Penny Perry Davis Movies

Pittsburgh Penguins owner Howard Baldwin was the producer of Sudden Death, and the action is set in his hockey arena, in which the Penguins are playing the Chicago Blackhawks. Pittsburgh fire inspector Darren McCord (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is attending the game with his two children. He's quit fighting fires because of a tragedy a few years earlier involving a child he couldn't save. Also at the game is the vice-president of the United States (Raymond Barry), who is the target of a terrorist plot. The terrorist leader, an insane ex-CIA agent named Joshua Foss (Powers Boothe), has masterminded a scheme to hold the vice-president hostage in his luxury suite while demanding that payments be transferred to his account electronically at the end of each period of the game. If he doesn't get his money, he will kill one member of the vice-president's party at the end of each period, and at game's end he will order ten bombs hidden in the arena to be detonated with all 17,000 fans present. McCord discovers the plot while his daughter Emily (Whittni Wright) is kidnapped by the terrorists too. McCord must dispatch the villains and find the bombs, while saving all the hostages. Luckily, he is adept at martial arts. He fights one henchman dressed in a Penguins mascot outfit in the arena's kitchen, and another terrorist on the arena's retracting dome. At one point, McCord switches identities with a player, is sent into the game, and scores a goal. Director Peter Hyams also directed Van Damme in the blockbuster Timecop. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

A teenager daydreams of getting some payback from the bullies who menace him in this hybrid of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) and The Karate Kid (1984). Barry Gabrewski (Jonathan Brandis) is an asthmatic schoolboy who can't participate in sports, much to the delight of a bullying classmate (John Buchanan) and his sadistic gym teacher (Richard Moll). Miserably unhappy, Barry escapes into a world of fantasy, where he imagines himself the tough, karate-proficient sidekick of action movie hero Chuck Norris. Trying to turn his dreams into reality, Barry visits dojo master Kelly Stone (Joe Piscopo), but Stone only mocks his aspirations. A supportive teacher introduces Barry to her uncle, Mr. Lee (Mako), a cook and martial arts teacher who takes Barry under his wing and teaches him the secrets of karate prowess. When Barry becomes good enough to enter a tournament, he needs a fourth athlete to complete his team, and who should be in the stands making a publicity appearance but the real-life Norris, who steps in to fight side-by-side with the plucky teen. Sidekicks was directed by Norris's brother and frequent collaborator Aaron Norris. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

TV star John Stamos makes a game transition to the big screen in Born to Ride. Stamos plays a motorcycle whiz, who in 1939 is assigned to motorize a US cavalry troop. His irreverence and slovenliness makes Stamos a pariah to his superior officer John Stockwell -- and just to complicate matters, both men are rivals for the affections of Teri Polo. All is forgiven during a desperate (and highly unlikely) mission to Spain, wherein Stamos uses his cycle skills to rescue a defecting Nazi scientist. As history, Born to Ride is a bust; as a vehicle for John Stamos, it has its points. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A group of adolescent monster movie enthusiasts form a club that meets in a treehouse in this pre-teen horror feature. When Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein, and The Wolfman are joined by Gill-Man in the search for a magic amulet, the boys form the Monster Squad to battle the forces of evil. The boys get unexpected help from Frankenstein when the monster grows tired of being continually bossed around by Dracula. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

The story of Philadelphia-based rock 'n' roll starmaker Bob Marcucci is given a pointed a clef treatment in The Idolmaker. Ray Sharkey plays Vincent Vacarri, who takes a couple of raw young kids (Peter Gallagher and Paul Land) and molds them into teen idols. If Gallagher and Land seem at times to be clones of Fabian and Frankie Avalon, then you've gotten the point. As played by Sharkey, Vacarri comes off as both maven and monster: he gives his boys everything they need professionally and everything they want personally, but it's subliminally clear that his interest is purely mercenary (incredibly, Bob Marcucci is the film's technical advisor). An excellent, clear-eyed view of show biz mechanics, The Idolmaker falters only in its anachronisms, notably the style of music performed by Vacarri's proteges. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi