Jose Perez Movies
Supporting actor in Hollywood films, onscreen from the '50s. ~ All Movie Guide
Director Martin Campbell, well-known to the action arena after 1995's GoldenEye, teams up with executive producer Steven Spielberg to bring the first Hollywood production of creator Johnston McCulley's Zorro in over four decades to the big screen. With scenic 18th century Mexico as a backdrop, Anthony Hopkins plays the original Zorro, a.k.a. Don Diego de la Vega, intent on revenge after rival enemy Don Raphael Montero (Stuart Wilson) murdered his wife and took his daughter, Elena. After being imprisoned for 20 years, the fabled hero removes his mask and takes on a tarnished young apprentice, Alejandro Murieta (Antonio Banderas), to infiltrate Montero's plan to take control of California from Santa Anna. A boisterous outlaw with his own desire for revenge, Murieta works with Diego to avenge his brother's death by the sword of Montero's right-hand man, Captain Harrison Love (Matt Letscher, in his big screen debut). After Diego's extensive training in swordfighting, discipline and manners, a new Zorro appears wreaking vengeance and stealing the heart of a now-grown Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones). A sizable summer hit, the film served as Zeta-Jones' stepping stone to leading lady status as the high-spirited heroine. ~ Rachel Koetje, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, (more)
- 1995
- R
This Australian drama is an adaptation of Hannie Rayson's award-winning play. It is the tale of the three Moynihan sisters, Hilary, a widow who lives in the family "hotel" with their father and her teenage son; Pippa, who lives in New York; and Meg, who lives in London. After a long absence, the three gather in their familial home in Sorrento, a coastal town near Melbourne, for their father's funeral. Many of the town's most prominent citizens are terribly impressed that Meg has just published an award-winning book that is actually a thinly veiled vicious attack on the town, its people, and her family. It is not a happy reunion, as old hurts and rivalries amongst the sisters immediately begin resurfacing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1994
This highly acclaimed made-for-cable movie tells the real-life story of one man's battle to save his land. Raul Julia stars as Chico Mendes, the Brazilian union leader who rallied his people to rise up and fight the exploitation of the rainforest. Mendes called on the locals to protest land developers building a road through the Amazon in an effort to make it more accessible for business. Julia is outstanding in his portrayal of the impassioned worker, who was subsequently assassinated in 1990. Nominated for many awards, the film took the Golden Globe for "Best Mini-series for TV" and several Emmy awards. Raul Julia won the Golden Globe and the Emmy for his inspiring lead performance. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
A retired soldier (Gerald McRaney) is driving his family from Texas to California. As they cross the desert, they are terrorized by a gang of heroin-dealing bikers who kidnap his teenage daughter and take her across the Mexican border. He follows them to their hideout and devises a plan to rescue his daughter. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1992
- PG13
Two people fleeing different sorts of danger find one another in this screwball romantic comedy from France. Danny (Edouard Baer) is a professional magician who has been struggling to find work and has somehow managed to get on the wrong side of his emotionally unstable brother-in-law Max (Joey Starr). With Max eager to hurt him, Danny decides to leave town, and drops his aging and senile mother (Bulle Ogier) off at a mental hospital, where he meets Sonia (Melanie Bernier), who seems a bit too interested in the opposite sex. As Danny hits the road, he picks up at attractive hitch-hiker, Irene (Nathalie Baye), who is carrying a large purse and gets frequent phone calls from men Danny assumes are her current or former lovers. But Danny doesn't know the half of Irene's story -- she's the paramour of a powerful politician (Guy Marchand) who has become involved in an illegal deal to sell arms to North Korea, and Irene is carrying both the politician's cash and evidence of his wrongdoings. Irene is also involved with a well-connected Korean gentleman (Park Jung-hak) and is dodging calls from both her lovers as she and Danny motor away in search of relative safety, and it isn't long before the traveling companions become attracted to one another. Passe-passe (aka Off And Running) also stars Maurice Benichou, Sandrine Le Berre and Hippolyte Girardot. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cyndi Lauper, David Keith, (more)
- 1991
Fifty-three people die in a fire at a private Manhattan nightclub. Suspects include a disgruntled patron who was not allowed entry to the popular night-spot, and a rival club owner. But as the investigation proceeds, the trail of evidence leads to a particularly nasty green card scam, targeting illegal aliens. This episode is distinguished by its impressive supporting cast of Hispanic actors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on the late Charles Willeford's series of hard-boiled crime novels featuring Miami cop Hoke Moseley, the Jonathan Demme-produced Miami Blues opens with the prison release of Frederick Frenger Jr. (Alec Baldwin), a deranged killer who has barely de-boarded his plane before he's killed a Hare Krishna in the airport. Checking into his hotel, Frenger meets up with Susie Waggoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a young prostitute with dreams of domestic life, and the two quickly become romantically involved. Meanwhile, the Hare Krishna murder case is given to Moseley (Fred Ward), a grizzled vet who vows to hunt down Frenger, but may be getting too long in the tooth for the demands of his job. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Baldwin, Fred Ward, (more)
Though officially based on Pierre Schoendoerffer's novel L'Adieu au Roi, Farewell to the King also bears echoes of Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim--with a lot of filmmaker John Milius' own Hemingwayesque slant thrown in. During World War II, American POW Learoyd (Nick Nolte) escapes a Japanese firing squad. Hiding himself in the wilds of Borneo, Learoyd is adopted by a head-hunting tribe of Nyak Indians, who consider him "divine" because of his elaborate tattoos. Before long, Learoyd is the reigning king of the Nyaks. When British soldiers approach him to rejoin the war against the Japanese, Learoyd resists (in language so flowery that it could have been written by Sir Walter Scott). But when his own tribe is threatened by the invaders, the "king" deigns to fight for their rights. Farewell to the King is breathtakingly photographed and quite exciting at times. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nick Nolte, Nigel Havers, (more)
This three-hour TV movie stars Sophia Loren as New Yorker Marianna Miraldo. Hurt and angered by her son's cocaine addiction, Marianna discovers that a close friend also has ties with the drug scene. After several of her imprisoned friend's associates try to contact him through her, the DEA persuades Marianna to aid them in an undercover operation headed by cop Bobby Jay (Billy Dee Williams). Despite the "don't get involved" admonitions of her husband (Hector Elizondo), Marianna agrees to cooperate with the DEA, if only for the sake of her son. This fact-based film, which first aired September 24, 1986, concludes with the feds closing in on a $3.5 billion cocaine ring. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Billy Dee Williams, (more)
In an Australian outback town so small that children of all ages share a single classroom, teacher Sally (Rachel Ward) suffers the typical frustrations of life in the provinces. She really finds something to fret about when a gang of gun-toting, mask-wearing criminals kidnaps her and the students and drives them to the remote wilderness. With the kids' safety, perhaps survival, in the balance, Sally must appease the lewdly suggestive bandits while scheming for a way to escape their clutches. After several abortive attempts result in multiple deaths, she and the oldest children manage to usher the young ones to at least provisional safety. Free but stranded in a mountain hideaway, the class must band together to survive and perhaps turn the tables on the men who continue to hunt them. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- 1985
- R
Burt Reynolds directed and starred in this actioner from an Elmore Leonard novel about an ex-con living dangerously close to the drug traffickers in Miami. When Stick (Reynolds) arrives in Miami just out of prison, an old buddy of his is murdered, sending Stick on a wild and complex journey to track down the killers. Along the way, he meets the attractive Kyle (Candice Bergen), has to deal with Chucky (Charles Durning in a blond wig and loud tourist shirts), a mob go-fer, and the albino Moke (Dar Robinson). In order to better zap his enemies, Stick gets a job as chauffeur to rich Palm Beach underworld figure Barry (George Segal) -- and the plot coils and twists from there until the bad guys get their due. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Candice Bergen, (more)
- 1984
Jessica (Angela Lansbury) arrives in Hollywood, where her first mystery novel "The Corpse Danced at Midnight" is being made into a movie. Unfortunately, Jessica is displeased by the decision of film producer Jerry Lydecker (John Saxon) to "juice up" her novel with heavy doses of sex and violence, and she makes no secret of her outrage. Thus it is that Jessica ends up on the suspect list when the highly unlikable Lydecker turns up murdered. John Astin, later a series semi-regular in the role of Cabot Cove real estate agent Harry Pierce, is here cast as Ross Hayley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this casual, uninvolved comedy running on a low-octane script, a scruffy taxi company is about to be wiped out when its owner Harold (Max Gail) exhorts his cabbies to do what they can to help save the company -- and what they can do turns out to be a surprise to everyone concerned. Saving the day (and the film) are the likeable, eccentric drivers, introduced by means of a new trainee (Adam Baldwin) who rides around with each in turn. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adam Baldwin, Charlie Barnett, (more)
Although penned by the same screenwriter, David S. Ward, this sequel to The Sting (1973) is tarnished by comparisons to its predecessor. Jackie Gleason fills the shoes of Paul Newman as Harry Gondorff and Mac Davis slips into the Robert Redford role of Johnny Hooker, two con men pals whose latest "sting" involves Hooker pretending to be a down on his luck boxer. Their goal is the fixing of a prizefight, which will rook a tacky nightclub owner (Karl Malden) out of a fortune while simultaneously getting revenge on their old nemesis, Doyle Lonnegan (Oliver Reed). On their side is Veronica (Teri Garr), a seasoned scam artist, but what Gondorff and Hooker don't know is that Lonnegan is manipulating events behind the scenes. Director Jeremy Paul Kagan followed up this terribly unfunny and inferior sequel with the much better received The Journey of Natty Gann (1985), while Ward became a director of such comedies as Major League (1989) and King Ralph (1991). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Gleason, Mac Davis, (more)
- 1982
In this made-for-TV thriller, a luckless, cynical San Diego gumshoe is hired to look into the mysterious disappearance of a crime lord's wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Angie Dickinson, (more)
- 1979
This is a bleak and uneven but jarring look at the warping of two human beings due to their stint in the Vietnam War. One is an Hispanic and the other is an Irish-American, though their ethnic origins are irrelevant. They share an apartment and when a woman shows up looking for a place to rent she is brutally raped and murdered by one of the disturbed veterans. The dark, sleazy, unpalatable world of the two Vietnam vets is also as repugnant as the senseless murder. Yet another murder is in the wings, and then how many more? The portrayal of the ex-soldiers is not totally one-sided though cynicism and pessimism carry the day. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jose Perez, Sabra Jones, (more)
Peter Weir follows up on his critically acclaimed masterpiece Picnic at Hanging Rock with this surrealist psychological drama. The film opens with a freak hailstorm in Australia's outback. Cut to David Burton (Richard Chamberlain), a well-to-do Sydney corporate lawyer plagued by visions of impending doom who is assigned to defend five accused of murdering a fellow Aborigine. The case itself proves to be mysterious -- no exact cause of death can be determined by the pathologist, and the accused remain strangely tight-lipped about the whole affair. As his visions grow increasingly weird and intense, Burton sees in his dream one of the five Aborigines, Chris (David Gulpili of Walkabout fame), who is drenched and clutching a sacred rock. Burton's interest in the case slides into complete obsession, and he comes to believe that not only was the murder related to an underground urban tribe of Aborigines but that Australia is about to be decimated by a massive, apocalyptic tidal wave. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Chamberlain, Olivia Hamnett, (more)
"Short eyes" is prison slang for a man who sodomizes little boys. Fitting this odious description is new inmate Bruce Davison, who is arrested and locked up with the scum of the earth. Despite their own depravities, Davison's fellow prisoners consider him the lowest form of human life, and proceed to treat him accordingly, in a series of appalling episodes that must have been as hard to film as they are to watch. Most of the supporting cast is comprised of real-life hoodlums, junkies and killers; small wonder that Davison retains his deer-in-the-headlights facial expression throughout the film. Short Eyes was based on a play by Miguel Pinero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Davison, Jose Perez, (more)
- 1974
The Godchild is the seventh and (thus far) the last film version of Peter B. Kyne's Saturday Evening Post story "Three Godfathers." The threesome is herein played by Jack Palance, Jack Warden and Keith Carradine. Instead of bank robbers (as they were in most previous filmizations of the Kyne story), the trio are escaped Civil War POWS, eluding both the Confederates and the Apaches by hightailing it to the desert. They come upon a dying woman, who makes them promise to deliver her newborn child to safety. All three men lose their freedom and their lives in keeping this promise, but kept it is. The Godchild is fine as TV movies go; the only question is, why this story once again? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Palance, Jack Warden, (more)
Bruce Jay Friedman's acclaimed off-Broadway play, which offers a decidedly unusual perspective on the afterlife, is brought to the screen in this production originally created for public television. Tandy (Bill Bixby) is a New York Police Department employee who suddenly and unexpectedly finds himself enjoying a steam at a public bathhouse overseen by an elderly Hispanic gentleman, Morty (Jose Perez). As the evening wears on, Tandy and Morty are joined by several other guests -- a stock trader (Kenneth Mars), a cabbie (Stephen Elliott), an attractive woman (Valerie Perrine), and a schlubby nebbish (Herb Edelman) -- and it begins to dawn on Tandy and his companions that they've all recently died, and that the steam bath is actually the waiting room to the next life, where Morty is judging their fates. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Bixby, Jose Perez, (more)
- 1961
The Young Savages is what used to be called a "thinking man's picture" about a potentially lurid subject: urban juvenile delinquency. A blind Puerto Rican boy is knifed to death in Spanish Harlem, and three teenage gang members are accused of the crime. Politically ambitious assistant DA Burt Lancaster initially presses for the conviction of all three boys. But as he gets deeper into the case, he realizes that what appears cut-and-dried on the surface is tortuously complex: for starters, the murder victim was hardly the paragon of virtue that the prosecution claims. Despite pressure from his superiors and from members of the accused boys' gang (who at one point threaten Lancaster's wife Dina Merrill with a switchblade,) Lancaster nonetheless sees to it that justice is properly administered. The defendants are portrayed with varying degrees of Brando/Dean "method" by John Davis Chandler, Neil Nephew and Stanley Kristien; more believable, less affected performances are rendered by Shelley Winters, Pilar Seurat and Telly Savalas. Filmed on location in New York, The Young Savages was based on the Evan Hunter novel A Matter of Conviction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Dina Merrill, (more)
- 1955
Third-billed Lee Marvin dominates the proceedings in A Life in the Balance. Marvin plays a psycho killer, whose trail is dogged by inquistive young Jose Perez. Jose's father, musician Ricardo Montalban, has been accused of a series of murders. The boy is convinced (correctly, it turns out) that Marvin is the guilty party, and trails the man in hopes of bringing him to justice. No dummy he, Perez leaves a trail for the authorities to follow--a series of smashed-up police call boxes (a similar plot device was deployed for comic purposes by Harold Lloyd in Professor Beware). A Life in the Balance was filmed on location in Mexico City, with a great deal of screen time devoted to a colorful carnival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ricardo Montalban, Anne Bancroft, (more)
Set in the Cuba of 1933, We Were Strangers stars John Garfield as revolutionary-minded Tony Fenner. A member of an underground movement dedicated to toppling the despotic Machado regime, Tony supervises the booby-trapping of a cemetery where several top Cuban officials are planning to converge for a state funeral. Also involved in the assassination scheme is China Valdes (Jennifer Jones), whose brother had been executed by the government. As often happens in a John Huston film, the best-laid schemes of the protagonists go tragically awry. Based on a portion of Robert Sylvester's novel Rough Sketch, We Were Strangers was scripted by frequent Huston collaborator Peter Viertel. The film has the curious distinction of being lambasted by both the left-wing and right-wing critics in the U.S. Audiences were likewise underwhelmed, compelling Columbia Pictures to withdraw the film from distribution early on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, (more)
