A Silver Odyssey: 25 Years of Houston Astros Baseball (1987)
Similar movies
In this biographical drama, Selena Quintanilla is born into a musical Mexican-American family in Texas. Her father, Abraham, realizes that his young daughter is talented and begins performing with her at small venues. She finds success and falls for her guitarist, Chris Perez, who draws the ire of her father. Seeking mainstream stardom, Selena begins recording an English-language album which, tragically, she would never complete.
Actor Dustin Hoffman narrates this decade-spanning documentary that highlights the contributions of Jewish Americans to the most American sport of them all: baseball. Highlights include a rare interview with legendary pitcher Sandy Koufax.
THUNDER SOUL tells the true story of Conrad O. Johnson and the legendary Kashmere Stage Band. It was afros, pleated pants and platform shoes; James Brown, Sly Stone and Bootsy Collins. It was the â70s, and an inner-city Houston high school was about to make history. Charismatic band leader, Conrad âProfâ Johnson would turn the schoolâs mediocre jazz band into a legendary, world-class funk powerhouse. Now, 35 years later, his students prepare to pay tribute to the man who changed their lives, the 92-year-old Prof. Some havenât played their horns in decades, still they dust off their instruments determined to retake the stage to show Prof and the world that theyâve still got it.
The life and tragic death of Whitney Houston.
The absurd true story of the legal battle over the "Million-Dollar Baseball." Barry Bonds' record setting 73rd home run ball sparks a melee in the stands at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco. One guy caught the ball, another guy ended up with it. Who is the rightful owner? The lawyers can't agree; the fans can't agree; even the wisened professors of property law can't agree. This is a story documenting the hilarious lengths to which someone will go for a baseball, and the few fans that will put their lives on hold for years, staking everything on one judge's decision.
The cold war, the space race, and NASAâs moon landing are landmark events that defined an era. But they are also fodder for conspiracy theories.
In Houston, We Have a Problem! filmmaker Žiga Virc adds new material to the discussion on both fronts. This intriguing docu-fiction explores the myth of the secret multi-billion-dollar deal behind Americaâs purchase of Yugoslaviaâs clandestine space program in the early 1960s.
Shut Up and Sing is a documentary about the country band from Texas called the Dixie Chicks and how one tiny comment against President Bush dropped their number one hit off the charts and caused fans to hate them, destroy their CDâs, and protest at their concerts. A film about freedom of speech gone out of control and the three girls lives that were forever changed by a small anti-Bush comment
Baseball, Dennis & the French tells the true story of Paul Croshaw, longtime liberal activist and connoisseur of French films, who amazed his family, friends and himself by becoming a churchgoing, conservative Christian after years of listening to nationally syndicated radio host Dennis Prager.
- Written by B. Deters
Spike Lee pays tribute to Michael Jackson's Bad on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the epochal album, offering behind-the-scenes footage of Jackson recording the album and interviews with confidants, musicians, choreographers, and such music-world superstars as Kanye West, Sheryl Crow, Cee Lo Green and Mariah Carey.
Documentary examining what happens to some of the biggest names in the history of the adult entertainment industry after they leave the business and try and live "normal" lives.
Brewster is an owlish, intellectual boy who lives in a fallout shelter of the Houston Astrodome. He has a dream: to take flight within the confines of the stadium. Brewster tells those he trusts of his dream, but displays a unique way of treating others who do not fit within his plans.
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
Based on the 1836 standoff between a group of Texan and Tejano men, led by Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, and Mexican dictator Santa Anna's forces at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
Carrie Watts is living the twilight of her life trapped in an apartment in 1940's Houston, Texas with a controlling daughter-in-law and a hen-pecked son. Her fondest wish -- just once before she dies -- is to revisit Bountiful, the small Texas town of her youth which she still refers to as "home."
A Texas oil driller schemes to steal millions of dollars in oil.
Minor leaguer Carlton Garret takes an unexpected road trip to track down his estranged father, legendary baseball player Kyle Garret when Carltonâs mother becomes sick. Once reunited, Carlton struggles to deal with the series of misadventures caused by his fatherâs antics. Attempts at bonding come to a head as the mismatched duo make their way from Ohio back home to Houston to reunite the family.
Jim Morris never made it out of the minor leagues before a shoulder injury ended his pitching career twelve years ago. Now a married-with-children high-school chemistry teacher and baseball coach in Texas, Jim's team makes a deal with him: if they win the district championship, Jim will try out with a major-league organization. The bet proves incentive enough for the team, and they go from worst to first, making it to state for the first time in the history of the school. Jim, forced to live up to his end of the deal, is nearly laughed off the try-out field--until he gets onto the mound, where he confounds the scouts (and himself) by clocking successive 98 mph fastballs, good enough for a minor-league contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Jim's still got a lot of pitches to throw before he makes it to The Show, but with his big-league dreams revived, there's no telling where he could go.
Jack Elliot, a one-time MVP for the New York Yankees is now on the down side of his baseball career. With a falling batting average, does he have one good year left and can the manager of the Chunichi Dragons, a Japanese Central baseball league find it in him?
Two escaped convicts roll into the town of Happy, Texas where they pose as gay couple to elude the local sheriff who has a few sexual secrets of his own.
Small-town sisters Dottie and Kit join an all-female baseball league formed after World War II brings pro baseball to a standstill. When their team hits the road with its drunken coach, the siblings find troubles and triumphs on and off the field.
Two Virginians are heading for a new life in Texas when they witness a stagecoach being held up. They decide to rob the robbers and make off with the loot. To escape a posse, they split up and don't see each other again for a long time. When they do meet up again, they find themselves on different sides of the law. This leads to the increasing estrangement of the two men, who once thought of themselves as brothers.
An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league in this magical sports fantasy. With the aid of a bat cut from a lightning struck tree, Hobbs lives the fame he should have had earlier when, as a rising pitcher, he is inexplicably shot by a young woman.
Four guys, best friends, have grown up together in DANCER, TEXAS POP. 81, a tiny town in West Texas. Years ago, they made a solemn vow to leave town together as soon as they graduate. Now, it's that weekend and the time has come to "put up or shut up." The clock is ticking and as all 81 people in the town watch, comment, offer advice and place bets, these four very different boys with unique backgrounds struggle with the biggest decision of their lives... whether to stay or leave home.
At Mr. Rad's Warehouse, the best hip-hop crews in Los Angeles compete for money and respect. But when a suburban crew crashes the party, stealing their dancers - and their moves - two warring friends have to pull together to represent the street. Starring hip-hop sensations Marques Houston, Omari Grandberry, Lil' Kim and comedian Steve Harvey.
Scotty Smalls moves to a new neighborhood with his mom and stepdad, and wants to learn to play baseball. The neighborhood baseball guru Rodriquez takes Smalls under his wing. They fall into adventures involving baseball, treehouse sleep-ins, the desirous lifeguard at the local pool, the snooty rival ball team, and the travelling fair.
A radio host is victimized by the cannibal family as a former Texas Marshall hunts them.
Don Knotts is Roy Fleming, a small town kiddie-ride operator who is deathly afraid of heights. After learning that his father has signed him up for the space program, Roy reluctantly heads for Houston, only to find out upon arriving that his job is a janitor, not an astronaut. Anxious to live up to the expectations of his domineering father, Roy manages to keep up a facade of being an astronaut to his family and friends. When NASA decides to launch a lay person into space to prove the worthiness of a new automated spacecraft, Roy gets the chance to confront his fears.
"42" is the powerful story of Jackie Robinson, the legendary baseball player who broke Major League Baseball's color barrier when he joined the roster of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The film follows the innovative Dodger's general manager Branch Rickey, the MLB executive who first signed Robinson to the minors and then helped to bring him up to the show.
A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his family and disappeared four years earlier.
Queer Duck: The Movie is the relentlessly funny, feature-length extension of the animated series Queer Duck, created by frequent The Simpsons scripter Mike Reiss. Sexually scandalous yet sweet, the movie is a cascade of pop-culture stereotypes of gays in America, punctuated by rapid-fire references (as with The Simpsons) to, well, just about everything: classic movies, game shows, Gilbert and Sullivan, Paul Lynde. Hey, there's even a storyline: Queer Duck (voiced by Jim J. Bullock) and his partner of 18 months ("That's a lifetime in gay years"), Harvey Fierstein sound-alike Stephen Arlo "Openly" Gator (Kevin Michael Richardson), hit a relationship crisis when the fey fowl is wooed by a brassy Broadway broad. Queer Duck wonders if he'd be happier being straight. While Gator the waiter spills his problems to a compassionate Conan O'Brien (thanks for the cameo)...
The story of the life and career of the famed baseball player, Lou Gehrig.
Ten years after the Civil War has ended, the Governor of Texas asks Leander McNelly (McDermott) to form a company of Rangers to help uphold the law along the Mexican border. With a few veterans of the war (Patrick, Travis), most of the recruits are young men (Van Der Beek, Kutcher, Raymond) who have little or no experience with guns or policing crime.
Technical troubles scuttle the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1971, risking the lives of astronaut Jim Lovell and his crew in director Ron Howard's chronicle of this true-life story, which turns a failed journey into a thrilling saga of heroism. Drifting more than 200,000 miles from Earth, the astronauts work furiously with the ground crew to avert tragedy.
True story of Kent Stock, who in the early 90's, gives up a job and ditches his wedding plans to take over as head coach as the Norway High School baseball team. Kent must win over his players and convince them and himself that he can fill their former coach's shoes and that they can go out winners. In the summer of 1991 Norway High's baseball tradition ended on a triumphant but sombre note.
In this re-imagining of Shakespear's King Lear, Patrick Steward stars as John Lear, a Texas cattle baron, who, after dividing his wealth among his three daughters, is rejected by them.
The story of Sam Houston, hero of the Texas revolution, statesman, and first president of the Republic of Texas.
Veteran catcher Crash Davis is brought to the minor league Durham Bulls to help their up and coming pitching prospect, "Nuke" Laloosh. Their relationship gets off to a rocky start and is further complicated when baseball groupie Annie Savoy sets her sights on the two men.
A young woman learns that she has inherited a Texas estate from her deceased grandmother. After embarking on a road trip with friends to uncover her roots, she finds she is the sole owner of a lavish, isolated Victorian mansion. But her newfound wealth comes at a price as she stumbles upon a horror that awaits her in the mansionâs dank cellars.
At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he fell in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.
Slowed by age and failing eyesight, crack baseball scout Gus Lobel takes his grown daughter along as he checks out the final prospect of his career. Along the way, the two renew their bond, and she catches the eye of a young player-turned-scout.
The Louisiana wedding of debutante Phoebe Ann Naylor to Don Andrea de Baldasar, El Duce de la Casala is stopped by the Cavalry over a matter of honor. Don Andrea flees across the river to Texas, where he meets up with Sam Hollis and his Indian sidekick, Kronk, who are carrying rifles to the town of Moccasin Flats. Don Andrea rescues an Indian maiden, Lonetta, tames some longhorns, competes with Sam for Phoebe's affections, eludes a Comanche war party and the cavalry (who have come to Moccasin Flats to celebrate Texas' statehood) and ultimately saves the town and gets his girl.
Hard Hat Days Honky-Tonk Nights. John Travolta stars as a young man from the country who learns about life and love in a Houston bar.
Aging baseball star who goes by the nickname, Mr. 3000, finds out many years after retirement that he didn't quite reach 3,000 hits. Now at age 47 he's back to try and reach that goal.
Summer, 1984: 30 years after Duane captained the high school football team and Jacy was homecoming queen, this Texas town near Wichita Falls prepares for its centennial. Oil prices are down, banks are failing, and Duane's $12 million in debt. His wife Karla drinks too much, his children are always in trouble, and he tom-cats around with the wives of friends. Jacy's back in town, after a mildly successful acting career, life in Italy, and the death of her son. Folks assume Duane and Jacy will resume their high school romance. And Sonny is "tired in his mind," causing worries for his safety. Can these friends find equilibrium in middle age?
A scientist discovers a formula that makes a baseball which is repelled by wood. He promptly sets out to exploit his discovery.
Jack Caine is a Houston vice cop who's forgotten the rule book. His self-appointed mission is to stop the drugs trade and the number one supplier Victor Manning. Whilst involved in an undercover operation to entrap Victor Manning, his partner gets killed, and a sinister newcomer enters the scene...
Director Robert Mulligan's 1957 biographical drama stars Anthony Perkins as Jimmy Piersall, the baseball player whose career was interrupted by his battle with mental illness. The cast also includes Karl Malden, Norma Moore, Adam Williams and Perry Wilson.
The tough gun-man Burt Sullivan (Franco Nero) leaves his job as a town sheriff to go to Mexico to find the man, Cisco, who killed his father many years ago. He and his younger brother arrive in a small town where everybody is afraid of Cisco who has become the local landowner. But there is a secret. It turns out that Cisco is the father of Burt's younger brother and Cisco are craving for respect from his "son". Burt Sullivan joins forces with the local townspeople to stop and bring Cisco back to his punishment in Texas.
Pop sensation Whitney Houston captured live in concert in 1991. Amongst the hits performed are 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' and 'Saving All My Love For You'.
The actual members of the Hong Kong Baseball Team all prove themselves to be natural actors by playing themselves in this fictional youth drama set in 2004. In a city where baseball culture is non-existent, these baseball players are a minority by choice. The experience teaches them to be free-thinkers in dealing with love, friendship and their own sexuality. It also enables them to find the will to live in the face of death and the strength to conquer losing in a spectatorless sport.
Married small-time crooks Lou-Jean and Clovis Poplin lose their baby to the state of Texas and resolve to do whatever it takes to get him back. Lou-Jean gets Clovis out of jail, and the two steal their son from his foster home, in addition to taking a highway patrolman hostage. As a massive dragnet starts to pursue them across Texas, the couple become unlikely folk heroes and even start to bond with the captive policeman.
"If the voice is a musical instrument," Time magazine once said, "hers is a Stradivarius." Yet Whitney Houston is so much more than just a legendary voice. As a singer, performer, actress and style icon, she has captivated the world like no other artist in history.
12-year-old Henry Rowengartner, whose late father was a minor league baseball player, grew up dreaming of playing baseball, despite his physical shortcomings. After Henry's arm is broken while trying to catch a baseball at school, the tendon in that arm heals too tightly, allowing Henry to throw pitches that are as fast as 103 mph. Henry is spotted at nearby Wrigley Field by Larry "Fish" Fisher, the general manager of the struggling Chicago Cubs, after Henry throws an opponent's home-run ball all the way from the outfield bleachers back to the catcher, and it seems that Henry may be the pitcher that team owner Bob Carson has been praying for.
The town sheriff and a madame team up to stop a television evangelist from shutting down the local whorehouse, the famed "Chicken Ranch."
Following a series of drug deals and murders, three criminals -- Fantasia, Ray Malcolm and Pluto -- travel from Los Angeles to Houston, finally arriving in a small Arkansas town to go into hiding. Two detectives from the LAPD, who are already on the case, contact the town's sheriff, Dale Dixon, to alert him of the fugitives' presence in the area. Underestimating Dixon, the criminals have no idea what they are about to face.
Ray Kinsella is an Iowa farmer who hears a mysterious voice telling him to turn his cornfield into a baseball diamond. He does, but the voice's directions don't stop -- even after the spirits of deceased ballplayers turn up to play.
Five friends visiting their grandfather's house in the country are hunted and terrorized by a chain-saw wielding killer and his family of grave-robbing cannibals.
In a last-ditch effort to save his career, sports agent JB Bernstein (Jon Hamm) dreams up a wild game plan to find Major League Baseballâs next great pitcher from a pool of cricket players in India. He soon discovers two young men who can throw a fastball but know nothing about the game of baseball. Or America. Itâs an incredible and touching journey that will change them all â especially JB, who learns valuable lessons about teamwork, commitment and family.
Five college buddies from the University of Texas circa 1971 embark on a final road trip odyssey across the Mexican border before facing up to uncertain futures, in Vietnam and otherwise.
A former Secret Service agent grudgingly takes an assignment to protect a pop idol who's threatened by a crazed fan. At first, the safety-obsessed bodyguard and the self-indulgent diva totally clash. But before long, all that tension sparks fireworks of another sort, and the love-averse tough guy is torn between duty and romance.
© Valossa 2015–2024