Robin James Movies
- 1984
- R
Similar to the 1991 Dead Again starring Kenneth Branagh, this story of reincarnation and murder also features two couples who meet again in a new lifetime. Brooke Ashley (Jaclyn Smith) is a ballerina and Michael Richardson (Nigel Terry) is her lover, and they both perish in a fire that destroys their home. Fifty years go by, and Gregory Thomas (Terry), a screenwriter, sees an old film clip of Ashley who could easily pass for his fiancee Maggie Rogers (Smith). Intrigued by this coincidence, he starts to research a screenplay on the ballerina's life, and to help get more material, he visits a medium (Shelley Winters) who used to know her. The medium reveals that Gregory is the reincarnation of the dead Richardson -- which means the former couple is back together again. Before any celebration is in order, some of the increasingly sinister mystery of how and why the couple died in the long-ago fire has to be cleared up. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jaclyn Smith, Nigel Terry, (more)
Beulah Land is an edited, movie-length version of the three-part TV miniseries adaptation of Lonnie Coleman's multi-part novels. The film is set in the Old South, with a time span ranging from 1827 to the postwar Reconstruction Era. Lesley Ann Warren stars as Sarah Kendrick, young belle of the Beulah Land plantation, who finds herself in love with a "damn Yankee." Sarah must also contend with a weakling brother (Paul Rudd) and a former slave (Dorian Harewood) who demands freedom as a right rather than a privilege. Beulah Land took forever to get before the cameras due to protests from black historical organizations; when it was finally telecast on October 7-9, 1980, NBC conducted a low-pressure ad campaign, as though the network was still fearful of stepping on toes despite the testimonial of a black Yale history professor, who commended the production for its "special sensitivity." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lesley Ann Warren, Michael Sarrazin, (more)
- 1964
Considered by many to be one of the worst films of all time, this hilarious anti-classic riffs on its one-note premise of two gigantic piles of crudely-stitched carpet swatches and rubber tubing running rampant through a hick town. Oh, and there's some pseudo-scientific blather about the two monsters being alien sample collectors of some sort, studying human weaknesses by gulping down every brain-dead redneck and 30-year-old teenager they can find. (The would-be victims are remarkably accommodating; most of them gape like stunned carp as the monster approaches, then suddenly swan-dive into the hungry fellow's maw.) Leaping bravely to Earth's defense are a severely inbred deputy and a smug, nattily-dressed pretend-scientist. It's hard to say whether the relentless, sleep-inducing narration obscuring most of the dialogue (apparently several reels of the film's original dialogue track were destroyed) is a blessing in disguise, sparing the viewer from the almost certain agony of watching the "leads" (i.e. the director's cousins and in-laws) attempt to act. At any rate, audiences are left with some of the goofiest setpieces ever committed to celluloid: the first alien's attack on a portly gentleman (who clearly outweighs his attacker by at least 300 pounds); the deputy's barely-concealed discomfort at watching his boss tongue-wrestle with his wife; the uncouth interruption of a hideous sock-hop by a slam-dancing monster; and the oft-noted tendency of the aliens to sport running shoes. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
