Vietnam veteran Cameron (Steve Railsback) is on the run from the police when he stumbles onto the set of a war movie directed by megalomaniac Eli Cross (Peter O’Toole). But when the young fugitive is forced to replace a dead stunt man, he falls in love with the movie’s leading lady (Barbara Hershey) while trying to avoid getting arrested or killed. Is Eli trying to capture Cameron’s death on film? And what happens to a paranoid stunt man when illusion and reality change places?Read More »
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Jennie (Susan Strasberg) travels to San Francisco to locate her hippie brother Steve (Bruce Dern). She meets Stoney (Jack Nicholson) in a coffeehouse and he helps her look for Steve, who Stoney has seen in his various attempts to start a rock & roll band. Stoney and his pals transform the square girl into a swinging hippie chick, complete with a mod miniskirt. Along with their buddy Dave (Dean Stockwell), they search for Steve amidst the psychedelic splendor of the Haight-Ashbury hippie haunts. Dave is killed by a car when he wanders around in an STP-induced stupor.Read More »
Museum of the Moving Images writes:
Taking full advantage of Caan’s versatile ability to play both a strapping intimidator and limber comedian, Freebie and the Bean is an early entry in the buddy comedy genre that partners him with Alan Arkin as squabbling San Francisco police detectives. While ostensibly in pursuit of mob boss Red Meyers (Kruschen), the real action takes place between the mismatched Freebie Waters (Caan) and Benito Vazquez (Arkin), who leave the city cowering in fear of their technically friendly fire and careering, crashing cars. Directed by Richard Rush (The Stuntman) and shot by László Kovács (Easy Rider, Close Encounters of the Third Kind), is full on, unbridled entertainment, riddled with hyperbolic chase sequences and viciously hilarious repartee.Read More »