Christian Campbell
- 2008
Actor turned filmmaker Russell Friendenberg makes his feature directorial debut with this tale of two escaped psychiatric patients who embark on a wild mission to add an addendum to the Ten Commandments in order to save the world. God has appeared before Lionel and Tin in the form of an aged cowboy named Don, the Almighty. According to Don, the world is about to come to an end, but the suffering of the masses can be prevented if Lionel and Tin can inscribe the Final Commandments. Now, as Lionel and Tim stage a daring escape from Trinity Psychiatric Center in order to carry out their heavenly mission, their own madness uncovers a dark past that threatens to lead them down the path of ultimate destruction. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Campbell, Chris Kriesa, (more)
- 2008
Fifteen New Yorkers head out for a night on the town that has unexpected consequences in this independent ensemble drama. Larry (Bill Sage) is a record company executive who is dating Mia (Maria Zyrianova), a beautiful model several years his junior, though he's also been sleeping with Emily (Holley Fain), his personal assistant. On Emily's suggestion, Larry goes out to a trendy club to see a promising local band fronted by Angelina (Donnamarie Recco) and Leroy (Aaron Staton); the two are also a couple offstage, but their relationship is on its last legs. When not singing, Angelina serves drinks at the club, and one of her regular customers, an actor named Greg (Christian Campbell), has finally worked up the nerve to ask her out on a date. Also at the club with romance on her mind is Michelle (Paola Mendoza), who is finally meeting Jack (Michael Muhney) after weeks of chatting on an internet dating site; however, Michelle's jealous former boyfriend (Billy Lush) is keeping his eye on her. Abby (Merissa Morin) is deeply in love with her boyfriend Marc (Bill Dawes), a bartender at the club, but is surprised to learn that her friend Clarice (Frankie Shaw) also has romantic feelings for her. And Wendy (Melissa Leo), who is older than most of the bar's clientele, finds herself vying for the attentions of both Marc and the more age-appropriate Doug (Robert Clohessy). One Night was an official selection at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Cahoon, Christian Campbell, (more)
A female car thief becomes the target of a notorious serial killer after stealing his mint-condition '66 Dodge Charger in this made for cable thriller from director Kari Skogland (Zebra Lounge, The L Word). Sage Rion (Taryn Manning) is a car thief who's so proficient at her profession that she's earned the nickname Banshee in certain criminal circles. Her skill for stealing cars is unmatched, and when she stumbles across the Dodge Charger of her dreams the temptation proves too powerful to deny. Unfortunately this particular muscle car belongs to a genuine "Badass" (as indicated on the license plate), a fact that Sage discovers all too late after arriving home and finding her boyfriend's severed ear along with a threatening note. Should Sage fail to return the car to its rightful owner by midnight, her recently-hearing impaired boyfriend will meet a grisly demise. But Sage isn't up against your typical murderous madman, because this particular psycho (Christian Campbell) is a popular local DJ who records the screams of his victims, mixes them with the sound of his accelerated hearbeat, and uses the resulting sounds to keep local clubbers on their feet all through the night. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Taryn Manning, Romano Orzari, (more)
The most controversial -- and one of the shortest-lived -- series of the 2005-2006 network season, The Book of Daniel concerned the troubled family of an Episcopalian priest. Aidan Quinn starred as Reverend Daniel Webster, who dealt with most crises by popping prescription pills and brooding over his inability to "reach" his parishioners. Daniel's wife, Judith (Susanna Thompson), spent much of her time drinking martinis and complaining about lost opportunities; his 23-year-old son, Peter (Christian Campbell), was a neurotic homosexual, still plagued by guilt over the death of his twin brother; 16-year-old daughter Grace (Alison Pill) was a would-be manga artist who sold marijuana on the side; and the Websters' adopted Chinese son, Adam (Ivan Shaw), was more concerned about scoring with chicks than anything else. Adding to Rev. Webster's burden was the remonstrative input of no-nonsense Bishop Beatrice Congreve (Ellen Burstyn) and rule-bound senior parish warden Roger Paxton (Dylan Baker). Whenever things became too much to bear for Rev. Webster, he would solicit the advice of his "best friend," Jesus Christ (Garret Dillahunt) -- yes, that Jesus Christ, beard, white robes, and all. It was the calculatedly irreverent portrayal of the Son of God (who trafficked in wisecracks rather than parables) that stirred up the bulk of the controversy surrounding the series. While many big-city critics liked the show, general audiences could not warm up to it at all. Debuting January 6, 2006, on NBC, The Book of Daniel had been slated for a six-week trial run before going to full series; slaughtered in the ratings and roundly condemned by conservative media commentators, it lasted only four episodes before cancellation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aidan Quinn, Susanna Thompson, (more)
The made-for-cable musical satire Reefer Madness is based on the award-winning play of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the notorious -- and deliciously awful -- 1936 anti-marijuana film originally titled Tell Your Children. A smarmy lecturer (Alan Cumming in the first of his three roles in the film) arrives in a typical small town of the late '30s to warn the populace of the dangers of the "evil weed," bringing along a lurid propaganda film to dramatize his message. In broad, unsubtle, and hilarious strokes, the movie-within-a-movie shows how even a squeaky-clean pair of highschoolers named Mary Lane (Kristen Bell) and Jimmy Harper (Christian Campbell) can become hopeless dope addicts by succumbing to the lure of marijuana. Reefer Madness is not only a savage skewering of the original black-and-white movie (some of the musical's campiest lines are taken directly from the earlier script!), but also a devastating attack on what playwrights Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney consider to be the real reason that the 1936 movie was made: to frighten the public out of their wits in order to keep them under the thumb of an oppressive government. Thus, the musical manages to take a number of not-so-veiled swipes at xenophobia, racism, McCarthyism, the Bush Administration's Homeland Security policy, and even the recent FCC clampdown on "offensive" TV fare (one of the film's highlights is a garish nightclub number featuring Jesus Christ). The ebulliently staged songs include "The Stuff," "Down at the Ol' Five and Dime," "Lonely Pew," "Listen to Jesus Jimmy," "Mary Jane/Mary Lane," "The Brownie Song," "Tell 'Em the Truth," and the title number. Officially titled Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, this film first aired April 16, 2005, on the Showtime cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kristen Bell, Christian Campbell, (more)
- 2001
An underachieving, New Jersey-based rock band set out for their last tour with the understanding that if success doesn't come this time out, it's time to step out of the spotlight and back into the daily grind. The year is 1994, and as summer draws near the Handy Kaufmans begin the preparations for what could very well be their final tour. These days it seems like lead singer Donnie (J.T. Pitoc) and incompetent manager Big Frank (Jay Leggett) can't go five minutes without stirring up some kind of trouble, and when drunken bassist Jim (Bret Domrose) is knocked out of commission following a booze soaked pissing contest, unpredictable beauty Trixie (Lara Boyd Rhodes) is brought in as a last-minute replacement. Of course drummer Lee (Christian Campbell) has no problem with all of this, but lately his overbearing parents (Mark Hamill and Sally Kirkland) have been putting on the pressure for him to get a real job. Perhaps if they can just maintain their momentum long enough to reach the state fair and deliver a performance that will send the high-powered record executive in attendance back to California still hyped from the show, the band's dream of rock and roll super-stardom won't go up in flames after all. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Campbell, J.P. Pitoc, (more)
- 2001
Los Angeles' Miss USA 2000 Pageant is a beauty contest with a difference -- while in many ways it seems like a typical pageant, complete with contestants competing in evening gown, swimsuit, and talent categories, and celebrity judges weighing in on their presentations, the participants in Miss USA 2000 are all drag queens, with the men posing as women and also posing as representatives from different nations from around the world. Queen of the Whole Wide World is a documentary that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the annual event (which in 2000 raised close to a quarter-million dollars for AIDS-related charities), with the participants speaking both "in character," as they prepare for the gala event, and out of costume about their personal lives. Linda Blair and Julia Louis-Dreyfus both appear briefly as judges at the pageant. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Lane
A young man must deal with several generations of madness and familial intrigue in this screen adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Timothy Findley. Charlie Kilworth (Christian Campbell) is a young man whose mother, Lily (Stockard Channing), is the daughter of Frederick Wyatt (R.H. Thomson), the owner of a well-known piano manufacturing company. Lily is also a free-spirited and unstable woman, who bore Charlie out of wedlock, has had a number of lovers over the years, and has a unsettling fascination with fire. Lily's mother Ede (Wendy Crewson) has put her daughter in a mental hospital on several occasions, and is considering having Lily lobotomized. Charlie, meanwhile, has had affairs with a number of women but has never settled down with anyone; working as an events coordinator at a resort hotel, Charlie becomes infatuated with Alex Lamont (Sarah Strange), the singer in a dance band Charlie has booked into the ballroom. Lily urges her son to get married and raise a family, but Charlie isn't so sure he's ready for a lifetime commitment, and Alex becomes frustrated by Charlie's inability to take their relationship seriously. Meanwhile, Ede and Frederick have decided that Lily needs to be permanently committed to an institution; Charlie insists that they send her to a comfortable private facility, but then discovers that a mysterious benefactor has been supporting Lily for years, and Ede and Frederick have decided if Lily is to be in a private institution, then the generous stranger must be the one who pays for it. Surprisingly, The Piano Man's Daughter was produced in part by noted comic actress Whoopi Goldberg. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Campbell, Allan Price, (more)
- 2000
Hailing from the Austin Powers school of comedy, Angels! opens with the defrosting of cryogenically frozen Coty Dominguez (Ruben Zambrano), Maxine Von Rippington (John Stapleton), and Tawngy Davis (Raja). Frozen since an era when Abba and Gloria Gaynor ruled the airwaves, the three find themselves adjusting to life in contemporary, technology-driven society, and have the added burden of doing battle with the evil Joe Bogsley (Trick's Christian Campbell), who is using his inherited detective agency to do very bad things. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raja
- 2000
This Japanese anime series tells the story of Pai, the sole survivor of a race of immortal three-eyed beings known as the Sanjiyan Unkara who temporarily assumes the form of a human girl in a quest to recover an ancient artifact which will make her human attributes permanent. She eventually befriends young Yakumo Fuji, the son of an archaeologist who has become an expert on Sanjiyan lore. Together they set out to recover the mystical object, embarking on an adventure beyond the boundaries of life and death. The journey takes on a whole new meaning for Yakumo when he is killed in a supernatural battle and resurrected as Pai's spiritual sidekick. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1999
Not to be confused with the cable-television movie Strange Justice, which aired the same evening on August 29, 1999, the NBC TV movie Cruel Justice stars A. Martinez as Jerry Metcalf, the intensely protective single father of 16-year-old Amy Metcalf (Nicki Lynn Aycox). Already distraught over the fact that Amy has been raped, Jerry goes completely over the edge when his daughter's attacker beats the rap in court. Taking the law into his own hands, Jerry dedicates his life to wreaking vengeance against the smirking perpetrator. The fact that Cruel Justice was run at the tail end of the 1998-1999 TV season, a time when few people were watching, is indicative of NBC's nervous feelings about the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A shy musical comedy composer searches in vain for someplace to bed down with a sexy go-go dancer in this sweet-natured romantic comedy set in Manhattan. College student Gabriel (Christian Campbell) wants to compose musical comedies; Katherine (Tori Spelling), his muse and confidante, wants to star in his productions. In the meantime, she's rehearsing an all-female version of Salomé set in a women's prison while he drowns his sorrows about a negative review at a tony strip club. On the way home from the bar, Gabriel notices Mark (Jean Paul Pitoc), one of the dancers from the club, catnapping in the subway. One mumble-mouthed come-on later, the men attempt to consummate their attraction to one another at Gabriel's tiny apartment, only to find themselves frustrated by pets, roommates, and a visit from Katherine. The couple's attempt to find a suitable boudoir leads them from one location to another; along the way, they discover that their attraction might extend beyond a single afternoon's ardor. Trick marked the feature debut of director Jim Fall, a New York University alumnus who had previously lensed such gay-themed shorts as Shanghai, He Touched Me, and Love Is Deaf, Dumb and Blind. Fall and first-time screenwriter Jason Schafer spent more than three years reworking his original script while raising half a million dollars to finance the film, which appeared at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals in 1999. Much of the publicity over the film centered on the heterosexuality of its two male romantic leads; despite such mild controversy, Trick became a modest art-house hit. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Campbell, John Paul Pitoc, (more)
Would-be actor Danny Reilly (Dean Paras), living in Hollywood, can't help but lie to women to get them into bed. But he's finally met his match in lovely Corey (Katie Wright), yet can't turn off his urge to fudge the truth, even when the woman of his dreams demands complete honesty. Not helping matters is Renee (Neve Campbell), a former girlfriend, now a movie star, who is obsessed with ruining Danny's life by poisoning new relationships. And then there's Tim (Stefan Brogren), Danny's roommate, who isn't gay after all but who also has the hots for Corey. And then Danny meets -- and is caught with -- fast-acting Jennifer (Rebecca Gayheart), even though it's not what it looks like. Or is it? ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Paras, Katie Wright, (more)
Strange happenings occur when California teenager Sarah (Sarah Chalke) and her mother Rosemary (Markie Post) relocate to the small New England town of Pinecrest. It seems that Sarah shares the same name with a notorious witch who'd been burned at the stake three centuries earlier. Before her death, the "original" Sarah had vowed to get even with all the descendants of the people who persecuted her. A group of snotty high schoolers who've formed The Descendants' Club decide to give the hapless Sarah a very, very hard time -- but the fun is over when, while posing as a fortuneteller at a Halloween party, Sarah discovers that she possesses genuine psychic powers, and foresees a series of disasters that foment a frenzy of mass hysteria in the tiny community. Also tossed into this witches' brew is a mentally challenged serial killer, decked out in a Mike Myers-style mask. Adapted (and heavily laundered) from Lois Duncan's novel Gallows Hill, the made-for-TV I've Been Waiting for You debuted over NBC on March 22, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Chalke, Markie Post, (more)
Alan Fraser wrote and directed this drama about an interracial friendship. In 1992, 19-year-old Matt (Christian Campbell) leaves the Midwest for a life as an artist, moving into Black South-Central Los Angeles, where he's just about the only white face around. Complicating matters, he has no car. Visiting the local laundromat on Saturday nights, he meets single middle-aged black mother Evelyn (Jonelle Allen). With empty lives, the two soon become close friends, discussing drugs, violence and racism in their weekly laundromat meetings, interrupted when the 1992 LA riots begin. Shown at the 1998 Hollywood Film Festival and the 1998 Urbanworld Film Festival (NY). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Campbell, Jonelle Allen, (more)
- 1996
- AddSeduced by Madness: The Diane Borchardt Storyto QueueAddSeduced by Madness: The Diane Borchardt Storyto top of Queue
Inspired by a true story, director John Patterson's made for television thriller stars ageing screen siren Ann-Margaret the titular black widow, a deeply-disturbed, part-time Wisconsin schoolteacher who manipulates her students into killing her husband under the false pretences that he is an abusive tyrant who is about to end their marriage and send her packing from their lavish suburban home. The truth, however, is that Diane's husband Ruben (Peter Coyote) is just a regular guy who realized that his marriage was a mistake when his irrationally jealous wife fails to prevent signs of her acute instability from bubbling to the surface. While Ruben staunchly opposes divorce, he is increasingly drawn to the beautiful Claire (Leslie Hope), a married woman who effectively signs his death warrant after luring him into an adulterous affair. Meanwhile, back in study hall, Diane plies impressionable sixteen year-old student Doug Vest (Christian Campbell) with elaborate yarns of abuse and mistreatment, eventually spurring him into action lest she lose everything in the impending divorce. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann-Margret, Peter Coyote, (more)
- 1992
In this outing a city boy learns the meaning of manhood after he struggles to protect the ancient and beautiful Limberlost forest from those who would destroy it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Brolin, Christian Campbell, (more)
