86% (3) The Last Detail 104 min, R, [Comedy, Drama] [Hal Ashby] [15 Feb 1974]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 76%, Rotten Tomatoes: 93%, Metacritic: 89%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 6 nominations.
Actors: Clifton James, Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, Randy Quaid
Writer: Robert Towne (screenplay), Darryl Ponicsan (novel)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Two bawdy, tough looking navy lifers - "Bad-Ass" Buddusky, and "Mule" Mulhall - are commissioned to escort a young pilferer named Meadows to the brig in Portsmouth. Meadows is not much of a thief. Indeed, in his late teens, he is not much of a man at all. His great crime was to try to steal forty dollars from the admiral's wife's pet charity. For this, he's been sentenced to eight years behind bars. At first, Buddusky and Mulhall view the journey as a paid vacation, but their holiday spirits are quickly depressed by the prisoner, who looks prepared to break into tears at any moment. And he has the lowest self-image imaginable. Buddusky gets it into his head to give Meadows a good time and teach him a bit about getting on in the world. Lesson one: Don't take every card life deals you. Next, he teaches Meadows to drink, and, as a coup de grace, finds a nice young whore to instruct him in lovemaking. Mule, who worries aloud about his own position with military authority, seems pleased with Meadows's progress. However, when the trio reach Portsmouth, the game comes abruptly to an end as reality sets in.
Rotten Tomatoes: Two Navy men are ordered to bring a young offender to prison but decide to show him one last good time along the way.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 6]
76% (3) Eight Men Out 119 min, PG, [Drama, History, Sport] [John Sayles] [02 Sep 1988]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 73%, Rotten Tomatoes: 86%, Metacritic: 71%, External Reviews
Awards: 2 nominations.
Actors: Christopher Lloyd, Clifton James, John Cusack, Michael Lerner
Writer: Eliot Asinof (book), John Sayles (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: The great Chicago White Sox team of 1919 is the saddest team to ever win a pennant. The team is bitter at their penny pincher owner, Charles Comiskey, and at their own teammates. Gamblers take advantage of this opportunity to offer some players money to throw the series. (Most of the players didn't get as much as promised.) But Buck Weaver and the great Shoeless Joe Jackson turn back at the last minute and try to play their best. The Sox actually almost come back from a 3-1 deficit. Two years later, the truth breaks out and the Sox are sued on multiple counts. They are found innocent by the jury but baseball commissioner Landis has other plans. The eight players are suspended for life, and Buck Weaver, for the rest of his life, tries to clear his name.
Rotten Tomatoes: Writer/director John Sayles' dramatization of the most infamous episode in professional sports -- the fix of the 1919 World Series -- is considered by many to be among his best films and arguably the best baseball movie ever made. This adaptation of Eliot Asinof's definitive study of the scandal shows how athletes of another era were a different breed from the well-paid stars of later years. The Chicago White Sox owner, Charlie Comiskey (Clifton James), is portrayed as a skinflint with little inclination to reward his team for their spectacular season. When a gambling syndicate led by Arnold Rothstein (Michael Lerner) gets wind of the players' discontent, it offers a select group of stars -- including pitcher Eddie Cicotte (Sayles regular David Strathairn), infielder Buck Weaver (John Cusack), and outfielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (D.B. Sweeney) -- more money to play badly than they would have earned to try to win the Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Sayles cast the story with actors who look and perform like real jocks, and added a colorful supporting cast that includes Studs Terkel as reporter Hugh Fullerton and Sayles himself as Ring Lardner.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 6]
63% (3) Live and Let Die 121 min, PG, [Action, Adventure, Thriller] [Guy Hamilton] [27 Jun 1973]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 68%, Rotten Tomatoes: 67%, Metacritic: 55%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 2 nominations.
Actors: Clifton James, Jane Seymour, Roger Moore, Yaphet Kotto
Writer: Tom Mankiewicz (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Hungarian Country: UK
Plot: Several British agents have been murdered and James Bond is sent to New Orleans, to investigate these mysterious deaths. Mr. Big comes to his knowledge, who is self-producing heroin. Along his journeys he meets Tee Hee who has a claw for a hand, Baron Samedi the voodoo master and Solitaire a tarot card reader. Bond must travel to New Orleans, and deep into the Bayou.
Rotten Tomatoes: Roger Moore makes his first appearance as "Bond...James Bond" in 1973's Live and Let Die. Bond is dispatched to the States to stem the activities of Mr. Big (Yaphet Kotto), who plans to take over the Western Hemisphere by converting everyone into heroin addicts. The woman in the case is Solitaire (Jane Seymour in her movie debut), an enigmatic interpreter of tarot cards. The obligatory destructive-chase sequence occurs at the film's midpoint, with Bond being chased in a motorboat by Mr. Big's henchmen, slashing his way through the marshlands and smashing up a wedding party. Clifton James makes the first of several Bond appearances as redneck sheriff Pepper, while Geoffrey Holder is an enthusiastic secondary villain. The title song, written by Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney, provides the frosting on this 007 confection.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 6]
50% (3) The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training 100 min, PG, [Comedy, Family, Sport] [Michael Pressman] [08 Jul 1977]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 55%, Rotten Tomatoes: 50%, Metacritic: 47%, External Reviews
Actors: Clifton James, Jackie Earle Haley, Jimmy Baio, William Devane
Writer: Paul Brickman, Bill Lancaster (characters)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Sentimental sequel film finds the Bears, somehow, the little league champions of California. As a result, the team is invited to play a between-games exhibition at the Houston Astrodome with the local champs, the Toros. Kelly Leak, the Bears' star player, decides to rejoin the team and go with them to Houston to make amends with his estranged father, Mike.
Rotten Tomatoes: The misfit kiddie baseball team from the first film is given the opportunity to play in a Junior League match between double-header games at the Houston Astrodome. Two obstacles stand in their way: beloved teammate Timmy Lupus (Quinn Smith) has broken his leg, and the team has no adult coach. Attempting to change their luck, star player Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley) tries to talk his estranged dad (William Devane) into coaching and locates a self-proclaimed hotshot pitcher named Carmen Ronzonni (Jimmy Baio). Watch for quickie cameos by real-life Houston Astros members Robert J. Watson, Enos Cabell, Roger Metzger, James Richard, Joe Ferguson, Ken Forsch, William Virdon, and Cesar Cedeno. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 6]
66% (2) Rancho Deluxe 93 min, R, [Comedy, Romance, Western] [Frank Perry] [14 Mar 1975]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 64%, Rotten Tomatoes: 69%, External Reviews
Actors: Clifton James, Elizabeth Ashley, Jeff Bridges, Sam Waterston
Writer: Thomas McGuane
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Jack McKee (Jeff Bridges) and Cecil Colson (Sam Waterston) are bumbling drifters who make a living by rustling cattle in the wilds of Montana. Jack left his wealthy parents because he resented their posh lives. Cecil is of Caucasian and Native American descent seeking his own path in life away from his grumpy cowboy father (Joe Spinell). Both Jack and Cecil hustle and rustle their way in the world by targeting cattle owned by wealthy ranch-owner John Brown (Clifton James). Frustrated that someone is killing his cattle, John hires a pair of ranch hands, Burt and Curt (Richard Bright and Harry Dean Stanton), to find the rustlers. When Brown realizes he cannot trust his two inept ranch hands, he turns to the grizzled former rustler Henry Beige (Slim Pickens) to find the cattle thieves. Jack and Cecil always stay a step ahead of their pursuers, not realizing that their luck must run out sometime.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this comedy western, cattle rustlers Jack McKee and Cecil Carlson's special target is taciturn rancher John Brown. Together, they plan to lift themselves out of the penny-ante class with one big crime caper. Brown gets wind of their scheme and sends private eye Henry Beige after them.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 6]
70% (1) Buster and Billie 100 min, R, [Crime, Drama] [Daniel Petrie, Sidney Sheldon] [18 Jan 1975]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 70%, External Reviews
Actors: Clifton James, Jan-Michael Vincent, Joan Goodfellow, Pamela Sue Martin
Writer: Ron Bartron (story), Ron Turbeville
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: In a rural 1940s southern town, a socially awkward high school girl is taken advantage of by the boys because it's the only way she knows to relate to boys. But one, Buster, falls in love with her. The other boys, however, still consider her their convenient "squeeze," with tragic results.
Rotten Tomatoes: When the popular kid at a high school in rural '40s Georgia dumps his girlfriend for the trampy woman he is in love with, his family and the whole community are outraged. Before long, the poor woman is abducted by a group of malicious young men who brutally rape and murder her.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 6]