John Ralston Movies

Per its title, the History Channel documentary Journey to 10,000 B.C.: The Real Story of Prehistoric Man's Fight for Survival carries viewers on a sweeping trip through the prehistoric era to glimpse how ancient men lived, functioned and struggled to survive. The producers of this film created the documentary as a nonfiction companion piece to the big-budget Hollywood actioner 10,000 B.C. (2008), directed by Roland Emmerich. Here, director David Pardusch paints the period around 10,000 B.C. as an era of intense change, manifest in the gradual extinction of species such as the sabretooth tiger and the woolly mammoth from the face of the Earth, the encroachment of a global ice age, and the gradual and deliberate appearance of homo sapiens on the North American continent. Pardusch also ties the emergence of human beings - who relied on prehistoric mammals for food and clothing - to the extinction of those great beasts. The program travels to archaeological dig sites, where it unearths evidence of how the ancients lived, and also recreates that era onscreen, with vivid CG animations. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A pensive twelve year old swimmer is faced with a decision that will put the past on a direct collision course with the present in first-time feature filmmaker Antonio DiVerdis' wistful, character-driven drama. Coleman Hawkins is teetering on the brink of adulthood. By night Coleman is haunted by a mysterious woman, and by day he's infatuated with pretty classmate Alexa. Unsure of which path to walk in life, promising swimmer Coleman continually seeks out the advice of his uncle Matt, a hard-drinking musician who doesn't even appear capable of dealing with his own inner demons. The more Coleman questions his uncle, the more Matt finds himself reflecting on his long-lost love, the ethereal Mary McLaughlin. Later, just as Mary appears to reach out from the past and remind Matt of what could have been, Coleman weighs the opportunity to train for the Olympics in Vancouver against his desire to ensure that true love doesn't slip through his fingers. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Beauty and Power tells the sordid tale of Judith Exner (Natasha Henstridge), who claimed to have dated Frank Sinatra (John Ralston) and to have been the mistress of Jack Kennedy (Kevin Anderson, who played also Bobby Kennedy in Hoffa). The story is told in flashback, from Exner's point of view. In voice-overs, Exner breaks her life down into three critical mistakes -- the three major romantic relationships in her life. The first, she explains, was marrying Billy Campbell (Grant Nickalls), who was more concerned with his acting career than with their marriage, and who cheated on her frequently. Her friendship with an L.A.-based mobster leads to an affair with Sinatra, which she breaks off after he tries to involve her in a ménage a trios. She remains friends with Sinatra, and then meets Kennedy while he's just beginning his primary campaign for the presidency, and she soon falls in love with him. At around the same time, she meets Chicago gangster Sam Giancana (Peter Friedman), who falls in love with her and is jealous of her romance with Kennedy. Eventually she becomes a liaison between the presidential candidate and the mob, carrying briefcases of Kennedy money to Giancana for his help with the election. Kennedy professes his love for her and tells her that his marriage is just for show, and that he'll get a divorce if he doesn't win the presidency. Of course, things don't work out the way Exner might have hoped. The FBI begins harassing her, and she grows frustrated with her arrangement with the president. Beauty and Power debuted on Showtime in July 2002. It was directed by Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan). ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

The authorities have given up, but Elizabeth (Shelley Long) has not. Someone has kidnapped Elizabeth's 13-year-old daughter, and she is determined to find both the girl and the abductor. Even when the existing evidence points to Elizabeth's death, Elizabeth refuses to relinquish her quest, hounding the police into taking action upon the slightest of clues. Things of it is, the villain of the story has been hiding in plain sight all along. Made for television, Vanished Without a Trace was originally telecast by NBC on February 1, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi