Haunani Minn Movies
The Philosopher's Stone, which is said to have the power to turn base metals into gold, is located by Dr. Quest, only to be stolen by Quest's duplicitous partner. The villain then kidnaps Jonny, Jessie, and Hadji, intending to use their Purity of Heart to activate the precious Stone. Those celebrated conjurers Faust and Merlin make "cameo" appearances in "The Alchemist," which was first telecast in the United States on September 10, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- J.D. Roth, George Segal, (more)
A serial killer is transformed into a computer virus out to destroy more than your hard drive in this sci-fi thriller. Terry Munroe (Karen Allen), a single mother, is looking for a gift for her boss and visits a computer store, where one of the employees demonstrates a hand-held scanner than can transfer the information from her address book into a software program that will store the information on her PC. Unknown to Terry, one of the employees of the store is Karl Hochman (Ted Marcoux), known in the press as "The Address Book Killer," who likes to steal other people's address books and murder all the people listed within, including the book's owner. Terry accidentally leaves her book behind at the store, and Karl lifts it, but as he drives to her house to strike her off the list first, he is injured in a serious accident and taken to a hospital. While Karl is being given a CAT scan, lightning strikes the building and Karl is transformed into a series of electrical impulses that can travel as computer code from one system to another, or as current through power lines. Soon Terry begins to suspect something is wrong as her friends succumb to attacks by microwave ovens, hot-air blowers, and other household objects. Terry and her computer-savvy son, Josh (Wil Horneff), realize that they're at risk after Karl appears in Josh's virtual reality games; it's up to Bram Walker (Chris Mulkey), a brilliant hacker-turned-computer maintenance technician, to isolate and destroy the Karl virus before it can kill again. The film's soundtrack features such hip-hop stars as D-Nice and Too Short, Schoolly-D, Grandmaster Slice, and Kool Moe Dee. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karen Allen, Chris Mulkey, (more)
When Robert Knight (Bernie White) is placed in a mental institution by his money-hungry relatives, he escapes and seeks vengeance. Hardly an innocent victim, Robert really is a crazed killer, so none of the characters evoke much sympathy. His main targets are his Uncle Charles (Dick Sargent) and Aunt Joanne (Marilyn Hassett).This dysfunctional bunch makes the Manson family look like Ozzie and Harriet as they resort to murder and cannibalism. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernie White, Marilyn Hassett, (more)
Mike (Kirk Cameron) would sooner go to a Bruce Springseen concert by his himself, but since it was dad Jason (Alan Thicke) who bought the tickets, it ends up a father-and-son night. Things go relatively smoothly until Jason inadvertently manages to embarrass Mike when the two of them are interviewed by the press. And back at home, mom Maggie (Joanna Kerns) and daughter Carol (Tracey Gold) have an argument on the subject of mice. Josh Andrew Koenig and K.C. Martel make their first series appearances as Mike's pals Boner and Eddie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
While scuba-diving in the Kahuku lagoon, Magnum (Tom Selleck) thinks that he sees a boy named Kel'il Parker (Kahale Ahina) swimming alongside him. Trouble is, Kel'il was killed five years before in a boating accident. Despite his friends' efforts to convince him that he was hallucinating, Magnum is determined to prove that he saw exactly what he saw--and in so doing, to expunge the guilt of Kel'il's mother (Ilima Parker), who is convinced that she was responsible for the boy's death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In an unusual comedy by Joan Darling, Brian Dennehy and Anne Archer star as the Richard, a druggist, and his wife Peggy, a pair of debt-ridden parents who rebel against the system. Nothing goes right while they try to uphold the system, then things get even worse when they leave it. Richard decides to pull the plug on modernity when he cannot meet his utility bills and creditors are at his door like wolves. He shuts off the electricity and sets up candles, buys a goat, and digs a well in the back yard. He finally does hit water, but it happens to be the city's water main. Peggy is not quite as crazed as her husband so she goes to see a shrink -- who promptly dies on her. If anything can go wrong for Richard and Peggy, it will. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Dennehy, Anne Archer, (more)
In this prison drama, two adolescent girls are incarcerated with adults by an obsessive judge. There they are terribly exploited and abused. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Actress Theresa Saldana plays herself in this gut-wrenching fact-based TV movie. The film begins with Ms. Saldana being savagely attacked by a stalking fan in her own home in 1982. Sustaining multiple stab wounds, Saldana lies near death for quite some time, but eventually pulls together physically and emotionally. But that's only the first half of the story. In the second, Saldana, determined to assuage the pain of others who've suffered from violent attacks, establishes Victims for Victims. The most sobering realization vis-a-vis Victims for Victims is the fact that Theresa Saldana's assailant may very well be paroled someday--a contingency that the actress, and her organization, has been forced to counteract ever since that fateful evening in 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Edward Asner stars as Saturday Review editor Norman Cousins in this made-for-TV biopic, which first aired May 15, 1984. Stricken with a degenerative spinal illness in 1964, Cousins refuses to accept the prognosis that he must spend the rest of his life as a virtual vegetable. He battles his illness by using the most potent weapons at his disposal--a healthy sense of humor, the love and support of his wife, and confidence that he will endure. This sort of spiritual battle is not that easy to film, and some of the scenes--Cousins laughing at the opening titles of a Marx Brothers film, for example--sorely test the acting skills of Ed Asner. But both Cousins and Asner emerge triumphant from Anatomy of an Illness, which was based on Norman Cousins' own book on the subject. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Cocaine and Blue Eyes was the pilot film for a TV detective series starring former footballer O.J. Simpson (who also produced the film). Playing a private eye in San Francisco, Simpson is hired by a man who ends up seriously dead. The deceased client had wanted Simpson to locate a former girl friend, and in carrying out his assignment Simpson unearths a deadly (and very well connected) cartel of drug dealers. Cocaine and Blue Eyes gathered dust until O.J. Simpson's murder trial in 1994. After that, this tiresome old TV movie became a staple of "Late Late Shows" everywhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- O.J. Simpson, Candy Clark, (more)
In this skewed, unreal view of a woman's choice in men, almost nothing is believable. Amy (Lucie Arnaz) is a savvy, well-educated lawyer in Santa Fe who divorces her husband, an exec in the banking business, to become involved with Will (Craig Wasson) a street musician with the same iron-clad brain as her ex when it comes to women. The musician is regularly picked up by the police for his loitering, though he seems never to fully realize why they are doing this to him. Amy drops him at last, and when she finds out she is pregnant, she goes to the hospital to have an abortion -- and is introduced to a Boris Karloff-type doctor. Before anything further happens, Will comes along and forcibly carries her off to a remote, run-down building in a ghost town where he ties her to a bed intending to keep her there until she has the baby. Hard to believe, but things only get worse from here. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucie Arnaz, Craig Wasson, (more)
Steve Martin and Carl Reiner concoct one of Martin's best comic vehicles with Martin playing the world's top brain surgeon, Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr -- he ought to know, he said so himself. Hfuhruhurr pioneered the radical new cranial screw-top technique, but he grieves over the untimely death of his wife Rebecca, carrying around a small plastic likeness of her to get through the long and lonely evenings. Thinking of her while driving home, Hfuhruhurr takes his eyes off the road and runs down the beautiful but deadly Dolores Benedict (Kathleen Turner). Hfuhruhurr performs surgery which saves her life, but as she recovers, Hfuhruhurr doesn't realize Dolores is a gold-digging vixen who has driven her latest husband (George Furth) to death by apoplexy. She is now looking for a new victim and Hfuhruhurr fits the bill. They marry, but Dolores denies her husband sexual favors, which frustrates Hfuhruhurr to distraction. He takes Dolores on a belated honeymoon to Austria, where he meets fellow brain surgeon Dr. Necessiter (David Warner), who keeps a wide assortment of brains in his laboratory. Dolores takes the opportunity to have an extramarital affair, and when Hfuhruhurr finds out he dumps her. But in Necessiter's laboratory, Hfuhruhurr becomes attracted to Brain #21, Ann Uumellmahaye (voice of Sissy Spacek), with whom he communicates telepathically. At last, here is one case where a man loves a woman for her mind rather than her body (which doesn't exist)! But Ann's brain is deteriorating rapidly; Hfuhruhurr needs to find a body and transplant the brain quickly in order to save Ann. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Kathleen Turner, (more)
In this comedy, a group of randy young interns turn City Hospital upside down with their romantic liaisons and their blunders. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael McKean, Sean Young, (more)
More formally known as Father Damien: The Leper Priest, this made-for-TV biopic stars a heavily-wigged Ken Howard in the title role. Father Damien was a Belgian priest who, in 1873, was assigned a far-from-desirable congregation: the leper colony of Molokai in the Hawaiian islands. At first appalled by the colony and its denizens, Damien devoted his life to administering to their needs and improving their living conditions. He died in 1889 at the age of 49, having long earlier contacted leprosy himself. When originally telecast October 27, 1980, Damien: The Leper Priest was dedicated to the memory of David Janssen, who before his death was slated to portray Father Damien. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Hawkeye (Alan Alda) crosses swords with Lt. Hung Lae Park (Mako), a ruthless and determined ROK officer. At the center of the conflict is a wounded Korean woman (Huanini Minn), whose life Hawkeye is determined to save. But Park insists that the woman is an enemy guerilla--and as such must be turned over to him for a particularly brutal round of interrogations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The "kids" in this episode include a group of Korean orphans who take refuge at the 4077th when their living quarters are bombed. Not surprisingly, everyone in the unit takes the youngsters to their hearts except the xenophobic Frank Burns (Larry Linville). And there's even more on the way, as the doctors deal with an "incoming" baby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide















