Stan Winston Movies
What do Miss Jane Pittman at age 110, Edward Scissorhands, and the Terminator have in common? All of their distinctive looks are creations of Stan Winston, one Hollywood's finest special effects wizards.Over his career, Winston designed some of cinema's most memorable creatures; he received ten Academy Award nominations and won four, two of which came from designing the makeup and visual effects for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Winston's other two Oscars came from creating the queen alien in Aliens (1986) and for making the realistic-looking dinosaurs that rumbled through Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993). Winston's other awards include two Emmy wins and six nominations, and five BAFTA award nominations and three wins. He also won a Clio for television commercials and many other industry awards.
Winston originally aspired to be an actor and came to Hollywood in 1969 with stars in his eyes. While waiting for his "big break," he worked as an apprentice makeup artist under the head of the Disney Studios makeup department. Winston did not enter the field on a whim; as a child he'd been fascinated by puppetry and maskmaking. While at Disney, that fascination became a passion and Winston found himself with a new career.
Winston won his first Emmy for the made-for-television movie Gargoyles (1972) -- many of the stop-motion effects and the creatures themselves were created on his dining room table with the help of his wife Karen. Winston shared his second Oscar with Hollywood's other special effects whiz, Rick Baker, for realistically aging actress Cicely Tyson from 19 to 110 years old. Winston first worked his unique magic in feature films in The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) and followed it up by turning Rod Steiger into late comedian W.C. Fields in W.C. Fields and Me (1976). Winston had his first opportunity to do the elaborate effects and makeup for which he is most famous in The Wiz (1978), where he gained special recognition for creating the flying monkeys sequence.
Winston's contributions to movie-making superseded the ability to create recognizable and fantastic characters. He was also a pioneer in special effects technology, especially when it came to combining robotics with sophisticated puppetry to allow creatures a wide variety of life-like moves and subtle emotions. Winston was especially fascinated with facial articulation. One of his early innovations was a device for The Star Wars Christmas Special that allowed Wookies (big, hairy gorilla-like creatures with slightly canine faces) to move their cheeks and foreheads (in the original Star Wars, Chewbacca the Wookie had extremely limited facial movements). Winston's first Oscar nomination came from convincingly turning Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters into romantically inclined robots in Heartbeeps. During filming, Winston met James Cameron, the director for whom he would do some of his best work. Winston and Cameron first teamed up on The Terminator, a sci-fi actioner in which Winston had to help muscleman Arnold Schwarzenegger transform into a futuristic robot. Winston's task was to create a robot with the ability to move like a human. Rather than utilize the traditional scale model and stop motion techniques, Winston came up with a life-sized animatronic puppet. He put the notion of full-sized, fully articulated creatures to use again to create the terrifying queen alien for Aliens (1986). Winston's efforts earned him his first Oscar. His third Oscar nomination was for Predator (1987) and a fourth one was for turning Johnny Depp into a strange leather-clad creation in Edward Scissorhands (1990).
As the '90s progressed, Winston became increasingly involved with computer-generated special effects. These allowed him to be equally at ease with such large-scale projects as Spielberg's two Jurassic Park epics, in which full-sized animatronic dinosaurs worked in harmony with computerized images, Mousehunt (1997), and Paulie (1998), in which he created an amazingly realistic mouse and parrot, respectively.
In addition to special effects work, Winston directed two films, Pumpkinhead (1988) and A Gnome Named Gnorm (1994). In private life, Winston was a known philanthropist and sat on the board of director of Free Arts for Abused Children. Among his many honors was an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from the country's largest art college, the Savannah College of Art and Design. Winston did some of his final special effects work on the films A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), and The Shaggy Dog (2006), before succumbing to multiple myeloma in the early summer of 2008. He was 62. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Rockne S. O'Bannon scripted this two-part TV miniseries adaptation of Peter Benchley's novel, found floating in the wake of his Jaws and The Beast. The origins of the tale's hybrid horror begin in 1972 at a secret Navy base off St. Lucia, where researchers cross a dolphin with a great white shark, creating a monster to generate fear and loathing in Vietnam. The Navy covers up the failed experiment, and 25 years later, cut to the Chase -- namely, scientist Simon Chase (Craig T. Nelson), who moves to the island to research a cancer-shark connection. Chase brings along his scientist ex-wife (Kim Cattrall), his 15-year-old son, Max (Matthew Carey), and their pet sea lion. Naturally, the "creature" resurfaces and gnaws on islanders -- with Chase soon in pursuit. Creature effects by Stan Winston. Filmed in St. Lucia, West Indies and Vancouver, British Columbia. Premiered May 17, 1998 on ABC. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig T. Nelson, Kim Cattrall, (more)
- 1997
- PG13
- Add The Lost World: Jurassic Park to QueueAdd The Lost World: Jurassic Park to top of Queue
Just when you'd think that scientists would realize dinosaurs and humans don't mix, along comes The Lost World: Jurassic Park to prove you wrong. In this sequel, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) summons chaos theorist and onetime colleague Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to his home with some startling information -- while nearly everything at his Jurassic Park had been destroyed, engineers were also operating a second site, where other dinosaurs, resurrected through DNA cloning technology, had been kept in hiding. Hammond has learned the dinosaurs on the second island are alive and well and even breeding; Hammond wants Malcolm to observe and document the reptiles before Hammond's financiers can get to them. Malcolm declares he had enough of the dinosaurs the first time out, but decides to make the trip when he finds out that his girlfriend, paleontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), is already there. However, Ian and Sarah aren't the only visitors expected on the island; a camera crew led by ecological activist Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn) is on the way, as is Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite), a world-class wild game hunter who is supposed to round up the dinosaurs and who hopes to bag a prehistoric trophy for himself in the process. This sequel to Jurassic Park boasted even more impressive special effects than the first film, though the acting and screenplay aren't always at the same level. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, (more)
- 1997
This short film is actually a long-form music video, produced to promote Michael Jackson's 1997 album Blood on the Dance Floor, and it features two songs from that release. The obese and overbearing mayor of a small town, like most of his constituents, lives in fear of the "ghosts" that inhabit a haunted house near the city limits. One day, the mayor and an angry mob storm the house to demand that the "Maestro" and his ghouls who live in the mansion leave the village. However, once they get to know the Maestro, they discover that he's not such a bad guy after all. Most of the principle characters (including the mayor and the Maestro) are played by Michael Jackson, thanks to the make-up and special effects wizardry of Stan Winston, who served as director for the project. Stephen King co-wrote the story. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
A mythological creature stalks the halls of a museum during a society fundraiser in this cheap sci-fi horror genre knock-off of Alien (1979). Penelope Ann Miller stars as Dr. Margo Green, an evolutionary biologist at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History who receives a shipment of artifacts from a colleague performing fieldwork in Brazil. Among the contents are leaves containing a rare fungus that, unbeknownst to Green or anyone else, attracts the palate of a rapidly mutating, lizard-like monster called Kothoga that has stowed away on a Brazilian freighter and has found a subterranean route into the museum from Lake Michigan. Before long, several museum employees have become decapitated snack food for the beast, which prefers to dine on human hypothalamuses and pituitary glands. Despite dire warnings from the museum staff, a gruff coroner (Audra Lindley) and the investigating detective, Lt. Vincent D'Agosta (Tom Sizemore), the Windy City's oblivious mayor orders a black-tie museum fundraiser to proceed. During the event, the building's high-tech security system locks Green, D'Agosta, the mayor, and many chi-chi party guests in with the hungry animal, forcing everyone to attempt an escape through an underground waterway with which Kothoga is all too familiar. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Penelope Ann Miller, Tom Sizemore, (more)
- 1996
This 12-minute short featuring much of the cast and crew of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) cost $60 million to produce, making it the most expensive venture per minute in movie history. The film was the centerpiece of a multimedia attraction at the Universal Studios Florida theme park in Orlando and represented a quantum leap forward in interactive entertainment. The show begins with television monitors in the entranceway laying foundation for the story as the spectators wait in line, and the show continues inside a state-of-the-art auditorium. A spokeswoman for Cyberdyne Systems explains that the terrorist actions presented in the last feature did not stop construction of Skynet, the global satellite nuclear-defense system. Some stunt doubles for the series' stars appear onstage while the real actors appear on video, taking over the presentation and leading a motorcycle ride across the stage and seemingly into the movie screen by the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and John Connor (Edward Furlong). This cues the start of the spectacular 3-D short, which takes place in 2029 Los Angeles. John and the Terminator battle vicious killer robots including the gigantic T-1,000,000, the most fearsome Terminator yet seen, on their way to finally destroying Skynet for good. Three different screens, astounding 3-D effects, and mechanical enhancements such as mists of water and vibrating seats put the audience directly into the multimedia experience as never before. This work was co-written and directed by James Cameron (Titanic) with special-effects masters John Bruno and Stan Winston. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
On a remote tropical island, Dr. Moreau has appointed himself ruler over a menagerie of genetic mutants fashioned in his gene-splicing chamber of horrors. The products of his misguided attempt to create a more "pure" human species, the man-beasts worship Moreau as their god and "father" and live by his code of law -- a code rigidly enforced by radio-operated implants in their bodies capable of inflicting pain and death. Into this surreal nightmare arrives UN negotiator Edward Douglas (David Thewlis), the sole survivor of an airplane crash. Douglas is brought ashore on Moreau's island -- against his better judgment -- by the doctor's insane, drug-addled assistant, Montgomery (Val Kilmer), and eventually becomes a prisoner. Horrified by the doctor's monstrous experiments and afraid for his own life, Douglas seeks the aid of Moreau's lovely daughter, Aissa (Fairuza Balk), in escaping the island, but is foiled at every turn by Montgomery and his armed man-beast lackeys. Eventually, the creatures discover the existence of their electronic implants and remove them, providing the opportunity for an armed rebellion -- but eventual regression into their original animal state causes their revolt to collapse into anarchy. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, (more)
Anne Rice's best-selling romantic horror tale about the origins of a centuries-old vampire inspired this popular, atmospheric chiller. One of director Neil Jordan's major Hollywood productions, the film stays close to its source material, retaining the frame of a young reporter (Christian Slater) interviewing a man who claims to be a 200-year-old vampire. The man, Louis (Brad Pitt), shares his story, beginning in 18th-century New Orleans with his first encounters with the charismatic and decadent vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise). Lestat converts Louis to blood-sucking and immortality, but Louis fails to adopt Lestat's cavalier attitude, instead tormenting himself with guilt over his new nature. The two vampires remain deeply, if reluctantly, connected over the years, while becoming intimately involved with others of their kind, including Claudia (Kirsten Dunst), a mature immortal in a young child's body. Fans of the novel raised numerous objections, particularly after Rice initially spoke out against the casting of Cruise as Lestat; further casting difficulties followed the death of River Phoenix, whose role as the interviewer was assumed by Christian Slater. Rice later recanted her objections, and the combination of thrills and gothic romance proved popular with audiences. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, (more)
Steven Spielberg's phenomenally successful sci-fi adventure thriller is graced by state-of-the-art special effects from the team of Stan Winston, Phil Tippett and Michael Lantieri from George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic. The film follows two dinosaur experts -- Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler Laura Dern) -- as they are invited by eccentric millionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) to preview his new amusement park on an island off Costa Rica. By cloning DNA harvested from pre-historic insects, Hammond has been able to create living dinosaurs for his new Jurassic Park, an immense animal preserve housing real brachiosaurs, dilophosaurs, triceratops, velociraptors, and a Tyrannosaur Rex. Accompanied by cynical scientist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who is obsessed with chaos theory, and Hammond's two grandchildren (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello), they are sent on a tour through Hammond's new resort in computer controlled touring cars. But as a tropical storm hits the island, knocking out the power supply, and an unscrupulous employee (Wayne Knight) sabotages the system so that he can smuggle dinosaur embryos out of the park, the dinosaurs start to rage out of control. Grant then has to bring Hammond's grandchildren back to safety as the group is pursued by the gigantic man-eating beasts. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Laura Dern, (more)
In this first sequel to 1989's Batman, the Caped Crusader (Michael Keaton) is up against the Penguin (Danny DeVito), the hideously deformed scion of a wealthy Gotham City family. The Penguin plots with evil businessman Max Schreck (Christopher Walken) to become mayor and then turn Gotham into a cathedral of crime. Upon overhearing these plans, Schreck's mousy secretary Selena Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer) is tossed from a high-rise window by her boss. Rescued by a covey of kittens, Selena transforms into the leather-clad Catwoman. In this guise, she teams with the Penguin and Schreck to divvy up their ill-gotten gains and help discredit Batman-but she also has her own scores to settle. Paul "Pee-Wee Herman" Reubens, Vincent Schiavelli and Jan Hooks play significant bits, while Pat Hingle and Michael Gough make returns as, respectively, Commissioner Gordon and Alfred the Butler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, (more)
- 1992
- PG
In this action-comedy, an eccentric detective ends up working with a lost gnome who has accidentally burrowed up from his subterranean world. He is searching for something valuable he lost so he can win the heart of a winsome gnomette. Wacky mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Michael Hall, Jerry Orbach, (more)
A sequel to the sci-fi action thriller that made him and star Arnold Schwarzenegger A-list Hollywood names, writer/director James Cameron upped the ante with this follow-up by employing a more sweeping storyline and cutting-edge special effects. Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah Connor, now a single mother to rebellious teen John Connor (Edward Furlong), during the late nineties. Having been informed by a time-traveling soldier in the first film that John will one day grow up to become humanity's savior from a computer-controlled Armageddon, Sarah has responded by becoming a muscle-bound she-warrior bent on educating John in survival tactics and battle strategies. Her ranting about humankind's future has landed Sarah in an insane asylum and John in the foster care system. The rebellious John has responded to his situation by getting into scrapes with the law. When a new and improved Terminator android called the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) arrives from the future to eliminate John, an older model T-800 (Schwarzenegger) is sent to protect the boy. The T-1000, however, has the ability to morph itself into any shape it desires, allowing it chameleon-like powers and near indestructibility. The T-800 saves John's life and helps break Sarah out of the institution. Staying only one step ahead of the dogged T-1000, Sarah leads her son and the T-800 to the headquarters of Cyberdyne Systems, the company that will invent a robotic intelligence that will eventually take over the world. There, they attempt to convince inventor Miles Dyson (Joe Morton) to help them stop the future from ever occurring by destroying his work. Dyson sacrifices himself in an explosion to save the world, leading to a final showdown between the two Terminators at a steel foundry. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), which won four Oscars in technical categories for its groundbreaking effects, was followed by a short sequel filmed exclusively as an attraction for theme parks, Terminator 2: 3-D Battle Across Time (1996). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, (more)
Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands opens as an eccentric inventor (Vincent Price) lovingly assembles a synthetic youth named Edward (Johnny Depp). Edward has all the essential ingredients for today's standard body, with the exception of a pair of hands. For what is initially thought to be a temporary period, he is fitted with long, scissor-like extremities that, while able to trim a mean hedge, are hardly conducive to day-to-day life. When the kindly inventor dies, however, Edward is left lonely and cursed with some very heavy metal for hands. He is eventually taken in by Peg Boggs (Dianne Weist), an Avon lady who takes pity on him after seeing his bleak existence. Edward, in spite of his inherent ability to slay anyone he comes across, is a gentle soul whose only wish is to be loved. His impromptu family has, at best, a limited understanding of Edward, but he finds himself drawn to Peg's weary but sympathetic daughter, Kim (Winona Ryder), who is dating Jim (Anthony Michael Hall), the neighborhood bully. Meanwhile, Edward finds himself a local celebrity after the town realizes that his talents include creative hedge trimming and an unrivaled ability to cut hair. His so-called friends are proven fair-weather when Edward is accused of a crime, after which his only supporters are Peg and Kim. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, (more)
This special effects-heavy science fiction sequel moves the action from the first film's Amazon forest to the urban jungle of L.A. Danny Glover stars as Lt. Mike Harrigan, an LAPD detective baffled by his latest case, the ritualistic slaughter of several drug dealers by a devastating killer who leaves no traces. As Harrigan and his partners, Danny Archuletta (Ruben Blades), Leona Cantrell (Maria Conchita Alonso), and Jerry Lambert (Bill Paxton), try to figure out who or what killed the criminals, FBI investigator Stephen Keyes (Gary Busey) attempts to warn the team away from investigating further. When two of his team are killed in a particularly grisly way, Harrigan uncovers the truth -- their quarry is an alien creature that hunts humans for sport. Attracted to violence, its latest choice of prey is gun-toting Jamaican drug dealers. Keyes and his team know all about the nasty extraterrestrial and its bloody pastime because they've been studying it for ten years, and they've come up with a possible means of dispatching the beast. When that plan backfires, however, it comes down to Harrigan and an extremely irritated otherworldly foe, slugging it out in a rooftop confrontation. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Glover, Gary Busey, (more)
Leviathan, a sci-fi thriller directed by George Pan Cosmatos, is the story of a group of scientists who discover a sunken Russian submarine which contains a monster that is the product of a genetic experiment. This film, a hybrid of both The Abyss and Alien, has a decent cast, including Peter Weller as Beck, the lead oceanographer. Working with a good budget, action director Cosmatos, should have been able to put together better action sequences and a more frightening monster, but he gives this derivative, silly film below-par special effects and no particular visual style. Leviathan, while it may entertain a less-sophisticated viewer, has little to offer fans of the genre who are looking for thrilling special effects. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Weller, Richard Crenna, (more)
A bereaved farmer enlists the aid of a terrifying demon to help avenge his son's death in this stylish horror movie that contains a strong moral. It all begins as gentle widowed farmer/general store owner Ed's beloved 10-year-old son is involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident with an careless unknown motorcyclist. Ed nearly goes berserk with grief and to bring back his son heads to the cabin of a wise old witch to see if she can rejuvenate the youth. Unfortunately, it is beyond her considerable powers so Ed, now equally desperate for revenge, invokes the legendary Pumpkinhead, a terrifying demon with the power to make the biker pay. One by one, Pumpkinhead dispatches the terrified cyclist and his friends, leaving Ed to reconsider his rashness. He tries to call the demon back, but by then it is far too late.... The film is the directorial debut of Oscar-winning special effects wizard Stan Winston. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, (more)
Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has a code of honor which he will not violate, even when his life depends on it. Paradoxically, his code of honor gives him the backbone to survive as a military special forces operative when he is sent on a covert mission to rescue another group which was sent in to assist some nefarious U.S. government plan in a Latin American country. Once there, he encounters an old army buddy (Carl Weathers) who has gotten too deep in the CIA's good graces for Dutch's comfort. When he and his team go into the jungle to rescue the others, they get involved in a pitched battle with local guerillas, but they are more than capable of besting these vicious fighters. However, not long after that, they encounter signs that the equally capable men they were sent to rescue were all killed unawares and in an unusually gruesome fashion. Given their training, it should have been impossible for anyone to best all of these commando warriors. Soon, the men from Dutch's own team get picked off one by one, as they grow aware that they are up against something uncanny, not of this world, something that is hunting them for sport. Why? Because their skills make them worthy opponents for the perfectly camouflaged Predator. This carefully paced action movie was given poor reviews by many movie critics, but was sufficiently satisfying for its (largely male) audiences that a successful sequel (Predator 2) was released in 1990. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, (more)
A group of adolescent monster movie enthusiasts form a club that meets in a treehouse in this pre-teen horror feature. When Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein, and The Wolfman are joined by Gill-Man in the search for a magic amulet, the boys form the Monster Squad to battle the forces of evil. The boys get unexpected help from Frankenstein when the monster grows tired of being continually bossed around by Dracula. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andre Gower, Robby Kiger, (more)
Big-budget special effects, swiftly paced action, and a distinct feminist subtext from writer/director James Cameron turned what should have been a by-the-numbers sci-fi sequel into both a blockbuster and a seven-time Oscar nominee. Sigourney Weaver returns as Ellen Ripley, the last surviving crew member of a corporate spaceship destroyed after an attack by a vicious, virtually unbeatable alien life form. Adrift in space for half a century, Ripley grapples with depression until she's informed by her company's representative, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) that the planet where her crew discovered the alien has since been settled by colonists. Contact with the colony has suddenly been lost, and a detachment of colonial marines is being sent to investigate. Invited along as an advisor, Ripley predicts disaster, and sure enough, the aliens have infested the colony, leaving a sole survivor, the young girl Newt (Carrie Henn). With the soldiers picked off one by one, a final all-female showdown brews between the alien queen and Ripley, who's become a surrogate mother to Newt. Several future stars made early career appearances in Aliens (1986), including Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Reiser. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, (more)
Endlessly imitated, The Terminator made the reputation of cowriter/director James Cameron -- who would go on to make 1997's titanic Titanic -- and solidified the stardom of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The movie begins in a post-apocalyptic 2029, when Los Angeles has been largely reduced to rubble and is under the thumb of all-powerful ruling machines. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), a member of the human resistance movement, is teleported back to 1984. His purpose: to rescue Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of the man who will lead the 21st-century rebels against the tyrannical machines, from being assassinated before she can give birth. Likewise thrust back to 1984 is The Terminator (Schwarzenegger), a grim, well-armed, virtually indestructable cyborg who has been programmed to eliminate Sarah Connor. After killing two "Sarah Connors" who turn out to be the wrong women, he finally aims his gunsights at the genuine article. This is the film in which Schwarzenegger declared "I'll be baaaack" -- and back he was, in "kinder and gentler" form, in the even more successful Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, (more)
Having crashed to Earth, an extraterrestrial space traveller must assume a human identity lest he be captured by the authorities. The alien (Jeff Bridges) chooses the likeness of the recently deceased husband of Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen). At first dumbstruck, Jenny becomes both hostile toward and frightened of her guest. He gradually wins her confidence, learning a few vital English-language phrases so that he can explain his presence. The "starman" has come to Earth with a message of peace, in response to the similar message sent out on Voyager One. He asks for Jenny's help in transporting him to the Nevada desert, where his fellow aliens are to pick him up and take him to his home planet. Soon he and Jenny form a united front against a mean-spirited National Security Council agent (Richard Jaeckel), who intends to seize the starman and turn him over for scientific scrutiny (and possible extermination). While en route to Nevada, Jenny grows closer to the gentle-natured Starman, eventually making love with him. By the time he is poised to leave, she is carrying his child, leaving the field wide open for a sequel--which was never produced, though a weekly TV version surfaced in 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, (more)
Heartbeeps stars Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters as domestic robots who fall in love and run off together. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andy Kaufman, Bernadette Peters, (more)
In this gory sci-fi outing, shot and originally released in 3-D, Dr. Paul Dean (Robert Glaudini) is a scientist living in the near future, after America has fallen under the control of a repressive paramilitary regime. Dean's research causes him to absorb an especially voracious parasitic worm, which feeds inside the human stomach until it becomes strong enough to burst out in search of a new host. In time, Dean is able to extract the creature from his body, but soon it escapes from captivity, and Dean and his friend Patricia (Demi Moore) must find a way to stop it as they find themselves on the run from brutal government agent Merchant (James Davidson) and a gang of thugs led by Ricus (Luca Bercovici). Parasite was Demi Moore's second film, shot while she was still a regular on the daytime serial General Hospital. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Glaudini, Demi Moore, (more)
Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, the screenwriters behind the highly successful Alien, turned their attention to earthbound terrors with this creepy horror tale. Dead and Buried focuses on Dan Gillis (James Farentino), a man who has recently returned to his hometown of Potter's Bluff to be its sheriff. His job becomes difficult when a series of strangers who visit Potter's Bluff begin dying in violent and mysterious ways. To make matters worse, his wife, Janet (Melody Anderson), has begun to act strangely, taking an odd interest in voodoo and acting like she might be having an affair. As the murder victims pile up, Gillis discovers that all his troubles have an occult origin that has to do with the town's elderly mortician, Dobbs (Jack Albertson, in his final feature film role). Gillis gets to the bottom of the mystery, only to discover that the truth is much worse than he imagined. Despite effective direction and solid acting, Dead and Buried got lost in the shuffle of the early '80s horror boom and failed to click with the movie-going public. However, it later gained an audience via home video and cable and remains a minor cult favorite today thanks to its singular blend of creepy atmosphere and gruesome shocks. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Farentino, Melody Anderson, (more)
Sidney Lumet's The Wiz is the film version of the popular Broadway musical that retells the events of L. Frank Baum's classic novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz through the eyes of a young African-American kindergarten teacher who's "never been below 125th Street." Leaving a large family dinner to chase her dog into a snowstorm, Dorothy (Diana Ross) is swept up by a cyclone and transplanted to the land of Oz -- which looks suspiciously like a skewed version of the run-down Manhattan of the late '70s. Landing on top of the Wicked Witch of the East, the puzzled Dorothy is greeted by munchkins who peel themselves from a graffiti mural and sing to her about the Wiz (Richard Pryor), a powerful wizard living in Emerald City who can help her get home. On her journey down the yellow brick road, she encounters a garbage-stuffed scarecrow (Michael Jackson) in a junkyard, a broken-down tin man (Nipsey Russell) caught in the decay of an old amusement park, and a cowardly lion (Ted Ross) posing as a stone statue outside a museum. The quartet tangles with a subway station that comes to life, a poppy den, and a gaggle of motorcycle henchman on their way to the Wiz -- who orders them to kill the Wicked Witch of the West (a sweatshop tyrant) before he will grant them their wishes. The Wiz has about double the large-scale production numbers of The Wizard of Oz (1939), with songs written and composed by Charlie Smalls. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, (more)
This award-winning six-part historical epic was one of the first examples of the miniseries format and one of the highest-rated television programs in broadcasting history. Based on the best-selling novel by author Alex Haley, Roots chronicles the progress of Haley's own family across many generations, from the kidnapping of an African warrior by American slave traders to eventual post-Civil War freedom. Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton) is a young tribesman of coastal Africa who has passed the rituals marking his transition into manhood. Searching for wood to build a drum, he is set upon by slavers who sell him in the United States after a nightmarish Atlantic crossing. Defiant, Kunta refuses to consider himself a slave, despite some sage advice from his mentor, the more mature Fiddler (Louis Gossett Jr.). As the years pass, the aging Kunta (John Amos) is hobbled for his repeated escape attempts. Realizing he'll never return to Africa, Kunta settles down, becoming husband to Bell (Madge Sinclair) and father to Kizzy (Leslie Uggams), a girl infused with her father's independent spirit. Sold and then raped by her new master, Kizzy has a son, Chicken George (Ben Vereen), a happy go lucky cockfighting expert who uses his skills to buy his freedom. George paves the way for his children, the great-grandchildren of Kunta Kinte, who finally become free in the aftermath of the Civil War. Roots (1977) was followed by a sequel miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations (1979), and a made-for-television feature, Roots: The Gift (1988), as well as another telefilm based on the family history of the Haley clan, Queen (1993). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- LeVar Burton, Louis Gossett, Jr., (more)
