Roderick Taylor Movies
- 2007
When a fun-loving group of wave-riding students discover a Satanic board game called Mamba, they quickly discover that to lose the game is to lose their lives in first-time director Alvaro de Arminian's infernal tale of innocent play gone horribly awry. Eliza Dushku and Mike Vogel headline an international cast that also includes Naike Rivelli, Gary Piquer, Alex O'Dogherty, and Martxelo Rubio. Screenwriters Roderick and Bruce Taylor pen the script in collaboration with Antonio Cuadri. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eliza Dushku, Mike Vogel, (more)
Neil Jordan's The Brave One stars Jodie Foster as a happy woman whose life changes irrevocably after a brutal assault leaves her partner (Naveen Andrews) dead. The woman, feeling that the police investigation will be unable to catch the perpetrators, begins to live in constant fear. This outlook results in the woman eventually dispatching vigilante justice. Terrence Howard co-stars as the officer in charge of the investigation. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, (more)
This loosely fact-based oater attempts to mimic the youthful heartthrobs in Western garb formula of Young Guns (1988), as well as the cheeky humor and some plot elements of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Colin Farrell stars as Jesse James, who returns home from the Civil War to his small hometown to find that a crooked railroad baron (Harris Yulin) has been illegally forcing the residents from the homesteads to make way for a new rail line. Enraged, James leads a band of outlaws including his brother Frank (Gabriel Macht), Cole Younger (Scott Caan), and Younger's brothers Bob (Will McCormack) and Jim (Gregory Smith) on a criminal spree of bank robbing. Although their Robin Hood-style tactics soon make them local heroes, the James-Younger gang members find themselves pursued by the dogged Allan Pinkerton (Timothy Dalton), the world's first "private eye." Along the way, Jesse also finds romance with Zee Mimms (Ali Larter), the daughter of a local doctor (Ronny Cox). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colin Farrell, Scott Caan, (more)
- 2000
At Any Cost is the story of the rise and fall of a "one hit wonder" singing group. Lance and Mike, a pair of brothers living in Austin, TX, make a bid for the big time by forming a rock band called Beyond Gravity. Lance's wife Chelsea is recruited as the band's bass player, while the brothers' best friend Ben is appointed manager. The group's optimism and idealism is quickly ground down by failed performances, the foot-dragging of the label that signed them, Ben's ruthless and obstreperous business practices, and above all, by Mike's substance abuse. Just when it appears as if the group's fortunes will change, tragedy strikes. At Any Cost was produced for VH1 as part of that cable channel's "Movies That Rock" series. In an unusual move, the producers created the group Beyond Gravity before the film was made, the better to fit the plot line progression to the group's songs, rather than the other way around. The film's soundtrack (and its subsequent CD) also features the talents of Andreas Johnson, Barenaked Ladies, and Eagle-Eye Cherry. At Any Cost was first broadcast on August 16, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Mills, Cyia Batten, (more)
- 2000
Based on the novel Fatal Exposure, this cautionary made-for-TV thriller stars John Corbett as dedicated scientist and ecologist Evan Thorne. When he tries to warn the authorities that the earth's ozone layer has eroded to such an extent as to endanger all mankind, Thorne is laughed off as a nut case and his career and credibility are destroyed -- largely thanks to the skulduggery of his rival Dr. Schiffren (Tom Irwin), a scientist who has sold his soul to the industrial community. But when whales begin dying at an alarming rate, airplanes crash, corpses catch fire, wildlife goes insane, and deadly insects threaten to engulf Los Angeles, it would seem that Thorne wasn't just whistling Dixie. Even so, it takes the combined efforts of Thorne, his politician ex-wife, Jennifer (Josie Bissett), formerly cynical reporter John Morgan (Bradley Whitford), and gorgeous female scientist Elizabeth Sorel (Jo Anderson) to bring the authorities to their senses and expedite rescue-and-evacuation proceedings. By film's end, the future of humanity rests in Evan's ability to construct a bomb that will restore the balance of nature. A standard disaster flick disguised as a profound pro-environmental screed, The Sky's on Fire was reportedly produced for cable TV in 1998, but did not formally premiere until it was telecast by ABC on July 15, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Corbett, Josie Bissett, (more)
- 1998
The made-for-TV disaster flick Ice first aired on German television under the title Eis: wehn die Welt erfriert on November 29, 1998. Thanks to a precipitous temperature drop on the sun, a second ice age hits Los Angeles, resulting in unseasonable 70-degrees-below-zero weather and a general breakdown of society. L.A. cop Robert Drake (Grant Show) joins forces with his girlfriend (Eva La Rue), his ex-wife (Audie England), and a black convict (Flex) who thinks that the recent cold snap is a government plot against African-Americans, the better to commandeer a submarine and head to the (temporarily) warmer climes of the Equator. Beyond its usual apocalypse-flick trappings, the film nearly collapses under the weight of visual symbolism. American viewers first saw Ice when it was telecast by ABC on July 22, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Grant Show, Eva La Rue, (more)
- 1990
- R
Craig Sheffer stars as Zane, a TV producer looking for romance. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Sheffer, Chelsea Noble, (more)
- 1987
This made-for-TV movie is the second follow-up to the astonishingly successful Kenny Rogers as the Gambler (1980). Rogers returns as Old West gambler Brady Hawkes, while Bruce Boxleitner, Rogers' co-star in 1983's The Gambler: The Adventure Continues, is also back as Hawkes' sidekick Billy Montana. Others in the cast include Linda Gray as adventuress Mary Collins, Jeffrey Jones as Buffalo Bill Cody and George American Horse as Sitting Bull. This time around, Brady and Billy try to protect the Sioux Nation from corrupt, treaty-breaking cavalry officers who've been stealing cattle and shifting the blame to the Indians. The Gambler III: The Legend Continues debuted November 22, 1987, an occasion celebrated by a TV Guide cover story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
Though set in Cuba, the made-for-cable Florida Straits was lensed in South Carolina. The film is set twenty years after the Bay of Pigs invasion. Raul Julia, Fred Ward and Daniel Jenkins sneak back into Castroland to search for a fortune in gold that had been buried during the abortive 1961 military action. Their mission is complicated by a woman from Julia's past. Scripted by Roderick Taylor, Florida Straits was first telecast on October 26, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Mark Lindsay Chapman (no relation to the murderer of John Lennon) stars in the made-for-TV The Annihilator. If the title sounds faintly reminiscent of The Terminator, it might just be more than a coincidence. The plot involves an army of mindless automatons, programmed to kill, kill, kill. Chapman plays a reporter whose efforts to halt the robot army are flummoxed by the fact that he himself is a fugitive from the law. The Annihilator premiered on April 7, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
In this action-drama, a crack team of transport specialists try to stop terrorists from hijacking an armored van filled with plutonium. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Morgan Fairchild, Billy Dee Williams, (more)
Fed up with watching vicious criminals walk on technicalities and loopholes, judge Michael Douglas accepts his older colleague Hal Holbrook's invitation to join "The Star Chamber." This sub-rosa organization consists of nine like-minded judges who endeavor to take the law into their own hands. Essentially, these are robed vigilantes, but Douglas joins them, determining that the end justifies the means. Before long, however, Douglas finds himself balking at sanctioning the murder of freed criminals -- and as a result becomes the target of the Star Chamber himself. Worth noting in the supporting cast of The Star Chamber are Diana Douglas, Michael Douglas' real-life mother, and Frances Bergen, widow of Edgar Bergen and mother of Candice Bergen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Douglas, Hal Holbrook, (more)
