Ticket to Heaven | |
---|---|
Directed by | Ralph L. Thomas |
Written by | Josh Freed Anne Cameron Ralph L. Thomas |
Produced by | Alan Simmonds Vivienne Leebosh Ronald Cohen |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Richard Leiterman |
Edited by | Ron Wisman |
Music by | Micky Erbe Maribeth Solomon |
Distributed by | Miracle Films Ltd (Canada), United Artists (US and other nations) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 109 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
Budget | C$4,500,000 [1] |
Ticket to Heaven is a 1981 Canadian drama film directed by Ralph L. Thomas and starring Nick Mancuso, Saul Rubinek, Meg Foster, Kim Cattrall, and R.H. Thomson. The plot concerns the recruiting of a man into a group portrayed to be a religious cult, and his life in the group until forcibly extracted by his family and friends. The film is based on the nonfiction book Moonwebs by Josh Freed.
Following a relationship breakup, David Kappel, a twentysomething school teacher, visits what turns out to be a training camp for a religious cult. At the camp, everything is done in groups, including chanting and singing. There is also a low-calorie, low-protein diet; sleep deprivation; and constant positive reinforcement. [2]
All of the elements of the camp begin to have an effect on David mentally. He graduates and is put to work as a volunteer laborer for the cult. In an especially powerful scene, he vomits up a hamburger and milkshake which he had just eaten in violation of cult dietary guidelines. [3]
David sets out to work, led by cult leader Patrick. David is shocked when Patrick lies to a customer, but Patrick explains that they are only "using Satan's methods to do God's work", and that it is okay because "it's only Satan's money we're taking." [3]
David's best friend Larry and his parents, Morley and Esther, are concerned about him. Larry visits the cult's camp and almost falls under their influence as well. He escapes with the help of Eric, a fellow camp attendee who befriends him. The latter reveals he has been visiting various cult camps, trying to find his sister. Once free, Larry returns home.
David's parents, Larry, Eric, and some other friends forcibly kidnap David, bringing him to a private home in the area and enlisting the aid of a cult deprogrammer, Linc Strunk, to help him regain his normal mindset. After some struggle, David slowly comes to recognize the cult's dishonesty and mistreatment. He is confused and when he asks about "true love", he is told that he only needs to look around him: at Larry, his brother Danny, Sarah, his parents, and everything they've done for him, and still are enduring for him. Crying, he embraces them all. Everyone reunites and embraces outside the deprogramming house, while several cult members watch from a distance.
The film was selected as one of the top ten films of 1981 by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.[ citation needed ] Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half out of four stars, but added that the ending was less interesting and powerful than the earlier cult indoctrination scenes. [2] Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it "an absorbing, frightening, entirely believable movie, which is particularly amazing in view of its subject matter." [3]
On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 78%, based on reviews from 9 critics. [4]
Ticket to Heaven was nominated for fourteen 1982 Genie Awards, and won four :
The Family Man is a 2000 American romantic fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Brett Ratner, from a screenplay by David Diamond and David Weissman. The film stars Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni, with Don Cheadle, Saul Rubinek, and Jeremy Piven in supporting roles.
Kim Victoria Cattrall is a British and Canadian actress. She is known for her portrayal of Samantha Jones on HBO's Sex and the City (1998–2004), for which she received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning the 2002 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. She reprised the role in the feature films Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010), as well as in a cameo on the spin-off series And Just Like That... (2023).
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, also known as Furyo, is a 1983 war film co-written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima, co-written by Paul Mayersberg, and produced by Jeremy Thomas. The film is based on the experiences of Sir Laurens van der Post as a prisoner of war in Java during World War II, as depicted in his books The Seed and the Sower (1963) and The Night of the New Moon (1970). It stars David Bowie, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano and Jack Thompson; Sakamoto also composed and played the musical score including the vocal version of the main theme "Forbidden Colours", with lyrics written and sung by David Sylvian.
Mannequin is a 1987 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Gottlieb in his directorial debut, and written by Edward Rugoff and Gottlieb. It stars Andrew McCarthy, Kim Cattrall, Estelle Getty, Meshach Taylor, and G. W. Bailey. The original music score was composed by Sylvester Levay. The film revolves around a chronically underemployed passionate artist named Jonathan Switcher who lands a job as a department-store window dresser and the mannequin he created which becomes inhabited by the spirit of a woman from Ancient Egypt, but only comes alive for Jonathan.
Saul Hersh Rubinek is a Canadian actor, director, producer, and playwright.
Nicodemo Antonio Massimo Mancuso is an Italian-Canadian actor, artist, playwright, and director. Beginning his career as a stage actor, he had his breakthrough role in the 1981 drama Ticket to Heaven, for which he won the Genie Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor. He has over 155 film and television credits, including a starring role on the NBC series Stingray (1985–87) and as antichrist Franco Macalousso in the Apocalypse film series.
The Blob is a 1988 American science fiction horror film co-written and directed by Chuck Russell. A remake of the 1958 film of the same name, it stars Shawnee Smith, Kevin Dillon, Donovan Leitch, Jeffrey DeMunn, Paul McCrane, Art LaFleur, Robert Axelrod, Joe Seneca, Del Close and Candy Clark. The plot follows an acidic, amoeba-like organism that crashes down to Earth in a military satellite, which devours and dissolves anything in its path as it grows. Filmed in Abbeville, Louisiana, The Blob was theatrically released in August 1988 by Tri-Star Pictures and was a box office failure, grossing $8.2 million against its budget of approximately $10 million.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is a 1984 American slasher film directed by Joseph Zito, produced by Frank Mancuso Jr., and starring Kimberly Beck, Corey Feldman, Crispin Glover, and Peter Barton. It is the sequel to Friday the 13th Part III (1982) and the fourth installment in the Friday the 13th franchise. Picking up immediately after the events of the previous film, the plot follows a presumed-dead Jason Voorhees who escapes from the morgue and returns to Crystal Lake to continue his killing spree. The film marks the debut of the character Tommy Jarvis (Feldman), who would make further appearances in two sequels and related media, establishing him as Jason's archenemy.
South Central is a 1992 American crime-drama film, written and directed by Stephen Milburn Anderson. This film is an adaptation of the 1987 fiction novel, The Original South Central L.A. Crips by Donald Bakeer, a former high school teacher in South Central Los Angeles. The film stars Glenn Plummer, Byron Minns and Christian Coleman. South Central was produced by Oliver Stone and released by Warner Bros.
All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 is a 1996 American animated musical fantasy adventure film, and a sequel to Goldcrest Films' animated film All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989). Produced by MGM/UA Family Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation, it was co-directed by Paul Sabella and Larry Leker. Dom DeLuise reprises his role from the first film, alongside new cast members Charlie Sheen, Ernest Borgnine and Bebe Neuwirth, respectively. New characters are voiced by Sheena Easton, Adam Wylie and George Hearn.
Camp Nowhere is a 1994 American adventure comedy film directed by Jonathan Prince, written by Andrew Kurtzman and Eliot Wald, and stars Christopher Lloyd, Jonathan Jackson and Jessica Alba in her film debut.
Turk 182 is a 1985 American action comedy-drama film directed by Bob Clark and starring Timothy Hutton, Robert Urich, Kim Cattrall, Robert Culp, and Peter Boyle. It is also one of the first movies to receive a PG-13 rating.
Tribute is a 1980 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Bob Clark and starring Jack Lemmon as Scottie Templeton, a terminally ill Broadway agent trying to make amends with his family and friends. Robby Benson and Lee Remick co-star, with supporting roles Colleen Dewhurst, John Marley, Kim Cattrall, and Gale Garnett. It is based on the play of the same name by Bernard Slade, who also wrote the screenplay.
Young Doctors in Love is a 1982 American comedy film directed by Garry Marshall. It spoofs a variety of medical shows and has many guest stars from ABC soap operas.
Quest for Fire is a 1981 prehistoric fantasy adventure film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, written by Gérard Brach and starring Everett McGill, Ron Perlman, Nameer El-Kadi and Rae Dawn Chong. The Canadian-French co-production is a film adaptation of the 1911 Belgian novel The Quest for Fire by J.-H. Rosny. The story is set "80,000 years ago", with a plot concerning the struggle for control of fire by early humans.
Phobia is a 1980 Canadian horror-thriller film, directed by John Huston and starring Paul Michael Glaser.
Tex is a 1982 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Tim Hunter in his directorial debut, from a screenplay by Charles S. Haas and Hunter, based on S. E. Hinton's best-selling 1979 novel of the same name. It follows two teenage brothers in rural Oklahoma and their struggle to grow up after their mother's death and their father's departure. The film stars Matt Dillon in the title role, with Jim Metzler, Meg Tilly, Emilio Estevez, in his film debut, Bill McKinney, Frances Lee McCain and Ben Johnson in supporting roles. Metzler was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his performance.
Death Ship is a 1980 horror film directed by Alvin Rakoff and starring Richard Crenna, George Kennedy, Nick Mancuso, Sally Ann Howes, Kate Reid, Victoria Burgoyne, and Saul Rubinek in an early role. The screenplay by John Robins was based on a story by Jack Hill and David P. Lewis.
Funny About Love is a 1990 American romantic comedy film directed by Leonard Nimoy and starring Gene Wilder in his first romantic lead. With a screenplay by Norman Steinberg and David Frankel, the film is based on the article "Convention of the Love Goddesses" in Esquire Magazine by Bob Greene.
Drive Angry is a 2011 American action horror film in the grindhouse cinema tradition, directed by Patrick Lussier, who co-wrote it with Todd Farmer. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner, Billy Burke, Charlotte Ross, Katy Mixon, and Tom Atkins. Photographed in 3D, the film was released on February 25.