Mark Warren Movies

The debut film by director Robert Edwards, Land of the Blind, is a political satire starring Ralph Fiennes as a military man who helps overthrow his government. He does so at the urging of a political prisoner, played by Donald Sutherland, who has been outspoken about the corruption of the current regime. The soldier learns that corruption may in fact be an inevitable part of having power. Set in an unnamed country without ever giving indication of a specific time period, the allegorical film had its North American debut at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Someone has murdered Queen Cleopatra (Josephine Davison), and it is up to Xena (Lucy Lawless) to find the killer. Thus it is that, when a rolled-up carpet is delivered to Marc Antony (Jon Bennett), out pops Xena, alluringly disguised as the Queen of Egypt. Meanwhile, Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) must tangle with Antony's mortal enemy Brutus (David Franklin) -- who knows only too well that the real Cleopatra is dead. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In Britain, when bored street punks go on violent destructive sprees late at night through local yards and neighborhoods it is called a "Boston kickout." Combining elements of humor, gritty realism, and drama, this youthful film, set in dismal Stevenage, a hastily built post-war town where unemployment and despair runs rampant and the youth, bored and without hope for the future, engage in violent crime and drug use. Under these conditions, four teenage friends struggle to somehow make their way to manhood and a better future. Much of the story centers on Phil, a young man living with his father Ray and the grim memory of his mother's 1982 suicide in London. It was young Phil who found her hanging from a rope at the top of the stairs. Soon afterward, to escape the awful memory, Ray moved them to the suburb. That was years ago and now Phil hangs out with his best mate Ted and tries to figure out what to do with his life. Ted tires of their aimless, empty lives, rebels and leaves after a violent incident. Lonely Phil begins hanging out with Matt and Steve. Matt has recently married and doesn't seem to mind the stultifying life in Stevenage while Steve is emotionally unstable and ready to fall apart. Before the arrival of Shona, his lovely Irish cousin, Phil contemplates what he sees as his two life options, college with its hollow promise of a job, or a life of crime. Shona thinks he has talent as a photographer and encourages him as they embark upon a brief romantic fling. Just when Phil begins to dream of a better life, his bereaved father attempts to kill himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Blood of Heroes features a sport that you're not likely to see on ESPN. It's called "juggers", and Rutger Hauer is the champion jugger in the post-apocalyptic world; he goes from village to village with his entourage, brutishly taking on all comers. The action culminates in the bloody "league championship." Joan Chen costars as Hauer's apprentice in the film, which was released in Australia as Salute of the Jugger. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) cooks up a plan to hand over the General Lee to a pair of crooks in exchange for information on all upcoming payroll shipments. To this end, he challenges Jesse Duke (Denver Pyle) to a winner-take-all game of "Ridge Runner" pool--and thanks to a few, er, "precautions", it's a game that is guaranteed to turn champion pool player Jesse into a pathetic loser. Meanwhile, those aforementioned crooks decide that Boss is taking too much time, so they beat him to the punch by stealing the car right under everyone's noses! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Mark Warren's comedy Heartbreak High concerns the antics taken by students and faculty of rival high schools attempting to sabotage the other the week before their annual battle on the football field. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Beginning its fifth successful season on Friday, September 12, 1975, Sanford and Son was essentially the mixture as before with most of the familiar regulars firmly in place. His well-publicized contract disputes more or less receding into memory, Redd Foxx was back as cantankerous Watts junk dealer Fred Sanford, with Demond Wilson as his long-suffering son and reluctant business partner Lamont. Also returning were LaWanda Page as Fred's explosively prudish sister-in-law Aunt Esther, Lynn Hamilton as Fred's sometimes fiancée Donna Harris, Don Bexley and Nathaniel Taylor as family friends Bubba and Rollo, and Hal Williams and Howard Platt as police officers Smitty and Hoppy. Conspicuously absent from the fifth-season roster were three actors who had departed for other sitcoms: Gregory Sierra (Julio Fuentes), who had moved to Barney Miller; Pat Morita (Ah Chew), who had transferred to Happy Days; and, most notably, Whitman Mayo (Grady Wilson), now starring in his own spin-off series, Grady. However, despite his new leading-man workload, Mayo would continue to make token Sanford appearances as Grady, returning to the series on a more or less regular basis after Grady (the series) folded in the spring of 1976. Additions and emendations to the Sanford format included the arrival of Marlene Clark as Janet Lawson, a widowed mother with whom Lamont would fall in love, and Edward Crawford as Janet's young son Roger. Also, Fred and Lamont Sanford would try to amplify their income by managing a boarding house, the Sanford Arms, which introduced as steady stream of recurring characters -- and also set the stage for the ultimate conclusion of Sanford and Son at the end of 1977. That denouement was still part of the distant future by the conclusion of the series' sixth season, during which Sanford ranked as America's seventh most popular weekly series. Fans were particularly gratified that NBC chose to rerun selected episodes on Wednesday evenings from April to August 1976, under the title The Best of Sanford and Son. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This sequel to Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) brings back Coffin Ed Johnson (Raymond St. Jacques) and Gravedigger Jones (Godfrey Cambridge), two freewheeling African-American police detectives working the beat in Harlem. Joe (Peter DeAnda) is a famous photographer who has mounted a crusade to drive drug dealers out of Harlem, but his intentions are hardly civic-minded; he hopes that by cutting out as much competition as possible, he can take over the business and corner the neighborhood's dope market. Caspar (Maxwell Glanville), one of Harlem's biggest dealers, is the only one who has figured out Joe's angle, and he carefully guards his territory. When a few local dealers begin turning up dead, Joe announces that the ghost of a powerful Harlem gangster, Charleston Blue, has returned to clean up the neighborhood; the small-time dope men are a suspicious lot, and many of them flee the city. But Coffin Ed and Gravedigger know that something fishy is going on, and they struggle to get the goods on Joe and Caspar, as well as solving the mystery of Charleston Blue. Like its predecessor, Come Back Charleston Blue was based on a novel by crime writer Chester Himes. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A locked-in-the-fifties science fiction film, The 27th Day begins with five different people from five different countries suddenly disappearing from view. They have been gently abducted by the agent (Arnold Moss) of a faraway dying planet, who gives each of the five earthlings a "killing capsule" that will destroy everything on Earth and allow the residents of the alien planet to re-colonize the planet--but which will be ineffective if not used after 27 days. In typical Cold War fashion, the representatives of the "good" countries (including Gene Barry) refuse to utilize the capsules, while the Soviets, (personified by Azemat Janti and Stefan Schnabel) intend to deploy the capsules for their own nefarious purposes. Their perfidy only results in the utter decimation of the USSR. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi