Wendy J. Cooke Movies
- 1990
Donor is a variation on a familiar theme, played to the hilt by a topnotch cast. Doctor Melissa Gilbert-Brinkman is shocked when her close friend is strangled by an elderly patient. Before she has a chance to investigate, the killer himself dies in a mysterious accident. Probing further, Melissa deduces that the hospital administators are hiding something from her. She's right: there's a conspiracy in the making, and it's all traceable to a new organ-donor program. Pernell Roberts and Jack Scalia costar in Donor, which made its broadcast premiere December 9, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melissa Gilbert, Jack Scalia, (more)
- 1989
- R
An entertaining hybrid of Amicus-style horror anthology and gritty low-budget western, this first-time effort from writer-director Wayne Coe succeeds where many such genre-bending attempts have failed. The quartet of uneven but well-mounted stories are spun around a desert campfire by grizzled, menacing bounty hunter Morrison (a rousingly hammy James Earl Jones) and wet-behind-the-ears city slicker Farley (Brad Dourif). Morrison starts off with the tale of an Indian tribe's ritual revenge against the drunken cracker who desecrates their sacred burial ground; When Farley seems interested but unfazed, Morrison follows up with the more visceral story of a Good Samaritan who succumbs to temptation while rendering aid to a pregnant woman, leading to a particularly disgusting (though definitely original) demise. Appalled by the storyteller's lack of taste, Farley counters with a down-to-earth morality tale involving a prairie settler's young daughter who witnesses her father's horrifying act of hate, realizing that the man she trusted with her life is a very human breed of monster. Morrison acknowledges his companion's skill but offers another violent story according to his own idiom -- that of a slick gunfighter who gets his comeuppance by his own hand after winning a deadly competition. The stories feature fine acting and direction but are ultimately overshadowed by the engaging framing story and lack much of the dramatic payoff of their earlier British counterparts. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Earl Jones, Brad Dourif, (more)
- 1988
This gory medical thriller managed to pre-date an early-'90s spate of direct-to-video exploitation films dealing with sleazy black-market organ banks. The plot centers on the activities of the "Body Organ Replacement Network," a secret criminal organization (led by ubiquitous movie villain William Smith) which obtains donor organs -- by any means possible -- for anyone willing to meet their prices and keep their mouths shut. Their methods usually involve patrolling the city in an ambulance looking for unwilling "donors" (usually female), who are promptly chopped up on the operating table. The sinister wheels are put in motion again when a wealthy family approaches the B.O.R.N. network about obtaining a replacement heart for their ailing daughter. Though not quite as gory as it sounds, this is still a pretty sleazy exercise which plays like a tabloid-flavored version of Robin Cook's novel Coma, without the clever insight of Michael Crichton's 1978 film. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ross Hagen, P.J. Soles, (more)
This underrated teen-revenge horror film starring Stephen Geoffreys (Fright Night) was the directorial debut of Robert Englund, best known as Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Geoffreys plays Hoax, a picked-on nerd who lives with his religious-nut mother Lucy (the marvelous Sandy Dennis). One day Hoax calls a 976-line for a "Horrorscope," and the demonic voice at the other end starts giving him wicked advice. Before long, he has killed his brother's girlfriend with tarantulas, slashed the face of a teen tough with his newly-sprouted talons, and gutted several of his tormentors. Only a well-meaning journalist and a sexy schoolmarm can stop the now-demonic Hoax before he sends the whole neighborhood straight to Hell. Granted, the screenplay is rather confused and slow-moving, but Geoffreys and Dennis are great, the effects work by Kevin Yagher is skillful, and this is one of the few teen-horror films with characters that are actually interesting. Look for Robert Picardo (The Howling) in a fun cameo as the diabolical Mark Darke. After a brief stint as a teen star, Geoffreys went on to appear in gay porn films as "Sam Ritter." ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Geoffreys, Jim Metzler, (more)
Cocoon 2: The Return, like most sequels, relies a bit too heavily on one's familiarity with the first film. Without dwelling too long on Cocoon #1, we can observe that it ended with a group of senior citizens heading for the distant planet of Antarea, hoping to find a new, rewarding and elongated life. Cocoon 2 picks up the action five years later: The Antareans return to earth to check on the damage caused to their life-regenerating cocoons by earthquakes. Coming along for the ride are the elderly couples whom we met in the first film. Also carried over from the first Cocoon are young ferryboat captain Steve Guttenberg and gorgeous Antarean Tahnee Welch, who resume their interplanetary romance. Oldster Jack Gilford, whose beloved wife died in Cocoon, likewise finds romance in the form of Elaine Stritch. A secondary plot involves an insidious secret government plan to exploit the Antareans, which is foiled by sympathetic researcher Courteney Cox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, (more)
- 1987
Much of the original cast from the popular television series Police Story reunited for this edgy drama, in which the detectives search for a killer loose on the roads. This entry was one of several TV-movies in the late 1980s to feature the familiar cast in the Police Story format. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1987
The made-for-TV The Murder of Mary Phagan is an account of the real-life events fictionalized in the 1937 theatrical feature They Won't Forget. In 1913, Atlanta-area teenager Mary Phagan (Wendy J. Cooke) is found murdered. Although the evidence points to another suspect (who years later confessed to the crime), the authorities choose to bring charges against Leo Frank (Peter Gallagher), a Jewish "outsider" who owns the pencil factory where Mary worked. Prosecutor Hugh Dorsey (Richard Jordan) capitalizes on the anti-Semitism rampant in the South, hoping to ride the Frank case into a higher political office. He is aided in his scheme by equally unprincipled journalist Wes Brent (Kevin Spacey). Only Georgia-governor John Slaton (Jack Lemmon) perceives the bigotry and opportunism at the base of Dorsey's case. Within the limits of his power, and at the risk of destroying his own political career, Slaton tries to see that justice is served. Alas, the decision has already been made to railroad Leo Frank to the electric chair -- or into the hands of a lynch mob. Originally presented in two parts, The Murder of Mary Phagan was first broadcast January 24 and 26, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Cocoon is a warm-hearted science-fiction fable that avoids becoming overly corny thanks to the performances of its mostly senior cast. Wilford Brimley, Don Ameche, and Hume Cronyn are three old-timers who sneak out of their retirement home a few days a week to swim in the large pool on an abandoned estate next door. When the threesome begins to feel curiously younger, they discover strange pods on the floor of the pool. These pods are alien cocoons, which are being pulled from the ocean by a team of extra-terrestrials in human form led by Walter (Brian Dennehy), who has hired a local charter operator (Steve Guttenberg) to assist him. Walter explains to the seniors that energy from the cocoons is restoring youth and vigor to the older men every time they go for a dip. The aliens agree to let the men continue to swim in secret, but of course they can't keep their discovery to themselves. Soon the pool is swarming with retirees, with the notable exception of Bernie (Jack Gilford), who has no interest in prolonging life any longer than necessary. The aliens ultimately prepare to return home and offer the retirees eternal life if they leave Earth behind as well. Director Ron Howard treats his old-timers with care and dignity, and they respond with deeply sympathetic performances (Ameche won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar); the film's science-fiction trappings ably sustain the story's all-too-human ruminations on youth, aging, life, and death. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, (more)
