Cliff De Young
The final day on the Mayan calendar finds four faithful strangers convening at an ancient temple in the heart of Mexico in this apocalyptic thriller starring Cliff De Young and Dale Midkiff. Centuries ago, the Mayans set a date for the end of time: December 21, 2012. Now that date is upon us, and NASA scientists have noted that a catastrophic polar shift is about to occur. Could it be that an ancient Mexican temple holds the key to unlocking the secret that could protect humankind from total extinction? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dale Midkiff, Cliff De Young, (more)
Cliff De Young, Robert Rusler, and Joe Michael Burke star in Children of the Corn director Fritz Kiersch's tale of a man and his son who set out to make a hunting video, but quickly learn that what was once the predator has now become the prey. The forest can be a dangerous place, and after stumbling across a bizarre religious sect and finding themselves stalked by a malevolent entity of unconfirmed origins, the treacherous trees begin to take on a downright deadly appearance. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cliff De Young, Robert Rusler, (more)
A down-on-his-luck pilot stuck repossessing private jets is offered one last shot at redemption in the form of a dangerous rescue mission in director Jerry Jameson's Christian-themed adventure. Dan Hogan's (Richard Tyson) once-promising stint in the skies has come to a standstill, and now the only way that the former pilot can seem to make ends meet is by playing repo man to the jet-set crowd. When the father of Dan's ex-girlfriend Ann (Bobbie Phillips) receives news that the Columbian village in which his missionary daughter lives has fallen prey to marauding drug-runners who aren't above killing to make a buck, he enlists the aid of the washed-up pilot in ensuring that the endangered girl makes it back home alive. Now, with time running short and the nefarious General Salazar (Rene Moreno) making his way to the remote village in which Ann has set up camp, Dan must enlist the aid of talkative missionary dentist Dr. Mateo Barrero (Adriano Gonzalez) in navigating the treacherous grounds of Alto Risco and bringing home the benevolent Ann. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Tyson, Bobbie Phillips, (more)
- 2003
17-year-old Victor Jackson (Billy Kay) is accused of using his car as a lethal weapon, deliberately running over a pedestrian while imitating the ultra-violent video game "Carjack 2000: Millenium Mayhem." That Victor's trial is not an ordinary one is tipped off by the fact that Tess (Della Reese) is the judge, Andrew (John Dye) is the defense attorney and Rafael (Alexis Cruz) is the prosecutor. Meanwhile, Monica (Roma Downey) tries to get the whole truth about the tragedy from the only eyewitness, Victor's 14-year-old cousin Josh--likewise a rabid video game addict. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2002
The influence of the popular action film The Fast and the Furious hangs heavily over the first episode of CSI's third season. Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) and Nick (George Eads) investigate when the mutilated corpse of Jace Felder, a champion in the field of illegal street-racing, is found at an abandoned desert airstrip. Meanwhile, Grissom (William L. Petersen) probes the death of legendary poker player Doyle Pfeiffer, who appears to have suffered a heart seizure during a high-stakes card game. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2002
Originally titled On the Edge, this Lifetime cable network feature film is the story of Zoey Carter (Julia Whelan), the superachieving "perfect" daughter of professional couple Marcia and Larry Carter (Mia Farrow and Cliff De Young). Traumatized by her parents' divorce, Zoey begins experimenting with drugs, only to grow more and more dependent upon narcotics -- and the thrill of shoplifting -- thanks to the influence of unsavory high school senior Ron Morris (Michael Coristine). After weeks and weeks of obfuscation, lies, and denial, Zoey and her parents are forced to face the seriousness of the girl's problem. But for all the help and support extended by sympathetic social worker Mike Harper (Andrew McCarthy), the solution to the dilemma lies with the choices made by Zoey's mom and dad -- if they are indeed equal to the challenge. The Secret Life of Zoey first aired on August 19, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mia Farrow, Cliff De Young, (more)
- 2001
A girl poised on the brink of adolescence finds herself shouldering a whole new set of responsibilities in this made-for-TV drama based on the autobiographical book by Esmeralda Santiago. In 1961, Mami Santiago (Wanda De Jesus) decides to leave her life in a Puerto Rican farming community behind and move herself and her six children to New York City in search of a better life -- and better medical care for her ailing son. Mami's oldest daughter, Esmerelda (Ana Maria Lagasca) -- Negi for short -- not only has trouble adapting to her new environment, but doesn't quite fit in at her new school, where she's lumped in with other Spanish speaking students with whom she shares no common culture. Negi's burden is intensified by the fact her mother and siblings are counting on her to learn English and serve as the family's interpreter. One of Negi's teachers senses her creative gifts and arranges for her to audition for the Performing Arts School in Manhattan, but as Negi struggles to learn a monologue in a new language she has yet to master, she isn't sure if she has what it takes to make the grade. Esmeralda Santiago penned the screenplay for Almost A Woman from her own memoir; the film was first broadcast as part of the award-winning PBS anthology series Masterpiece Theater. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wanda De Jesus, Miriam Colon, (more)
- 2000
Technically a one-hour dramatic special, Getting Away With Murder: The JonBenet Ramsey Mystery was advertised as a "mini-movie" by the Fox Network. In its recounting of the events preceding and following the brutal Christmas 1996 murder of five-year-old JonBenet Ramsey (here played by Seventh Heaven regular MacKenzie Rosman), the program chronicles all the existing facts, then incorporates the dozens of opinions and theories surrounding the still-unsolved homicide. Alice Barrett-Mitchell is cast as an unnamed "composite" journalist who, after interviewing all the family members and investigators involved in the case, presents several opposing theories. In one, JonBenet's parents (Cliff De Young and Judi Evans Luciano) were themselves the killers, while in another, the "unknown intruder" notion is propounded. By adopting this multiple-scenario approach, the producers permit the viewers to draw their own conclusions (which they'd been doing since 1996 anyway). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cliff De Young, Judi Evans Luciano, (more)
- 1999
- PG13
Women are in charge of a futuristic society were almost all of the globe's male population have been decimated due to biological warfare. In hopes of restocking the population, so to speak, a top scientist creates a new type of male genetically unable to commit acts of violence. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Bowen, Tamlyn Tomita, (more)
Based on the acclaimed children's book The Westing Game, the movie version of this tale, Get a Clue!, draws young viewers into the strange mysteries encountered by 13-year-old "Turtle" Wexler. After moving into a new town, Turtle learns the house next door is the notoriously haunted Westin mansion. Discovering the body of the dead millionaire, the spunky Turtle attempts to solve the case in hopes of receiving a $20 million reward. The live-action adventure stars Ashley Peldon, Diane Ladd, Sally Kirkland, and Ray Walston. ~ Sally Barber, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ashley Peldon, Ray Walston, (more)
This crime drama, based on the best-selling novel by Mario Puzo, follows 20 years in the long reign of powerful Mafia kingpin Don Domenico Clericuzio (Danny Aiello). For years, the Clericuzios have been warring with a rival crime family, the Santadios, which is not helped when Domenico's daughter Rose Marie (Kirstie Alley) decides to marry the son of the head of the Santadio clan. On the night of Rose Marie's wedding, Domenico orders the execution of the entire Santadio family, including his new son-in-law. Rose Marie is pregnant as a result of her brief honeymoon, and her son Dante (Rory Cochrane) grows up to become a hired killer with a bitter hatred of his grandfather. Meanwhile, Pippi De Lena (Joe Mantegna), Domenico's key enforcer who carried out the slaughter of the Santadinos, has been grooming his son Croccifixio (Jason Gedrick) to take over as the Clericuzio's new trigger man. However, after he muffs a crucial execution, Croccifixio is sent to work with the family's operations in Las Vegas, where he becomes involved with starlet Athena Aquitane (Daryl Hannah). Soon Dante makes a risky bid to seize control of the Santadio family's crime empire. Originally produced as a television miniseries, the home video release of The Last Don is 262-min. long and it includes material not used for television broadcast. The video version features adult language and nudity and received an R rating. The Last Don co-stars Robert Wuhl, Penelope Ann Miller, Seymour Cassel, Burt Young, and k.d. lang. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Aiello, Joe Mantegna, (more)
Television director Peter O'Fallon made his feature film debut with this independent film that pays obvious homage to the style of Quentin Tarantino, with plenty of violence and funny, talkative hit men. Suave gangster Charlie Barrett (Christopher Walken) meets four young men who have taken over his regular booth at a popular bistro. Charmed by the swaggering kids, he agrees to take a ride with them, but they give him a sedative and he awakens in a deserted mansion, taped to a chair with one of his fingers missing. One of his abductors, Avery (Henry Thomas), says that he has a sister who has been kidnapped and they need two million dollars to get her back, as well as a finger to exchange for her severed digit. Charlie phones his lawyer Marty (Cliff De Young), who calls a henchman, Lono (Denis Leary), who investigates the kidnappings and gives Charlie enough information to start playing each of his inexperienced abductors against the others. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Walken, Denis Leary, (more)
An ex-mercenary (Tom Berenger) becomes a take-no-prisoners teacher in a drug-ridden, gang-infested Miami high school in this campy morality tale about restoring lost American virtues to the inner city. Berenger's character, Shale, has no first name, a shadowy past as a patriotic gun-for-hire, and is temporarily unemployed and living with an idealistic teacher, Jane Hetzko (Diane Verona). Jane has angered a school gang leader, Juan Lucas (Marc Anthony), by asking the principal to get him transferred after he has threatened her in the schoolyard. After Jane is kneecapped by a gang member, Shale fakes a resume and becomes a substitute teacher, Mr. Smith. He lectures his class on the lessons of Vietnam ("We were fighting Communism") while looking for a way to get revenge on Juan. When he challenges the school's tolerance for student misbehavior, Smith is fired by the slimy principal, Claude Rolle (Ernie Hudson), an ex-cop who is running for City Council and doesn't want to rock the boat. Shale stays because he cites a union rule requiring two weeks' notice. During that period, tensions escalate and eventually Shale intervenes in a gang war that degenerates into a school-destroying inferno of violence. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Ernie Hudson, (more)
After killing her mother in childbirth, growing up in San Francisco with her father and stepmother, attempting suicide, and moving to Los Angeles, Sarah (Robin Tunney) makes a brief stab at popularity at her new Catholic high school. Ostracized due to the untrue kiss-and-tell tales of football player Chris (Skeet Ulrich), Sarah reluctantly befriends a trio of self-styled outsiders: the horribly scarred Bonnie (Neve Campbell), the trailer-trash Nancy (Fairuza Balk), and Rochelle (Rachel True), a frequent victim of anti-black prejudice at the hands of Laura Lizzie (former Marcia Brady and future Mrs. Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor). After exhibiting latent telekenitic powers in front of Bonnie, Sarah learns that her three new friends have chosen her as their "fourth corner," the final member of their supernatural coven. Using tools stolen from a local incense-and-candle-filled boutique for practitioners of magic, the quartet summons the power of Manon, a primitive deity, to exact revenge on their tormentors and transform their lives. Drunk with power, they watch their spells get out of control, and the new coven soon realizes that with magic, "whatever you give comes back three-fold." This mid-'90s horror flick scored first place at the box office its opening weekend despite its then-unknown cast and modest budget. TV star Neve Campbell, who didn't even receive top billing, would go on to become the '90s answer to '70s horror queen Jamie Lee Curtis in the Scream franchise. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, (more)
In this drama, a beautiful woman uses her charms to dupe her new sweetheart and his buddies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donna Mills, Peter Riegert, (more)
The dinosaurs are back, and they're getting hungrier by the minute in this sequel to the terror tale Carnosaur. There's been a call for help from a secret underground military facility deep in the Nevada desert, so a rescue team led by Maj. McQuade (Cliff De Young) and trouble-shooter Reed (John Savage) is sent out to investigate. When they arrive, the facility's staff are all dead -- the only living person they can find is a lost, disoriented teenager named Jesse (Ryan Thomas Johnson) who is wandering through the flats. As they investigate, McQuade and Reed make two terrifying discoveries. A cache of high-grade plutonium has been stored there, but the containment is faulty, and a cloud of deadly radiation is slowly but surely being released. To make matters worse, the Army had found a number of dinosaur eggs during a dig and had stashed them at the Nevada facility...and the radiation has caused them to hatch, with a pack of hungry velociraptors patrolling the area as a result. Carnosaur 2 also stars Don Stroud, Rick Dean, and Arabella Holzbog. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Savage, Cliff De Young, (more)
- 1995
In this sci-fi drama, eight deep-space astronauts awaken from a century of suspended animation to discover that the human race no longer exists. To make things worse, someone or something has murdered their captain. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Rachins, Emma Samms, (more)
In this "sequel" to Roger Corman's 1971 Von Richtofen and Brown (produced by Corman himself), a toy World War I plane belonging to a young boy (Tobey Maguire) is possessed by the spirit of the deceased Red Baron. The possessed plane begins killing people with real bullets from a toy machine gun. The boy turns for help to his grandfather (Mickey Rooney) -- who just happens to be the man who actually shot down the Red Baron in World War I. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Tobey Maguire, (more)
When his father's job forces the family to relocate, Zack Tyler (Trevor Lissauer) finds himself friendless and unhappy in a strange new town ruled by skateboarding cretins. However, when he purchases a used skateboard, Zack discovers that his new set of wheels has strange and unusual powers that liven things up in his new town. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Just when it seemed as if the first season of Deep Space Nine had degenerated into reruns, along came this first-run episode on April 17, 1993. The focus of the episode is Odo, the crew's resident shape shifter. Odo is tempted to forsake his responsibilities by alien criminal Croden (Cliff DeYoung). Hoping to bargain for his freedom, Croden tells Odo of a distant asteroid populated by shape shifters like himself. "Vortex" was written by Sam Rolfe, whose previous credits included such classic TV shows as Have Gun, Will Travel and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Adapted for TV, this is a Stephen King story in which an aspiring writer and an alcoholic poet (with a metal plate in his head, no less) literally stumble over a long-buried spaceship while walking in the woods. It starts glowing green when uncovered and soon everyone in town has green eyes, their teeth fall out and they act out all of their fantasies (violent or otherwise). Guess who's immune to the power of this alien spaceship? You got it--our good old metal-headed poet can save the day if he can get it together enough to do so. Really more of a B movie than most King horrorfests. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Smits, Marg Helgenberger, (more)
- 1993
The seemingly heartbroken parents of a murdered child make a sheriff suspicious, in this made-for-television drama. Park Overall and Robby Benson star as The Sims, a couple whose infant daughter is kidnapped and later found dead. By all accounts the Sims appear to be the victims, but when another child in the Sims family is found dead several years later, the local sheriff (Frederick Forrest) becomes suspicious. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
Jumping fairly late on the slasher-movie bandwagon, this stylish but hollow effort from director Manny Coto stars L.A. Law's Larry Drake as the psychopathic Evan Rendell, who fancies himself a misunderstood medical genius. In an inventive opening scene, Rendell performs a bit of impromptu surgery on his keepers at the asylum (who had given him the title nickname due to his fits of nervous laughter) and escapes to his hometown to set up his "practice." This medical mania seems to run in the family, as we are shown in flashback: Evan's daddy once butchered several local women in his search for a replacement heart for his wife, and although he was unable to save her, Pops managed to spirit away young Evan and keep him safe (in a very, very nasty hiding place) before being lynched by the locals. Hiding out in the abandoned family home, "Dr. Giggles" begins a random killing spree in town with his bag of medieval-looking surgical instruments... but he finds new purpose when he sees the medical records of young Jennifer (Holly Marie Combs), who is in line for a heart transplant, and vows to "cure" her himself. This film eschews the possibilities of its demented premise, choosing instead to serve up a flavorless hash of '80s slasher clichés (wisecracking killer, stupid teenage victims, virginal heroine, 20-years-later motif, etc.). The only truly inspired moment occurs in flashback, when we discover the actual hiding place the elder Dr. Rendell chose for his son. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry Drake, Holly Marie Combs, (more)
Corbin Bernsen plays a hard-boiled 1940s private eye operating in the 1990s in the made-for-TV Love Can Be Murder. No, he's not a senior citizen: he's dead. It is the ghost of Bernsen who teams with the very much alive Jaclyn Smith, a contemporary PI. She's trying to solve the decades-old homicide case which Bernsen was working on when he was sent into the Big Sleep by persons unknown. Topper Returns, anyone? Love Can Be Murder was originally telecast December 14, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Gerald S. O'Loughlin guest stars as Ben Oliver, a former Army buddy of Cabot Cove physician Seth Hazlitt (William Windom). Arriving in town to pay Seth a visit, Ben is clearly carrying around a great deal of emotional baggage. Subsequently, Ben's new boss is murdered, and Ben is implicated in the crime. Out of friendship for Seth, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) investigates the situation, but doesn't like what she finds out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
