Comes a Horseman 1978  PG, 118 min.
Genre: Western
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Cast: James Caan, Jane Fonda, Jason Robards, George Grizzard, Richard Farnsworth, Jim Davis, Mark Harmon, Macon McCalman, James Keach, Basil Hoffman
A Montana land baron wants the acreage of two ranchers because he suspects oil is to be found under the land. The ranchers join forces in resistance, and love enters the picture.
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The Ice Runner 1993  R, 110 min.
Genre: Adventure
Director: Barry Samson
Cast: Edward Albert, Victor Wong, Olga Kabo, Yevgeni Lazarev, Basil Hoffman, Alexander Kuznetsov, Sergei Ruban, Bill Bordy, Pavel Belozyorov
When the Russian government complains to the U.S. about a spy scandal, the CIA makes spy Jeffrey West (Edward Albert) the fall guy. He receives a 12-year sentence in a Siberian camp, and, after a prison train wreck, Jeffrey switches identity with a fellow prisoner. But tough times at the prison are still ahead for our hero.
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My Favorite Year 1982   PG, 92 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Richard Benjamin
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Jessica Harper, Lainie Kazan, Mark Linn-Baker, Joseph Bologna, Bill Macy, Anne DeSalvo, Basil Hoffman, Lou Jacobi, Cameron Mitchell
The year is 1952, and the TV show "The Comedy Cavalcade" is about to debut starring an aging film star. One of the show's young writers is given the job of watching over the film star and ensuring that he does not come into contact with any alcohol before showtime. This film gives an inside look at the pressures of those days when TV was "live" and anything could happen. Peter O'Toole was nominated for an Oscar. 1 User Review
| User Review |
| | A fine comedy. 6 or 7 scenes are worth their weight in gold. | 1fatts 03/12/2007 | Richard Benjamin's first directing job is surprisingly assured and successful. The apocryphal story is that when Mel Brooks was the junior writer on Sid Ceaser's Your Show of Shows, the reknowned actor, womanizer and drunk, Errol Flynn, was scheduled to be the week's guest, and Mel Brooks was assigned to babysit Flynn and make sure he showed up sober. Brooks claims it never happened and, in fact, that Flynn was never on the show. Who cares! It's a great premise anyway. Peter O'toole turns in another over-the-top performance as the Flynn character, here named "Allan Swan". Those of us old enough to remember Caeser in his hayday really appreciate the take that Joseph Bologna does on the character. The scene where the young writer, Stone nee Steinberg, takes the matinee idol home to Brookyn for dinner (His aunt shows up in her wedding gown; "I only wore it once" she says in a New York Yiddish accent.) is hard to over-appreciate.
The movie lags here and there and ten or twelve minutes of tightening would have been to the good, but I'm quibbling. The cast shines; the writing is sharp; and the nod to "Your Show of Shows" brings warmth to those of us who remember when. |
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Night Shift 1982 R, 106 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton, Shelley Long, Kevin Costner, Gina Hecht, Pat Corley, Bobby DiCicco, Nita Talbot, Basil Hoffman, Clint Howard
Two men on the night shift at the city morgue (Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton) decide to add life to their evenings and wallets by becoming pimps for a prostitute-in-need (Shelley Long).
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Ordinary People 1980  R, 124 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Robert Redford
Cast: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton, M. Emmet Walsh, Elizabeth McGovern, Dinah Manoff, James Sikking, Fredric Lehne, Basil Hoffman, Elizabeth Hubbard, Scott Doebler, Quinn K. Redeker, Mariclare Costello, Meg Mundy
This is the story of the Jarrett family trying to come to grips with the accidental death of one of their sons. The younger son, Conrad (Timothy Hutton), makes an unsuccessful suicide attempt, the father, Calvin (Donald Sutherland), offers little emotional support, and the mother, Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), seems stuck in the moment and cannot rise beyond the crisis. The film won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Hutton), and Screenplay. Mary Tyler Moore was nominated for Best Actress and Judd Hirsch as Dr. Berger was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
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Switch 1991  R, 103 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Blake Edwards
Cast: Ellen Barkin, Jimmy Smits, JoBeth Williams, Lorraine Bracco, Perry King, Tony Roberts, Lysette Anthony, Bruce Payne, Victoria Mahoney, Basil Hoffman
Following his murder, a male chauvinist, Steve Brooks (Perry King), is given the chance for redemption by returning to Earth as a woman.
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| 1. Comes a Horseman (1978)
2. Communion (1989)
3. The Ice Runner (1993)
4. My Favorite Year (1982)
5. Night Shift (1982)
6. Ordinary People (1980)
7. Switch (1991)
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