Roy Smith Movies
- 1995
- G
- Add The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving to Queue Add The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving to top of Queue
In this third installment of the animated saga of a young brontosaurus and his pals, trouble has come to the Great Valley in the form of a meteorite. It fell just beyond the valley and now blocks the main water supply. As the land dries and thirst increases, the different species of dinosaurs who once coexisted peacefully become fractious. Suddenly Littlefoot and his friends are no longer allowed to play together. As bigotry and bickering increase, Littlefoot's gang decides that it's up to them to save the day. Since they went outside the valley in the last sequel, they know where water can be found, and though the Great Beyond is populated by tyrannosauruses and other carnivores, the youngsters know that they and their parents must take that risk in order to survive. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeff Bennett, Linda Gary, (more)
- 1994
- G
- Add The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure to Queue Add The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure to top of Queue
The first sequel to Don Bluth's popular The Land Before Time furthers the adventures of Littlefoot and his pals, who by this time are living in the Great Valley. The young dinos' adventures begin when they set out to prove how grown up they are by solving the mystery of an egg thief. Unfortunately, in their zeal, Littlefoot and Co. end up lost in the frightening Great Beyond. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeff Bennett, Linda Gary, (more)
Animation producer Don Bluth's fondness for overly cutesy characters and muddy color compositions work to the benefit of his feature-length cartoon The Land Before Time. Littlefoot, a brontosaurus child, must fend for himself when his mother is killed (shades of Bambi). With several other orphaned dinosaurs, Littlefoot seeks out the fabled Great Valley, where food and shelter is plentiful. Along the way, the kiddie dinos learn several vital (and politically correct) life lessons, all the while keeping themselves scarce whenever the fierce tyrannosauri gallumph into view. The cuteness of the characters (emphasized by the voice work) takes some of the harsh edges off the story, which makes the film eminently suitable for younger children; and the smeary color design is ideal for the time-frame of the film, which is set in the turbulent, nature-run-rampant period just before the dinosaurs died out. Apparently they didn't all die, inasmuch as a Land Before Time sequel was released on video in 1994. The earlier film inspired a 1988 Saturday morning cartoon series produced by Ruby-Spears, Dink: The Little Dinosaur. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gabriel Damon, Candy Hutson, (more)
- 1986
- R
Trying to shoot an erotic feminist film, a knock-out lady director chooses a small coastal town, where she's hoping she can work in an uninterrupted environment. However, the local rowdies--right-wing Christians, and red-neck stud-dudes--interfere from the get-go. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Colleen Camp, Kenneth Welsh, (more)
- 1978
- NR
- Add The Hound of the Baskervilles to Queue Add The Hound of the Baskervilles to top of Queue
The concept behind the 1977 Hound of the Baskervilles involved having "underground" director Paul Morrissey bring an irreverent slant to the original Sherlock Holmes mystery. The film thus casts Peter Cook and Dudley Moore as Holmes and Watson, with such reliable British performers as Terry-Thomas, Joan Greenwood, Denholm Elliott, Hugh Griffith, Spike Milligan, and Roy Kinnear in cameos. Producer Michael White took on the project; it mirrored his previous experience of combining spoofery and fidelity to source material with Monty Python's Jabberwocky. Examples of the film's zaniness include the casting of a lovable Irish wolfhound as the "deadly" Baskerville mastiff and having Holmes and Watson speak in thick provincial accents. For its American release, Hound of the Baskervilles was whittled down to 78 minutes, with several of its scenes out of sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, (more)
- 1959
In this thriller, an engraver gets involved with a counterfeiting ring until the gang members commit murder. He decides to flee, grabs his daughter and heads for Spain. His vengeful comrades pursue him and then abduct his child. Fortunately, two smugglers help the engraver to get her back. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1937
While W.C. Fields poked fun at the asinine notion of a high-speed airplane with an open observation deck in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), the producers of the futuristic British melodrama Non-Stop New York (1937) take this notion quite seriously. The film's setpiece is a streamlined luxury plane designed for transatlantic passenger flight (something that would not become a common occurrence until 1940). Anna Lee plays a chorus girl whose has been targeted for extermination by the London underworld because she can provide an alibi for a murder suspect. The police won't believe her, but that doesn't dissuade the syndicated hit men. Seeking escape, Lee stows away on a plane bound for New York; the gangsters follow, overpower the pilots, and parachute from the plane, leaving Lee and the passengers helplessly hurtling through the clouds. The day is saved by detective John Loder, who'd also boarded the plane in search of Lee. The climax involves an aerial fistfight on the wing of the speeding plane. If you believe this sequence, chances are you'll swallow whole the rest of Non-Stop New York: if not, you'll have a grand old time all the same. The script by (among others) Curt Siodmak and Roland Pertwee was based on Sky Steward, a novel by Ken Attiwill. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anna Lee, John Loder, (more)
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