Chris Black Movies
- 1997
- PG13
A criminal genius who has carefully planned the ultimate score runs across an unexpected obstacle -- a 16-year-old computer hacker -- in this youth-oriented action-adventure story. Ozzie Paxton (Vincent Kartheiser) is a teenager with a knack for causing trouble; he's been expelled from the Shady Glen School, an exclusive private academy, for pulling one too many pranks on the faculty. Besides, he prefers to stay home with his computer, where for fun and profit he hacks into the systems of computer game designers, downloads new games before they can go on the market, and burns bootleg CD-ROMs that he can sell to his friends. One day, Ozzie's younger sister Melissa (Katie Stuart) talks him into giving her a lift to Shady Glen, where she still attends; looking for a little revenge, he sneaks into the school and intends to have a little fun with their computer system. As it turns out, Ozzie runs afoul of the school's new security chief, former British Secret Service agent Rafe Bentley (Patrick Stewart), who was hired by Principal Maloney (Brenda Fricker) after Ozzie's most recent bit of computer terrorism. But Bentley is not the friend of the law that he seems to be; several of the wealthiest families in America send their children to Shady Glen, and Bentley has a scheme to kidnap ten of the school's richest children and hold them for a ransom of $650 million. Ozzie is caught in the middle of Bentley's kidnapping plot and must now use his computer skills in order to save the children and put Bentley behind bars. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Stewart, Vincent Kartheiser, (more)
- 1998
Materializing on Earth 147, the Sliders find themselves smack in the middle of a Kromagg weapons test. Captured and threatened with torture, the three travelers are rescued by superior officer Kromanus (Stephen Macht), whose life Maggie (Kari Wuhrer) had saved earlier. Magnanimously, Kromanus puts the captives under light house arrest, allowing them to move about with relative freedom. This turns out to be a mixed blessing when the Sliders are swept up in a fierce military power struggle, and Rembrandt (Cleavant Derricks) becomes a "dead man walking" when he uncovers the horrible truth about the Kromaggs' future plans for the human race. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
An acid rain forces the four Sliders to seek shelter in a haunted alternate version of the Chandler Hotel. Throughout the night, our heroes and heroine have some disurbtingly close encounters with some mighty strange characters, including a neurotic ghost. The situation worsens when unseen forces wreak havoc on the foursome's timer--and Colin (Charlie O'Connell) finds himself unable to resist the lure of crossing over into the spirit world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
With this episode, Charlie O'Connell) becomes a regular in the role of Colin Mallory, long-lost brother of seasoned "slider" Quinn Mallory (Jerry O'Connell). Having arrived on an agrarian alternate Earth which is bereft of modern technology, Quinn is finally reunited with Colin--who, as the only scientist on the planet, is regarded as a pariah. Joining Quinn, Maggie (Kari Wuhrer) and Remmy (Cleavant Derricks) in their search for the Mallorys' home planet Kromagg Prime and the brothers' birth parents, wide-eyed Colin is ill prepared for the "outside universe". Indeed, his naivete proves to be his undoing when he ends up in the clutches of a predatory female and a gang of renegade body-snatchers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
This western, a remake of the 1960 John Sturges classic, is set during the post-Civil-War period. Riding into a sleepy village, two gunslingers (Michael Biehn, Eric Close) stop the lynching of a former slave (Rick Worthy), deal with the bad guys, and then set out to save a Seminole tribe. Filmed in Newhall, California, the TV movie premiered January 3, 1998 on CBS. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Biehn, Eric Close, (more)
- 1999
No sooner have they escaped a war-ravaged Parallel Earth than the Sliders find themselves in an even more hostile world, where possession of any sort of technology is a capital crime. Worse still, the "Maggie" who has arrived along with Quinn (Jerry O'Connell), Rembrandt (Cleavant Derricks) and Colin (Charlie O'Connell) is actually a double. Meanwhile, the real Maggie (Kari Wuhrer) faces a bizarre form of execution for the misdeeds of her lookalike. John DeMita appears as Maggie's husband Steven Jensen, a role previously played by Mark Kiely. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1999
The Sliders find themselves on an "Old West" parallel version of the earth, where Colin (Charlie O'Connell) disappears after being shot down by a grim-visaged gunfighter known as Mr. K (Reiner Schone). As Colin is nursed back to health by homesteader Amanda Starr (Karen Austin), Maggie (Kari Wuhrer) gets a job as a saloon singer so she can afford the horses needed to launch a search for her missing friend. Meanwhile, Quinn (Jerry O'Connell) is framed for murder, thus setting the stage for the obligatory "High Noon" showdown with an old enemy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2000
Evil robots, gratuitous explosions, and babes in silver lame bikinis. Set in 2525 after robots called Bailles have forced Earth's human population to retreat underground, a duo of nubile warriors fight their mechanical oppressors. Sarge (Victoria Pratt) and Hel (Gina Torres), who can communicate with a mysterious voice in her jaw, stumble upon Cleopatra (Jennifer Sky), a valley girl/exotic dancer from 2001 who slipped into a coma after a botched boob job. The three join forces and fight the robots. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gina Torres, Victoria Pratt, (more)
- 2000
Taking her newborn baby, Eve, on a visit to her mother, Xena (Lucy Lawless) enters the village of Amphipolis. Here Xena, Eve, and Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) are surrounded by the armies of the warrior Athena (Paris Jefferson), who intends to kill Eve to appease the Olympian Gods. To extricate herself from her present dilemma, Xena must pull the wool over the eyes of war god Ares (Kevin Smith), who is a notoriously bad sport whenever someone tries to deceive him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucy Lawless, Renee O'Connor, (more)
- 2001
In this freewheeling spoof of the old radio and television series You Are There, modern-day tabloid reporter Nevil (Michael Hurst) literally goes to Hell and back to get the lowdown on Xena's (Lucy Lawless) latest mission. The muckraking Nevil is somehow convinced that Xena's efforts to get the golden apples of Valhalla, which when eaten bestow instant immortality, is merely a ploy to increase her own powers. In the course of his investigation, Nevil and his camera crew interview such Xena intimates as Ares (Kevin Smith) and Aphrodite (Alexandra Tydings), both of whom are more than willing to dish up the dirt in exchange for air time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Hurst, Lucy Lawless, (more)
- 2004
One of ABC's most popular series of the 2004-2005 season, the weekly, hour-long Desperate Housewives took place on Wisteria Lane in an upscale suburban neighborhood. That Wisteria Lane was not as quiet and respectable as it appeared at first glance was brought home forcibly in the opening episode, when housewife Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) committed suicide right in the middle of her comfortable living room. From her vantage point in the great beyond, Mary Alice served as the series' wry, all-knowing narrator, filling the viewer on the various sordid details in the lives of her four best friends. There was divorcée Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher), ever-looking for love in all the wrong places and agonizing over the behavior of her daughter, Julie (Andrea Bowen). There was Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), who every day of her life kicked herself over her decision to give up her business career to care for her highly competitive husband, Tom (Doug Savant), and her irritating children. There was Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross), the all-too-perfect, control-freak homemaker who eventually drove her husband, Rex (Steven Culp), to divorce court and her son, Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom), into malevolent misanthropy. And there was ex-model Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria), who despite having married into money and luxury couldn't stop herself from fooling around with teenaged gardener John (Jesse Metcalfe). Though her controlling husband, Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira), was not privy to her infidelity, he had his suspicions that she was less than faithful. Prone to extreme displays of machismo, he took many measures to maintain the marriage. Weaving in and out of the proceedings was the oft-divorced Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), with whom Susan competed over the affections of supposedly widowed plumber Mike Delfino (James Denton). The sexual intrigues of Wisteria Lane were augmented (during the first season at least) by the mysterious activities of Mary Alice's husband, Paul (Mark Moses) -- including digging up the backyard swimming pool in the dead of night -- and the strange emotional outbursts of their tormented, unstable son, Zach (Cody Kasch). Created by Marc Cherry, Desperate Housewives debuted October 3, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
The journal of the late Mrs. Huber forces Susan (Teri Hatcher) to tell all to Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) about the fire. Bree (Marcia Cross) is having second thoughts about dating George Williams (Roger Bart). Lynette (Felicity Huffman) allows a misunderstanding to go uncorrected to get her son in daycare while she does yoga. And the financial situation of Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) and Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) has been set on its ear thanks to recent unpleasant plot developments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2006
Debuting August 21, 2006, the hour-long Fox network series Vanished was a serialized drama in the tradition of 24 and Prison Break, this time with a bit of the "procedural" genre (à la Without a Trace) thrown in. Things got under way when Sara Collins (Joanne Kelly), the wife of prominent Georgia senator Jeffrey Collins (John Allen Nelson), abruptly disappeared during a fundraising dinner, the apparent victim of a kidnapping. Assigned to locate -- and, possibly rescue -- Mrs. Collins were FBI agents Graham Kelton (Gale Harold) and Lin Mei (Ming-Na). While Lin approached her job with a cynical sense of humor and an abundance of energy, Kelton was morose and taciturn, still blaming himself for the horrible death of a youthful kidnap victim which occurred right before his eyes. As the plot thickened, it became obvious that the two agents had more than a common, everyday abduction on their hands: the number-one suspect was killed off at the very start of the series; the trail was strewn with bizarre, contradictory clues and DaVinci Code-like cryptic messages; and finally, not only had Sara Collins mysteriously vanished on previous occasions, there was every indication that she wasn't really Sara Collins at all. Clearly, the missing Mrs. Collins was but a cog in the wheel of a larger conspiracy, in which (naturally) no one could be completely trusted. Other characters included Rebecca Gayheart as an unusually ubiquitous investigative reporter and Eddie Cibrian as Kelton and Mei's enigmatic FBI superior. Vanished was created by Josh Berman of CSI fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gale Harold, John Allen Nelson, (more)
