Daniel Percival Movies
- 2008
When a documentary filmmaker profiles a star detective, her quest for the facts in a case that's forty years old leads her to a sinister truth in this adaptation of the novel by Val McDermaid. December 1963: a young girl named Alison Carter vanishes without a trace while walking her dog in Scarsdale. Detective Inspector George Bennett (Lee Ingleby) had just been promoted, and this would be his first missing persons case. It was also the case that made him a national hero. Yet despite gathering enough evidence to have his primary suspect executed, Detective Inspector Bennett never was able to locate the body of the missing girl. Four decades later, maverick filmmaker Catherine Heathcote (Juliet Stevenson) focuses her lens on Bennett in an effort to solve that lingering mystery, and discovers a troubling inconsistency in his reports. It seems that the questions raised at the time of the murder have different answers today than they did forty years ago. Perhaps if Heathcote can uncover the reason for that discrepancy, she can finally lay a decades-old mystery - and the haunting pains of a lingering tragedy - to rest. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
The British ambassador to America becomes locked into a tense political firestorm when an airplane explodes while flying over Washington, D.C. in this topical British television series that explores the possibility of a British terrorist operating on American soil. Terrorists have stricken the stateside skies once again, and as a result the British Embassy is set ablaze by a diplomatic firestorm. Now, as affinities are tangled and interests clash, British Ambassador Mark Brydon (Jason Isaacs) realizes that he is being manipulated by an invisible puppeteer whose sadistic power mongering has become a threat to international security. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Isaacs, Sharon Gless, (more)
- 2006
- R
- Add National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj to QueueAdd National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj to top of Queue
The protégé of the most skilled mischief maker in college history sets his sights on England's prestigious Camden University to offer an informative course in advanced-level shenanigans in this sequel to the 2002 Ryan Reynolds hit that finds that film's co-star Kal Penn crossing the pond to realize his true party potential. Van Wilder's former assistant has learned the ways of the master, and now he's prepared to share his newfound knowledge with the stuffy students of the school known more for academia than rowdy mischief. Of course, by now Taj (Penn) knows that where there's a will there's a way, and there are plenty of fun-loving misfits at this esteemed institute of higher learning who are just looking for an excuse to ditch their studies and blow off a little steam by embracing their inner Van Wilder. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kal Penn, Lauren Cohan, (more)
The possible ramifications of an act of nuclear terrorism are brought to potent and disturbing life in this docudrama. Set in the very near future, Dirty War follows a group of Scotland Yard agents who have learned that a terrorist cell in London has manufactured and intend to detonate a "dirty bomb" -- a small radiological explosive that contaminates with a significant amount of radioactive material so that its deadly effects linger for many months after the explosion. The police are unable to stop the terrorists before the bomb goes off in London's financial district, and it soon becomes obvious that the city was dangerously ill-prepared for such an event; as hospitals and emergency personnel struggle to deal with the aftereffects of the disaster, officials attempt to downplay the severity of the attack, an action that has unseen consequences of its own. Dirty War was produced in a collaboration between the BBC and the American premium cable network HBO, who first aired the film in the United States. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
