the two losers, so he sets Bags up for a big championship match against a bruiser appropriately nicknamed the Butcher (Michael LaGuardia). At stake is more than the one-sided match, the dull duo's friend "Pop" Morgan (David Wayne) has bet all he has on Bags -- he needs money to save his gym from the clutches of the gangster. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Conway, Don Knotts, (more)
