Frank Collison Movies

A bullied little boy grieving the death of his mother strikes up an unlikely friendship with a Metallica-loving anarchist in this tender yet unsentimental childhood drama. In the wake of his mother's recent death, 13-year-old TJ (Devin Brochu) finds the bumpy road to emotional recovery all the more difficult due to the dual facts that he’s bullied at school and that his father (Rainn Wilson) has become a vacant pill-head. Just when it seems like things couldn’t possibly get any worse, TJ strikes up an unusual friendship with Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a greasy-haired anarchist with a beat-up van, homemade tattoos, and a soft spot for explosions. The next thing TJ knows, Hesher is sitting in his living room and watching porn on the family television. Later, though, just as TJ summons the courage to pursue a friendship with Nicole (Natalie Portman), a kindly grocery-store clerk who came to his aid in a time of need, an explosive discovery threatens to propel the embattled teen down a dangerous path of self-destruction. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

M. Night Shyamalan, the creative mind behind The Sixth Sense and Signs, wrote and directed this characteristically atmospheric thriller. The rustic village of Covington is a small town in rural Pennsylvania that is home to 60 souls. The citizens of Covington lead a quiet and peaceful life, but not without an unusual caveat -- terrible creatures lurk just outside the borders of the village, and the people of Covington have reached an agreement of sorts with the beasts, in which they are allowed to go about their business as long as they never cross the village's boundaries. However, this precarious balance is upset when a headstrong young man, Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix), decides to find out what lies outside Covington, and unwittingly invites the wrath of the creatures upon the town. The Village also stars Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Adrien Brody, Judy Greer, and Bryce Dallas Howard; both Kirsten Dunst and Ashton Kutcher were at one time attached to the project, but both left the cast before filming began. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Actor Viggo Mortensen made his first starring appearance in a film after his breakthrough performance in the Lord of the Rings trilogy with this period adventure. Frank T. Hopkins (Mortensen) is a U.S. Cavalry officer who earned a reputation as one of the fastest and most daring riders in the West; however, after taking part in the bloody massacre at Wounded Knee, Hopkins becomes disenchanted with the Cavalry, and once his hitch is up, he takes a job as a rider with a seedy touring Wild West show. During an engagement in New York, Hopkins meets Aziz (Adam Alexi-Malle), an associate of wealthy Bedouin Sheikh Riyadh (Omar Sharif), who knows of Hopkins' talents and wants him to take part in "The Ocean of Fire," an annual 3,000-mile desert horse race running from Arabia to Iraq. Hopkins accepts the invitation and sails to the Middle East with his trusty mustang Hidalgo without knowing just what he's getting himself into. Once he arrives, Hopkins learns that the punishing race course claims the lives of nearly half its contestants, and that most of his competitors ride pure-bred Arabian stallions and do not regard Hidalgo and his master as worthy adversaries. Temporarily exiled to a land where freedom eludes the multitudes and class and wealth define one's fate, Hopkins finds himself riding for both honor and principle, with the support of Riyadh and his beautiful, headstrong daughter, Jazira (Zuleikha Robinson), though the Sheikh's nephew Katib (Silas Carson) is equally determined to see Hopkins go down in defeat. Hidalgo was directed by Joe Johnston, who previously worked with animals on the run in Jumanji and Jurassic Park III. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Directed by E. Elias Merhige, Suspect Zero follows the disgraced FBI Agent Thomas Mackelway (Aaron Eckhart), who was transferred to a desolate area in Albuquerque, New Mexico as punishment for botching a procedure which ultimately led to the release of one of the most notorious criminals on the FBI's list. Mackelway is given an opportunity to redeem himself, however, when he is called in to investigate the strange murder of a traveling salesman. Mysteriously, the mark of a circle with a line through it is the only clue that the killer left behind. Before long, the prime suspect is identified as former agent Benjamin O'Ryan (Ben Kingsley), who is seemingly obsessed with hunting down serial killers and murdering them rather than turning them in to the proper authorities. Though Mackelway believes he knows the area where O'Ryan (Kingsley) is living, he has no idea what he looks like -- a problem that the rogue agent exploits with great success. Despite his brilliance, Mackelway finds himself caught in a psychological labyrinth of sorts, and is faced with an even greater quandary after learning that O'Ryan is looking for none other than Suspect Zero, a murderer of hundreds and the FBI's most wanted man. The supporting cast includes Carrie-Anne Moss and Harry J. Lennix. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Director Frank Darabont created this Frank Capra-inspired drama based on a screenplay by his friend and one-time schoolmate Michael Sloane. Jim Carrey stars as Pete Appleton, a screenwriter in the Hollywood of the 1950s. Pete's on top of the world with his first motion picture "Sand Pirates of the Sahara" just released to theaters and his romance with a beautiful starlet (Amanda Detmer) heating up. However, his triumph turns to dismay when he's called before the commie-hunting House Un-American Activities Committee and advised by a studio lawyer and his agent to play ball with the witch hunters. Depressed by the film industry's weak-kneed reaction to the hearings, Pete gets drunk and drives his car north along the California coast, where he crashes from a bridge and wakes up on shore the next morning suffering from amnesia. Wandering into the nearby small town of Lawson, Pete is mistaken for Luke Trimble, a lost hero of World War II who, like most of the area's young men, never returned from the war a decade earlier. "Luke" has soon reunited with both his father (Martin Landau) and his one-time girlfriend (Laurie Holden), and finds that his reappearance has given the citizens of Lawson an emotional boost that's sorely needed. When he refurbishes and reopens his family's decrepit movie theater, the Majestic, Luke revitalizes Lawson just as his memory of his true identity begins to reassert itself. Sloane's original script for The Majestic (2001) was entitled The Bijou. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

During a home invasion, a wife and baby are killed, but the husband is only wounded. Smelling a rat, Simone (Jimmy Smits) and Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) work hand in hand with retired cop Gotelli (Carmine Caridi), now an insurance investigator, to determine if the husband arranged the killings to collect a hefty life-insurance policy. Also, Harvey Boutier (Dick Anthony Williams), a terminally ill friend of Lt. Fancy (James McDaniel), shows up at the precinct with new information on a 15-year-old murder case. And finally, the squad investigates the beating death of a widely despised record-company CEO. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Sex and death are the main themes running through this thriller. Matt Dickson is a former hockey player turned L.A. cop. Since his wife left him he has become a hard-drinking carouser. Dickson is on the trail of Welton, a psychotic boxer, using the names of famous fighters for his aliases has left a grisly trail of dead women found in cheap motels throughout the city. He is assisted by Catherine Briggs, a journalist, who helps him see the connection between these murders and similar ones in the past. But Catherine is not only there to help Dickson. She is also there because of a recent one-nighter Dickson had with her sister. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Enjoying astonishing (and well-deserved) popularity at a time in TV history when dramatic programs trafficking in "family values" were few and far between, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was also one of the last of that hardy breed known as the "TV Western." Set in Colorado Springs, CO, in the years just following the Civil War, the weekly, 60-minute series starred Jane Seymour as Michaela "Mike" Quinn, one of a handful of women doctors west of the Mississippi (or anywhere else!) during the second half of the 19th century. After the death of her father and medical partner, Dr. Mike left her hometown of Boston to set up practice in the hardscrabble village of Colorado Springs. Not surprisingly, she encountered much hostility and mistrust from the townsfolk, but gradually won them over not only because of her medical brilliance, but because she was almost unerringly "in the right" at all times. When one of her first patients, Charlotte Cooper (Diane Ladd), died of a snakebite, Dr. Mike inherited the woman's three children, who at the outset of the series ranged in age from 10 to 17. Oldest son Matthew Cooper (Chad Allen) grew up to become the town's sheriff, and later went off to study law; daughter Colleen (played by Erika Flores from 1993 to 1995, thereafter by Jessica Bowman) eventually followed Dr. Mike's footsteps by pursuing a medical career, and ultimately married her foster mother's young assistant, Dr. Andrew Cook (Brandon Douglas); and youngest Chandler boy, Brian (Shawn Toovey), got into many a scrape -- some of them near-fatal -- in the course of the series.

Also in the cast was Joe Lando as taciturn mountain man Byron Sully, who spent most of his time communing with nature (including his pet wolf) and commiserating with the local Cheyenne Indian tribe. In the early episodes, Sully was merely the man who owned the house rented by Dr. Mike and her "instant" family; later on, he and Mike fell in love, got married, and had a daughter named Katie. The huge, rotating cast of recurring characters included curmudgeonly (and, initially, downright nasty) storekeeper Loren Bray (Guy Boyd in the pilot episode, Orson Bean thereafter); Bray's sister-in-law, Dorothy Jennings (Barbara Babcock), editor of the town newspaper; Grace (Jonelle Allen), a black woman who owned the town diner; telegraph operator Horace Bing (Frank Collison) and his bride, Myra (Helene Udy), a former saloon girl; Myra's ex-boss Hank (William Shockley), owner of the local "sporting house"; Rev. Timothy Johnson (Geoffrey Lower), who functioned as the town schoolteacher until Teresa Morales (played first by Michelle Bonilla, then by Alex Meneses) took over; Loren Bray's conniving buddy, barber Jake Slicker (Jim Knobeloch); Sully's old pal, wealthy ex-prospector Daniel Simon (John Schneider); and the much-maligned Cheyenne medicine man Cloud Dancing (Larry Sellers), whose persecution at the hands of the U.S. military aroused the fire-breathing activism of pioneering feminist and humanitarian Dr. Mike.

Our heroine also fought tirelessly for the rights of blacks, Hispanics, battered wives and practically everyone else who suffered under the weight of bigotry and misunderstanding in the Old West. Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was far and away CBS' most successful and beloved Saturday-night series throughout its five seasons on the air, and has remained an audience favorite on cable and in syndication. ~ Rovi

Kevin Rogers guest stars as David Watkins, a famed Civil War photographer. As the townsfok argue over who will be include and who will be left out of Watkins' proposed panoramic portrait of Colorado Springs, Dr. Mike (Jane Seymour) comes to realize that the photographer is suffering from diabetes -- and refuses to have it treated, even though he is rapidly losing his eyesight. Meanwhile, the dying Mrs. Bing (Rosemary Murphy) staunchly opposes the marriage between her son Horace (Frank Collinson) and Myra (Helene Udy). This was the final episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman's first season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

While hiking with Sully (Joe Lando), Brian (Shawn Toovey) impulsively jumps out of a tree and sustains what at first seems to be a minor head injury. Already angry at Sully for allowing this to happen, Dr. Mike (Jane Seymour) is beside herself with rage and grief when Brian lapses into a coma. With only minimal aid, Mike must perform delicate brain surgery on her adoptive son -- a tense situation that exacerbates the already-raging argument amongst the townsfolk over who will build the community's new schoolhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Matthew (Chad Allen) wants to marry Swedish immigrant girl Ingrid (Jennifer Youngs), but Dr. Mike (Jane Seymour) thinks that he is much too young. To prove his adoptive mother wrong, Matthew talks Sully (Joe Lando) into letting him participate in a grueling four-day Cheyenne ritual. Sully agrees, causing a rift between himself and Dr. Mike. But all this intrigue may mean nothing: It is highly possible that asthmatic Ingrid is not healthy enough to get married. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After a raid on Black Kettle's Cheyenne settlement, the imperious and sadistic General Custer (Darren Dalton) insists that Dr. Mike (Jane Seymour) treat all of his injured soldiers before even looking at the more seriously wounded Indian prisoners. To make sure that Dr. Mike follows his orders, Custer threatens to execute captured Cheyenne medicine man Cloud Dancing (Larry Sellers). Elsewhere, Loren (Alan Young), Horace (Frank Collinson), and Jake (Jim Knobeloch) display their hitherto untapped musical talents at Miss Olive's (Gail Strickland) new Hurdy Gurdy, and the relationship between Matthew (Chad Allen) and Ingrid (Jennifer Youngs) blossoms into romance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John Schneider guest stars as Red McCall, an impoverished cowboy who is reduced to robbing Loren's (Alan Young) store in order to provide for his half-breed baby. Realizing he can no longer care for his child, Red leaves the baby with Dr. Mike (Jane Seymour) -- who, in turn, is unable to find a proper new home for her charge. As this drama plays itself out in the background, danger rears its ugly head in the form of a rampaging rabid bear. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi