Rafael Campos Movies

In this Western drama, some friends of gunfighter Josey Wales (Michael Parks, who also directed) are killed South of the border, so he heads to Mexico to confront a crooked local chief of police and get a good buddy out of jail. After Josey arrives, he manages to free an Apache woman and two inmates, as well as his friend Ten Spot. But soon the going gets rougher for everyone concerned. This sequel to Clint Eastwood's classic The Outlaw Josey Wales is a rendering of good guys versus bad, with an emphasis on gunfights. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Ann Margret looks too healthy to portray Blanche DuBois, the physically and mentally fragile Southern-belle protagonist of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, but we forget this discrepancy five minutes into her marvelous performance. This TV-movie version of Streetcar costars Treat Williams as faded aristocrat Blanche's rude 'n' crude brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski; Williams is persuasive, though he tries so hard not to be Marlon Brando that he comes off as a bit mechanical. The 1984 Streetcar is more realistically staged than the near-impressionistic 1951 Vivien Leigh/Marlon Brando filmization. The storyline, concerning the battle of wills between the earthy, pragmatic Stanley and the delusional Blanche, remains the same in both films, as does the script's tendency to avoid the homosexual elements that were so important to Williams' original play. The newer film's photography is bathed in an ambler tint throughout, conveying both nostalgia for the era in which it is set (the late 1940s) and a visual literalization of Blanche's "yellowed with antiquity" former lifestyle. The 1984 Streetcar Named Desire is less a remake of the 1951 version than a companion piece--a praiseworthy alternate version of the same sturdy material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sprawling television miniseries, originally aired in May 1983 on NBC, a race of seemingly human-like aliens arrive en masse on Earth. These "Visitors" promise cooperation and friendship -- then launch a clandestine takeover of the planet by accusing the entire scientific and medical community of conspiring to destroy them, then finally "benevolently" seizing power. Inspired by Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here, a 1935 account of a fictional fascist takeover of America, V uses a huge ensemble cast and an elliptical method of storytelling to trace the contact between humans and the Visitors, from the arrival of 50 giant flying saucers in low Earth orbit to the first major victory of the underground resistance that opposes the aliens. Major characters include Mike Donovan (Marc Singer), a television cameraman who leverages his experience filming in various war-torn locales to help expose the Visitors' true nature; news anchor Kristine Walsh (Jenny Sullivan), his sometime girlfriend, who allows her ambitions to cloud her journalistic judgment and becomes a pawn of the alien invasion; Juliet Parrish (Faye Grant), a young biochemist who finds herself thrust into the role of resistance leader; Abraham Bernstein (Leonardo Cimino), the patriarch of a Jewish family divided between the lessons of the Holocaust and the need to survive; Elias Taylor (Michael Wright), a petty thief who joins the resistance after the Visitors kill his doctor brother, Ben (Richard Lawson); and Robin Maxwell (Blair Tefkin), the surly eldest daughter of a scientist (Michael Durrell) who finds his family the target of harassment and intimidation. The Visitors, who assume common human first names as their monikers, include supreme leader John (Richard Herd); sultry science and security officer Diana (Jane Badler); hunky Brian (Peter Nelson); and gentle Willie (Robert Englund). V was written and directed by Kenneth Johnson, who initially envisioned the project as a less fanciful story of fascist aggression; when his pitch to NBC seemed to be faltering, Johnson allegedly added the alien angle extemporaneously, securing himself a green light and NBC a sweeps-week hit. The success of V spawned a second miniseries, V: The Final Battle, and a weekly TV series that lasted 19 episodes from 1984 to 1985. Johnson ended his association with the world of V halfway through production on the second miniseries, but his work on the Alien Nation TV spin-off years later would resurrect many of the themes of V. Actor Singer was already known to sci-fi fans as star of The Beastmaster, while Englund would go on to portray Freddy Krueger in countless Nightmare on Elm Street films. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Based on the writings and experiences of "gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson, Where the Buffalo Roam details the adventures of Thompson (Bill Murray) and his attorney (Peter Boyle), whose character is rewritten as Mexican-American rather than Samoan, as they pillage and plunder their way across America on a drunken, drug-saturated mission to...well, their mission is as yet undetermined, but they set about it anyway. Highlights include a staged broadcast of the Super Bowl from Thompson's hotel room and a scene in which he escapes from the police with a little help from his trusty sidekick. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

Four months away from retirement, hard-bitten narcotics cop Eddie Boggs (Ned Beatty) oversteps his bounds, brutalizing a drug-dealing stoolie and planting a weapon on the man. In his efforts to cover up his misdeeds, Boggs succeeds only making things worse. Played out against all this intrigue are the efforts by Stone (Karl Malden) and Robbins (Richard Hatch) to get the goods on a particularly insidious drug ring called the Tucson Connection. Susan Oliver, best remembered to Star Trek fans as the "Green Girl" in the original Star Trek pilot film, appears as Eddie Boggs' long-suffering wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When a group of teenage girls gather together for a slumber party, they spend the night relating stories of how they lost their virginity. Debra Winger makes her screen debut in this film. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Set amidst the tumult and grit of the inner city, this blaxploitation outing centers on the devious exploits of drug-dealing gangsters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Steve Forrest, in his last starring role before moving permanently to series television with S.W.A.T., plays James Devlin, a once-notorious gunman who is wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Through an accident -- though the priest Father Alvaro (Rafael Campos) insists it was divine intervention -- he survives the hanging, barely, and is set free, a death certificate having been duly and lawfully issued by the doctor (William Bryant) who examined the "body." A near walking corpse, with an odd, dark fire in his eyes and a strangely low body temperature and heartbeat, Devlin doesn't know what to do with the rest of his life, however long that may be -- he's got enemies still walking around who would like to finish the job, and neither the doctor nor the priest can tell him how long he might live. Having already reformed before he was convicted, he goes the rest of the way and decides to spend what time he's been given, and use the skills he still has as a gunman and soldier of fortune, on the side of the angels, helping people who need it. He quickly finds himself up to his neck in a deadly land war between an ambitious mining tycoon (Cameron Mitchell) and a young widow (Sharon Acker) for the property she owns. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Taciturn Faye Dunaway insists upon drilling for oil in her small, unpromising patch of Oklahoma land. Drifter George C. Scott signs on to work the derrick, but only after Dunaway, who for unspecified reasons hates all men, warns him to stay at arm's length. Jack Palance, the strong-arm representative for a huge oil firm, dearly covets Dunaway's land, and when she refuses to sell he sends his hooligans to beat both her and Scott to bloody pulps. Driven from her land, Dunaway can't expect help from the "bought" courtrooms, so she fights fire with fire: together with Scott and her ne'er do well father John Mills, she takes back the land by force of arms. As they sit guarding the derrick, Dunaway and Scott draw closer, and when Mills is killed by a fall, Dunaway turns to Scott as her one last pillar of strength. Just as Palance and his goons are about to rush the land, the long-awaited gusher comes in. The oil surge lasts just long enough for every oil company within two hundred miles to bid for pumping rights. Once the well runs dry, however, Dunaway and Scott are left standing alone in their grimy field. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The cycle-flick market was drying up when Outlaw Riders appeared in 1972. Nonetheless, all the standard cliches are in attendance, just as though the audience still cared. Heading the cast of unknowns is one Bryan Sonny West. The major concessions to the let-it-all-hang-out 1970s are the film's liberal doses of sex and violence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Adam-12 episode has the look and feel of a pilot for a spinoff series starring singer Trini Lopez as Barrio priest Father Rojas. There's a street-gang war brewing, and Father Rojas is determined to stop it before it starts. But he can't do the job entirely alone--and that's where Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) come in. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rock & roll mayhem characterizes this swinging 1960s musical that chronicles the adventures of a free-wheeling draft dodger who teams up with a biker and his movie-star-wannabe girl friend and heads for Tinseltown. Once there, the biker goes to meet his sister-the-go-go girl and her boss at the local disco. The manager approves of the aspiring starlet's moves and decides he will replace his drug-addicted lead dancer with her. Meanwhile, a club janitor learns that the biker, the club owner and another are murderous dope pushers. This causes trouble for the actress and the draft dodger. After extricating themselves from danger, the evader decides that he must screw up his courage and do his patriotic duty. Songs include: "Do You Want to Laugh or Cry?" "Hello, Michelle," "One Good Time, One Place," "You Gotta Come Down," "Cowboy Santa," "Minnie Shimmy" and "Strange Things." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide