85% (2)  The Late Show  93 min,  PG,  [Comedy, Mystery, Thriller]  [Robert Benton]  [04 Jul 1977]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 70%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 100%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 4 wins & 6 nominations.
Actors:  Art Carney, Bill Macy, Eugene Roche, Lily Tomlin
Writer:  Robert Benton
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  Ira Wells is an aged retired Los Angeles based private investigator, who is slightly overweight, needs to wear a hearing aid, has a bum leg and an ulcer-laden stomach, and can only afford to rent a room in a house as a place to live. He decides to come out of retirement when a still active contemporary, Harry Regan, shows up on his doorstep with a bullet wound to the gut, from which he eventually dies. Ira wants to find out who killed Harry. Ira is contacted by another long-time acquaintance, Charlie Hatter, a self-proclaimed loser and Hollywood hack, about Harry's last case, something about which probably led to Harry's death. Harry's client was Margo Sterling, a former client of Charlie's who is a flaky penniless new-ageist actress/agent/dress maker. She hired Harry to retrieve her missing cat, Winston, who is still being held ransom by an acquaintance named Brian Hemphill. Ira learns from Margo that Brian hired her to transport goods for him, she unconcerned that those goods probably stolen and the drop-off person probably a fence. Brian stole Winston because Margo "borrowed" some money from one of those jobs. Ira will also eventually learn that Brian was recently involved in a high profile robbery gone wrong, that resulted in one person dead. With all these things Brian was involved in, Ira has to figure out what would be the reason for someone wanting to kill Harry. As big a problem for loner Ira is Margo, who wants to add another "/" to her already large resume, namely that of private investigator partner despite its inherent dangers.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Robert Benton's film The Late Show stars Art Carney as Ira Wells, an over-the-hill private detective who reluctantly teams with the eccentric Margo Sperling (Lily Tomlin) to solve the murder of his partner Harry Regan (Howard Duff).
Scroll To:   Up   Down   Top   Bottom   25%   50%   75%    [ / 5]

73% (2)  Slaughterhouse-Five  104 min,  R,  [Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi, War]  [George Roy Hill]  [15 Mar 1972]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 69%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 77%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 3 wins & 3 nominations.
Actors:  Eugene Roche, Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, Sharon Gans
Writer:  Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (novel), Stephen Geller (screenplay)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English, German    Country:  USA
Plot:  Using his own terminology, Billy Pilgrim is "unstuck in time", which means he is moving between different points in his life uncontrollably, although he is aware of it at certain of those points as witnessed by the letter to the editor he writes to the Ilium Daily News about his situation. Primarily, he is moving between three general time periods and locations. The first is his stint as a GI during WWII, when, as a pacifist, he was acting as a Chaplain's assistant for his unit. This time is largely as a POW, where he was in Dresden the day of the bombing, spending it with among others an older compassionate GI named Edgar Derby, and a brash loudmouth GI named Paul Lazzaro. The second is his life as an optometrist in Ilium in upstate New York, eventually married to the wealthy and overbearing Valencia Merble, and having two offspring, Robert, who would spend his teen-aged years as a semi-delinquent, and Barbara, who would end up much like her mother. And the third is as an abductee on the planet Tralfamadore, along with his devoted dog Spot, and Hollywood starlet Montana Wildhack - who was not averse to taking off her clothes to further her career - the Tralfamadorians who have put them on display. The more time he spends on Tralfamadore, the more he understands the meaning of what is happening to him.
Rotten Tomatoes:   "Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time." These opening words of Kurt Vonnegut's famous novel make an effective and short summary of a haunting, funny film. For the screen, director George Roy Hill faithfully renders Vonnegut's black anti-war comedy about Pilgrim (well played in a low key by Michael Sacks), who survives the horrendous 1945 fire bombing of Dresden then lives simultaneously in his past as a naïve American POW and in the future as a well-cared-for zoo resident on the planet Tralfamadore (with zaftig Valerie Perrine as his mate). In the present, he's a middle-aged optometrist in Ilium, NY. If this sounds like a bit of a jumble -- it is. But viewers willing to watch carefully will find the movie as intricate and harmonious as Glenn Gould's plaintive renderings of the Bach keyboard pieces that decorate its soundtrack. It's not essential, but fans who read the short, poetic book will find it a treat in itself, and it will help them appreciate Hill's genius in bringing this "Children's Crusade" to the screen. In addition to Sacks, there are noteworthy performances by Ron Leibman (Norma's union man in Norma Rae) as Pilgrim's crazed nemesis and by radio/TV/movie legend, John Dehner as the arrogant Professor Rumfoord. Hill, of course, came to this film from a big hit, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and went on to triumph with The Sting one year later. The elaborate medieval and baroque architecture of pre-bombing Dresden was represented authentically in the film by scenes from Prague, since much of Dresden's architecture was lost to the bombing, and that city, in any case, was deep in East Germany, thus inaccessible at the time of filming. ~ Michael P. Rogers, Rovi
Scroll To:   Up   Down   Top   Bottom   25%   50%   75%    [ / 5]

56% (2)  Corvette Summer  105 min,  PG,  [Adventure, Comedy]  [Matthew Robbins]  [02 Jun 1978]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 56%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 57%,   External Reviews
Actors:  Annie Potts, Eugene Roche, Mark Hamill, William Bryant
Writer:  Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  Ken loves to design and build exotic cars. When the High School shop class project car, a fully tricked out dream Corvette, is stolen, he begins searching for it. His search leads him to Las Vegas, where Vanessa, a teenaged prostitute wannabe, helps him try to track it down.
Rotten Tomatoes:   The Corvette Ken Dantley's (Mark Hamill) class has been restoring in their high-school shop class is nearly completely fixed up. One day, the students walk in and it is gone - apparently stolen. Ken is larking about in Las Vegas when he spies a car that looks suspiciously like the Corvette he knows so well. He begins looking for the car, but in the meantime Vanessa (Annie Potts), propositions him on the street. Intrigued, he follows the girl back to her van, which is equipped with a waterbed. She hopes to use the van as a travelling brothel, with herself as the bill of fare. Instead, she helps him look for the missing car, and as they search, the two of them fall in love. Though praised by critics, Mark Hamill's second starring feature did poorly at the box-office, and stalled his career. Corvette Summer marks the first star appearance by Annie Potts, perhaps better known for her role in the U.S. television show Designing Women.
Scroll To:   Up   Down   Top   Bottom   25%   50%   75%    [ / 5]

59% (1)  Newman's Law  98 min,  PG,  [Crime, Action]  [Richard T. Heffron]  [04 Jun 1974]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 59%,   External Reviews
Awards:  1 nomination.
Actors:  Eugene Roche, George Peppard, Gordon Pinsent, Roger Robinson
Writer:  Anthony Wilson
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  In 1970s Los Angeles, honest cop Vince Newman struggles to win the battle against crime and against corruption in his own department.
Rotten Tomatoes:   LAPD Officer Newman has not gotten the reputation of a straight arrow by avoiding conflict when fighting for right. In this police drama, his honesty is put to the test when he and his partner discover a international drug ring involving some of the department's highest ranking officers.
Scroll To:   Up   Down   Top   Bottom   25%   50%   75%    [ / 5]

57% (1)  Mr. Ricco  98 min,  PG,  [Crime, Drama, Thriller]  [Paul Bogart]  [01 Feb 1975]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 57%,   External Reviews
Actors:  Dean Martin, Denise Nicholas, Eugene Roche, Thalmus Rasulala
Writer:  Robert Hoban (screenplay), Ed Harvey (story), Francis Kiernan (story)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  A San Francisco attorney (Dean Martin) is hired to defend a black militant accused of murder.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Dean Martin had his final leading role in this obscure drama about a San Francisco lawyer defending a black militant (Thalmus Rasulala) on trial for murder. The familiar supporting cast includes Cindy Williams, Philip Michael Thomas, and Room 222's Denise Nicholas. Filmmaker Paul Bogart, who directed many of the best episodes of the ground-breaking series All in the Family, went on to make Torch Song Trilogy. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
Scroll To:   Up   Down   Top   Bottom   25%   50%   75%    [ / 5]