David Tausik Movies

2000  
 
The "surprise" ending of this made-for-TV sci/fi thriller will not surprise fans of the Matrix movies--nor those senior citizens who heard variations on the same plotline back in the days of such radio anthologies as X-Minus One and Dimension X.The film is set in the future, where the world has apparently reached perfection at last. Curiously, the modernistic trappings of the era rub shoulders with such decidedly "retro" elements as drive-in movies and rock-n-roll bars, but no one questions this dichotomy. No one, that is, except advertising executive Dale Hunter (Michael Muhney), who after surviving a car accident notices a few disturbing "glitches" in the world around him. As mentioned, practically everyone else is oblivious to such oddities, but Dale manages to find a kindred spirit in the form of a woman named Natalie (Jennifer Congram). Together, these two uncover evidence that their existence may not be an existence after all, but instead a all-encompassing illusion! Virtual Nightmare premiered April 14, 2000 on UPN. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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1998  
 
Aldous Huxley's 1932 science fiction novel was previously adapted to film (a 1980 TV movie starring Bud Cort) and radio (a 1956 CBS Radio Workshop two-parter with an opening intro by Huxley) and again to TV in this 1998 production. In a high-tech city of a future time, humans are genetically engineered, monogamy is frowned on, and the drug Soma is consumed to eliminate stress in a society where the citizens are niched into rigid classes (Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma). Scornful looks are directed at high-level Alphas Bernard Marx (Peter Gallagher) and Lenina Crowne (Rya Kihlstedt), a couple who have become interested in each other over and beyond the commonly accepted one-night stands. Bernard has climbed to the upper echelons at the Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning Center, while Lenina is employed in the educational conditioning field. When Bernard and Lenina visit an outlying Reservation, their copter crashes, and they are under attack by the locals when Shakespeare-quoting "savage" John Cooper (Tim Guinee) intervenes. When John takes Bernard and Lenina to the house where he lives with his alcoholic mother Linda (Sally Kirkland), Bernard is fascinated by John's retro way of life and his collection of literature. With automatic satellite tracking in play, a craft arrives in short order to return Bernard and Lenina to the city. For research purposes, Bernard takes the two back to civilization -- where John (aka "The Savage") becomes a media celeb, and Linda gets hooked on Soma. The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning (Miguel Ferrer) considers Cooper a threat to society, but his superior, the Controller (Leonard Nimoy), who thinks the social order is secure, holds a progressive, thoughtful attitude regarding past, present, and future. Meanwhile, Lenina has a sexual attraction for John, who rejects her passionate advances because it "isn't love," and he soon becomes disenchanted with the unspiritual, hedonistic way of life he sees in this "brave new world." Premiered April 19, 1998 on NBC. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Peter GallagherLeonard Nimoy, (more)
1994  
 
This good-looking but tedious costume horror piece was co-produced by the Roger Corman stable and their Russian cohorts at Mosfilm. In Napoleonic France, Baron Jean Octavie (Lev Prigunov) is drawn and quartered for writing a symphony in celebration of Satan to gain eternal life. A while later, his beautiful niece Gabrielle (Jennifer Burns) moves into Chateau Cauchemars and finds her uncle's unfinished symphony hidden in a piano. With the help of a housekeeper (Beverly Garland) who turns out to be the Baron's widow, Burns finds a choirmaster (Ben Cross) to finish the symphony. They fall in love and he kills Burns' fiancee in a duel, but it's all a plot by Garland to bring the Baron back from the grave and take over the young lovers' bodies. Or so Garland thinks, because (as all bad-movie buffs know) those who deal with the Devil are corrupt by nature. Overall, this is quite a handsome piece, well photographed by Yivgeny Korzhenkov, but it seems to go on forever with no real payoff. Those who have the patience to make it through this yawnfest will get to see some really silly zombie makeup on the burning Baron as he pounds away on a flaming piano. Otherwise, it's for occult completists only. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

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1992  
R  
Scott Valentine stars as an assistant D.A. who has an affair with an office intern (Vanessa Angel), who is the homicidal niece of his ill-fated boss. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

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1991  
R  
Two beefed-up twins (played by the Paul brothers, Peter and David, who have appeared in several programmers as "The Barbarian Brothers") operating on opposing sides of the law, team up to stop a nefarious crook in this actioner. Peter Jade is a notoriously arrogant burglar who ends up with the key to an enormous underground cache of diamonds. David Jade is a cop who joins forces with Peter after greedy Philip Chamberlain, wanting the diamonds for himself, kills David's partner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Peter PaulDavid Paul, (more)
1991  
PG  
It probably takes an intimate acquaintance with East Germany's famously awful car, a smoky, noisy two-cylinder lawnmower on wheels, the Trabant 601, to fully appreciate the jokes in this extremely popular, celebrity-filled comedy. In the story, Gunther (German television star Thomas Gotttschalk) is an East German inventor who has journeyed with his homely car to an inventor's convention in Hollywood: he has figured out a way to get his Trabbi to run on turnip juice and zoom like a sports car. When his odd car is stolen, he tries to get it back, but L.A. and it's culture are alien to him and he is very much a fish out of water, despite the friendly advice he receives from Billy Dee Williams as a knowledgeable parking-lot attendant. Look for cameos by Milton Berle and Dom DeLuise, among others. This Trabbi film is a sequel to the enormously popular comedy Go, Trabi, Go. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Thomas GottschalkBilly Dee Williams, (more)
1990  
PG  
Professional wrestlers Peter Paul and David Paul star in this muscle-bound comedy about two slowwitted truck drivers who are hired to transport a heap of toxic waste across the country to Los Angeles. Along the way, the boys run into a 16-year-old girl genius who is on the run from a secret government research center because she holds plans for a mysterious secret weapon. With government agents in pursuit, the two lunkheads and the teen prodigy have to make it to L.A. with their toxic waste and avoid being captured by amoral government forces. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Peter PaulDavid Paul, (more)

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