Stephen Jenn Movies

In this futuristic sci-fi political drama, the minerals of the moon are being exploited by both Russian and American mining companies. When a terrorist threatens an American mining company, a KGB agent teams up with a NASA investigator to stop them. The two agents are attracted to each other and this nearly derails their assignment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Nicolas Roeg directed this dreamy erotic adventure film based on two Australian non-fiction best-sellers -- Lucy Irvine's Castaway and Gerald Kingsland's The Islander. Both best-sellers concern former clerk and waitress Lucy Irvine's response to an advertisement placed by writer Gerald Kingsland in a magazine seeking "a wife for a year on a tropical island." Irvine responded to the ad and, after learning that she would have to pay for the trip to the island of Tuin (between New Guinea and Australia), the not-very-happy couple took off to Tuin for a thirteen-month stay, after which Irvine returned to England alone. The film stars Oliver Reed as Gerald Kingsland and Amanda Donohue as Lucy Irvine. On the island, Gerald and Lucy romp around au natural and try not to get in each other's way. But then Gerald suffers a foot infection and Lucy, in spite of having seafood for every meal, begins to drastically lose weight. Gerald also gets crabby because Lucy withholds sexual pleasure from her new husband. After a year of bliss, Lucy decides to return to the British rat race, while Gerald tries to stick it out in his new island cultural environment. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The Keep is an ambitious visual feast from director Michael Mann, whose previous effort was the moody, stylish Thief, and who would soon produce the quintessential pastel-colored '80s TV series Miami Vice. Adapted from the novel by F. Paul Wilson and set in German-occupied Romania of 1943, the film introduces the invaders to the dark presence lurking within the walls of an ancient fortress in the Carpathian Alps -- a presence which doesn't take well to unwanted guests. When soldiers under the command of Captain Woermann (Jurgen Prochnow) begin to die horribly, he receives the unwanted assistance of Nazi Major Kampffer (Gabriel Byrne), who immediately assumes command and forcibly enlists the aid of the local expert on ancient languages, the Jewish Doctor Theodore Cuza (Ian McKellen), in the translation of the cryptic writings left near a murdered soldier's body. When Cuza comes face-to-face with the Keep's ancient resident -- an ethereal creature which gains strength by draining the life-force from its enemies -- he forms a pact with the creature in the hope that it will escape and destroy Hitler's armies. When a mysterious stranger (Scott Glenn) arrives at the nearby village and befriends Cuza's daughter Eva (Alberta Watson), he reveals the true nature of the beast within the Keep, as well as his intent to destroy it before Cuza can release it -- a task which, if failed, will spell doom for all mankind. The film's fever-dream-logic casts a hypnotic spell -- ably assisted by Tangerine Dream's pulsating, ethereal music (including electronic variations on a theme by Thomas Tallis) -- with a story that seems to play by the Keep's own eerie supernatural rules. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Following a collision in hyperspace, two spaceships, the Empress and the Hecate, fuse together. The Doctor (Tom Baker) is called in to handle the consequences of this fusion, the escape of dozens of animals from an electronic zoo. This four-part Doctor Who adventure bears traces of the early story arc "Carnival of Monsters." Originally telecast November 24, 1979, "Nightmare of Eden, Episode 1" was written by Bob Baker and codirected by Alan Bromly and (uncredited) Graham Williams ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide