Don Campbell Movies

This documentary takes a look at the rearing, training, and placement of service dogs, and the profound impact they have on the lives of all the people involved in the complicated process. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

This National Geographic special takes viewers inside America's premiere spy agency, chronicling the CIA's amazing missions to track down Osama bin Laden and thwart other terrorist operations. ~ Carly Wray, Rovi

The thoughts and feelings of eight elderly women who regularly meet for a penny-ante card game in Los Angeles provide the backbone of this upbeat docu-drama, billed as a "nonfiction feature" by its director Don Campbell. During the game, the women are outspoken on a number of topics ranging from their acceptance of death to reincarnation to sex. Among the card players is the 90-year old Ida who once won first place on the Gong Show for singing "Second Hand Rose;" Freda, who thinks of herself as an opera singer and psychic; the introverted Ray who has just found romance; and the keen-witted Gert whose sex drive remains in overdrive. In addition to scenes from their games, the story also takes the ladies to the Glen Ivy Hot Springs, where they swim and continue their conversations while they are pampered in mud baths. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The third in director Sam Raimi's stylish, comic book-like horror trilogy that began with The Evil Dead (1982), this tongue-in-cheek sequel offers equal parts sword-and-sorcery-style action, gore, and comedy. Bruce Campbell returns as the one-armed Ash, now a supermarket employee ("Shop Smart...Shop S-Mart") who is transported by the powers of a mysterious book back in time with his Oldsmobile '88 to the 14th century medieval era. Armed only with a shotgun, his high school chemistry textbook, and a chainsaw that mounts where his missing appendage once resided, the square-jawed, brutally competent Ash quickly establishes himself as a besieged kingdom's best hope against an "army of darkness" currently plaguing the land. Since the skeleton warriors have been resurrected with the aid of the Necronomicon (the same tome that can send Ash back to his own time) he agrees to face the enemy in battle. Ash also finds romance of a sort along the way with a beautiful damsel in distress, Sheila (Embeth Davidtz), and contends with his own doppelganger after mangling an important incantation. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

This futuristic political drama stars Joe James as the Australian minister of defense. In seeking a military alliance with Asia, James is thwarted by his antiwar son Gerard Maguire. The film's "generation gap" seems to be its sole raison d'etre, and as such the story seems terribly antiquated when seen today (and difficult to follow, thanks to the actors' thick regional accents). Still, The Demonstrator was an important stepping stone in the revitalization of the long-dormant Australian film industry. Scripter Kit Denton adapted the film from an original story by Elizabeth Campbell and Don Campbell. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi