David Streit Movies
Fine special effects, eclectic casting, and the freeze-frame-worthy, clothing-free debut of a blonde bombshell made this cheesy science fiction/horror hybrid a cut above its B-grade roots. At a top-secret Utah facility headed up by Dr. Xavier Fitch (Ben Kingsley), scientists have created "Sil" (Natasha Henstridge), a half-human, half-alien product of experiments with DNA codes obtained from beyond the stars. Unfortunately, Sil has escaped. Her primary objective is to mate, and, with the ability to transform herself into an incredibly powerful alien creature, puny humans can't stop her. So Dr. Fitch calls in a quartet of specialists (Forest Whitaker, Michael Madsen, Marg Helgenberger, and Alfred Molina), to attempt Sil's capture. At the same time, Sil is leaving a trail of mostly male corpses in her hormonal wake. The organic-flavored alien designs for Species were provided by H.R. Giger, the artist responsible for the memorable creatures and spaceships of Alien (1979). When MGM decided to cut the spectacular "train birth" sequence in the interest of budget-trimming, Giger personally financed this $100,000 showcase of his work. Those who look closely will notice that "Young Sil" is played by future Dawson's Creek star Michelle Williams. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, (more)
This light-hearted comedy depicts a typical summer camp, but with a special twist: this camp was designed by the campers themselves! "Mud" Himmel is a nerd. Once again he is faced with attending computer camp. His buddy Zack will be marching into go to military camp while Trish is acting happy about theater camp. That Gaby is going again to fat camp weighs heavily upon her mind. None of them are thrilled with their camp prospects and it is rebellious Mud who suggest that they create their own, secret camp. Enter Dennis Van Welker, their crazy high school drama instructor. He offers to join the conspiracy and act as their camp counselor. Just as it looks as if the four misfits are going to have a really great summer together, two dozen of their peers find out about the camp and decide to come along. For a time it's one big chaotic party. But as the kids act out their camp fantasies, they are gaining valuable insight into their lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jonathan Jackson, Christopher Lloyd, (more)
Hear No Evil, while based on the interesting premise of a deaf woman stalked by a relentless killer, is a well-crafted but predictable mystery thriller. Jillian (Marlee Matlin), a physical trainer is unknowingly given a valuable stolen coin. The theft of the coin was planned by a corrupt and sadistic police lieutenant (Martin Sheen) who needs the coin to fund his retirement, and he pursues Jillian in order to get it. Director Robert Greenwald, who also directed The Burning Bed, does a good job in showing the victim's courage and resourcefulness in her desperate situation. Matlin is good as Jillian, and does not use her deafness as a crutch to generate sympathy but portrays Jillian as an independent and strong woman. The plot gets bogged down with too many cliched twists and subplots, including a romance which slows the movie and adds nothing of interest in the development of the characters and their motivations. Hear No Evil, similar in theme to the excellent Wait Until Dark, lacks the focus and intensity necessary in a good thriller and wastes its excellent cast. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlee Matlin, D.B. Sweeney, (more)
Laurence Fishburne plays no-nonsense LAPD narc Russell Stevens, Jr., who has worked all his life to expunge the memory of his dope-addict father, whom he saw die in a liquor-store robbery. DEA agent Jerry Carver (Charles Martin Smith) orders Stevens to work as an undercover operative on a major case. The cop is to pose as a dealer in order to get the goods on South American drug lord. Stevens is so convincing as a dealer, that he fast works his way up through the ranks and gains the trust of lawyer and narcotics dealer David Jason (Jeff Goldblum) and his sinister associates, all lackeys to the kingpin who is the target of Stevens' assignment. Through a series of fantastic but credible circumstances, Stevens eliminates the lower echelon, getting closer to his quarry, but in the process he finds himself so deep into the sinister and seductive world of the drug trade that he may never get out. In a surprise move, and just when he is about to bring the ringleader down, the DEA pulls the plug on his assignment, because the top dealer, an influential Latin American politician, may someday be useful to the State Department. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, (more)
Neil Simon forgoes his typical urban East Coast kvetchers and replaces them with sunny Californian kvetchers in The Marrying Man, a film which became a beacon of gossip in 1991 due to the alleged shenanigans of stars Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger), who fell in love during production. Simon based his script on a true story concerning the love affair between shoe tycoon Harry Karl and actress Marie (The Body) McDonald during the 1950s. Married to each other four times, McDonald still managed to carry on an affair with mobster Bugsy Siegel. In this Simon-ized version, Baldwin plays Charley Pearl, a sharp and handsome Hollywood millionaire, engaged to Adele Horner (Elisabeth Shue), the daughter of dyspeptic movie studio executive Lew Horner (Robert Loggia). The day before their wedding, Charley heads off to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, and in a sleazy casino on the outskirts of town, he sets his eyes on sexy singer Vicki Anderson (Basinger) and falls for her hard. He wants her immediately and even though she warns him she's the property of Bugsy Siegel (Armand Assante), he crawls into her bedroom window to be with her. Caught with his pants down by Siegel, Bugsy, instead of killing him, forces him to marry Vicki ("I was about to dump her anyway," he says). But after their marriage, Charley and Vicki discover they're more attracted to the danger of their relationship than in each other. Charley's friends -- Phil (Paul Reiser), Sammy (Fisher Stevens), Tony (Peter Dobson), and George (Steve Hytner) -- form a Greek chorus commenting on the crazed love affair and are reportedly inspired by Phil Silvers, Sammy Cahn, Tony Martin, and Leo Durocher. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Basinger, Alec Baldwin, (more)
A Cuban woman who escapes to America finds herself in political, financial, and romantic jeopardy in this taut drama. Cuban refugee Isabel (Greta Scacchi) flees her country and makes her way to Miami after her husband, Nestor (Jimmy Smits), a political activist, is sentenced to a long stay in a Cuban jail. In their dangerous voyage to the United States, Isabel and her daughter are rescued by Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio), a fisherman from Miami; Sam helped Isabel find her way in her new home, and a romance blossoms between the two. However, when Nestor is finally released from prison eight years later and escapes to Miami to be with his wife, he discovers that Isabel's affections are now divided between himself and Sam, while his daughter barely remembers or recognizes him. Danger faces all three sides of this romantic triangle; Sam is asked to use his boat to smuggle Cuban dissidents into Miami, Nestor falls in with a radical fringe group hoping to stage an armed invasion of Cuba, and Isabel, who has become involved with a numbers racket, is in deep trouble after several massive payments were made to someone who never placed a bet. Fires Within was also shown under the title Little Havana; it premiered in Miami, appropriately enough, in its short-lived theatrical release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Scacchi, Jimmy Smits, (more)
In this glossy L.A. crime drama by Mike Figgis, Andy Garcia stars as Sgt. Raymond Avila, a cop who just joined the Internal Affairs division of the L.A.P.D. An investigation into police corruption has led Avila and his partner, Sgt. Amy Wallace (Laurie Metcalf), to Officer Dennis Peck (Richard Gere). Avila suspects something about Peck from the beginning; his influence and dominance over others seems to extend further than the reach of his badge. When officers who wish to testify against Peck start dying, the depth of his corruption becomes increasingly clear; at his disposal, he has an army of cops and criminals alike. He even agrees to assassinate a sleazy businessman's own parents, and humiliates the businessman while they make the deal. In his drive to dominate others, Peck attempts to seduce almost every woman around him and is obsessed with children and fatherhood. Peck is most dangerous when the investigation threatens his territory and his extended family; he stalks Avila and turns him against his wife (Nancy Travis). ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, (more)
- 1988
When Claire (Linda Kozlowski) learns her grandmother has been bilked out of $50,000 by the crooked televangelists Ray (Tim Curry) and Darla Porter (Annie Potts), she recruits her redneck boyfriend Jesse (Bill Paxton) to help recover the money. They travel to the Tower of Bethlehem deep in the Arkansas woods to break into the studio and hold the hosts of the show hostage. This timely comedy came in the wake of scandals involving real-life televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and Jimmy "I Have Sinned" Swaggert. Neil Cohen and Joel Cohen wrote the screenplay. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Paxton, Linda Kozlowski, (more)
The nude, strangled body of a teenaged girl lies on the edge of the river. Her murderer is her boyfriend, Daniel Roebuck. All the kids in Roebuck's dismal, dead-end town know who committed the murder. Trouble is, no one bothers to turn Roebuck in; some of the teens don't know how to react to the crime, while others, strung out on drugs and booze, just don't give a damn. A study of contemporary alienation, River's Edge was based on a real-life incident that occurred in Milpitas, California, in 1981. That same year, Neal Jimenez wrote his screenplay for River's Edge, but was not able to finance the project until 1987. Except for Dennis Hopper, cast as a holdover from the sixties who hobbles about on one leg and makes love to a blow-up doll, the cast was largely comprised of unknowns, many of whom (Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye) would definitely be heard from in the future. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, (more)
British director Tony Garnett's American film debut is a tale of revenge that criticizes American gun culture. Karen Young plays Kathleen Sullivan, an idealistic Boston educator who travels to Texas to teach. In her new home town she meets Larry Keeler (Clayton Day), a handsome lawyer who is obsessed with guns. On their first date together, things seem to go swimmingly, but on their second date, Larry brings his gun along and Kathleen finds herself raped with a firearm pointed at her head. Kathleen becomes consumed with vengeance; she learns how to handle a gun, becomes a crack shot, and goes forth to seek revenge for her rape. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karen Young, Clayton Day, (more)
In this gory (the special effects are especially well done) slice-n-dicer, the happiness and the sanity of a W.W.II vet is destroyed when he returns home and finds his girl in the arms of another at the town's annual dance. Outraged, he kills both with a pitchfork and the town does not hold the dance again for the next 35 years. The story jumps to the future and the town prepares to hold the dance again. Unfortunately, the vet hears about the dance and comes back to do a little more killing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vicki Dawson, Christopher Goutman, (more)
Rockers was made after the the stunning success of the independently made 1972 hit The Harder They Come, which introduced North Americans to reggae music and the Rastafarian lives of many Jamaicans. In the story, Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, who has been a drummer in reggae bands, decides to try and give his fellow musicians an even break by becoming a record distributor. When local gangsters rip him off and stop his budding music venture cold, his fellow musicians decide to rob the robbers. Practically everyone in this film, beginning with its star, were reggae musicians who were well known in Jamaica. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leroy Wallace, Richard Hall, (more)
- 1977
Robert M. Young, who has made a cottage industry of "small" atmospheric films, made his directorial debut in 1977's Alambrista!. Domingo Ambriz plays a young Mexican man who crosses illegally into the U.S. The birth of an additional child convinces him that they need more than he can earn on his small farm. Each employment opportunity ultimately evolves into a heartbreak thanks to the exploitative practices of Ambriz's American employers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Domingo Ambriz, Trinidad Silva, (more)
