Rena Riffel Movies
- 2008
- R
- Add Dark Reel to Queue
A long-dormant Hollywood mystery returns with ferocious intensity when an avid movie fan wins a walk-on role in an upcoming horror film and finds himself thrust into the center of a blood-soaked, behind-the-scenes killing spree. Adam Waltz (Edward Furlong) was beginning to think his life was going nowhere until the day he won a role in the latest shocker from high-powered studio chief Connor Pritchett (Lance Henrikson). But just as Adam meets scream queen Cassie Blue (Tiffany Shepis) and all his wildest fantasies start coming true, a serial killer begins stalking the set and slaughtering all of the actors. Scheming to cash in on the publicity while the bodies are still warm, Pritchett attempts to turn the low-budget thriller into a Hollywood hit. The first step is to expand Adam's role - not a difficult goal considering the actors are dropping like flies - though the future of the film comes into question when Detective Shields (Tony Todd) takes up the case. Shields is determined to get his man, even if it means shutting down the production altogether. Now everyone is a suspect, including Adam, and the only hope for getting the film made is to wrap up production before the entire crew gets sent home in body bags. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Furlong, Lance Henriksen, (more)
Tony Todd and Baywatch babe Donna D'Errico star in the third volume in the Candyman series, in which a woman who is related to the "Candyman" of the previous stories decides it's time the family did something to clear his name. However, she inadvertently sets another series of gory killings in motion. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Todd, Nick Corri, (more)
- 1999
Rivalry and jealousy mix in this tale of two men who love and fight for the same woman. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1998
- NR
In this mysterious outing, a European monastery proves to be the home of evil, a fact quickly discovered by the American woman who shows up for a visit. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Although dimwitted Lonnie (Charles Esten) has only recently held the Bundy family hostage, Kelly Bundy (Christina Applegate) has fallen madly in love with him--and in fact wants to become his bride. Al (Ed O'Neill) is dead set against the union, rightly summing up Lonnie as a faithless fool, but he changes his mind when he discover that the boy's father (Gordon Jump) is a millionaire. Originally telecast back-to-back with the previous episode "The Desperate Half-Hour", this final-first run Married. . .With Children installment has all the earmarks of a pilot for a spinoff starring Christina Applegate and Charles Esten--until Al throws a monkey wrench in the works in the last few seconds! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on Carl Hiaasen's satirical novel, Striptease tells the story of Erin (Demi Moore), who has just gotten a divorce from Darrell (Robert Patrick), the sleazy ex-con she foolishly married. However, the judge's memories of Darrell's days as a football hero win him custody of their daughter, and Erin, concerned for her child's safety, is determined to fight the decision. Erin has just lost her position as a secretary for the FBI, so, to cover her legal bills, she takes a job as an exotic dancer at a strip club called the Eager Beaver. While she has no experience taking off her clothes in front of an audience, Erin soon makes friends with the fellow dancers and finds a protector in the club's burly but good-hearted bouncer, Shad (Ving Rhames). She also makes a few fans among the regulars at the club, most notably David Dillbeck (Burt Reynolds), a drunken lout with a bottomless appetite for sleaze -- who also happens to be a conservative congressman with ties to right-wing religious groups. One of Erin's admirers snaps a photo of her with the congressman when a brawl breaks out at the club, and he suggests that it would make fine blackmail material. However, when the man with the photo turns up dead, Erin discovers that Dillbeck's people play a bit rougher than she expected. The home video version of Striptease contains two minutes of footage that was clipped from the theatrical release in order to win the film an R rating. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Demi Moore, Armand Assante, (more)
- 1995
- NC17
"I'm gonna dance," Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) insists in the opening scene of Showgirls, and dance she does. In this quasi-update of All About Eve, Nomi is a drifter whose sole ambition is to headline the "Goddess" topless dance show at the Stardust in Las Vegas. Of course, even Nomi must pay her dues, and she does so at the Cheetah, grinding poles and lap dancing her way to a future. Fortunately, her roommate, Molly, works at the Stardust and invites Nomi to see the show, where she meets Crystal Conners (Gina Gershon, in the Bette Davis role), with whom she immediately forms a love/hate relationship. Nomi soon learns what she must do to get ahead, and the rest of the film documents her cat-like crawl up the showgirl ladder of success. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, (Robocop, Basic Instinct, The Fourth Man), Showgirls was conceived as the first big-budget "adult" film since 1977's Caligula, and the first such production to wear the NC-17 rating; its failure at the box-office discouraged further attempts at large-scale adult productions. ~ Dylan Wilcox, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Berkley, Gina Gershon, (more)
This film opens with a big fat close-up of a sweaty prisoner with a fly (on a string) crawling on his face. The prisoner quickly pops the fly in his mouth and spits it out. Then he leeringly laughs about it to the prisoner next door. Nope. This is not a bad undiscovered Sergio Leone spaghetti western. Rather it is the opening shot Deran Sarafin's Gunmen -- a brainless action film without an original thought in its head. Christopher Lambert is the fly-eater, a man named Dani Servigo, the brother of a dead smuggler and a prisoner in a South American jail, who holds the secret to the whereabouts of $400,000 in stolen drug money. The walls of the prison explode, and Cole Parker (Mario Van Pebbles) makes his entrance. Cole is a mercenary working with the DEA who is in this South American hellhole to mop up the drug traders and to avenge his father's death at the hands of the drug traders. He wants Dani to lead him to the gold. In this love-hate buddy film, the two thrown-together friends/enemies race through the Amazon jungle with ruthless assassins in pursuit, as they all gravitate towards the secret stash of money. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Lambert, Mario Van Peebles, (more)
- 1994
In this satirical political thriller, detective Arthur Decowitz (John Dennis Johnston), better known as Art Deco, is a hard-boiled private eye. A dangerous international criminal genius, The Hyena (Stephen McHattie), plans to blow up Los Angeles, and the CIA have gotten wind of his plan. However, they need a fall guy for their plot to foil the Hyena's scheme, and they set up Art Deco as a possible conspirator. Cult figure Brion James appears in the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Dennis Johnston, Stephen McHattie, (more)
