Roger Pancake Movies

This easy-going television movie is about Chris McBride (Michael York), a real-life naturalist who brings his wife and daughter to an African wildlife preserve to join him in a research project. The area has a special meaning to him because he was born there. His wife is not as enthusiastic as he is about leaving their familiar and comfortable world behind but changes her mind when she starts getting involved in the photography part of the project. A chance discovery of a pair of white-hued lion cubs (not albinos) raises disagreements on whether the family should do everything to help them survive, or just leave them alone. Eventually a compromise is reached that bodes well for the family and the fledgling lions and strengthens the family's resolve to fight off a poacher who wants to use the unusual cubs for his own profit. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This gripping 1979 drama about the dangers of nuclear power carried an extra jolt when a real-life accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania occurred just weeks after the film opened. Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter trying to advance from fluff pieces to harder news. Wells and cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas, who also produced) are doing a story on energy when they happen to witness a near-meltdown at a local nuclear plant, averted only by quick-thinking engineer Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon). While Wells and Adams fruitlessly attempt to get the story on their station, Godell begins his own investigation and discovers that corporate greed and cost-trimming have led to potentially deadly faults in the plant's construction. He provides evidence of the faulty equipment, which could lead to another meltdown (the "China syndrome" of the title), to the station's soundman to deliver to Wells and Adams at a hearing on nuclear power. However, on the way to the hearing, the soundman is run off the road by evil henchmen, leading Godell to realize that his own life is threatened, possibly by his bosses at the plant. Driven to the edge of a breakdown, Godell takes over the plant's control room at gunpoint and demands to reveal his findings on TV. The plant's management, however, has other plans, and the facility itself is becoming dangerously unstable. Whether or not you agree with the film's clear anti-nuclear bias, its sobering message and riveting, realistic story and performances are still difficult to ignore. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

The time is 1964, and the Beatles, already a hugely popular group, are about to go on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, an appearance that launched them into a worldwide phenomenon. Already, girls are fainting during their concerts from sheer excitement at being in the same theater with them. Pam Mitchell (Nancy Allen) is happy enough to be getting married but wants to bed one of the "Fab Four" before she does. Grace Corrigan (Theresa Saldana), a dedicated fan, is certain that if she can get some exclusive photos of the Beatles, her career as a photographer will be secured. And then there are two people who feel that the future of civilization as we know it depends on their efforts to ruin the Beatles' appearance on Ed Sullivan's show. In this madcap comedy, when these people (and others besides) descend on the New York hotel the Beatles are staying in, things begin hopping. This comedy was Robert Zemeckis' first feature. A protégé of Stephen Spielberg, he went on to direct Forrest Gump, Back to the Future, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? among other popular features. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Based on the novel by Wilson Rawls, this film follows the events that befall a young Oklahoma farm boy as he, with the help of his two beloved hounds, struggles to help his family get by in the hard times of the 1930s. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi