Rodney Charters Movies

A made for TV movie that provides a bridge between the sixth and seventh seasons of the hit FOX action series 24, 24: Redemption features series star Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer. As the program opens, Bauer spends his time doing missionary work in Africa, laying low while the United States government attempts to capture him. His work leads him into contact with an evil warlord who maintains a loyal army by constantly brainwashing children into joining him. Bauer risks his freedom in order to stop the warlord. Redemption co-stars Oscar winner Jon Voight, Gil Bellows, and Robert Carlyle. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Season four of the wildly successful "real-time" adventure series 24 begins some 18 months at the end of season three. John Keeler (Geoff Pierson) has succeeded David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) as president of the United States, and the new secretary of defense is James Heller (William Devane) -- who is also the new boss of crack CTU agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). One of Heller's first moves is to reunite Jack with his old nemesis Erin Driscoll (Alberta Watson), now the head of the CTU. Unbeknownst to most of the principal characters, Jack is in love with Heller's daughter (and policy assistant), Audrey Raines (Kim Raver), this despite the fact that Audrey is still legally married to estranged husband, Paul (James Frain). Outside of Jack Bauer and President Keeler, the only series character from season three to return as a regular in season four is CTU tech analyst Chloe O'Brien (Mary Lynn Rajskub); the rest of the cast is virtually brand-new. The "day" that comprises the fourth season begins, typically, with a nail-biting crisis, when James Heller and his daughter Audrey are captured by a terrorist group headed by Habib Marwan (Arnold Vosloo), who has already set a fiendish master plan in motion with a train bombing in the U.S. It soon develops that the abduction of Heller and Audrey is but a subterfuge to allow an enemy stealth bomber to blow up Air Force One and eliminate the president -- and ultimately to gain control of a nuclear warhead that will destroy a major U.S. city. Making matters worse, there is a turncoat in the ranks of the CTU -- and without giving the game away, it can be noted that CTU agent Sarah Gavin (Lana Parrilla) tumbles to the mole's identity before Jack Bauer does. As the tension mounts, Paul Raines is seriously wounded saving Jack during a covert mission, which "ices" Jack's relationship with Audrey; a shattering personal tragedy forces Erin Driscoll to resign from her post in mid-season; there is dissension in the terrorist ranks during a concerted effort to trigger nuclear meltdowns in six different cities; the seldom-used 25th Amendment is invoked to change presidents in midstream; and an old enemy of Jack's from the series' first two seasons appears virtually out of nowhere to make a terrible situation far worse than could ever be imagined. Clearly, the fourth season of 24 drew inspiration from the headlines of the day, notably the controversial treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The series also was attacked by certain special-interest groups for making several of the villains Arabs, or of Arab descent. And of course, there were those who carped that the series' notion of "real time" (each episode consisted of a single uninterrupted hour in the same day) resulted in some rather ludicrous lapses of logic. But 24 was as big a hit in the ratings throughout its fourth season as it had been all along. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) holds a press conference downplaying the terror threat and explaining that he withheld information in the best interest of the country. While CTU uses Nina's (Sarah Clarke) information to track down Syed Ali (Francesco Quinn), Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) manages to draw her out into the open, where she's shot and wounded by a CTU sniper. Jack tells Palmer that the soldiers who attacked them at the crash site were Americans, from a deep cover special ops unit commanded by an NSA colonel. A CTU team heads to Ali's house, where they arrive just in time to prevent Kate (Sarah Wynter) from being killed. But Ali is not there, having gone to a nearby mosque to pray. Mason (Xander Berkeley) is slowly dying, and he warns Michelle (Reiko Aylesworth) not to waste her life. He tells her to get out of CTU if she's not happy in her work. This prompts her to express her long-suppressed romantic feelings to Tony (Carlos Bernard), who feels the same way. Palmer calls in Stanton (Harris Yulin) to talk about the NSA covert ops team, and doesn't believe him when he denies any knowledge. Sherry (Penny Johnson Jerald) comes up with more evidence that Stanton is working against Palmer. Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) and Miguel (Innis Casey) start a fire in an effort to create a diversion, and inadvertently cause Brown (Michael McGrady) to crash his police cruiser. Kim calls for an ambulance before running off into the woods. Working with a CTU agent at his office, Reza (Phillip Rhys) discovers that one of the transactions involving Ali was made when both he and Bob (John Terry) were out of town, and only one other person had access to his laptop. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Employing split screens and kinetic pacing, the real-time action thriller-drama 24 became a fast cult hit when it premiered on FOX in late 2001. Each one-hour episode covers an hour in a single day that unfolds over the course of a season. Kiefer Sutherland stars as über-hero Jack Bauer, a daring and seemingly indestructible agent for the fictitious U.S.-intelligence body the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU). Throughout the series, Bauer has stopped an assassination attempt, thwarted a nuclear attack, been widowed, decapitated a witness, died, and become addicted to narcotics while undercover with a drug cartel. Among the other characters are President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), who was candidate Palmer throughout the first season, later had the Presidency swiped from under him, and was the victim of a bio-attack at the end of the second season; Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert), Jack's trouble-prone, damsel-in-distress daughter; and Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), a fellow-CIA agent with whom Jack has both butted heads and allied. Noted for its unflinching ability to kill off major players for the sake of the show, an assortment of other characters have come and gone throughout the show's history. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Michael Lange directs this wacky comedy about Jocelyn (Dominique Swain), a young underpaid intern at an ultra-hip fashion mag, Skirt, who miraculously rises from the mailroom to the boardroom. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A young rollerblader is torn between money and his personal morality in this family friendly made-for-TV movie. Andy Brinker (Erik Von Detten), known to his friends as "Brink," is a teenager who lives for in-line skating. Andy and his skating buddies skate for the sheer love of the sport, and view professional skaters with no small degree of suspicion. However, when Andy's family falls on hard times financially, he wants to do something to help, and after Andy is approached by Val Horrigan (Sam Horrigan), the manager of a team of pro skaters, he decides to swallow his pride and sign up. Andy's friends think he's betrayed his principles, and begin to shun him. What's worse, Andy soon learns just how corrupt and underhanded Val can really be, and he has to decide if bringing in a few bucks for his family is worth having to deal with someone so inherently dishonest. Brink first aired on The Disney Channel on August 29, 1998. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Inspired by the characters of Robert E. Howard (whose best-known creation was Conan The Barbarian), this epic tale of swords and sorcery stars Kevin Sorbo as Kull, a barbarian warrior who kills the King of Valusia in the midst of a battle; with his last breath, the monarch hands Kull his crown and names him as his successor. Kull soon learns that possessing great power brings you great enemies, as Taligaro (Thomas Ian Griffith), leader of Valusia's Royal Guard, plots to murder Kull and take his place on the throne. Meanwhile, Kull's love for the comely slave Zareta (Karina Lombard) is tested when his head is turned by the exotic Akivasha (Tia Carrere), though Kull doesn't know at first that the leather-clad temptress is actually a 3,000-year-old demon given human form by a sorceress. Between the treachery of Taligaro and Akivasha, Kull finds his life and leadership threatened at every turn, and he must count on the help of his friends Zareta, holy man Ascalante (Litefoot), and pirate Juba (Harvey Fierstein) if he is to survive as Valusia's leader and put an end to slavery and the subjugation of women. Kull the Conqueror was, in its first drafts, planned as the third film in the Conan the Barbarian series, and it marked the first starring film role for Kevin Sorbo, who rose to fame on the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this campy, nostalgic comedy based on a popular TV series from the early '60s, the two bungling cops Toody and Muldoon are assigned to guard a key witness who is planning to testify against a crime lord. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

$Arlene Sanford's docudrama Seeds of Deception stars Melissa Gilbert as the female half of an infertile couple who seek help conceiving from a doctor who specializes in fertility issues. While by all appearances everything seemed to work well, the couple discovers that they, and many of the doctor's other patients, actually were impregnated with the doctor's own semen. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Stephen King wrote his first original screenplay for this horror gore fest that features cameos by directors Clive Barker, Joe Dante, Tobe Hooper, John Landis, and King himself (playing a cemetery attendant). The story concerns a twilight people named "sleepwalkers" --creatures similar to vampires and werewolves whose faces turn animalistic whenever they are frightened or angry and who require the lifeforce of a virgin to survive. A single-parent sleepwalker family, consisting of Mary Brady (Alice Krige) and her son Charles (Brian Krause), have taken up residence in a small Indiana town. Charles has expressed a romantic interest in the attractive Tanya Robertson (Madchen Amick), a girl in his high school literature class. Mary wants Charles to lure Tanya home so that she can suck out her life force, but it appears that Charles has fallen in love with her --that is, until their first date, at a picnic at the cemetery. There Charles changes from a shy romantic suitor into a brutal and violent force, slapping Tanya around and attempting to rape her. But Tanya wards off his advances by plunging a corkscrew into his torso. Charles staggers back home to mother, where she nurses him back to health. Then Charles and his mother seek vengeance upon the Robertson family. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide