Sonny Forbes Movies
- 1987
- PG
After his hippie parents are killed in a botched drug deal, a child is taken in by a bag lady in this implausible drama. Wild Thing (Rob Knepper) grows up to be the champion of street justice, espousing a 1960s philosophy and coming to the aid of the helpless and oppressed. Jane (Kathleen Quinlan) is the concerned social worker who falls for the hero. The hit song Wild Thing by the Troggs is used often but has nothing to do with the story or the hero being portrayed. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Knepper, Kathleen Quinlan, (more)
In this exciting action thriller, an artistic widow fights to stay alive after her husband, a Marine who had discovered that the military was well aware that it was placing defective parts in its helicopters, is mysteriously murdered. Believing that the widow, a metal sculptress, has the damning evidence, the killers take off after her and her little son. None of them realizes that she too was a Marine and is more than capable of defending herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amy Madigan, Daniel Hugh Kelly, (more)
- 1982
- R
When a young woman decides to split from her small home town, she finds welcomed excitement in the city. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
The title of this David Cronenberg sci-fi horror film refers to a group of people who have telekinetic powers that allow them to read minds and give them the ability to make other people's heads explode. The children of a group of women who took an experimental tranquilizer during their pregnancies, the scanners are now adults and have become outcasts from society. But Darryl (Michael Ironside) decides to create an army of scanners to take over the world. The only person who can stop him is his brother Cameron (Stephen Lack), who wants to forget that he was ever a scanner. Winner of the International Fantasy Film Award at the 1983 Fantasporto Film Festival, Scanners was followed by a pair of sequels, neither of which involved Cronenberg. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, (more)
A man who received false notice that his son had been murdered sets out to uncover the truth about his missing boy in this thriller starring Lino Ventura and Angie Dickinson. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lino Ventura, Angie Dickinson, (more)
In this above-average, exciting Canadian-made action thriller, four psychopaths, led by Christie (Robert Carradine) take over and vandalize a ritzy Manhattan apartment building during the New York power blackout. They move from apartment to apartment, victimizing the occupants until stopped by the police. This low-budget thriller has an exciting, well-written script by John C. Saxton, excellent photography by Jean-Jacques Tarbes and well-acted cameo performances by several well-known actors, including Jean-Pierre Aumont, Ray Milland and June Allyson. While highly derivative and predictable, this film is well worth watching if only to see James Mitchum give an unusually strong performance. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Mitchum, Robert Carradine, (more)
- 1978
- R
City on Fire, a disaster thriller filmed in Canada with dialogue in both French and English, tells the story of an oil-refinery explosion in a small town. Dr. Frank Whitman (Barry Newman) and his co-workers, including Nurse Harper (Shelley Winters) and Dr. Matwick (Donald Pilon), fight bravely to save the victims even when they, themselves are endangered by the fire. The film also features cameos by Ava Gardner and Henry Fonda. The film moves at a fast pace and creates a great deal of suspense as the fire closes in on the survivors. Director Alvin Rakoff uses creativity instead of a big budget and, aided by the splendid cinematography of Rene Verzier, succeeds in creating an exciting disaster film. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Newman, Susan Clark, (more)
- 1975
- R
A gripping exercise in body horror and social paranoia, prolific Canadian director David Cronenberg's debut feature offers a startling look at modern isolationist society with a parasitic twist. When a scientist experimenting with a new form of organ transplants kills a young female resident of a fortress-like apartment complex before subsequently committing suicide, the investigation into her death leads to a frightening discovery. Originally conceived by the misguided scientist in a bid to aid organ transplant, an overzealous parasite quickly escapes into the complex in search of a host. One by one, the unsuspecting residents fall prey to the parasite, and the result is an aggressive horde of sex maniacs who will stop at nothing to satisfy their primal lust and pass the infection on through sexual contact. When the resident doctor learns the sinister truth behind the malevolent creation, only one man stands between an apartment complex overflowing with id-driven zombies and the outside world. Will he be able to stop the rapidly spreading parasite before it escapes into society, or is it only a matter of time until he, too, falls prey to its rapturous effects and gives in to the temptations of the flesh? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, (more)
- 1974
Like his WR: Mysteries of the Organism, Dusan Makavejev's controversial 1974 feature Sweet Movie is firmly rooted in the principles of psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. In cinematic terms, this means bombarding the audience with an onset of imagery so visceral, disgusting and repellent that it "awakens" the viewer in a Brechtian manner by "short-circuiting" the audience's reactions. Sweet Movie interweaves two narratives. One begins with a trip to the "Miss World Virginity Contest," whose winner, Miss Monde 1984 (Carole Laure) is auctioned off to Mr. Kapital (Animal House's John Vernon), a Texas oil billionaire with an odd perversion. Instead of deflowering her on her wedding night, he sterilizes the terrified girl's body with rubbing alcohol and showers her in urine with his massive gold-plated penis, while an audience watches bemusedly through his bedroom window. She later escapes from her bridegroom, in a suitcase, and winds up at a wild Viennese commune whose participants indulge in public defecation and a food orgy that wraps with a massive display of gurgling, yakking, and vomiting. At the tale's conclusion, Miss Monde shoots a television commercial that involves writhing nude in a giant vat of chocolate, with which she is completely drenched from head to toe, as the cameras roll. The second story involves a woman, Anna Planeta (Anna Prucnal) piloting a candy-filled boat down a river, with a massive papier-mache head of Lenin on the prow and a lover in-tow who is a refugee from the Battleship Potemkin. She eventually does a seductive striptease and seduces a pack of children, then makes love to her paramour in a vat of sugar and stabs him through the heart. Throughout the film, Makavejev includes shock cuts to Nazi autopsy footage and medical experimentation footage, some of which involves physical abuse of infants under the guise of "baby gymnastics." Although it has its admirers, Sweet Movie is something of an acquired taste. And that's putting it kindly. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carole Laure, Pierre Clémenti, (more)
