The Experts | |
---|---|
![]() poster artwork by Drew Struzan | |
Directed by | Dave Thomas |
Screenplay by |
|
Story by |
|
Produced by | James Keach |
Starring | John Travolta Arye Gross Kelly Preston Deborah Foreman James Keach Charles Martin Smith |
Cinematography | Ronnie Taylor |
Edited by | Bud Molin |
Music by | Marvin Hamlisch |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 94 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages |
|
Budget | $13 million [1] |
Box office | $169,203 |
The Experts is a 1989 American comedy film starring John Travolta, Arye Gross and Kelly Preston. It was written by Steven Greene, Eric Alter, and Nick Thiel and directed by Dave Thomas. During production there were several uncredited rewrites of the script performed by Thomas at the request of Paramount chief Ned Tanen.
In the Soviet Union on the eve of Perestroika, groups of potential Soviet spies are trained in a town made up to pass for "Indian Springs", Nebraska. The denizens of the town speak perfect English and go about their days as Americans to train the cadets to fit into American society. One of the trainers in this town, KGB agent Cameron Smith, feels that the training is substandard as the town has failed to develop culturally since its inception and is stuck in the 1950s.
In order to rectify the situation, Smith hires New York City club-goers (and aspiring club-owners) Travis and Wendell to teach modern ways to the outdated town under the auspices of opening a nightclub. The two are drugged en route and wake up in Russia unaware they have left the United States. Travis and Wendell are bemused by the quaint ways of the town and dismayed when they see the location Smith has procured for them (a 50s-style tiki lounge), but they set to work remodeling the club to look more up to date for the 1980s, begin to make friends around the town and even start to date a couple of the trainees, Bonnie and Jill.
At the urging of Travis and Wendell, Smith brings in a shipment of top-of-the-line accoutrements and entertainment to modernize the town. This does not sit well with town leader Jones and the town's minister Sparks. After a Fourth of July party in which the young people of the town (trainees and residents alike) trespass at a local lake to have a party at Travis and Wendell's urging, the two get lost and stumble upon a military base where everyone is speaking Russian and realize they are actually in the Soviet Union. The two decide to go to Bonnie and Jill for help despite knowing that they are spies, each one asserting that their feelings are real. While Bonnie reveals she has fallen in love with Travis and agrees to help him, Jill promptly turns them in.
While in prison the pair meet Yuri, the pilot who flew the cargo plane that delivered the modern conveniences, and who was promptly imprisoned for it. Travis and Wendell are brought before the town, and under pain of death are made to renounce their country and democracy. When the two cannot bring themselves to do it and instead extol American life, they inspire the town residents, including Smith and Bonnie, to revolt and overthrow their leaders. After a shootout and subsequent chase (wherein Yuri has to go out on the wing as the plane taxis down the runway), the expatriates escape and make national headlines when they land in America and defect. Some time later the town's residents are living it up in New York City, but Travis is uneasy, thinking that they may be missing their old lifestyle. Realizing that there probably is a town in America just like the one in Russia, the whole group relocates to the actual Nebraska, and resume their lives as Americans, this time for real. Travis (with Bonnie in tow) and Wendell proceed to return to New York.
The Experts was a massive box office bomb; its budget was estimated at $13 million and domestic box office was only $169,203. [2] Paramount executives had initially planned a wide release for the film but were so horrified with how bad the final version was, they scaled back the theatrical rollout to less than 100 theatres. The studio also pulled all of its advertising plans and put no effort into convincing theatres to keep the movie for more than a few weeks.
The film was panned by critics. Jack Sommersby from "eFilm Critic" wrote: "No, The Experts isn't likely to inspire world peace or serve as a building block for the cure for diabetes, but it goes down well enough and never makes the mistake of having Travis or Wendell "mature" for the sole sake of doing so, and that's what makes them such a consistently-winning pair of heroes you can happily get behind." [3]
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a local discothèque while dealing with social tensions and disillusionment in his working class ethnic neighborhood in Brooklyn. The story is based on "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night", a mostly fictional 1976 New York article by music writer Nik Cohn.
Arthur is a 1981 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Steve Gordon. It stars Dudley Moore as Arthur Bach, a drunken New York City millionaire who is on the brink of an arranged marriage to a wealthy heiress but ends up falling for a common working-class young woman from Queens. It was the sole film directed by Gordon, who died in 1982 of a heart attack at age 44.
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! is a 2004 American romantic comedy film directed by Robert Luketic, written by Victor Levin and starring Kate Bosworth, Topher Grace, Josh Duhamel, Gary Cole, Ginnifer Goodwin, Sean Hayes and Nathan Lane. The film follows a small-town girl (Bosworth) who wins a contest for a date with a male celebrity (Duhamel) and a love triangle forms between the girl, the star and the girl's best friend (Grace).
What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a 1993 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Lasse Hallström, and starring Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen, Leonardo DiCaprio and John C. Reilly. The film follows the story of Gilbert, a 25-year-old grocery store clerk who is caring for his morbidly obese mother, as well as his mentally disabled younger brother, Arnie. The film takes place in the fictional rural town of Endora, Iowa.
Sommersby is a 1993 period romantic drama directed by Jon Amiel from a screenplay written by Nicholas Meyer and Sarah Kernochan, adapted from the historical account of the 16th century French peasant Martin Guerre. Based on the 1982 French film The Return of Martin Guerre, the film stars Richard Gere and Jodie Foster, with Bill Pullman, James Earl Jones, Clarice Taylor, Frankie Faison, and R. Lee Ermey in supporting roles. Set in the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War, the film depicts a farmer returning home from the war, with his wife beginning to suspect that the man is an impostor while also falling in love with him.
Domestic Disturbance is a 2001 American psychological thriller film directed by Harold Becker and starring John Travolta, Vince Vaughn, Teri Polo, Steve Buscemi, and Matt O'Leary.
Urban Cowboy is a 1980 American romantic Western film directed by James Bridges. The plot concerns the love-hate relationship between Buford "Bud" Davis and Sissy. The film's success was credited for spurring a mainstream revival of country music. Much of the action revolves around activities at Gilley's Club, a football-field-sized honky tonk in Pasadena, Texas.
Basic is a 2003 crime-action thriller film directed by John McTiernan, written by James Vanderbilt, and starring John Travolta, Connie Nielsen and Samuel L. Jackson. It is the second film starring Travolta and Jackson after Pulp Fiction. The story follows a DEA agent solving the mystery of a bungled training exercise that leads to the deaths of multiple Army Ranger trainees and their instructor. Basic received negative reviews from critics regarding its overall plot and numerous twist endings. It was a box-office bomb, grossing only $42.8 million worldwide against a $50 million budget. As of 2024, it is McTiernan's most recent film given his subsequent criminal charges and eventual incarceration related to wiretapping.
Staying Alive is a 1983 American dance drama film and the sequel to Saturday Night Fever (1977). The film was directed by Sylvester Stallone, who co-produced and co-wrote the film with original Fever producer Robert Stigwood, and writer Norman Wexler. Staying Alive stars John Travolta, reprising his Saturday Night Fever role as Tony Manero, with Cynthia Rhodes, Finola Hughes, Joyce Hyser, Julie Bovasso, Viktor Manoel and Kevyn Morrow.
Reno 911!: Miami is a 2007 American cop comedy film based on Comedy Central's Reno 911! series, directed by series co-creator Robert Ben Garant. The film stars Garant alongside Carlos Alazraqui, Mary Birdsong, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Niecy Nash and Cedric Yarbrough.
Wild Hogs is a 2007 American biker road comedy film directed by Walt Becker and starring Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy. It was released nationwide in the United States and Canada on March 2, 2007.
Gossip is a 2000 American teen psychological thriller film directed by Davis Guggenheim, and starring James Marsden, Lena Headey, Norman Reedus and Kate Hudson. The film follows a trio of college students who decide to start a rumor for a class assignment and track its circulation, but the rumor results in grave consequences and spirals out of control. The film was a box office disappointment and received negative reviews.
Meet Wally Sparks is a 1997 American comedy film directed by Peter Baldwin, written by Harry Basil and Rodney Dangerfield. It stars Dangerfield in the title role, with Debi Mazar, Michael Weatherly, Cindy Williams, Alan Rachins, Burt Reynolds and David Ogden Stiers costarring.
Resident Evil: Afterlife is a 2010 action horror film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. It is the second film in the series that he directed, after the first film. A direct sequel to Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), it is the fourth installment in the Resident Evil film series, which is loosely based on the video game series of the same name, and the first to be shot in 3D. It stars Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Spencer Locke, Boris Kodjoe, and Wentworth Miller.
Old Dogs is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Walt Becker, and starring Robin Williams and John Travolta, with an ensemble supporting cast played by Kelly Preston, Seth Green, Ella Bleu Travolta in her film debut, Lori Laughlin and Matt Dillon. It was released in theaters on November 25, 2009 and it was released on March 9, 2010 on DVD.
Quarantine is a 2008 found footage zombie film directed and co-written by John Erick Dowdle, produced by Sergio Aguero, Doug Davison, and Roy Lee, and co-written by Drew Dowdle, being a remake of the 2007 Spanish film Rec. The film stars Jennifer Carpenter, Jay Hernandez, Columbus Short, Greg Germann, Steve Harris, Dania Ramirez, Rade Šerbedžija, and Johnathon Schaech. It follows a reporter and her cameraman assigned to a pair of Los Angeles firemen who follow a distress call to an apartment building where they discover a deadly mutated strain of rabies spreading among the building's occupants; escape becomes impossible once the government descends upon the building to prevent the virus from spreading beyond it, and the pair continue to record the events that unfold inside, of which the film itself is the result. Quarantine features no actual musical score, using only sound effects, and differs in its characters, dialogue, and explanation of the virus from its source material.
The Crazies is a 2010 science fiction horror film directed by Breck Eisner from a screenplay from Scott Kosar and Ray Wright. The film is a remake of the 1973 film of the same name and stars Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson and Danielle Panabaker. George A. Romero, who wrote and directed the original, served as an executive producer. It is about a fictional Iowa town that becomes afflicted by a biological agent that turns those infected into violent killers. The film was released on February 26, 2010, and grossed $54 million on a $20 million budget. It received mixed reviews according to Metacritic, with the critical summary on Rotten Tomatoes calling the film "tense, nicely shot, and uncommonly intelligent".
Shout is a 1991 American musical romance film directed by Jeffrey Hornaday and starring John Travolta as a music teacher who introduces rock and roll to a west Texas home for boys in 1955.
Big Miracle, originally Everybody Loves Whales, is a 2012 drama film directed by Ken Kwapis. It stars Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski. The film is based on Tom Rose's 1989 book Freeing the Whales, which covers Operation Breakthrough, the 1988 international effort to rescue gray whales trapped in ice near Point Barrow, Alaska.
Rings is a 2017 American supernatural horror film directed by F. Javier Gutiérrez and written by David Loucka, Jacob Aaron Estes and Akiva Goldsman. It is the third installment in The Ring series and is based on elements of Spiral by Kōji Suzuki. It stars Matilda Lutz as a young woman who finds herself on the receiving end of a terrifying curse that threatens to take her life in seven days. Alex Roe, Johnny Galecki, Aimee Teegarden, Bonnie Morgan and Vincent D'Onofrio also star in supporting roles.