James Dudelson Movies
Ving Rhames, Nick Cannon, and Mena Suvari star in director Steve Miner (Friday the 13th Part II, Halloween: H20)'s remake of the apocalyptic gore-fest that originally concluded George A. Romero's zombie trilogy back in 1985. A small American town has been infected with a deadly virus, and the military is determined to contain the sickness by establishing quarantine. When the situation spirals out of control and the infected residents develop a taste for human flesh, the military and surviving residents must band together to battle an enemy whose goal is not simply to kill, but to consume as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ving Rhames, Mena Suvari, (more)
Desperate for money, blue-collar gal Maxine (Maisi Mayo) finds herself in the kickboxing ring taking on other women in brutal fights. The money from promoter Benny (Russell Friedenberg) is good, and she trains hard with Roxy (Rachelle Lenning), but it all comes down to a final all-or-nothing bout with the legendary Dog Girl, whose identity is concealed until she takes the ring. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Oversexed, drug-dealing thug Gavin Matthews (Robert Vitelli) is abducted by The Corporation, run by ominous executive Quinn (Michael Dorn), and is put through a comprehensive and compulsory training program to become an assassin. Apparently The Corporation objects to how justice is meted out in the courts, so they take punishment into their own hands. Gavin is trained by comely Fiona (Shannon Lee), but when the pair discover what Quinn and his cronies are really up to, they rebel and try to quit. But, of course, no one can quit this Corporation without dying first. But wait -- how did Gavin's dead girlfriend return to the scene? There must be more to this than meets the eye. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
- 2000
- PG13
Bo Derek is decidedly cast against type as Miss James, a kinky college psychology teacher who challenges her students to write a term paper on "what scares you." Budding criminologist Carl (Scott Rinker) lobbies for an "A" by helping Miss James research her book on an infamous serial killer, who in Se7en fashion "harvested" his victims and killed them one by one--then was freed from prison on a technicality. When Miss James' more troublesome student begin disappearing with alarming regularity, nominal hero Carl begins to wonder if history is repeating itself. But is the aforementioned killer responsible, or is someone else the culprit? Evidently intended for a direct-to-video release, Horror 101: The Final Exam is a Killer made its American debut over the Sci-Fi Channel cable service on April 16, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bo Derek, Brigitta Dau, (more)
- 1997
- R
Edgar Lynden is a prison hospital doctor who conducts some unauthorized and certainly unethical medical experiments in company with his ruthless paramour, Dr. Patricia Morella. He has a twisted relationship with her, which becomes macabre when, as she is comatose and dying from a rare degenerative disease, he implants an embryo cloned from her DNA into her womb. The embryo grows up to become Sarah Lynden, Dr. Morella's spitting image, who has psychic powers and an exaggerated form of her mother's ruthlessness. From childhood onward, anyone who is inconvenient to her has died or suffered horribly. Eventually, her adoptive father realizes the extent of his errors. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Jones, Nicholas Guest, (more)
Independent filmmaker John Sayles creates one of his more artistic works with this period feature about a volatile 1920s labor dispute in the town of Matewan, West Virginia. Matewan is a coal town where the local miners' lives are controlled by the powerful Stone Mountain Coal Company. The company practically owns the town, reducing workers' wages while raising prices at the company-owned supply and grocery. The citizens' land and homes are not their own, and the future seems dim. When the coal company brings immigrants and minorities to Matewan as cheaper labor, union organizer Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) scours the town to unite all miners in a strike. As the crisis grows, strikers and their families are removed from their homes by two coal company mercenaries (Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp, both also featured in Sayles' Eight Men Out (1988)), and the situation heads toward a final shootout on Matewan's main street . Sayles' simple but telling screenplay brings to light the treatment of immigrants and minorities in the early 20th century South, and it draws sharp parallels between the Matewan labor battle and the Civil War some 50 years earlier. The visual feel of the film is real West Virginia backwoods, with much of the credit going to legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler, whose warm, rustic lighting belies the anxiety and terror felt by the oppressed townspeople. ~ Norm Schrager, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Cooper, Will Oldham, (more)
- 1983
- R
As a sequel to the first Boogey Man, the horror of Boogey Man II lies in the script itself which adapts so much of the footage from its predecessor that this is really a half a movie in one. A fragment of the "possessed" mirror that caused the damage in the Boogey Man is brought to Los Angeles by the heroine Lacey (Suzanna Love) and takes over a hapless butler. He goes on a rampage, but then other appliances get into the spirit of the thing, as animated garden hoses, corkscrews, electric toothbrushes, and hedge trimmers wreak havoc with the "house appliance" horror genre. In-between the madness, Mickey Lombard (Ulli Lommel -- the director playing a director) lambasts Hollywood for pandering to commercialism -- a case of someone biting the hand that is not feeding him. For the record, the term "boogeymen" comes from the Bugi men of Indonesia, feared pirates of the high seas. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Suzanna Love, Shannah Hall, (more)
