Sandra Dickinson Movies

Slasher aesthetics clash with soccer hooligan humor in director Simon Cathcart and co-screenwriter Rob Mercer's bloody tale about a weekend paintball outing-turned-ominous resurrection ritual. Nebbish Brian (Simeon Willis) is about to be married, and his weekend warrior pals are determined to send him to the alter in style. The Happy Valley Paintball Park is the perfect setting for a little bachelor party debauchery, but it soon seems as if malevolent proprietor Fay (Sandra Dickinson) has much more than fun and games planned for this particular weekend. As the weekend festivities get under way, Fay stealthily tricks the hard-partying group into performing a ritual that resurrects a hulking Templar Knight. Now, with their numbers quickly thinning, the surviving members of this spirited stag party must figure out a means of defeating the murderous Guardian Knight and escaping impalement on his formidable sword. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Former National Lampoon editor Ted Mann, who scripted this $27 million science-fiction comedy, calls it "the first outer-space road movie." According to Mann, the film has "no scientists, no techies, none of the usual polished, sanitary environments we're used to in our space films. Space is like anywhere else -- the people who are there are underpaid and poorly regarded." In the year 2196, freight pilot John Canyon (Dennis Hopper), one of the last of the independent truckers competing against the huge mega-corporations, is hassled by high-tech interference plus corrupt bosses. After Canyon delivers a cargo of pigs, genetically engineered to be square and stackable for more efficient shipping, he finds his profits siphoned off by a crooked labor boss (George Wendt). When Canyon heads for Earth with a secret cargo, he's accompanied by young apprentice trucker Mike Pucci (Stephen Dorff) and waitress Cindy (Debi Mazar), who plans to marry Canyon if he gets her safely to Earth. The trio goes through the asteroid belt and are captured by pirates, led by engineering wiz Captain Macanudo (Charles Dance), who discovers the secret cargo of the army androids stolen from him by capitalist corp chief E.J. Saggs (Shane Rimmer) -- who's plotting an android takeover of Earth. Filmed at Ireland's Ardmore Studios, Space Truckers was shown at several 1997 film festivals (Sundance, Sitges, Vancouver). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Debuting September 3, 1991 over BBC1, the long-running British sitcom 2.4 Children was all about an ostensibly typical family, the Potters. Despite their veneer of normality, the family invariably found itself experiencing all sorts of abnormal and surrealistic adventures, in the manner of the American comedies Married: With Children and Malcolm in the Middle. For the record, Ben Porter (Gary Olsen) ran a plumbing business with attractive assistant Christine (Kim Benson); Ben's wife (Belinda Lang) held down several dead-end jobs before launching a catering business with her friend Rona (Julia Hills); and the couple's kids, Jenny (played first by Claire Woodgate, then by Claire Buckfield) and David (John Pickard), were like most other wisecracking sitcom kids, only more so. One of the most endearing aspects of the series was its endless stream of pop-culture references, including Ben's referring to son David as "Puggsley," and the contemptuous nickname "Jake the Klingon" bestowed upon Ben's main business rival Jake Klinger (Roger Lloyd Pack). The 57th and final episodes of 2.4 Children was seen on December 30, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Peter Ustinov stars once more as Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's insufferably brilliant Belgian detective. Unlike many of Ustinov's earlier Poirot vehicles, which were set in the 1930s, the made-for-TV Dead Man's Folly takes place in contemporary England. Jean Stapleton costars as an American mystery novelist who organizes a "murder hunt" at a sprawling English manor. It isn't long before several of the guests are also sprawling--on the ground, stone cold dead. American-born British stage star Constance Cummings makes a rare TV appearance as a mysterious noblewoman. Dead Man's Folly was lensed on location at West Wycombe Park in Buckinhamshire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In a major departure from the tone of the preceding two Superman adventure films, this mix of vile deeds and fantasy heroics drops the "S" out of cosmic and goes for comic instead. Right at the starting gate, Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) and a subsequent slapstick sequence upstage (Christopher Reeves again), who later develops an identity crisis. Gorman, newly trained as a computer whiz, starts working for a conglomerate run by the corporate nemesis Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn), intent on world domination. Gorman is sent to Superman's small town of Smallville to wipe out Columbia's coffee crop by fiddling with the computer side of a weather satellite. Clark Kent is in town for his class reunion, leading Superman to clash with Gorman, which in turn, leads Gorman to develop a hybrid red Kryptonite. Unwittingly, since Gorman's wits are always in doubt, the Red Kryptonite causes Superman to split into a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde schizophrenia -- but in two separate bodies. As the evil Superman swaggers around town, megalomaniac Ross Webster has other tricks in mind -- and in one of the more memorable action scenes (interspersed with a video game sequence), Superman is chased through the Grand Canyon by a fast-flying, very determined missile. Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole) is on hand for romantic interest (Margot Kidder only appears briefly -- she was growing tired of Lois Lane). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy began as a 1978 BBC radio series by Douglas Adams, who adapted the material into a bestselling novel in 1979. This six-part BBC television miniseries - a witty and farcical science-fiction send-up -- stars Simon Jones as gormless Arthur Dent, who wakes up one morning to discover that a demolition crew is preparing to destroy his house and put in a new highway bypass. Saddened by this news, Arthur accepts the offer of his buddy Ford Prefect to head down to the local pub for a drink, but is soon greeted by Ford's wild revelation that he is in fact not a human but a space alien from a small planet just outside of Betelgeuse, who has spent many years on the planet Earth in the guise of a human actor, doing background research for a book called 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.' Before Arthur can fully digest this news, a Vogon spaceship appears in the sky and blasts out the message that the entire Earth will soon be destroyed to put in an intergalactic superhighway. At the last moment, Arthur and Ford manage to board the spaceship to escape obliteration themselves. Arthur is soon ensconced in a strange space vessel festooned with all manner of confusing hardware, and jets through a series of increasingly off-the-wall adventures, where he meets such wild characters as three-armed galaxy president Zaphod Beeblebrox; Trillian, the latter's girlfriend; neurotic robot Marvin; and Veet Voojagig, a graduate student with a ballpoint pen fixation. Like Dr. Who and other BBC productions, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy took its US bow on PBS affiliate stations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide