Cathy Henderson Movies

An elderly community handyman and notorious curmudgeon effectively isolates himself from his friends and neighbors by suing his lifelong best friend over a minor transgression in director Neal Miller's character-driven comedy drama. Flagg Purdy (Alan Arkin) is a cantankerous old coot who prides himself on principle. Despite Flagg's gruff exterior, his longtime wife, Ada (Barbara Dana), still cherishes her husband, and knows that his heart has always been in the right place. The pair's six grown children know too that their father has always meant well, even in times when his questionable parenting skills may have fallen a little on the heavy-handed side. One day, while playing his weekly game of checkers with friend and neighbor Gus Falk (Austin Pendleton), Flagg angrily accuses his nonplussed opponent of cheating. Though Gus is initially able to laugh off the accusation, the conflict soon escalates when Flagg storms into Gus' general store complaining that his friend's sheep have been relieving themselves a little too close to the well that supplies the Purdys' drinking water. When Gus retorts by pointing out that it is his well, and that the sheep are also his, the enraged Flagg responds by suing his neighbor. Though a surprise witness nets Flagg an unexpected win in the courtroom, the resulting effect that his litigious actions have on the family's already tenuous community relations soon leave his family in the lurch. Subsequently retiring to his "deathbed" and requesting the presence of his children before he bids the cruel and uncaring world a final farewell, Flagg is forced to consider that he may be more like his stubborn father than he would care to admit as, one by one, his offspring fail to bring their father back from the "brink." ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The fate of an American hostage lies in the hands of the most skilled soldiers the U.S. Army has to offer in this explosive action entry from U.S. Seals 2 director Isaac Florentine. Time is running out for American photojournalist Wendy Teller (Daniella Deutscher), and if Major Don Hardin (Marshall Teague) and his team of fearless expert soldiers don't locate her fast or bow to Bosnian war veteran Hasib Rafendek's (Eli Danker) demand to free Bosnian war criminals, the shell-shocked veteran is sure to follow through on his promise to bury her. Unfortunately for Hasib, the only way the U.S. negotiates with terrorists is with bullets and bombs. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

When tragic circumstances bring five old friends back to their hometown, revisiting their favorite childhood vacation home seems like a great way to mourn the recent death in their lives. None of them, however, are privy to the fact that a mysterious colony of mutant flies have been breeding in the house during their long absence. Within hours of their arrival, the reunited friends become ill-fated hosts for the flies reproductive cycle -- once the eggs have been laid within their bodies, hope for survival is nil. Infested features Zach Galligan and Amy Jo Johnson, as well as Lisa Ann Hadley, Daniel Jenkins, and Robert Duncan McNeill. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

A crime caper that gaily spoofs such antecedents as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and nods its head more than a few times to the work of Quentin Tarantino, Very Mean Men opens in a bar, where a bartender (Matthew Modine) finds himself serving drinks to a tough-looking guy (Martin Landau) he pegs as a cheap drinker. In order to keep the miniscule tips coming, the bartender makes up a story about warring mob families in the San Fernando Valley. In one corner there are the Minettis, who are led by Gino (Ben Gazzara), a mobster who's mellowed with age. Gino wants to make amends when Big Paddy Mulroney (Charles Durning) complains that Gino's clan is invading his side of the Valley. Gino's temperamental son Paulie (Scott Baio, sporting peroxided hair and a goatee to match) gives Mulroney money, only to then stiff Mulroney's waitress daughter on a tip after having lunch at the family's diner. Soon ethnic insults are flying like bullets, and everyone is out for revenge. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Israeli-born director Isaac H. Eaton spins this thriller about a Mephistophelean writer luring an impressionable young man into L.A.'s seamy underside. Stuart Chappell (Peter Weller) persuades gas station attendant Michael Holloway (Balthazar Getty) to abandon the straight and narrow and accompany him on a prowl of increasingly kinky haunts -- including stripclubs, S&M dungeons, fight clubs, and Russian roulette joints. This film was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Love, sex, fidelity, and the nearly endless variety of complications they can bring are played for laughs in this sophisticated comedy. Alan (Robert Mailhouse) is driving home on a dark and rainy night when he sees an attractive woman standing by the side of the road. He stops and offers her a ride; she accepts and immediately offers him fellatio for his troubles. Though Alan is married and has never cheated on his wife, he's not sure how to say no in this instance, but he doesn't get much of a chance to enjoy infidelity before he's interrupted by the police -- who inform him he's picked up a prostitute and he's under arrest. Several days later, Alan is trying to figure out how to get his wife Laura (Alison Eastwood) to take him back. His buddies Danny (Jonathan Silverman) and Brent (William Ragsdale) chide him for his naivete and advise him to stick by the old rationalization that oral sex isn't really sex. Meanwhile, Laura heads out for a night on the town with her friends Ally (Kimberly Williams) and Terianne (Jessica Lundy). Laura is thinking that adulterous turnabout might be fair play, Ally is mulling over her secret fantasy of becoming an exotic dancer, and Terianne is looking for a man who can help her with her problems in reaching an orgasm. The supporting cast includes Lauren Hutton as Laura's mother. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An evil genie, the Djinn (Andrew Divoff), escapes from an ancient statue and wreaks havoc in this horror film from director Robert Kurtzman. The devious Djinn can regain human form permanently if he grants someone three wishes. The Djinn at first is trapped in a statue, which falls and cracks open when a drunken worker unloads it from a ship. The genie is inside a precious gem that a puzzled pawnbroker gives to university gemologist Josh (Tony Crane). The Djinn kills Josh, and Josh's friend and colleague Alexandra Amberson (Tammy Lauren), who had been resisting Josh's romantic advances, sets out to find the killer. She follows a trail of carnage, and she soon learns the truth about the genie from anthropologist Wendy Derleth (Jenny O'Hara). The Djinn presents itself to Alexandra, who resists his seductive offers to grant wishes, but then the fiend sets his sights on Shannon (Wendy Benson), Alexandra's younger sister. The genie makes his final stand to grant a third wish at a party where antiquities collector Anthony Beaumont (Robert Englund) is displaying the statue. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Three disparate Texas sisters reunite to celebrate the wedding of the youngest and end-up having a thrilling adventure racing across the prairie with a fortune in stolen loot. The sisters, Francis, Mary Katherine, and the irrepressible spitfire CJ Crowley, whom the other two had to bail out of jail, were abandoned by their father in 1974 (this situation is presented via black and white flashback in the prologue and at various points throughout the story). No sooner is CJ free than she returns to the strip joint where she works. The owner is an ex-Texas Ranger, Wood Grimes. It was he who had their father sent to prison. CJ isn't there long, before Grimes fires her for sassing back. To get even, the sisters swipe a key and steal the loot that Grimes, their father, and another stole many years before. It was the murder of the third crook that got their father, Travis, sent to prison, but the girls think Grimes is the real killer. As the women flee with the booty, they have time to rehash their pasts and discuss their feelings about their father. At one point they encounter Beau, a handsome, overly-polite cowboy with whom Francis has a romantic fling. The story begins and ends at the famous"Cadillac Ranch" a combination burial ground and art gallery devoted to the luxurious old cars. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this chilling Canadian psycho-thriller a divorcee finds her life endangered when she returns to her hometown and finds herself the object of an unloved young boy's deadly obsession. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Elizabeth Pena and Christina Applegate play Carmen and Kathy, two women from Los Angeles with practically nothing in common. Carmen is a working-class Latina and single mother from the East Side barrio, while Kathy comes from a wealthy family in Beverly Hills. However, both of their boyfriends, Richie (Tony Dean Fields) and Lyle (Peter Berg), have ended up in a jail in the Mojave Desert as part of a confidence scheme. Carmen and Kathy want to be near the men they love to show their support, so they head out to the desert in Kathy's convertible to wait out their stay in jail as they share living quarters in an old trailer home. Across the Moon was the second feature film for director Lisa Gottlieb, who previously helmed the cult favorite Just One of the Guys and episodes of the TV series Dream On. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Set in a WW III-decimated 21st-century Los Angeles in which humans compete with cyborgs, this low-budget special-effects laden thriller chronicles the attempts of a heroic fellow to clean up the town and keep the androids from taking over what's left of the planet. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Hexed is a lame, low-budget comedy spoof of Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction -- both of which are funnier than Hexed. The film concerns Matthew Welsh (Ayres Gross), a scheming hotel clerk at the Holiday Park Hotel whose life changes for better and worse when famed super-model Hexina (Claudia Christian) checks into the hotel. Matthew manages to lure Hexina back to his apartment for what he thinks will be an uninhibited night of sex -- but Hexina has other things on her mind. It turns out that she is being blackmailed over a series of murders committed in her youth when she was fat and dumpy. Hexina, whose psychological profile hasn't changed since she began to grace fashion-magazine covers, is still a raving paranoid schizophrenic who thinks that Matthew is her blackmailer. So, she acquiesces to bed down Matthew in anticipation of murdering him in the afterglow. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This low-key Canadian thriller stars Rod Steiger as Myron Hatch, a deranged gynecologist who has an unhealthy obsession with his late mother's memory. After Hatch puts his family home up for sale and moves into the adjacent house, a yuppie couple, Mary and John Westhill (Linda Kozlowski and Ron Lea), set their sights on the property. Hatch's latent mania is unleashed the moment he sees Mary -- a dead ringer for his late mother -- and his obsession with her begins. His less-than-subtle attempts to maneuver himself into her life are nearly thwarted by John's fears of losing his job, and Hatch resorts to murder to keep Mary near him. Despite slick production values and some clever Hitchcockian touches, there is little to distinguish The Neighbor from formulaic made-for-TV fare. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide