David C. Thomas Movies

While the late '60s were an era which produced a large number of eclectic and influential rock & roll bands, few were as revolutionary in both their music and there message as the MC5. Formed in late 1964 by five high-school buddies from suburban Detroit, the MC5 -- vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Fred "Sonic" Smith and Wayne Kramer, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson -- started out as a fairly typical Midwestern garage band, but as the group embraced the passion of blues and R&B, the sonic wanderlust of free jazz and psychedelia, and the muscular power of hard rock, it evolved into an uncommonly adventurous act who became the standard for other Detroit "high-energy" bands to follow. Managed by poet and political activist John Sinclair, the MC5 also became the "house band" of the radical leftist group the White Panther Party, and was a fixture at political rallies in the Midwest, even after Sinclair was sentenced to ten years in prison for possession of marijuana. The band was a cause célèbre and a major draw in the Midwest, scoring a contract with a major record label and becoming the only rock group to play at the protest rallies staged during the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention. But soon the bandmembers found themselves on the outs with both the straight-laced music industry and revolutionaries who questioned their political commitment; drug problems, poor record sales, and infighting began dogging the group, and the MC5 soon faced a collapse whose humiliation outweighed the glory of their salad days. The band's legacy, however, never failed to impress music fans, and its example proved massively influential with the punk rock movement that bloomed a few years after the group crashed and burned in 1972. MC5: A True Testimonial is a feature-length documentary on the group and its legacy, featuring interviews with surviving members Kramer, Davis, and Thompson, former manager Sinclair, and many friends and family members, as well as footage of the group in its prime (including FBI surveillance film of the 1968 Chicago Convention performance). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

It takes quite a while to determine who the real villain is in the made-for-TV melodrama A Crime of Passion--but once the truth is revealed, it's a terror-inducing ride to a horrifying conclusion. Kindly Dr. Ben Pierce (Powers Boothe) incurs the wrath of his grown daughters Alyssa (Tracey Gold) and Natalie (essie Gold) when he comes home with his new young trophy wife--an ex-stripped named Marci Elias (Kelly Rowan). Since Marci's love for Ben seems sincere, the hostility is all on the side of his daughters, especially Alyssa, who is already on the outs with her dad because of her poor grades in medical school. A series of unfortunate misunderstandings and bad choices causes a serious rift between Ben and Marci--and before long, Ben is found murdered. Normally, Marci would be the primary suspect, but the evidence compels the police to accuse Alyssa of the crime. That is to say, the evidence as it has been carefully and meticulously pre-arranged... A rather gaudy example of the "Smiler With the Knife" school of filmmaking, A Crime of Passion was originally telecast by CBS on December 15, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"It makes Fatal Attraction seem like a walk in the park." Thus did ABC herald the three-hour TV movie Virtual Obsession when it first aired on February 26, 1998. Set in Salt Lake City sometime in the future, the story, based on a novel by Peter James, concerns a scientist named Joe Messenger (Peter Gallagher), who has created a super-computer in charge of all the city's power. In the course of his research, Joe has also developed a "post-biological" man in the form of Albert (Tom Nibley), the holographic A.I. manifestation of his computer. Enter Juliet Spring (Bridgette Wilson), a beautiful computer tech who becomes Joe's assistant. Incurably ill, Juliet hopes to keep herself alive by downloading her brain and personality into Joe's computer system. To expedite this, Juliet seductively steals Joe away from his long-suffering wife, Karen (Mimi Rogers). Ultimately, Joe breaks off with Juliet and returns to Karen, thereby incurring the terrible wrath of the now-computerized Juliet -- who is not only deadly, but virtually unstoppable. Almost as confusing to watch as it is to describe, Virtual Obsession has been rerun on cable TV under the title Host. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This adaptation of Stephen King's thriller is about a man who returns to his hometown after 27 years. Soon he is tormented by ghosts of the dead teens who killed his brother years before. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

This teen drama revolves around the misconceived exploits of three friends, Lindsey (Courtney Thorne-Smith), Joey (Mariska Hargitay), and Robin (Jo Ann Willette). After graduating from high school, the trio take off to work for a Nevada dude ranch; when that doesn't work out, they end up in Lake Tahoe with a new friend, Talia (Cristen Kauffman). Unfortunately, Talia's brutish boyfriend Roscoe (E. Erich Anderson) is a petty gangster who gets the three friends some work at a casino, basically the wrong jobs at the wrong time. Before long, the trio are in trouble, and after Roscoe bails them out, their problems only gets worse. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This groundbreaking, darkly-comic horror film from director Joe Dante changed the look and feel of werewolf movies in ways light-years distant from Universal's horror classic The Wolf Man. The story begins with television reporter/anchor Karen White (Dee Wallace) taking part in a dangerous police operation intended to trap psychopath Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo). When confronted by Eddie face-to-face, she witnesses something horrifying enough to trigger selective amnesia. Plagued by a series of violent nightmares, Karen decides to admit herself to a posh recovery resort known only as "The Colony," run by her eccentric New Age therapist Dr. Wagner (Patrick MacNee), and brings along her husband Bill (Christopher Stone) for support. The night after they arrive, Karen and Bill are unnerved by eerie howling in the woods. Back in the city, Karen's coworkers Chris (Dennis Dugan) and Terry (Belinda Balaski) have been investigating Eddie's background after discovering that his body has disappeared from the morgue. Sifting through Eddie's possessions, they find a strange collection of artwork depicting wolf-like creatures, and decide to consult with Walter Paisley (Dick Miller, of course), the owner of an occult bookshop, on werewolf lore. Though he claims not to believe in the stuff he's selling, Paisley nevertheless convinces Chris to purchase a handful of silver bullets... just in case. Back at the colony, Dr. Wagner has organized a hunting party after hearing Karen's account of the nocturnal howling, but the men find nothing but a rabbit, which Bill is told to bring to the cabin of the sultry Marsha (Elisabeth Brooks) to prepare for dinner. After resisting Marsha's less-than-subtle sexual overtures, Bill is attacked by a wolf while returning to his cabin. The following moonlit night, the sleepless Bill wanders outside to find Marsha waiting and the two make love by the campfire, their bodies undergoing a frightening transformation. Just as Karen is beginning to suspect that her husband is hiding a secret far more threatening than marital infidelity, Chris and Terry have come to realize -- too late, in Terry's case -- that Eddie Quist is not only still alive, but not quite human... and he knows he's being followed. Chris arrives at the colony too late to save Terry, but manages to find Karen just as the colony's residents -- all of whom are werewolves, including Dr. Wagner -- are assembling to decide her fate. Dante fills his film with heartfelt homages to The Wolf Man and other classic horror movies, as well as a few clever visual puns and in-jokes from his tenure with Roger Corman, but never strays from the path to genuine horror, particularly when Rob Bottin's chilling monsters are onscreen. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide