Wayne de Hart Movies
Fear holds the streets in a cold grip of death in this blood-curdling trilogy of terror from filmmakers J.D. Hawkins and Frank Corey Shields. In "The Reckoning," a young schoolgirl named Jessica suffers a horrible tragedy at the hands of her classmates before seeking vengeance from beyond the grave. "The Clinic" follows a young mother-to-be named Jaleesa whose horrifying visions give her second thoughts about receiving an abortion. And when a college student is raped during a mid-term party on campus, you can be sure that there will be hell to pay as the trilogy winds to a close on "Graduation Day." ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1999
- NR
A pair of outsiders in a small Southern town find themselves in unexpectedly hot water in the black comedy Rose's. Rose (Leslie France) was born to Italian-American parents in New Jersey before relocating to a small town in Georgia, where her husband sells cars and she runs a flower shop (named, appropriately enough, Rose's). However, Rose is too high strung and too much the New Jersey native to ever feel truly at home in the South. In addition, her business is not doing well and her husband isn't even trying to be discreet about his infidelity. One day, Rose's anger gets the better of her and she kills her husband, dragging the body to the walk-in cooler in her shop until she can figure out what to do with it. Just when she's desperately in need of some help, into her store strolls Willyum (Wayne DeHart), a sometime blues singer and ex-convict who has just gotten out of prison and is looking for work. Taking care of dead bodies when you're not busy with flowers is not the sort of occupation the average parolee is looking for, and Willyum is no exception, but he needs a job to get back in his wife's good graces, so he reluctantly agrees. Rose's also features supporting performances from Sylvia Miles as Rose's mother-in-law and Glenn Shadix as the town's rather unusual sheriff. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie France, Wayne de Hart, (more)
- 1994
- PG13
Like the feature film Network (1976), this made-for-television drama scathingly satirizes an amoral, avaricious media. The story is set in 1999, a time the pay-per-view television industry is in a tailspin. It seems with over 500 available channels, audiences have become jaded with movies and sports. Enter up-and-coming executive Jessica Traynor (Sean Young) a member of the Tycom network team. It is her brilliant idea that her company can attract new customers by offering them a chance to witness a real execution on live television. Once her company approves and she untangles all the government red-tape, Jessica is left with the task of choosing an appropriately photogenic and charismatic death-row inmate. Trouble brews when Jessica begins suspecting that the man she selected may be innocent. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Young, Tim Daly, (more)
- 1994
- Add The Gambler V: Playing for Keeps to QueueAdd The Gambler V: Playing for Keeps to top of Queue
Kenny Rogers returns as Brady Hawkes, the Gambler, in this made-for-TV Western. Brady's son Jeremiah (Kris Kamm) is now an adult, and seems to have followed his father's footsteps into a life of adventure; however, Brady learns that Jeremiah has taken a far more dangerous path and has joined the gang of notorious outlaws Butch Cassidy (Scott Paulin) and the Sundance Kid (Brett Cullen). Fearing for his son's safety, Brady sets out to find his son and rescue him before he winds up on the wrong side of a gun. The Gambler V: Playing for Keeps also stars Dixie Carter, Loni Anderson, and Mariska Hargitay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenny Rogers, Loni Anderson, (more)
This drama, set in a gritty part of Houston's outskirts, pits brother against brother as the two men try to cope with their childhood family tragedy. Jason and Joshua are opposites. Jason, an ambitious young TV salesman, is the straight arrow. Joshua, an aimless coke-head and frequently jailed petty criminal, is the black sheep. Their father, Maddog was a bitter and maimed Vietnam vet with a penchant for battering his wife, Gloria. To protect herself and her sons from Maddog, she throws him out of the house. In the ensuing fight one of the brothers fatally shoots Maddog. Jason is in love with Lyric, a feisty waitress. As he courts her, his brother Josh plans a bank robbery with his gang. In the end both brothers must face their past and do so in a violent shoot-out. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Allen Payne, Jada Pinkett Smith, (more)
Clint Eastwood, hot off of his Academy Award win for Unforgiven, directed this small character study, appearing in the guise of a cops-and-robbers action picture. The film takes place during the fall of 1963. Eight-year old Phillip Perry (T.J. Lowther), the son of a devout Jehovah's Witness mother, is staying home while all the other children are out trick-or-treating. But then prison escapee Butch Haynes (Kevin Costner) appears in his kitchen. Needing a hostage to aid him in his escape from jail, he grabs Phillip. Phillip curiously looks up to Butch and willingly accompanies him. Butch gets rid of his fellow escapee after he tries to molest the child, and Butch and Phillip take to the Texas highway, on the run from the cops. The cop in pursuit in this instance is Police Chief Red Garnett (Clint Eastwood), riding in his sleek Populux Airglide trailer -- his "mobile command headquarters." On the road with Garnett is Sally Gerber (Laura Dern), a pushy pre-feminist criminologist, along with a creepy federal agent who is an expert sharpshooter. Butch is not particularly anxious to make it to the Texas borderline, and neither is Garnett in any particular hurry to catch Butch. As Butch and Phillip form a father-son attachment, the paths of Butch and Garnett gradually come together, in time for a final confrontation, after which Garnett confesses, "I don't know nothing. I don't know a damn thing." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, (more)
- 1993
- PG13
The final installment of what might be called Bruce Beresford's southern trilogy (the other films being Crimes of the Heart and Driving Miss Daisy) examines a disintegrating Southern family. The Odom family live in an elegant mansion, where Warren (Albert Finney) is retired and spends the days puttering around the house. One day, his daughter, a high school honor student named Lucille (Kathryn Erbe) finds a letter written by her mother Helen (Jill Clayburgh) declaring her intentions of leaving the family. Quickly re-writing the letter to remove the harsh words, she finishes it just in time for Warren to read it. Warren is crestfallen at the news of Helen's departure, telling her, "Lucille, I feel knocked off my perch about this." Warren descents into a depression as she and Warren await the return of Helen. After it becomes apparent Helen is not returning, Lucille drops out of high school to care for the home and her father, while Warren strikes up a relationship with available widow Vera Delmage (Piper Laurie). But then Lucille's no-nonsense older sister, Rae (Suzy Amis) arrives with her husband Billy McQueen (Kyle MacLachlan). Rae is pregnant and announces her intention of staying for awhile. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Albert Finney, Jill Clayburgh, (more)
- 1991
The made-for-TV Jailbirds is a distaff comedy variation on The Defiant Ones. Phylicia Rashad plays an important LA business executive, while Dyan Cannon portrays a trailer-trash babe from Louisiana. Both Rashad and Cannon are thrown into a dank Southern jail for crimes they didn't commit. While manacled together, the ladies escape, driving each other cuckoo as they elude their captors. Apparently, CBS had so little faith in Jailbirds that the network hardly bothered to advertise the film went it premiered May 16, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
A crucial chapter in the life of famed defense attorney Earl Rogers is re-created in the made-for-TV Final Verdict. Treat Williams stars as Rogers, who matriculates from small-claims court to the judicial Big Time in 1919. Defending a client whom he knows to be guilty, Rogers foments a crisis in his own family--and within himself. Glenn Ford co-stars as Rogers' minister father. Final Verdict debuted September 9, 1991, over the TNT cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Treat Williams, Glenn Ford, (more)
- 1990
- R
I Come in Peace is a silly, derivative science fiction exploitation thriller which is a triumph of style and skillful direction, despite a plot that steals elements from numerous good films and mixes them with some appallingly bad acting. Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren) is a not-by-the books police officer investigating the death of several people, including his partner, by a gang called the "White Boys." All the victims seemed to have died of drug overdoses, but Jack thinks that there is something more sinister afoot. His investigation reveals a plot by aliens who use the bodies to extract a chemical that is sold to addicts on their home planet. Originally entitled Dark Angel, I Come in Peace, while silly and confusing, has great production values and some excellent special effects. The main reason to see this film is because of the expert direction by former stunt-man Craig Baxley who manages to keep the action moving at a fast pace and tie up the loose ends of the threadbare story. The cinematography by Mark Irwin is outstanding and shows that imagination and a good visual sense can overcome a limited budget and a bad plot. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolph Lundgren, Betsy Brantley, (more)
The serialized story structure and barbed social commentary from comic book creator and co-writer Frank Miller earned critical respect in this satirical science fiction sequel directed by Irvin Kershner. Peter Weller returns as RoboCop, a futuristic cyborg fashioned from cutting-edge technology and the biological remains of slain Detroit police officer, Alex Murphy. Still patrolling the city streets, RoboCop is scheduled by his creator, Omni Consumer Products, to be replaced by a new "superior" model, RoboCop 2, that according to designer Juliette Faxx (Belinda Bauer), will contain the human remains not of a cop but a criminal. In the meantime, an instantly addictive drug called Nuke is sweeping through Detroit thanks to a kingpin named Cain (Tom Noonan). Taking Cain to task, RoboCop is captured and dismantled. When he's put back together, the cyborg is reprogrammed with a series of socially conscious commands (in a sly mocking of the then relatively new concept of "political correctness") that render him impotent as a law enforcer. Taking charge by rewiring himself with an electrical overload, RoboCop arrests Cain, who is injured in the process. Faxx secretly takes Cain's brain and inserts it into RoboCop 2, turning the robot immediately into a law-breaking murder machine and leading to a violent showdown between two generations of robotic crime-fighters. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, (more)
