Benton Jennings Movies

John Schneider serves as both director and star of this heartwarming made-for-TV film. It all begins when a cute little girl named Felicia Wallace (Jenna Boyd) writes a letter to Santa asking for a "new mommy" as a Christmas present. No-nonsense TV reporter Mary Maloney (Cynthia Gibb) is assigned to spend the Christmas holidays with Felicia and her wealthy widowed father Joel Wallace (Schneider). Though this set-up would seem to automatically guarantee a happy ending, it turns out that the "real" Santa Claus really has his work cut out for him. Tom Bosley rounds out the leading players as an enigmatic old duffer named Les Turner. Mary Christmas premiered November 29, 2002 over the PAX network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The brainy outcast in a hard-partying fraternity develops a revolutionary serum that can bring the dead back to life, and quickly discovers that messing with Mother Nature can have some truly gruesome results. For most of the brothers, life at the Delta Epsilon Delta house is one constant party. Edgar, however, would much rather spend his time working on a serum that could restore life to dead tissue instead of pounding beers and chasing sorority girls. When Edgar's serum brings a severed head back to life, word quickly gets out to local gangster Mugsy, whose girlfriend Hot Lips has recently been murdered. Unable to refuse Mugsy's strong-arm offer, Edgar uses his serum on Hot Lips and the former homicide victim quickly springs back to life. But ever since Hot Lips has returned the local body count has been skyrocketing, and by the time this gangster's moll sets out across campus on a homicidal rampage the quick-thinking Edgar must find a way to reverse the effects of the serum even if it does mean crossing the most powerful gangster in town. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Director Michael Mann based this lushly romantic version of the James Fenimore Cooper novel more on his memory of the 1936 film version (starring Randolph Scott) than on Cooper's novel (in fact, Philip Dunne's 1936 screenplay is cited as source material for this film). Set in the 1750s during the French and Indian War, the story concerns Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), the European-born adopted son of Mohican scout Chingachgook (Russell Means). Hawkeye and his party, which also includes the Mohican Uncas (Eric Schweig), joins up with a group of Britons who have recently arrived in the Colonies. The group consists of Cora Munro (Madeleine Stowe) and her younger sister, Alice (Jodhi May), who are rescued from a Huron war party by Hawkeye. Hawkeye's band accompanies them to the British Fort William Henry, which is being besieged by a French and Huron force. The fort falls to the French, and Colonel Munro (Maurice Roeves) surrenders to French General Montcalm (Patrice Chéreau). The terms of the surrender are that the British merely abandon the fort and return to their homes. However, the French's bloodthirsty ally, the Huron warrior Magua (Wes Studi), has made no such agreement, and, as the British retreat from the fort, he plans to massacre them in a terrible Huron attack. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This moderately interesting actioner stars Fred Williamson (who also directed) as John Steele, a Chicago detective who travels to Dallas. His mission is to catch a lunatic assassin named Joe Keno (Doran Inghram), who sports a ponytail and uses a sword to kill. Steele's girlfriend (Phyllis Cicero) gets raped and murdered before having her head sent to him in a box, there is some kickboxing and Gulf War propaganda, and Bo Svenson appears as a tough-as-nails sheriff. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide