Jean Desormeaux Movies

In this Six Million Dollar Man for the computer-wonk generation, Christopher Gorham starred as Jake Foley, a nerdish Georgetown graduate who yearned to be a spy. Presenting his credentials to the CIA-ish National Security Agency, Jake was immediately hired -- as a lower-level computer repairman. It was while working in this capacity that our hero was exposed to fragments of an experimental biotech formula, which instantly transformed him into a half-human, half-computerized cyborg. Though poor Jake didn't quite know how to best use his new, awesome powers (heck, he couldn't even use them to score with chicks), the NSA opted to make the hapless fellow the central figure in a special-ops force designed to foil villains throughout the world. Other characters include Jake's NSA boss, Kyle Duarte (Philip Anthony-Rodriguez); fellow agent Louise Beckett (Judith Scott); congressional staffer Sarah Heywood (Marina Black); research doctor Diane Hughes (Keegan Connor Tracy); and our hero's comic-relief roommate, Darin Metcalf (Matt Czuchry). Created by Silvio Horta, the weekly, 60-minute Jake 2.0 made its UPN debut on September 10, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Vanessa L. Williams stars in this made-for-TV drama as Henriette Delille, a woman born in New Orleans before the abolition of slavery. Delille refused to accept the narrow boundaries society attempted to impose upon her as a mixed-race woman (who are routinely married off to wealthy European visitors). While Gerard Gaultier (Gil Bellows), a successful French doctor, attempts to win her hand, Henriette instead pledges herself to serve the community, opening a combination school and medical clinic to look to the needs of the city's black community. While set in Louisiana, The Courage to Love (also shown as The Quadroon Ball) was shot in another place with a rich French heritage, the Canadian city of Quebec. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this made-for-TV thriller, Paul Fein (Charles Bronson) is a veteran police detective whose son Eddie (Sebastian Spence) is also a cop. Paul is assigned to investigate the murder of a prominent businessman, and he soon learns that the field of suspects has been narrowed down to two -- the victim's sexually freewheeling wife Anna (Lesley-Anne Down), and Paul's wild-child daughter Jackie (Angela Featherstone). Neither Paul nor Eddie believe that Jackie could have committed the murder, and soon Paul is using himself as a decoy in a bid to find out more about what Anna does and doesn't know about her husband's death. Family of Cops was followed by two sequels. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In a near-future world in which the fast-paced digital lifestyle has given rise to a worldwide plague called Nerve Attenuation Syndrome, Johnny (Keanu Reeves), a data courier, accepts an assignment that he hopes will allow him to pay for the restoration of the childhood memories he dumped in order to outfit his brain with the microchip necessary for him to carry out his profession. Narrowly escaping a Yakuza ambush in which his employers are killed and the mnemonic trigger capable of unlocking the data in his brain is partially destroyed, Johnny travels from Beijing to New Jersey, where he hopes to recover the data before "neural seepage" destroys his mind. Teaming up with would-be bodyguard Jane (Dina Meyer) and a rebel group known as the LoTeks who live in an abandoned bridge, he tries to outrun the assassins of mysterious businessman Takahashi (Beat Takeshi Kitano) -- and the Street Preacher (Dolph Lundgren), a bionic madman. Along the way, he meets a mysterious electronic entity, a sentient dolphin, and Spider (Henry Rollins), a cybernetics expert, all of whom attempt, with various degrees of success, to learn why the data in Johnny's head is so important. Science fiction author William Gibson's original short story Johnny Mnemonic helped usher in the age of cyberpunk when it appeared in Omni magazine in 1981; it later appeared in the collection Burning Chrome (alongside the story that provided the basis for Abel Ferrara's New Rose Hotel). Although Gibson himself wrote the screenplay for Johnny Mnemonic, the film diverges considerably from the story. Molly Mirrors, a recurring character in Gibson's fiction, was replaced by the figure of Jane to fend off licensing conflicts with any future film version of Neuromancer, the author's most celebrated novel. Other plot elements -- most notably the LoTeks' bridge habitat -- were borrowed from later Gibson fiction such as the novel Virtual Light. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Based on Alicia Scott's best-selling novel, this made-for-television romance centers on the passionate love affair that gradually develops between a brilliant scientist/widower and the down-to-earth woman he hires to care for his children. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Accompanied by his trusty pet wolf Diefenbaker, RCMP constable Benton Fraser doggedly pursues the murderer of his Mountie father (whose death has been officially deemed an "accident") from the snowy environs of the Yukon to the urban sprawl of Chicago. Once in the Windy City, Fraser meets wisecracking local police detective Ray Vecchio, whose career has likewise been motivated by the death of his father. Forming a tentative friendship, Fraser and Ray become an unofficial team, determined to track down miscreants by combining their separate but equally effective police methods. Along the way, our heroes discover that Fraser's father was killed while investigating a large-scale coverup involving a hydroelectric dam project. This two-hour pilot episode of the weekly seriocomic cop series Due South has since been divided into two hour-long episodes for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This made-for-television drama is based on the true story of a woman's search for her birth parents. Melissa Gilbert-Boxleitner stars as Julie, a woman about to undergo surgery. Confronted with questions about her medical history, Julie learns for the first time that she in fact was adopted as an infant. The revelation sparks a desire within Julie to seek out her birth parents and sends her on a quest for the truth. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi

A young mother and her daughter end up on the streets in this grim made-for-television movie. Mare Winningham stars as Theresa Johnson, a young mother whose life falls apart when she finds herself suddenly single, unemployed and homeless. With nowhere to turn, Theresa and her daughter Hillary (Grace Johnston) drift through the social system, wandering from shelter to shelter with little hope for the future. Gripping in its portrayal of the cycle of poverty, the film offers no simple solutions -- much like real life. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi