Thom Christopher Movies

Nola (Emmy Rossum) is a Kansas teen who runs away to New York City to escape an abusive stepfather. Once she gets to the big town, she sets about looking for a job and for her father, whom she's never met. She attacks both tasks with fierce determination, but has little success, until she stumbles upon a greasy spoon near Union Square where the eccentric owner, Gus (Sam Coppola), immediately takes a liking to her. Soon, she's waitressing at the diner and crashing in a room upstairs with the handsome fry cook, Ben (James Badge Dale), who also goes to law school when he feels like it. Nola spends her spare time using the phone book in an effort to track down the man she knows only as "Hutch." Things look up for Nola when she meets the sassy owner of the diner, Margaret (Mary McDonnell), who also runs a very classy escort service. Margaret sees something in Nola, and hires the girl as her assistant. As Nola's relationship with Ben gets more intimate, she tells him about her dream of being a successful songwriter. But things take an ugly turn when one of Margaret's escorts, a transsexual named Wendy (Michael Cavadias) offends a rich and powerful client, Niles (Thom Christopher). Niles is determined to have his revenge, and tries to use his media contacts to have an exposé written about Margaret's business. But the reporter assigned to the story, Leo (Steven Bauer), turns out to be an old friend of Margaret's. Nola, the feature debut of writer/director Alan Hruska, a former trial lawyer, had its world premiere at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

The real-life legal case that inspired the 1990 film Guilty by Suspicion would seem to be the source material for this episode. The detectives investigate the reasons behind a wealthy woman's comatose condition. Key players in this sordid drama include the woman's husband David Moore (David Dukes), her daughter Debbie (Marin Hinkle), and an "unrelated" third party. "Stiff" originally aired in tandem with another episode, "Vaya Con Dios," on May 24, 2000, bringing the tenth season of Law & Order to a close. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Steve James stars in this martial-arts adventure. This time he plays former maverick NYC cop and Vietnam vet Logan Blade who currently works as a bounty hunter in pursuit of the potentially dangerous Angel, who is trying to get all of the Big Apple's gangs to unite and become a vicious death squad. To do so, he surreptitiously uses his connections with the NYPD to investigate Angel and find out the identity of the person who is really behind the scheme. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the four episode "Deathstalker" series of sword and sorcery adventures, a brave hero takes on the dreaded Warriors from Hell as he searches for the three magic stones that will grant him the ultimate power. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Director Jack Sholder followed his surprise sleeper hit The Hidden (1987) with this action drama that re-teamed Young Guns (1988) co-stars Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips. Sutherland stars as Buster McHenry, a Philadelphia cop working undercover as a thief in the gang of wealthy, sadistic Marino (Rob Knepper). When the gang's heist of some diamonds goes awry, a few innocents are shot, and a valuable Native American spear is stolen landing Buster in bureaucratic hot water. Along comes Hank Storm (Phillips), intent upon retrieving the relic of his Sioux tribesmen and avenge the death of his brother. Hank and Buster team up to take Marino down and expose police corruption in the process. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

A terrorist group takes credit for the murder of a middle Eastern ambassador. Though Hunter (Fred Dryer) acknowledges that the group is smart enough to take another diplomat hostage (which they have), he isn't convinced that they have the technical savvy to assemble the time bomb that killed the ambassador. Assembling the clues at hand, Hunter finally deduces that the "brains" behind the murder was an exotic beauty (Persis Khambatta) with an extremely personal agenda. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Low-budget and cheap, the sci-fi adventure Space Raiders liberally raided Star Wars and the previous Roger Corman film Battle Beyond the Stars for scenes of special effects once, twice, three times, and more. The story, also cribbed from Star Wars is about a Col. Hawkins or "Hawk" (Vince Edwards) who has to defeat the "Company" and their massive robot ship in order to bring a young boy back to his home planet. A Star Wars bar scene has a space creature hooker looking great until she turns around and shows her face. Aside from the familiar content in this film, there are continuity gaps that make wounds miraculously jump from one side of the body to the other and do not connect the special effects in space with the space travelers inside the ships. Perhaps the title should have been "Spacy Raiders." ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Set in the Caribbean, Firepower is one of those "celebrity salads," featuring a glittering all-star cast. Sophia Loren heads the ensemble as Adele, the widow of a murdered chemist. Believing that a multimillionaire industrialist is the culprit, Adele determines that she can expect no help from the authorities. Thus she engages the services of retired professional assassin Jerry Fanori (James Coburn), who in turn enlists the aid of troubleshooter Catlett (O.J. Simpson). Watch for Jake LaMotta, the ex-prizefighter whose life was dramatized in Raging Bull, in a supporting part. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), Kojak (Telly Savalas) steps up his efforts to help Karen Foster (Marybeth Hurt), whom he believes has been falsely charged with murdering her mother. At the same time, powerful politician Edna Morrison (Geraldine Page) continues pulling strings and calling in favors to prevent Kojak from uncovering the whole truth about the murder. Ultimately, Kojak is framed for another crime to shut him up. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide