Matthew Cowles Movies

When a New York City firefighter and his old military buddy set out for a weekend retreat of bow-hunting in the wilderness, the hunters become the prey for a menacing band of cannibalistic killers in this terrifying cross between The Most Dangerous Game and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Steve (Timothy Gibbs) and Frank (Muse Watson) don't get out of the city much, but despite their urban trappings, their survival skills are in top shape. By the time the ill-fated duo realize that lodge owner Mitch is a member of a flesh-eating tribe that hunts humans for game it's already too late, and if Steve and Frank have any hopes of surviving the night they'll have to put their survival instincts to the ultimate test. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A college student finds herself struggling to separate fact from bizarre supposition in this offbeat independent drama. Eris (Lauren Fox) is working on a research paper concerning fear and social phobia phenomena, when, in the course of her reading, she finds the obscure phrase "Noon Blue Apples" keeps popping up -- not once, but several times. Puzzled about what it's supposed to mean, Eris begins digging a bit deeper than before, and soon encounters Zeus (Thomas Jay Ryan), who runs a bookstore specializing in conspiracy literature. Before long, Zeus is giving Eris a crash course in alternate history, shadow government theories, and forbidden knowledge research, and faster than you can order a subscription to "Flatland Magazine," Eris' head is so full of oddball facts and figures that she can't separate which are true and which are mere paranoia -- leaving her with no idea of who or what she can trust. Noon Blue Apples was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Disney filmed its version of the Jack London story in 1991 and followed with this sequel four years later. Besides the presence of a dog named White Fang and its setting in the Alaska Gold Rush days, the story bears no resemblance to London's original story. Jack Conroy (Ethan Hawke), the hero of the first Disney film, has bequeathed his gold mine and the wild wolf-dog White Fang to young Henry Casey (Scott Barstow). The boy and dog thwart a would-be thief and decide to take their gold to San Francisco. While rafting to the nearest town, they capsize, lose their gold, and are separated. Lily (Charmaine Craig), a young Indian princess, rescues Henry from the rapids. She, along with her tribal chief Moses (Al Harrington) and his followers, believes that Henry is the reincarnation of a great spirit wolf who will help the Haida tribe find the Great Caribou. Henry and Lily fall in love, and Henry sets out to find the legendary Caribou who will save the tribe from extinction. Television actor Ken Olin made his directorial debut with this family fable. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Bayliss (Kyle Secor) and Pembleton (Andre Braugher) continue their investigation of the murder of 11-year-old Adena Watson. Bolander (Ned Beatty) and Munch (Richard Belzer) are confronted with a murder victim who is not entirely dead. And despite the skepticism of her partner Felton (Daniel Baldwin), Howard (Melissa Leo) insists that the solution to another murder case rests in the "testimony" of the victim's ghost. This episode includes the first of Homicide's celebrated "red ball" cases -- those so important politically that they effectively supersede the rest. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bette Midler stars as Stella Claire, a working-class, fun-loving barmaid in northern New York State. A brief affair with handsome Stephen Dallas (Stephen Collins) produces a daughter, Jenny (Trini Alvarado), whom Stella insists upon raising alone, despite Dallas' marriage offer. As the years pass, Stella and Jenny are a happy pair. Stella gives up bartending to sell cosmetics, supported by her friend Ed (John Goodman), a bartender developing a crush on her and a problem with alcohol. Dallas has stayed involved with his beloved daughter from afar and is now a urologist in New York City, engaged to a book editor (Marsha Mason). As Jenny reaches adulthood, Stella becomes aware that life with her father would provide her daughter with opportunities that she'd never have otherwise, so she devises a painful, self-sacrificing scheme to drive Jenny from the nest. Although functional as a tearjerker, many of the themes in Stella simply don't make as much sense in a modern age of healthy, fractured families, muting the drama of the tale's earlier versions, specifically Stella Dallas (1937). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Brook Shields plays the comic-strip journalist, Brenda Starr, who travels to a South American jungle on an assignment. It is there that she covers the story about a mad scientist who plans to blow up the planet with his newly developed rocket fuel. Also appearing are Timothy Dalton and Charles Durning, among others, who don Bob Mackie-designed costumes. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Though a fine cast was assembled for this comedy, none can save this embarrassingly humorless satire. Henderson Dores (Daniel-Day Lewis) is a very proper British art expert sent to rural Georgia by his boss to purchase a painting by Renoir. The present owner, hillbilly Loomis Gage (Harry Dean Stanton), claims he bought the painting for $500 in France in 1946. Dores offers $10 million, but Gage's scheming son Freeborn (Maury Chaykin) has made a deal with a rival art dealer for $15 million. Steven Wright plays Dores' business rival Pruitt with his typical deadpan charm, and Joan Cusack and Laurie Metcalf provide romantic interest. Tea and crumpets collide with moonshine and cornbread in this feature, but the results are unpalatable. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this made-for-TV drama, an attorney aids her wrongly-convicted client in his escape from prison, then joins him on the lam. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

The 1982 film version of the John Irving novel The World According to Garp attempts to captures the quirky spirit while condensing the Irving original. Robin Williams plays the title character, the son of unmarried, unorthodox feminist Jenny Fields (Glenn Close, in her film debut). Every effort made by Jenny to broaden Garp's outlook on life -- she even arranges for him to spend the night with a hooker (Swoosie Kurtz) -- crams more fears and phobias into his psyche. Aspiring to become a novelist, Garp succeeds in this goal at the same time that his mother publishes her first feminist manifesto. Though successful and happily married to college sweetheart Helen Holm (Mary Beth Hurt), Garp remains envious of his fearless mother, who has taken in the radical "Ellen Jamesians," a group named after a young woman who had her tongue cut out by a rapist. Mutilation, in fact, becomes something of a leitmotif in Garp's life, climaxing (in every sense of the word) in an auto accident brought about by Helen's tryst with Michael Milton (Mark Soper). There is, of course, much more to the story than this: standing out amongst the dozens of offbeat supporting characters is John Lithgow as Roberta Muldoon, a transexual ex-football jock. John Irving appears as a referee during a college wrestling match, while director George Roy Hill plays the pilot whose low-flying plane crashes into Garp's new home. The World According to Garp didn't attract as large an audience as other, more conventional Robin Williams vehicles, though Close and Lithgow would both be nominated for Best Supporting Actor statues. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the conclusion of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), Kojak (Telly Savalas) steps up his efforts to help Karen Foster (Marybeth Hurt), whom he believes has been falsely charged with murdering her mother. At the same time, powerful politician Edna Morrison (Geraldine Page) continues pulling strings and calling in favors to prevent Kojak from uncovering the whole truth about the murder. Ultimately, Kojak is framed for another crime to shut him up. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lynn Redgrave stars as New York madam Xaviera Hollander in this romp based on Hollander's rise to the top of the sex-for-hire industry. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

George C. Scott stars as Justin Playfair, a retired, widowed judge who labors under the delusion that he's Sherlock Holmes. Feigning concern, Playfair's greedy brother Blevins (Lester Rawlins) hires psychologist Dr. Mildred Watson (Joanne Woodward) to certify that Justin is insane--and in so doing gain control of the judge's millions. Instead, Dr. Watson is drawn into Playfair's dream world, accompanying the judge on his quest to find the elusive (and imaginary) Professor Moriarty. Reality rears its head when a group of vicious blackmailers, to whom Blevins is deeply in debt, attempt to assassinate brother Justin. In a sequence originally cut from the release version but restored for television, Playfair and Watson are rescued by a group of middle-aged eccentrics, who like the judge would give anything to live the lives of their literary favorites (the most poignant of these is librarian Jack Gilford, who "wishes to God" that he were the Scarlet Pimpernel). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi