Mike Smith Movies

The remote stiff acting of the policemen and detectives in this police action film, combined with the emphasis on gore and blood, leaves a large blank space between the two extremes of boring or violent. Lt. James Long (martial arts expert Leo Fong) is on the trail of some gunrunners who have stolen weapons from the National Armory in L.A. and are selling them to the highest local bidders. The chief gun honcho (Cameron Mitchell) is a crazed killer who is obsessed with torturing and then murdering women. Just by coincidence, Lt. Long's wife was brutally raped and murdered and he is out to avenge her death at all costs. Actual policemen and members of the coroner's office portray themselves in this film, at least guaranteeing an audience of family and friends. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Norman Jewison directed this subdued character study of the effect of the Vietnam War on a small-town Kentucky family -- based on the novel by Bobbi Ann Mason. The film centers upon 17-year-old Samantha (Emily Lloyd) who lives in Hopewell, Kentucky with her Uncle Emmett (Bruce Willis), a quiet, laid-back veteran of Vietnam suffering from post-traumatic stress. Samantha's father was killed in Vietnam when he was 19-years-old (almost her age now), and her mother Irene (Joan Allen) has remarried. Samantha finds some old photographs of her father, and she becomes obsessed with finding out more about him. Irene, who has moved to Lexington with her second husband, wants Samantha to move in with them and go to college. But Samantha would rather stay with Uncle Emmett and try to find out more about her father. Her mother is no help, as she tells Samantha, "Honey, I married him four weeks before he left for the war. He was 19. I hardly even remember him." Finally Samantha, Emmett and her grandmother (Peggy Rea) go to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Finding her father's name in the memorial releases cathartic emotions in Samantha and her family. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A bitter bit of brotherly payback goes horribly awry in director Todd Reynolds' blood-soaked tale of sibling rivalry, family betrayal, and flesh eating zombies. A young man has discovered that his brother has been moving in on his girlfriend, and in order to get revenge he strands his sibling in the part of town where no sane man would venture after dark. Trouble soon arises in the form of a cannibalistic corpse, whose unexpected intrusion into the mix leads to deadly consequences for all involved. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A man who dares to feel finds his life in danger in this cautionary science fiction drama. In the future, after a Third World War has decimated much of the Earth's population, a new nation known as Libria rises up under the unquestioned leadership of Dupont (Angus MacFadyen). Believing human emotions and their expression were to blame for the failings of past societies, The Father has decreed that all citizens must take a daily dose of Prozia II, a drug which levels out the emotional landscape, and that all forms of creative expression are against the law; violating either regulation can be punished by death. John Preston (Christian Bale) is a Grammaton, an elite law enforcement officer who tracks down and punishes "sense offenders." One day, Preston accidentally fails to take his Prozia II, and for the first time begins experiencing emotions himself. Preston becomes aware of an underground of rebels who refuse to take their medication and have embraced art and literature, and he finds himself becoming infatuated with one of their number, Mary O'Brian (Emily Watson). Equilibrium is the second feature-length directorial effort from Kurt Wimmer, whose screenwriting credits include The Thomas Crown Affair and Sphere. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide