Blain Fairman Movies
In this Japanese animated science fiction adventure, an elderly man is chosen to be the recipient of a special robot, the Z-001, which will act as his caregiver. The Z-001 displays greater efficiency and skill than any human nurse. But while the robot does fine at first, there's one catch -- the Z-001 began as a military project, so when the old man's violent impulses rise to the surface, the machine begins to mirror them, and soon the machine is a danger to all around it ... including the man the machine is supposed to serve. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1988
A spy is tracked down in this made-for-television espionage thriller. When a secret agent goes in search of his former mentor -- who has since defected -- he finds that the man wants come back to the United States. They go on the lam and try to escape the KGB and CIA, who aren't through with the master spy just yet. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- 1988
We're told that Apprentice to Murder is a true story. If so, we'll steer clear of the film's Pennsylvania Dutch locale in the future. A series of murders occur in a sleepy community, and suspicion immediately falls on the local "character": a self-styled faithhealer and mystic. Donald Sutherland plays this worthy, while Chad Lowe is cast as his nonplussed assistant. Though set in Pennsylvania, Apprentice to Murder was actually shot in Norway. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, Chad Lowe, (more)
Big-budget special effects, swiftly paced action, and a distinct feminist subtext from writer/director James Cameron turned what should have been a by-the-numbers sci-fi sequel into both a blockbuster and a seven-time Oscar nominee. Sigourney Weaver returns as Ellen Ripley, the last surviving crew member of a corporate spaceship destroyed after an attack by a vicious, virtually unbeatable alien life form. Adrift in space for half a century, Ripley grapples with depression until she's informed by her company's representative, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) that the planet where her crew discovered the alien has since been settled by colonists. Contact with the colony has suddenly been lost, and a detachment of colonial marines is being sent to investigate. Invited along as an advisor, Ripley predicts disaster, and sure enough, the aliens have infested the colony, leaving a sole survivor, the young girl Newt (Carrie Henn). With the soldiers picked off one by one, a final all-female showdown brews between the alien queen and Ripley, who's become a surrogate mother to Newt. Several future stars made early career appearances in Aliens (1986), including Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Reiser. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, (more)
Barret Oliver stars as robot boy Daryl (Data Analyzing Robot Youth Lifeform). The film begins with an intense chase through hairpin mountain roads as a helicopter chases after a racing automobile and the driver of the car shoves a young boy out of the door. The child is rescued and is adopted by Joyce (Mary Beth Hurt) and Andy (Michael McKean) Richardson, a well-meaning, childless couple. It is only after the Richardsons have adopted Daryl and find that the child can't stop hitting home runs that they realize their adopted son is, in fact, a robot. The Richardsons decide to take Daryl back home -- home being a top security research facility where scientists Dr. Jeffrey Stewart (Josef Sommer) and Ellen Lamb (Kathryn Walker) have "given birth" to the boy robot. Once at the research facility, the Richardsons realize that government forces are determined to destroy Daryl and anyone who knows about him. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mary Beth Hurt, Michael McKean, (more)
- 1966
Every ten years or so, the all-purpose title The Trap is applied to a film about psychological rather than physical entrapment. This 1966 British/Canadian coproduction stars Oliver Reed as a roughhewn fur trapper of the 1890s. He has missed the annual "wife auction" due to inclement weather, and must settle for what's left: a timorous mute girl, played by Rita Tushingham. Though she lives in mortal terror of her husband, Tushingham nurses Reed through a near-fatal illness. The awe-inspiring location photography of The Trap frequently upstages the strenuous dramatics of its stars. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rita Tushingham, Oliver Reed, (more)
Rating Systems
Blockbuster
BLOCKBUSTER name, design and related marks are trademarks of Blockbuster L.L.C.
2013 Blockbuster L.L.C. All rights reserved.
Portions of Content Provided by Rovi Corporation. 2013 Rovi Corporation.