Peter Dennis Movies
Ten Inch Hero follows the love lives of several young adults who work together at a sandwich shop, The Beach City Grill, owned by a child of the sixties who adheres to the surfing lifestyle. The characters include Piper, who searches for the child she gave up for adoption; Tish, a sexually voracious woman who needs to learn about love; Priestly, the guy who dishes out relationship advice to everybody; and Jen, the wallflower who receives counsel from her outgoing workmates. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jensen Ackles, Sean Patrick Flanery, (more)
Inspired by the epic Old English poem of the same name, director Robert Zemeckis's digitally rendered film follows the Scandinavian hero Beowulf (Ray Winstone) as he fights to protect the Danes from a ferocious beast named Grendel (Crispin Glover). Though at first Grendel seems invincible, Beowulf eventually manages to defeat him in a desperate battle to the death. Devastated by her son's violent demise at the hands of Beowulf, Grendel's mother (Angelina Jolie) sets out in search of revenge. Later, Beowulf faces the biggest challenge of his life when he attempts to slay a powerful dragon. Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, Alison Lohman, John Malkovich, and Brendan Gleeson co-star in an epic fantasy adventure penned by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, (more)
A young man learns something about making his fantasies into reality from an older man who has already been there in this coming-of-age drama. Cameron (Michael Angarano) is a teenage film buff living in Los Angeles who dreams of making movies himself someday, an ambition that doesn't impress his parents very much. Cameron doesn't have many friends beyond fellow outcast Murphy (Joshua Boyd), and wealthy and popular classmate Brett (Taber Schroeder) takes great pleasure in making Cameron's life miserable. A major film school in L.A. has announced a competition for young filmmakers, but while Cameron has talent and ideas, Brett has the money to buy film stock and rent equipment, and Cameron wonders if he stands any chance at all. One evening, while attending a screening of Orson Welles's Touch of Evil at a revival theater, Cameron sees an elderly man who shouts at the screen about his old pal Orson. Cameron is thus introduced to Flash Madden (Christopher Plummer), who worked as a lighting man during the Golden Age of Hollywood and really did work with some of the most respected names in the business, including Welles. While cranky Flash doesn't much care for Cameron at first, in time he sees a kindred spirit in the movie-mad teenager, and offers his technical know-how and sources of equipment to the would-be director. Flash also introduces Cameron to Mickey Hopkins (M. Emmet Walsh), a former screenwriter who helped script a number of silver screen classics but is now living in a shabby Old Folks home, and in Hopkins Cameron finds the inspiration for just the sort of movie he wants to make. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Plummer, Michael Angarano, (more)
Industrial Light and Magic special-effects wizard Stefen Fangmeier makes the leap into the director's chair with this coming-of-age fantasy concerning a young boy whose discovery of a mysterious dragon egg leads him on a predestined journey to become a Dragon Rider and defend his peaceful world against an evil king. Based on the best-selling novel by Christopher Paolini, Eragon tells the tale of the titular character (Ed Speleers), a humble farm boy living in the land of Alagaësia, whose life is forever changed when he discovers that he has been chosen to fight the most powerful enemy his world has ever known. Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, and Djimon Hounsou co-star in a film produced by Davis Entertainment and adapted from the novel by screenwriters Peter Buchman, Larry Konner, and Mark Rosenthal. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael A. Mehlmann, Ed Speleers, (more)
Directed by Alexander Payne, Sideways follows Miles (Paul Giamatti), who is distressed about his lack of success as a novelist, and Jack (Thomas Haden Church), an equally unsuccessful actor with a rapidly approaching wedding. In a last-ditch effort to sow their wild oats, Jack and Miles take off on a final road trip to California's wine country the week prior to Jack's wedding. Both men have goals for the vacation -- Miles wants to turn Jack on to the art of wine tasting, while Jack is concerned with exploiting his last days as a bachelor -- but when the two men come across two fascinating women (Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh), the duo is forced to examine their morality, and if maturity isn't such a depressing prospect -- at least, for one of them. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, (more)
Phil Jones' horror film Asylum of the Damned starts with Dr. James Bishop being appointed to work at St. Andrews Asylum for the Criminally Insane. He begins the job full of optimism, but soon he discovers the dangers of his professions when he becomes involved with "The Harvester." ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- 2001
Back from searching for a missing Rambaldi artifact at Oxford University, Sydney (Jennifer Garner) is forced to take a polygraph test by Sloane (Ron Rifkin), who is determined to expose the mole working for SD-6. A later counterespionage assignment takes Sydney and her reluctant partner, Dixon (Carl Lumbly), to Mexico, this time to locate an ancient timekeeping device that may prove to be another piece in the Rambaldi puzzle. And although Will (Bradley Cooper) now knows the truth about "retired" SD-6 agent Eloise Kurtz (the last person to see his friend David alive), he can't make his findings public -- at least not just yet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2001
Now that a live transmission system has been set up between Voyager and Earth, the crew receives its first Starfleet order in years. Their mission: To search for Friendship One, an Earth probe that has been missing since the year 2067 A.D. Tracing the probe to a planet held in the grip of nuclear-winter radiation, the Away Team is captured by a band of hostile aliens, who hold all humans responsible for their dismal existence. Janeway's (Kate Mulgrew) only hope to rescue her colleagues is to find a new home planet for the aliens -- but this may not be possible for several years to come. As originally conceived, this episode was to have featured James Cromwell in his Star Trek: First Contact role of Zephram Cochran, but Cromwell was unavailable. "Friendship One" initially aired on April 25, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roxann Dawson
- 1997
In the closing episode of Seinfeld's eighth season, George (Jason Alexander) decides to take the summer off after getting his severance package from the Yankees. Kramer (Michael Richards) lands a job as a seat-filler at the Tony Awards, leading to a potentially nasty situation with an angry Raquel Welch. As it turns out, however, it is Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who bears the full brunt of Raquel's wrath. And Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) is about to collapse from exhaustion, thanks to his girlfriend (and no, it's not what you think). Season eight ends as it began, in the hospital. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Miles (Grant Shaud) becomes more neurotic than usual when he has an implicitly erotic dream about "FYI"'s handsome new publicity man Rick (Brian McNamara). In their usual subtle and sensitive fashion, Miles' co-workers manage to ferret out the information that Rick is gay. So where does that leave poor Miles? Well, for starters, he frantically makes the rounds of every psychiatrist's office in DC to find out if he himself is "that way" (and no, we're not going to use the Seinfeld line here!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
An old "urban legend" stemming from an incident at the 1893 Paris Exposition is the inspiration for this episode. While visiting London, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) comes across a corpse in her hotel room. She summons the authorities, only to find that the corpse has disappeared--and subsequently, virtually everyone, including the police, adamantly insist that there never was a body, and that Jessica is merely imagining things. Ingredients essential to this intriguing yarn are a double espionage agent, a Scotland Yard detective, a slimy concierge, and a brazen "tart". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Lindsay Wagner stars as Paula O'Neill in this made-for-TV miniseries based on the best-selling novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford. Paula's grandmother, Emma Harte, took a failing department store and turned it into the powerful Harte Industries retail empire, and now that Paula has inherited the family business, she is determined to expand their international success by launching a new store in Hong Kong. However, Paula's cousins Jonathan (Christopher Cazenove) and Sarah (Claire Oberman) are determined to wrest control of the company away from Paula, and begin running interference in her plans for global expansion. Paula soon learns that Harte Industries is on financially shaky ground, and her personal life begins to crumble under the strain of keeping Hart Enterprises afloat. As Jonathan uses the firm's financial woes to his advantage, Paula finds that Jack Figg (Anthony Hopkins), the company's head of security, may be her last line of defense against her devious relatives. Originally broadcast in August 1992, To Be the Best was a follow-up to 1983's A Woman of Substance, another miniseries based on a Barbara Taylor Bradford novel, which covered Paula's life before she took over the family business; Diane Baker played Paula in the earlier series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lindsay Wagner, David Robb, (more)
- 1990
- PG
During World War II, a sergeant tries to lead his division against German commander Rommel in the desert of North Africa. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Kroeger, Marc Singer, (more)
- 1988
Originally shown on television in two parts, the second of which takes place after WWII. Surviving escapee Major John Dodge (Christopher Reeve) is sent back to Germany by Winston Churchill to capture the Gestapo officer who ordered the machine-gunning of 50 of the captured escapees, in direct defiance of the Geneva convention. Donald Pleasance, one of the "good guys" in the original, plays the Nazi villain in the new version. Filmed in Yugoslavia, Great Escape II: The Untold Story was originally telecast November 6 and 7, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Jackie Collins wrote the best-selling novel The Stud. Her sister Joan Collins starred in the 1978 film version of The Stud. The producer on the film was Joan Collins' then-husband Ron Kass. Need we say more? Well, there is a plot, involving the insatiable Joan's sexual hold over a handsome nightclub manager Oliver Tobias. And there was a sequel, also written by Jackie and starring Joan, titled The Bitch. Need we say more now? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Collins, Oliver Tobias, (more)
- 1974
- R
The British "Confessions" film series was reminiscent of the "Carry On" series, albeit far, far dirtier. Many fans consider the first entry, Confessions of a Window Cleaner, to be the best of the batch. Based on a supposedly autobiographical novel by Timothy Lea, the film stars Robin Askwith as an apprentice window washer with a voyeuristic streak. Nearly everyone with whom Askwith comes in contact is an oversexed, underdressed female. Potato-shaped
Dandy Nichols plays the protagonist's mother. An anachronism even before it was released, Confessions of a Window Cleaner was nonetheless successful enough to inspire several sequels, none of which were released to American theatres. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Dandy Nichols plays the protagonist's mother. An anachronism even before it was released, Confessions of a Window Cleaner was nonetheless successful enough to inspire several sequels, none of which were released to American theatres. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Horror-film icon Christopher Lee guest stars in this Philip Levene-scripted Avengers episode. When British scientist Professor Stone (Lee), supposedly killed in an auto accident, suddenly shows up alive and healthy, Steed and Emma want to know why. Their curiosity is peaked when Stone subsequently survives 100,000 volts of electricity and an exploding artillery shell. The clues lead to a hush-hush government facility called the Neoteric Research Unit, whose director is that selfsame Professor Stone -- or is it merely his robotic duplicate? First broadcast in England on March 18, 1967, "Never, Never Say Die" was shown in America 13 days later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
