Sally Jane Jackson Movies

Bear witness to the birth of the most horrifying legend in the history of cinema as director Jonathan Liebesman explores the nightmarish origins of the psychotic Hewitt family in this sequel to director Marcus Nispel's 2003 hit The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The year is 1969, and despite the fact that the Vietnam War is raging halfway across the globe, all is ominously quiet on the back roads of America. Eighteen-year-old Dean Hill (Taylor Handley) has just received his draft notice, and his older brother, Eric (Matthew Bomer), is determined to watch out for his younger sibling by ensuring that Dean enroll in the Marine Corps rather than risking his luck at the local induction center. Dean has other plans, though, and as soon as the pair and their girlfriends, Bailey (Diora Baird) and Chrissie (Jordana Brewster), return from their final fling in sunny Texas, he plans to confront his brother with the prospect of dodging the draft. When an unsettling encounter with malevolent bikers Holden (Lee Tergesen) and Alex (Cyia Batten) results in a serious car accident in which Chrissie is thrown from the vehicle, the arrival of Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey) at first appears to be a moment of divine intervention. However, when Sheriff Hoyt murders thieving Alex in cold blood and then shepherds her friends into the back of his police cruiser as Chrissie watches from the brush, their momentary reprieve soon gives way to an unimaginable terror. As Hoyt transports her ailing friends to the Hewitt home, where a childlike man named Thomas is currently undergoing the transformation into cannibalistic madman Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski), a desperate Chrissie attempts to enlist the aid of Holden in rescuing her friends from a fate worse than death. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Robert De Niro is Gil Renard, baseball fan from hell. Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes) is the player he is nuts about. No sooner does the talented Rayburn sign a huge contract with the San Francisco Giants, than everything in his life goes horribly wrong. Not only does his field play deteriorate along with his batting average, but someone murders his chief team rival. It's not revealing too much to say that Gil killed him, in the mistaken belief that he was doing Bobby a favor. When superfan Gil insinuates himself into Bobby's everyday life, the situation grows much worse, because this fixated nut-case has some very strange ideas about family solidarity. Amusing highlights come from John Leguizamo as a ballplayer's agent, and Ellen Barkin as a radio sports announcer. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Playwright Sam Shepard wrote and directed this bizarre combination of western film revisionism and Greek tragedy. Silent Tongue (Tantoo Cardinal) is a mute Kiowa who is raped by Eamon McCree (Alan Bates), the owner of the Kickapoo Traveling Medicine Show. Eamon attempts to make up for his crime by marrying her, hoping for forgiveness. Instead, Silent Tongue enacts a bitter retribution through her two daughters, Awbonnie (Sheila Tousey) and Velada (Jeri Arredondo). Awbonnie, as the film begins, has already died, but her grieving husband Talbot (River Phoenix) refuses to let her go, dragging around her corpse. To assuage Talbot, his father Prescott (Richard Harris) sets out to purchase Velada from Eamon, thinking that only Awbonnie's sister can replace her in Talbot's eyes. But Velada's half-brother Reeves (Dermot Mulroney) protests the attempted transaction. As a result, Prescott kidnaps Velada and flees, with not only Reeves and Eamon chasing him, but also Awbonnie's ghost. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

This ecological drama, set in 2017, presents a world where pollution has generated ever more unpredictable weather and rendered large chunks of the planet into disaster zones. After a hurricane destroys everything they've built for themselves, Louisiana shrimp fisherman Drew Morgan (Craig T. Nelson) and his family, including wife Suzanne (Bonnie Bedelia), flee through a series of refugee camps to upstate New York, where Drew's estranged former business partner Larry Richter (Jurgen Prochnow) -- who has designs on Suzanne -- lives in comfort and affluence. Along the way, Drew loses his daughter, Linnie (Ashley Jones), to an agrarian doomsday cult; watches his elderly father (Richard Farnsworth) suffer a stroke; and almost drives away his confused oldest son, Paul (Justin Whalin). When Larry offers to shelter Drew's family if Drew himself will leave, Suzanne and the kids rally behind him. Things go awry, however, when an attempt to smuggle themselves across the border ends with Craig washed up on Canadian shores and the rest of the family stranded and penniless back in America. Originally presented as a two-part miniseries, The Fire Next Time premiered on CBS on April 18 and 20, 1993. The movie has no connection to the James Baldwin book of the same name. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Maverick director Walter Hill, who had a big hit with 48 Hrs., indulges his customary yen for violent and disturbing scenes in this overlooked action film, which was also released under the name Looters. Set in the economically-depressed town of East St. Louis, IL, the film's release was delayed several months because its riot scenes were too similar to those that actually took place in the summer of 1992 in L.A. Bill Paxton plays Vince and Bill Sadler plays Don. They are a couple of good-old-boy firefighters who are tipped off that some stolen gold treasures have been hidden in an old warehouse. They find and enter the building but witness a brutal murder. The gangland killing is part of a turf battle between two rival drug lords. When one of them finds out that the firemen have seen the execution, he orders the witnesses murdered. But they have found the treasure and have kidnapped one gang leader's brother. An elaborate and violent series of skirmishes and chases ensue. Rapper-actors Ice-T and Ice Cube have roles as leading gang members. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

In this drama, an African-American teenager from inner-city Chicago goes to school in a wealthy suburb and still finds himself tempted by crime. The rather preachy story comes from a book by African-American author/commentator Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Richard Roundtree stars as tennis-coach Chip Williams in this uneven adolescent comedy. Coach Williams must whip his players into shape for the big tournament in Las Vegas. The Kid (Scott Strader) and his cohorts run wild in Vegas on and off the court as the coach tries to keep the star players out of trouble before the match. Christopher Lee and R. G. Armstrong appear in character roles and Jane Mansfield's daughter Mariska Hargitay is the heroine Nicole. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this slice-of-life film shot in 1981 for British television, a wide-ranging group of Royal Navy men -- very young men -- try to have one last reprieve on land before they take off for NATO duty. Each sailor is confronted with a unique challenge: Mark (David John) tries to help out a victim of a severe beating, Malcolm (Martin Barrass) is enjoying more than a nip or two from the bottle as he barrels toward the embarkation point on a passenger train, and a few other recruits have their love lives high on a list of priorities. Steve (John Altman) has some personal adventures as he tries to advance a romantic liaison, and Douglas (Timothy Spall) worries over leaving his pregnant wife behind, knowing she will give birth while he is gone. At times a bit slow, this drama won first prize at the 1983 Taormina Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi