Don Thompson Movies
A mysterious meteor infected with a deadly alien plague brings chaos to a small hunting town in the feature-length directorial debut of screenwriter James Gunn (Scooby-Doo, Dawn of the Dead). Booted out of bed by his young, trophy-wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks), and in desperate need of some female companionship, wealthy Grant Grant (Michael Rooker) picks up bar local floozy Brenda (Brenda James) and heads into the woods for a hedonistic night of extramarital excitement. When a flaming meteor lights up the sky before crashing to the ground nearby, Grant's curiosity gets the best of him and he sets out to find the space rock. Subsequently infected with a rampaging space virus, which he passes along to Brenda, Grant transforms into a horrific, cow-munching monster and begins terrorizing the town. As thousands of squirmy space slugs burrow into the brains of the unsuspecting Wheelsy denizens creating an ever-amassing horde of mindless space zombies, panic grips the small town and it's up to Starla, Sheriff Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion), and gung-ho mayor Jack MacReady (Gregg Henry) to put an end to the infection and save the planet. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, (more)
- 2002
Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) is outraged when his billionaire father, Lionel (John Glover), closes down the Smallville branch of LutherCorp, thereby throwing hundreds out of work. Elsewhere, Clark (Tom Welling) and Chloe (Allison Mack) are about to share their first kiss -- a tender moment rudely interrupted when Clark must dash off to save Lana (Kristin Kreuk) from an approaching tornado. This final episode of Smallville's first season culminates in a cliffhanger climax wherein one of the key characters must make a fateful decision...while another character may be lost to the world forever. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2000
The annual North American UFO Convention degenerates into a series of heated arguments between various factions of "true believers." One of the donnybrooks is instigated by Max Buford (Don Thompson), who claims he has come into possession of a fragment from an alien spaceship. This sparks a power struggle between mild-mannered Boo Weston (Mackenzie Phillips) and the imperious Gunther Van Owen (Jerry Wasserman) -- which may be part of a master plan by the Government to discredit the entire convention. "Down to Earth" first aired on April 21, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1999
- Add Take Me Home: The John Denver Story to QueueAdd Take Me Home: The John Denver Story to top of Queue
Henry John Deutchendorf started his career in music as a guitar-strumming folkie who got his first big break as a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio in the early 1960s; with the dawn of the 1970s, as John Denver he became one of the biggest and most recognizable figures in popular music, and this made-for-TV drama examines his life and career both on and off-stage. Born the son of an Air Force pilot (Gerald McRaney), John Denver (Chad Lowe) sought the approval of his father, who didn't think much of his son's desire to become a musician. But once Denver heard his calling, he hit the road, first with the Chad Mitchell Trio and later as a solo act. Along the way, Denver met Annie (Kristin Davis), whom he would later marry and who would inspire one of his best-known songs. After several years of struggle (buoyed by Peter, Paul, and Mary's hit recording of his song {&"Leavin' On a Jet Plane"), Denver finally found commercial success with the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in 1972. But Denver's new success did not win him the love of his father, and his busy touring schedule took a toll on his marriage; when Denver's career fell into a slump in the '80s, he found himself alone without a wife, and began developing a serious problem with depression and alcohol. Based on John Denver's autobiography, Take Me Home: The John Denver Story features 15 of his original recordings on the soundtrack; originally produced for CBS, the film was first aired April 30, 2000. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chad Lowe, Kristin Davis, (more)
- 1997
Crimes of Passion: Badge of Betrayal is the cable-TV and home-video title of an "@ABC World Premiere Movie" that originally aired January 6, 1997 as simply Badge of Betrayal. Newly arrived from the Big City, professional cop and single mom Annie Walter (Michele Greene) joins the small-town Wyoming police force headed by Sheriff Dave Ward (Harry Hamlin). It doesn't take long for Annie to ascertain that Ward is a crook, a grafter, a sadist, a possible murderer--and a sexual predator. She'd like to blow the whistle on Ward, but he is too powerful in the community to be touched; moreover, he can ruin her in an instant, and has already arranged for the property value of her house to be depleted so that she'd be financially destroyed if she ever moved out of town to tell her story. With the help of a courageous attorney, Annie formulates a plan to (hopefully!) ensnare Ward in his own web of corruption. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
The true story of fabled Canadian truck driver Diana Kilmury is vividly realized in this made-for-TV drama. Barbara Williams stars as Kilmury, a tough-talking, chain-smoking tyro who, as the first female vice-president of the Canadian Teamsters, fearlessly spearheads a movement to expunge the union of its most corrupt officials. Kilmury's professional struggles are counterpointed by her personal travails as the mother of a mentally challenged son. $Stuart Margolin is featured as Diana's longtime lover (and staunchest supporter) John, while the really Diana Kilmury makes an appearance at the end of the film. The winner of a cable ACE award, Mother Trucker: The Diana Kilmury Story aired on Canadian television before its American TV debut over the TNT channel on October 22, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Williams, Timothy Webber, (more)
Needles figure prominently in this blood-soaked entry in the slasher genre. It begins as psycho scientist Dr. Stein begins implanting things in baboons. Dr. Theresa McCann, a colleague at the hospital where they both work is suspicious as to the nature of the perverse professors experiments. Those suspicions increase when one of the apes suddenly dies. Then Stein steals one of her patients. When that patient is found murdered, with only a lollipop left as a clue, McCann gets blamed and suspended. When McCann spies the abandoned sucker she suddenly realizes it belongs to Dr. Matar, an ex-lover in search of revenge against her because she squealed on him and his illicit experiments in tissue regrowth. Matar goes on a killing spree and now only she and her new lover Hendricks can stop him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabel Glasser, James Remar, (more)
- 1994
When the police don't seem to be giving their all in the investigation of a young woman's disappearance, her sister decides to look into the mystery herself. The more evidence she finds, the more the finger of guilt points towards her brother-in-law. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Jillian, Joe Penny, (more)
Though the direction of Hellbound is sometimes erroneously credited to editor Michael J. Duthie, the actual director was Aaron Norris, brother of the film's star, Chuck Norris. The story begins with the ritualistic murder of a Chicago rabbi. Detectives Shatter (Norris) and Jackson (Calvin Levels) are assigned to the case, and are compelled to follow the trail of evidence all the way to Israel (where the film was lensed in its entirety...even the Chicago sequences). Once in the Holy Land, Shatter and Jackson discover that the murderer is a centuries-old supernatural entity, a malevolent creature determined to "cleanse" the world. The premise is workable and Norris is in fine form, but the dialogue in Hellbound is too Ed Wood Jr.-esque. (Wait until you hear that conversation about a missing heart!) Filmed in 1992, Hellbound went directly to video in 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chuck Norris, Calvin Levels, (more)
- 1993
A community is quick to condemn a father after his 11-year-old daughter claims he molested her, but during the ensuing courtroom trial, serious questions about the child's story and her motivation for telling it arise. This drama is based on a famous Canadian trial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Art Hindle, Rosemary Dunsmore, (more)
- 1992
- R
After getting booted out of his latest managerial position, a has-been major league baseball player/coach goes to Russia and becomes the coach for their Olympic baseball team. This good-natured made-for-cable television comedy chronicles his endeavors to turn the bumbling, inexperienced team into winners. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This murder mystery from director Carl Schenkel stars Christopher Lambert (Highlander) as Peter Sanderson, an expert chess champion. When a woman Sanderson has recently slept with is among several women brutally murdered at a chess tournament, he becomes a suspect. But when the murderer contacts Sanderson and informs him that he's set up a maniacal human chess game, he realizes that he'll have to beat the murderer to stop the killings and clear his own name. Diane Lane plays a psychologist who falls for Sanderson, and Tom Skerritt is the local sheriff investigating the case. Knight Moves won the Critics Award at the 1992 Cognac Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Lambert, Diane Lane, (more)
- 1991
Partially filmed in Hawaii and Tahiti, And the Sea Will Tell was a two-part TV movie based on a real murder case. A wealthy couple (James Brolin and Deidre Hall) are killed on their yacht off the coast of a secluded South American island called Palmyra. The suspects are a hippyish pair (Hart Bochner and Rachel Ward) whom the rich folks had befriended. It's fairly clear that the hippies were involved in the crime: The question is, did the man do it while the girl looked on helplessly, or was she a willing accomplice? Richard Crenna plays real-life defense attorney Vincent Bugliosi, upon whose book And the Sea Will Tell was based. The first part of this teledrama premiered on February 24, 1991; part two, in which the girl's testimony consumes most of the screen time, was shown on February 26. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This screwball comedy casts real-life couple Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn in a film that finds the latter returning to her roots in a role reminiscent of Private Benjamin (1980). Hawn stars as Joanna Stayton, a snooty heiress who summons carpenter Dean Proffitt (Russell) to her lavish yacht, where she wants an expanded closet constructed that will house her valuable wardrobe. When Dean fails to build the closet out of cedar, Joanna haughtily dismisses him without payment. Later, Joanna falls overboard and is struck by another boat, causing amnesia. Seeing her story on the news, Dean constructs an elaborate scheme to pretend that Joanna is his wife Annie. Soon, the former rich snob is cleaning Dean's home and babysitting his four rambunctious boys. Although at first she's a disaster, "Annie" grows into her role and begins to love being a mom and middle-class wife. When her real husband Grant (Edward Herrmann) comes looking for her, however, her memory is jogged, and she must decide between a life of privileged ease and a life of happy housework. Overboard was the feature film debut of writer Leslie Dixon, the granddaughter of famed photographer Dorothea Lange. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, (more)
Produced by Roger Corman and scripted by John Sayles, Battle Beyond the Stars is a cheerfully blatant imitation of The Seven Samurai (or at least the American remake The Magnificent Seven). A peaceloving planet is attacked by malevolent aliens. The powers-that-be hire a group of mercenaries, headed by George Peppard, to protect the planet from harm. Peppard's contingent includes squeaky-clean Richard Thomas Jr. and statuesque Sybil Danning. John Saxon goes through his usual paces as the villain, while the supporting players include such dependables as Sam Jaffe, Jeff Corey, and, from Magnificent Seven itself, Robert Vaughn. Keep an eye out for Julia Duffy as "Mol". A deft blend of standard sci-fi action and knowing "inside" humor, Battle Beyond the Stars was one of Corman's biggest hits of the 1980s-not to mention an endless supply of stock footage for future New World Productions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, (more)
- 1977
In the third of four New Avengers episodes filmed in Canada, Steed (Patrick MacNee), Gambit (Gareth Hunt) and Purdey (Joanna Lumley) are assigned to guard an antique automobile known as Emily. It seems that the old car contains the only known fingerprints of an elusive secret agent known only as (what else?) The Fox. Perhaps because it was played purely for laughs, "Emily" emerged as the top-rated New Avengers episode of the 1977-78 season--not to mention the highest rated Avengers installment of all time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1977
In this fourth Canadian-filmed episode of The New Avengers, Steed (Patrick MacNee), Gambit (Gareth Hunt) and Purdey (Joanna Lumley) doggedly search for a missing circuit, following such clues as a drowned corpse in an evening gown. The trail leads to the bottom of Lake Ontario, where our heroes discover a hidden Soviet missile silo. This is the episode in which Joanna Lumley bravely attempts a Canadian accent--and this is also the final New Avengers installment, bringing the 16-year-old Avengers TV franchise to a close. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1924
A well-made entry in Leo Maloney's Range Rider series, Smoke Out stars the veteran cowboy hero as a drifter who rescues a wounded man in the wilderness, the victim of a robbery. Although he is badly hurt, Bob Graham (W. Ray Meyers) is determined to be at the bedside of his dying mother (Minna Ferry Redman), whose ranch he had left as a youngster. Since Bob is in no condition to face the bedridden woman, Watt Rogers (Maloney) pretends to be the returning son. Meanwhile, robbers Stiles (Bud Osborne) and Gus (Pat Rooney) have discovered that their victim is a long-lost heir and Stiles determines to call at the Graham ranch masquerading as Bob. Suddenly there are no less than three Bob Grahams around and fists are flying. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leo Maloney, W. Ray Meyers, (more)
