Barry Corbin Movies

A woman is wrongly imprisoned after being set up by her husband. While in prison, she undergoes plastic surgery and seeks revenge on those responsible for her criminal conviction. ~ All Movie Guide

The Greater Alarm is the syndication title of the made-for-TV Firefighter. Based on a true story, the film stars Nancy McKeon as Cindy Fralick, the first female member of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Recruited in 1982, Cindy faces prejudice and hostility from her male co-workers as she strives to complete the grueling training program. Nonetheless, she perseveres, and in so doing wins the respect of her one-time tormentors. Adapted by Kathryn Montgomery from Fralick's autobiography, the film was partially designed as a visual adjunct to CBS television's "Read More About It" program. Under its original title, The Greater Alarm first aired on September 23, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sequel to Every Which Way But Loose finds Philo Beddoe (Clint Eastwood) on the road, orangutan companion Clyde in tow, as he makes his way as a bare-knuckle fighter. The action begins with Philo punching out a new victim while Clyde relieves himself on the seat of a police car, setting the tone for the rest of the story. From there, Philo and Clyde return home, where Philo, who still lives with Ma (Ruth Gordon), is offered a contest with Jack Wilson (William Smith), the Mafia-sponsored East Coast bare-knuckle champ. Philo inadvertently saves Wilson's life, but then the Mafia kidnaps his girlfriend (Sondra Locke) to force him to go ahead with the match. Philo and Wilson team up to battle the Mob, but somehow they end up fighting anyway in a grueling climactic sequence. Country music, bikers, the Mafia, an orangutan, pick-up trucks, defecation jokes, fighting, drinking, and swearing -- it's all here in this lowbrow comic stew. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Country music star Toby Keith writes and stars in this road movie comedy inspired by his chart-topping hit of the same name. Beer for My Horses opens to find small-town deputies and longtime buddies Rack (Keith) and Lonnie (Rodney Carrington) quietly enforcing the law in a small Southern town. Things are relatively quiet in their neck of the woods, so when a violent drug lord (Carlos Sanz) kidnaps Rack's girlfriend (Claire Forlani) in response to seeing his brother (Greg Serano) get arrested, Sheriff Landry (Tom Skerrit) implores them to sit tight and let the professionals handle the case. But Rack and Lonnie aren't about to let Rack's girlfriend suffer any harm at the hands of the notoriously vicious kingpin, and after enlisting the aid of taciturn, bow-and-arrow-toting fellow lawman Skunk Tarver (Ted Nugent), the trio sets out to rescue the girl and ensure that justice is served. The CMT Films production is directed by Michael Salomon (A Glimpse of Hell), with Willie Nelson and Barry Corbin filling out the supporting cast. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

William Friedkin, a product of television, returned to the small screen to direct the made-for-TV feature C.A.T. Squad. The titular acronym stands for Counter Assault Tactical. The heroes and heroines are fitted out with state-of-the-art hardware and weaponry that would make the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pale with envy. Captained by Joe Cortese, the squad is assigned to an anti-terrorist mission, the goal of which is to protect a top-secret laser project. Filmed in Canada and Mexico, C.A.T. Squad was plagued by a tiny budget that grew tinier with each passing day. Friedkin had hoped to include an elaborate car chase in the manner of his earlier French Connection, but the money ran out before the vehicles could gas up. First telecast August 27, 1986, C.A.T Squad was followed by a TV movie sequel, C.A.T. Squad: Python Wolf. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Hughes strip-mines familiar terrain -- in this case his own past successes -- in this comedy that Hughes produced and scripted, directed by Bryan Gordon. Frank Whaley stars as Jim Dodge, a 21-year-old con-man who goes from job to job but likes to put on a facade of success. As Career Opportunities begins, he has just been fired from another job and has been hired by the local Target store manager (played by an un-credited John Candy) as the night cleanup boy. After the manager locks Jim in the store overnight, he goes on a binge -- playing with the skates, eating candy, watching television, and blasting the stereos. But then Jim discovers that he is not the only person in the store. Also there is rich girl Josie McClellan (Jennifer Connelly) who is spending the night in the store to get her father worried about her. Although Jim knew Josie in high school, when Josie wouldn't even give him the time of day, here they click like two castanets and they romp around the store aisles to a pounding rock score. But just at the moment when Jim and Josie plan to run away together with the $52,000 Josie holds in her purse, two low-rent comic thieves -- Nestor Pyle (Dermot Mulroney) and Gil Kinney (Kieran Mulroney) -- break into the store and Jim and Josie decide to stick it out, saving the store from the bumbling crooks. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This well-wrought made-for-cable television western is faithfully adapted from a Louis L'Amour novel and centers on the budding relationship between brave but lonely widow (Katharine Ross) who runs a remote stagecoach way station and the handsome cowpoke (Sam Elliot) who comes to help her out. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Critters 2: The Main Course is the sequel to the highly enjoyable horror comedy Critters. The people of the Kansas town first menaced by the little, furry creatures find that they are not yet safe as they are again assaulted when the creatures reproduce. Charlie (Don Opper) is joined by Lee (Roxanne Kernohan) as all join forces to save the town. The special effects, particularly the ""critters" are again, superb, but the direction by Mick Garris is less self-assured than in the original feature. While still enjoyable, Critters 2 is not nearly as much fun as the original, but still well worth a view. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

In this dark comedy, a woman fascinated with crime has an unexpected brush with a famous murderer's handiwork. Gabriela (Angela Jones) is a Colombian immigrant living in Miami who has been fascinated with violent death since she saw a falling corpse pass by her window as a child. Today she works for a cleaning service that specializes in mopping up the blood, gore, and bone fragments left behind at crime scenes, and she is tickled to discover one day that she's cleaning up after an execution by her favorite at-large serial murderer, The Blue Blood Killer (William Baldwin), so named because his victims are all wealthy women. But Gabriela doesn't know that the killer is still in the building; he managed to lock himself in the wine cellar while trying to escape, and he is slowly trying to remove the bolts from its lock while Gabriela makes the place livable again. However, while cleaning, she discovers a piece of evidence that could confirm the identity of the killer, just as he's about to emerge from the cellar. Curdled is an expanded version of a short film that director Reb Braddock made in 1991; the short inspired one of the episodes in Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction, and Tarantino in turn helped produce this feature-length remake, as well as making a cameo appearance. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Millstone is the all-too-appropriate name of the Texas hometown of sophisticated career woman Martha (Loni Anderson). No sooner has Martha returned home after a 15-year absence than she witnesses a murder. Relating this information to her sisters, Martha is confused by their reaction. Only when it is nearly too late does the truth come out: The killer is Martha's own brother-in-law Eddie (Greg Evigan). This shock from the present only serves to dredge up long-buried secrets from the heroine's past--hence the title of this made-for-TV melodrama. First telecast by NBC on December 14, 1995, Deadly Family Secrets was based on Franklin Coen's novel Vinegar Hill--and also bears eerie echoes of the 1951 Ginger Rogers theatrical-movie vehicle Storm Warning. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The death of a feared and hated man leads to a conspiracy of silence in this drama. Walter Taylor (Kadeem Hardison) is an investigator from the state attorney general's office who is sent to a small Southern town to investigate an unusual murder. Ronny Roy Pritchett (W. Earl Brown) was a town bully who could intimidate just about anyone into giving him what he wanted until he was found outside a local tavern one night with 40 shots in his body and no witnesses who would say they saw or heard the attack. With the help of cheerful but ineffectual Sheriff Miller (Rus Blackwell), Taylor begins questioning citizens about Pritchett, including his two wives (Jeanetta Arnette and Alicia Lagano), who have decidedly different memories of their late husband, and Mildred (Talia Shire), the wife of a local pastor who was murdered a few weeks before Pritchett. In time, Taylor begins to piece together a picture of Pritchett's reign of terror in the town, as well as his combative relationship with former Sheriff Breen (Barry Corbin). Dunsmore was directed by Peter Spirer, who previously made several respected documentaries on hip-hop culture, including Beef, Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel -- The Life of an Outlaw, and Rhyme & Reason. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Convicted murderer Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald had hoped that, by telling his side of the story to investigative journalist Joe McGinniss, the authorities would be persuaded of MacDonald's innocence. Instead, McGinniss ended up unswerving in his belief of MacDonald's guilt, and the result was the devastating best-seller Fatal Vision. In this two-part TV adaptation of McGinniss' book, Gary Cole plays MacDonald, a former Green Beret officer, while Frank Dent essays the role of McGinniss. MacDonald's wife and two children are brutally murdered in their Fort Bragg, North Carolina home on February 17, 1970. The prime suspect, MacDonald insists that the killings were committed by a gang of stoned-out hippies, a story that at first is accepted in toto by the doctor's father-in-law Freddy Kassab (Karl Malden). But after MacDonald is officially exonerated, Kassab notices several holes in his son-in-law's story, and becomes convinced that MacDonald was in fact the murderer. Through Kassab's persistence, as well as the uncovering of new forensic evidence, MacDonald is ultimately convicted for all three murders in 1979. Since the TV premiere of Fatal Vision on November 18 and 19, 1984, there has been a growing movement by MacDonald's sympathizers to discredit McGinniss' book and to retry the case--a movement that has been hampered time and again by MacDonald's own erratic behavior. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide