Pass the Ammo

Rating: 6
Tony Rating: 7

Summary/Review:

This one's worth seeing, if only for the inspired casting of Tim Curry as the television evangelist Rev. Ray Porter. He and his wife Darla (Annie Potts!) run a religious network out of a small town in Arkansas. They fill their program with elaborate musical numbers, and Darla gives Tammy Faye Baker a run for her money. One day, a group of robbers decide they're going to rob the station for all the money the evangelist takes in. Bill Paxton plays the leader, Jesse, whose girlfriend's grandmother was swindled by this evangelist before she died. Jesse and his girlfriend Claire and her two stupid cousins infiltrate the station, then end up with a hostage situation on their hands as they accidentally come out on the stage in view of the cameras. They take over the station and succeed in exposing the fraudulent evangelist and his wife to the viewing audience, but in the end, they are surrounded by the National Guard on one side and the local militia on the other. The cousins make it out alive, as do all the hostages, but Jesse and Claire are seemingly killed in the explosions/gunfire of the oncoming troops. We realize later, as does the local sheriff, that it was all a ruse, conveniently taped by the engineer, and that they have made it out alive and free.

Anthony Geary:

Stonewall: "It don't matter where you're at outside. Only thing that counts? Where you're at inside."

Geary plays the engineer named Stonewall. He has long dark/greying hair, kind of bushy, with a full beard and wire rimmed glasses. Along the way, he makes pals with one of the stupid cousins, and they play with the images on the editing screens: taking the preacher's head off, etc. When his director criticizes him, he says he's just trying to stay alive, but ends up sharing some marijuana with the cousin, much to the director's chagrin--so they stuff him in a booth. Finally, as I said, he aids in the illusion that Jesse and Claire are dead, and shares a very cute smile with the sheriff over his recognition of the truth.

Pass the Ammo on the IMDB