Rick Zieff Movies
Katsuhiro Otomo, director of the groundbreaking anime feature Akira (1988), returns with this visually striking fusion of the past and the future. It's the Industrial Age in England, reimagined, and various and sundry inventors and scientists are arriving in Britain to hawk their products while capitalism rears its ugly head. A gadget-happy British lad named Ray (voice of Anna Paquin) receives a mysterious package from his grandfather Lloyd Steam (Patrick Stewart) -- a tiny ball that turns out to be an engine toting immense power. As it happens, several of these little balls run the O'Hara pavilion, a massive, mobile fortress. Ray later discovers that his dad and grandfather are located inside of the pavilion; his dad, Eddie, has become mesmerized by O'Hara and subject to their whims, while Lloyd suspects that O'Hara may want to use the balls for nefarious purposes, and tries to put a definitive end to those plans. Indeed, the O'Hara people soon take over the Great Exhibition and turn it into a veritable circus for weapons dealers. Meanwhile, Ray starts to develop feelings for a young girl named Scarlett O'Hara. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Suzuki, Manami Konishi, (more)
- 2003
- R
- Add Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines to QueueAdd Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines to top of Queue
The second sequel to the 1984 sci-fi action classic, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is the first film without the involvement of director James Cameron. Instead, Jonathan Mostow, the man behind Breakdown and U-571, has stepped in to fill the shoes left vacant by Cameron. In addition, the role of John Connor from the second film has been recast, with In the Bedroom's Nick Stahl taking over for Edward Furlong. Set ten years after the events of 1991's Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the film finds Connor living on the streets as a common laborer. Sarah Connor, his mother, has since died, and their efforts in the second film have not stopped the creation of SkyNet artificial intelligence network. As he will still become the leader of the human resistance, Connor is once again targeted by a Terminator sent from the future by SkyNet. This new Terminator, T-X (Kristanna Loken), is a female and is more powerful than any of her predecessors. To protect Connor, the human resistance sends a new T-101 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back from the future. Also starring Claire Danes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines had its world premiere when it showed out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, (more)
- 2002
Anxious to get his hands on some Demerol, a frustrated patient pulls a gun in the ER waiting room and threatens dire consequences if he isn't serviced immediately. After this crisis passes, an outraged Carter (Noah Wyle) threatens a staff walkout unless efforts are made to step up security at County General. Meanwhile, Abby's (Maura Tierney) brother Eric (Tom Everett Scott), an Air Force traffic controller, drops in for a visit en route to his new assignment in Omaha. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2001
It's something of a "dom-sub" relationship between Drew (Drew Carey) and Christine (Wanda Sykes), with meek Drew meekly doing Christine's bidding without question or complaint. At the same time, Mimi (Kathy Kinney) is told by guest star Dee Snider) that she has been ousted as president of the Twisted Sister Fan Club because all her time is being taken up by motherhood. In an effort to recapture her carefree past, Mimi buys a sports car--and ends up Drag-racing against Drew, who for his part is making a bid to reassert his manhood and wrest himself from Christine's iron grasp! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
Cowboy vampires and parenthood health class models take center stage in this second season episode. The Gorch brothers -- the rootinest, tootinest pair of insane bloodsucking vampire cowpokes ever to come a'ridin' out of the Old West -- have just ridden into Sunnydale. While researching them with Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) misses her health class, where everybody pairs off and is given egg to care for as a real child. Subsequently, Buffy gets to play single mother to little "Eggbert." Unfortunately, these aren't free-range chicken eggs, but bezoar eggs -- a prehistoric parasite living under Sunnydale High. As the eggs hatch the little bezoars attach themselves to their "parents," creating human drones to help release their trapped mother. Buffy catches her egg hatching and kills the bezoar. Along with help from Xander (Nicholas Brendon) -- who hard-boiled his egg -- Buffy attempts to stop the bezoar from escaping. Of course, the Gorch brothers attack at the same time. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1996
Murphy's past comes back to bite her as the "FYI" crew prepares to cover the 1996 Presidential election. A support group consisting of all of Murphy's former secretaries--led by Secretary #2, aka Robert (Charley Lang, who was fired in the very first episode--breaks into the studio to hold their ex-boss hostage. Now Murphy must plead her case before 86 different people (some of them VERY different) who would just as soon see her sleeping with the fishes. (The official cast list for this episode identifies several of the former secretaries by their now-famous character flaws: the "mimicker", the "slow speaker", the "Hitler", the "wrestler," and on into the night!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
In an echo of a racist incident in Connecticut in 1995, an anti-Semitic "code message" in a high school yearbook may be the key to the murder of an art teacher. Comparatively speaking, tracking down the likely killers is the easy part. The problems for the D.A.'s office begin when McCoy (Sam Waterston) goes head to head with bigoted attorney Roy Paine (Chris Cooper), infamous in legal circles as "the Klan Lawyer." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A stranger pulled into a deadly scheme races against time to save his daughter in this thriller. Gene Watson (Johnny Depp) is an accountant who comes to L.A. with his ten-year-old daughter Lynn (Courtney Chase) to attend a funeral. On the street, Gene and Lynn are pulled aside by Mr. Smith (Christopher Walken) and Ms. Jones (Roma Maffia), who flash what look like police badges and usher them into a van. Gene soon discovers that he's been kidnapped, and his captors have an unusual demand -- if Gene does not murder Gov. Eleanor Grant (Marsha Mason) within 75 minutes, his daughter will be killed. Gene now has just an hour and a quarter to tip off the authorities, spare Gov. Grant, and find out what Smith and Jones are trying to do, along with saving his daughter's life. He finds a much-needed ally in one-legged shoe-shine man Huey (Charles S. Dutton). Most of the action in Nick of Time occurs in "real time," meaning that the passage of time on screen matches that of real life, as the frequent shots of clocks and watches will attest. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Depp, Christopher Walken, (more)
Wesley Snipes is battling bad guys in the air again, this time with parachutes, in this action-packed suspense thriller. Pete Nessip (Snipes) is a Federal Marshall who, teamed with his brother Terry (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), is escorting criminal computer genius Earl Leedy (Michael Jeter) to a new prison facility. Pete, Terry, and Earl are on a jet en route to Earl's new lockup when terrorists attempt a daring hijacking; Terry is killed in an explosion aboard the plane, and suddenly Earl is missing. Pete discovers that a team of sky-diving outlaws, led by former DEA agent gone bad Ty Moncrief (Gary Busey), have snatched Earl from his flight and spirited him away for a special raid on Washington D.C.; Ty and his men intend to take advantage of an obscure rule in which the normally restricted airspace in Washington D.C. is open to parachute enthusiasts on July 4. Eager to avenge his brother's death and put both Ty and Earl behind bars, Pete recruits sky-diving expert Jessie Crossman (Yancy Butler) to teach him how to infiltrate Ty's team of sky-bound criminals. Superb aerial stunt work highlights this film; please note that Pete's last name is an anagram for the leading man's last name. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wesley Snipes, Gary Busey, (more)
- 1994
- R
This action thriller tells the story of Jonah, a daring cop with a hair trigger finger who finds himself suspended by Internal Affairs after he shoots a psycho-killer. His girlfriend Lisa is also in trouble as she tries to deal with the constant harassment of her boss, a dishonest city councilman. When her boss accepts a bribe for $3 million from the mob, Lisa decides to get her revenge and steal it. Jonah readily agrees to assist in the heist. Also involved is Dr. Chandler, a man with a genius for electronics. Problems ensue when Lisa finds herself attracted to Chandler. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Roberts, Michael Rooker, (more)
- 1991
After being mugged, pregnant legal secretary Amy Newhouse (Molly Price) loses her unborn baby. The police suspect that the mugging was not random, and that someone -- perhaps Amy, perhaps her lover Christopher Baylor (Reed Diamond), perhaps her boss David Alcott (Nicholas Surovy) -- wanted the child dead. The problem: Can the D.A.'s office argue that the killing of an unborn fetus qualify as a murder? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Law & Order's first two-part episode begins with an assault on the owner of a candy store. Following the trail of clues, Greevey (George Dzundza) and Logan (Chris Noth) end up at the door of prominent gangster boss Frank Masucci (Charles Cioffi). The so-called "Dandy Don" has long eluded prosecution, but attorneys Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Robinette (Richard Brooks) believe that they at last have enough evidence to put Masucci away for life. Alas, the lawyers have placed all their eggs in a single "basket" -- namely, Masucci's mercurial brother-in-law Harv Beigel (Bruce Altman). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Mississippi Burning is an all-names-changed dramatization of the Ku Klux Klan's murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. Investigating the mysterious disappearances of the three activists are FBI agents Gene Hackman (older, wiser) and Willem Dafoe (younger, idealistic). A Southerner himself, Hackman charms and cajoles his way through the tight-lipped residents of a dusty Mississippi town while Dafoe acts upon the evidence gleaned by his partner. Hackman solves the case by exerting his influence upon beauty-parlor worker Frances McDormand, who wishes to exact revenge for the beatings inflicted upon her by her Klan-connected husband Brad Dourif. Many critics took the film to task for its implication that the Civil Rights movement might never have gained momentum without its white participants; nor were the critics happy that the FBI was shown to utilize tactics as brutal as the Klan's. The title Mississippi Burning is certainly appropriate: nearly half the film is taken up with scenes of smoke and flame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, (more)
