A writer of BAD detective novels is in full writers' block. He pretends to be the alibi of a beautiful woman who was arrested for murder at first thinking her innocent, but as she shows ... See full summary »
Director:
Bruce Beresford
Stars:
Tom Selleck,
Paulina Porizkova,
William Daniels
In the near future, a police officer specializes in malfunctioning robots. When a robot turns out to have been programmed to kill, he begins to uncover a homicidal plot to create killer robots... and his son becomes a target.
Sharpshooter Matt Quigley is hired from Wyoming by an Australian rancher paying a very high price. But when Quigley arrives Down Under, all is not as it seems.
Director:
Simon Wincer
Stars:
Tom Selleck,
Laura San Giacomo,
Alan Rickman
A fascinating journey to China with Gesher Theater and their play "village". This is the first time that Gesher theater embarks on a month to China to present "village" to the Chinese ... See full summary »
Director:
Albert Gabay
Stars:
Henry David,
Israel Sasha Demidov,
Mickey Leon
Jack Elliot, once a great baseball player, is forced to play in Japan where his brash, egotistical ways cause friction with his new teammates and friends.
Monte Walsh and Chet Rollins are long-time cowhands, working whatever ranch work comes their way, but "nothing they can't do from a horse." Their lives are divided between months on the ... See full summary »
Director:
Simon Wincer
Stars:
Tom Selleck,
Isabella Rossellini,
Keith Carradine
After the Civil War, two brothers demobilized from the army return home and must rescue certain relatives who have been kidnapped by a band of renegade Confederates.
Satan's bug, a deadly pathogen, is being developed in a secret Nazi laboratory underneath a vineyard in an occupied French village during WWII. A team of allied operatives must infiltrate ... See full summary »
Director:
Lou Antonio
Stars:
James Whitmore Jr.,
Tom Selleck,
Joseph Ruskin
After the Civil War, a returning Confederate veteran must reclaim his Arizona land and homestead from the Yankee carpetbaggers who illegally occupy it.
A biplane pilot is saddled with a spoiled industrialist's daughter on a search for her missing father through Asia that eventually involves them in a struggle against a Chinese warlord.Written by
Keith Loh <loh@sfu.ca>
The majority of the picture was shot in the former nation-state of Yugoslavia. Locations in the country portrayed several others including settings in Nepal, China, Turkey, India, and Afghanistan. See more »
Goofs
Aircraft from this era did not have electrical starters. See more »
The best thing about "High Road to China" is that it does not try to change the world by making a social statement. It does not try to do anything but be an escape for moviegoers. Is it a perfect film? No. But this is one of my favorite films because it does just that - it allows me to escape. This much under-appreciated movie tells an excellent story: a rich brat living in the Roaring 20's hires a flying ace to find her father in a remote part of China. From a cinemagraphic point-of-view, it is a very good-looking film. Bess Armstrong never looked better on screen. And although her character of Eve Tozer is not always believable, I liked her as the rich brat who thinks everything has its price. I was never a Tom Selleck fan, but as Patrick O'Malley, he makes the perfect flying daredevil - a hard drinker who has trouble showing that he has a heart. The late Jack Weston, who was one of the better character actors of our modern times, is perfectly cast as the sidekick mechanic Struts. And the late Robert Morley provides good comic relief in the midst of being the heavy.
The movie simply looks good with its gorgeous locations and colors. The flying sequences - especially the dogfight between O'Malley and the German ace (complete with references to the famous Red Baron) is first-rate, and the battle scenes are shot very well. The pace of the film is not always even, but one sequence after another has our protagonists in some dire predicament. And it is fun watching them try and get out of each one. It should have done better at the box office, for the film is still a favorite of cable movie channels and people who discover it on video for the first time. I would recommend this film to anyone, because it is simply a little gem and a wonderful film for movie buffs who wish to escape.
24 of 24 people found this review helpful.
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The best thing about "High Road to China" is that it does not try to change the world by making a social statement. It does not try to do anything but be an escape for moviegoers. Is it a perfect film? No. But this is one of my favorite films because it does just that - it allows me to escape. This much under-appreciated movie tells an excellent story: a rich brat living in the Roaring 20's hires a flying ace to find her father in a remote part of China. From a cinemagraphic point-of-view, it is a very good-looking film. Bess Armstrong never looked better on screen. And although her character of Eve Tozer is not always believable, I liked her as the rich brat who thinks everything has its price. I was never a Tom Selleck fan, but as Patrick O'Malley, he makes the perfect flying daredevil - a hard drinker who has trouble showing that he has a heart. The late Jack Weston, who was one of the better character actors of our modern times, is perfectly cast as the sidekick mechanic Struts. And the late Robert Morley provides good comic relief in the midst of being the heavy.
The movie simply looks good with its gorgeous locations and colors. The flying sequences - especially the dogfight between O'Malley and the German ace (complete with references to the famous Red Baron) is first-rate, and the battle scenes are shot very well. The pace of the film is not always even, but one sequence after another has our protagonists in some dire predicament. And it is fun watching them try and get out of each one. It should have done better at the box office, for the film is still a favorite of cable movie channels and people who discover it on video for the first time. I would recommend this film to anyone, because it is simply a little gem and a wonderful film for movie buffs who wish to escape.