American Strays

Last updated
American Strays
American Strays DVD Cover.jpg
DVD cover for 2000 collector's edition release.
Directed byMichael Covert
Written byMichael Covert
Produced by Frank Agrama
Trudi Callon
Rod Dean
Kirk Hassig
Doug Textor
Starring
Music by John R. Graham
Release date
  • September 13, 1996 (1996-09-13) [1]
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1,910 (US) [2]

American Strays is a 1996 American comedy-drama film directed by Michael Covert. It follows three interwoven stories of desert travelers as they converge on a small diner.

Contents

Synopsis

Red's Desert Diner Oasis, a dive in the middle of nowhere, becomes the focal point of three separate storylines. In the first, Dwayne (Savage), a homicidal vacuum cleaner salesman, may have met his match in Patty Mae (Tilly), a woman with an impressive collection of sweepers. The second story follows Johnny (Perry), a suicidal man who hires a sadistic hitman (Jones) to end his life anyway possible which includes beating the ever loving crap out of him. The third story follows an unemployed man (Roberts) and his family, two mobsters (Viterelli and Russo), and others as they travel across the emptiness of the American Southwest.

Cast

Reception

American Strays was released to a single theater on September 13, 1996. [3] The film grossed $1,183 in its opening weekend and $1,910 in total during its theatrical release. [3]

Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote in his review that the film "has the germ of a good idea" but concluded American Strays is "a spoof in search of a sense of humor". [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Glimmer Man</i> 1996 American film

The Glimmer Man is a 1996 American buddy-cop action comedy film directed by John Gray and produced by Steven Seagal. The film stars Seagal, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Bob Gunton, and Brian Cox. The film was released in the United States on October 4, 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doc Savage</span> Fictional character in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s

Doc Savage is a fictional character of the competent man hero type, who first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr., he is a polymathic scientist, explorer, detective, and warrior who "rights wrongs and punishes evildoers." He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L. Nanovic at Street & Smith Publications, with additional material contributed by the series' main writer, Lester Dent. Doc Savage stories were published under the Kenneth Robeson name. The illustrations were by Walter Baumhofer, Paul Orban, Emery Clarke, Modest Stein, and Robert G. Harris.

<i>Tin Cup</i> 1996 US romantic comedy/sports film by Ron Shelton

Tin Cup is a 1996 American romantic comedy and sports film co-written and directed by Ron Shelton, and starring Kevin Costner and Rene Russo with Cheech Marin and Don Johnson in major supporting roles. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and performed moderately at the box office, grossing $75.8 million against its $45 million budget. Costner received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barry Sonnenfeld</span> American film director and cinematographer (born 1953)

Barry Sonnenfeld is an American filmmaker and television director. He originally worked as a cinematographer for the Coen brothers before directing films such as The Addams Family (1991) and its sequel Addams Family Values (1993), Get Shorty (1995), the Men in Black trilogy (1997–2012), and Wild Wild West (1999).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Reiser</span> American actor

Paul Reiser is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He played the roles of Michael Taylor in the 1980s sitcom My Two Dads, Paul Buchman in the NBC sitcom Mad About You, Modell in the 1982 film Diner, Carter Burke in the 1986 film Aliens, and Detective Jeffrey Friedman in Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), and Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024). More recently, he has gained recognition for his roles as Jim Neiman in the 2014 film Whiplash and Dr. Sam Owens in the Netflix series Stranger Things.

Joseph Viterelli was an American actor, best remembered for playing Italian-American mobsters. He portrayed Jelly in Analyze This (1999) and Analyze That (2002). He also played Joe Profaci in Mobsters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Stern (actor)</span> American actor, artist, director and screenwriter

Daniel Jacob Stern is an American actor, artist, director, and screenwriter. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Marv Murchins in Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Phil Berquist in City Slickers (1991) and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994), the voice of adult Kevin Arnold on the television series The Wonder Years, and the voice of Dilbert on the animated series of the same name. Other notable films of his include Breaking Away (1979), Stardust Memories (1980), Diner (1982), Blue Thunder (1983), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), Coupe de Ville (1990), and Very Bad Things (1998). He made his feature-film directorial debut with Rookie of the Year (1993).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronny Cox</span> American actor and musician

Daniel Ronald "Ronny" Cox is an American actor, singer and songwriter. His best-known roles include Drew Ballinger in Deliverance (1972), George Apple in Apple's Way (1974–75), Ozark Bule in Bound for Glory (1976), Colonel Kerby in Taps (1981), Lieutenant Andrew Bogomil in Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Dick Jones in RoboCop (1987), Franklin Reed in Family Ties (1986), Vilos Cohaagen in Total Recall (1990), The President in Captain America (1990), Justin in Age of Dinosaurs (2013), Vice President Kinsey in several episodes of Stargate SG-1 and Captain Edward Jellico in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1992) as well as in an episode of Star Trek: Prodigy (2022). Cox is also active as a musician, performing over 100 times per year at festivals and theaters each year as of 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Lockwood</span> American actor

Gary Lockwood is an American actor. Lockwood is best known for his roles as astronaut Frank Poole in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and as Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell in the Star Trek second pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (1966). He starred in the only American film by French New Wave director Jacques Demy, Model Shop. He played numerous guest television roles from the early 1960s into the mid 1990s, and played the title role in The Lieutenant (1963–1964).

<i>Pacific Heights</i> (film) 1990 film by John Schlesinger

Pacific Heights is a 1990 American psychological thriller film directed by John Schlesinger and written by Daniel Pyne. The film stars Melanie Griffith, Matthew Modine, and Michael Keaton.

<i>Highway to Hell</i> (film) 1991 film by Ate de Jong

Highway to Hell is a 1992 American B horror comedy film directed by Ate de Jong and starring Chad Lowe, Kristy Swanson and Patrick Bergin. It was written by Brian Helgeland. The film tells the story of Charlie Sykes (Lowe) and his girlfriend Rachel Clark (Swanson), who is kidnapped by a demon and taken to Hell to become one of Satan's brides, while Charlie must travel to the other dimension to rescue her.

James Vincent Russo is an American film and television actor. He has appeared in over 150 films in three decades.

<i>A Family Thing</i> 1996 American film directed by Richard Pearce

A Family Thing is a 1996 American drama film starring Robert Duvall, James Earl Jones and Irma P. Hall. It was written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson and directed by Richard Pearce.

<i>Black Fury</i> (film) 1935 film by Michael Curtiz

Black Fury is a 1935 American crime film directed by Michael Curtiz, and starring Paul Muni, Karen Morley, and William Gargan. It was adapted by Abem Finkel and Carl Erickson from the short story "Jan Volkanik" by Judge Michael A. Musmanno, and the play Bohunk by Harry R. Irving. The plot is based on a historic incident during a Pennsylvania walk-out in 1929, in which John Barkowski, a striking coal miner, was beaten to death by private company police.

Robert Daley is an American writer, journalist, and former New York City Police Department officer. He is the author of 31 books, six of which have been adapted for film, and a hundred or so magazine articles and stories.

Kevin Misher is an American movie and television producer via his Los Angeles–based production company, Misher Films.

<i>Why Did I Get Married Too?</i> 2010 American film

Why Did I Get Married Too? is a 2010 American comedy-drama film directed by Tyler Perry and starring Janet Jackson, Tyler Perry, Tasha Smith, Jill Scott, Louis Gossett Jr., Malik Yoba, Michael Jai White, Sharon Leal, Richard T. Jones, Lamman Rucker, and Cicely Tyson. Produced by Lionsgate and Tyler Perry Studios, it is the sequel to Why Did I Get Married? (2007). The film shares the interactions of four couples who undertake a week-long retreat to improve their relationships.

<i>China Lake</i> (film) 1983 American psychological thriller film

China Lake is a 1983 psychological thriller film starring Charles Napier as a deranged police officer who rides around on a motorbike "targeting" people that have offended him in some way while vacationing near the film's titular location of China Lake.

<i>Gangster Squad</i> (film) 2013 film by Ruben Fleischer

Gangster Squad is a 2013 American action thriller film directed by Ruben Fleischer and written by Will Beall, based on a non-fiction book by Paul Lieberman. The film stars Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña and Sean Penn. Set in 1949, a group of real-life LAPD officers and detectives called the Gangster Squad are assigned to bring down crime kingpin Mickey Cohen.

References

  1. "American Strays (1996) - IMDb". Archived from the original on 25 April 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-04.
  2. "American Strays (1996) - IMDb". Archived from the original on 25 April 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-04.
  3. 1 2 "American Strays - Box Office Mojo" . Retrieved 2020-04-14.
  4. "American Strays". 1996-09-13. Retrieved 2020-04-14.