Robert Taylor Movies
- 1999
- NR
A federal agent is demoted to a less challenging assignment, only to have it become the most dangerous mission of her life in this action-thriller. Alex McGregor (Mariel Hemingway) is a Secret Service agent who once guarded the President of the United States, Jonathan Hayes (Gregory Harrison). But after a series of misunderstandings following an attempt on the President's life, McGregor has been reassigned to oversee security for Hayes' teenaged daughter, Jess (Monica Keena). Jess has been chafing under the pressures of having a team of agents following her everywhere, so when she makes plans to go on a white-water rafting trip, the President requests a minimal compliment of Secret Service agents. This proves to be a mistake when Jess and her companions are kidnapped by a gang of right-wing terrorists. McGregor is forced to join forces with scruffy wilderness guide Grant Carlson (Doug Savant) in order to find Jess and return her to safety. Though set in the United States, First Daughter was shot in Australia, and had its premier on American television. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mariel Hemingway, Doug Savant, (more)
Advertised as telling the tale of "The Man Behind the Myth," the expensive-looking but economically produced NBC miniseries Hercules stars Paul Telfer as the musclebound protagonist. The issue of a romantic fling between Alcmene (Elizabeth Perkins), the Princess of Thebes, and God of the Underworld Zeus, Hercules is banished by his mother and scorned by his envious half brother Iphicles (Luke Ford). In fact, for a while it seems as though poor Herc has nothing but enemies. In addition to his own mother and brother, our hero is hated by Zeus' wife, Hera -- so much so that a war breaks out between the two gods -- and by covetous Grecian monarchs Eurystheus (Kristian Schmid) and Anateus (Tyler Mane). Worse still, Hercules has managed to get on the bad side of the Delphic Oracle Tiresias (Kim Coates) by killing that worthy's three sons. As a means to destroy Hercules and prevent him from taking his rightful place beside the throne of Zeus, all manner of deadly tasks and challenges are thrown at the poor guy, enabling the producers to trot out innumerable CGI battle sequences. Fortunately, Hercules can rely upon the help and support of Alcmene's husband, Amphytron (Timothy Dalton), not to mention Herc's sidekick, the troubadour Linus (Sean Astin, going through his familiar Lord of the Rings paces in a different setting!); his sweetheart, the statuesque Goddess of Nature Deianeira (Leelee Sobieski); and, at least for a little while, Herc's wife, the Priestess Megara (Leeanna Walsman). By the time Hercules made it to the small screen, it had been pared down from a multipart miniseries to a single, 150-minute feature film, leaving several plot points unresolved and removing a number of key characters -- including the all-important Zeus and Hera, who never appear! Evidently NBC didn't have much faith in this Hallmark production, as witness the network's decision to telecast the film on May 16, 2005, directly opposite the series finale of Everybody Loves Raymond. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Telfer, Leelee Sobieski, (more)
- 2000
Coma meets Heathers in this Australian black comedy about crime, revenge, and kidney thieves. Brad (Matt Day) and Gregor (Jason Barry) are eager med students struggling to make ends meet. Thanks to government cutbacks, they are forced to share a cockroach-infested one-bedroom apartment, which they rent from their odious landlord (Reg Evans), and they're even forced to share the same bed (an inflatable sex doll in a nurse's uniform divides the mattress and reasserts their nervous heterosexuality). Their living situation is made even worse by their obnoxious neighbors; one guy who lives upstairs (Robert Carlton) engages in loud parties and noisy lovemaking at all hours of the night while another guy's car alarm constantly goes off. Unable to sleep or eat, much less study, the two are on the brink of giving up their studies. To make matters even worse, they are up to their stethoscopes in debt to gangster/western-enthusiast George Roy Rogers (Chris Haywood). Though his penchant for cheesy western memorabilia and silly hats seems a bit daft, he is deadly serious about collecting, and his two muscle-bound thugs Dale and Trigger are hell-bent on enforcing the debt. Brad and Gregor's luck changes when they learn of a noted surgeon, Marcus Browning (Rod Mullinar), who is willing to pay top dollar for organs, just before a sharply-dressed yuppie takes a flying leap and splatter-lands at their feet. Thinking quickly, Brad yanks out a kidney, crams it in an ice cream carton, and carries it over to Browning. Counting their cash, they realize that they have happened upon a neat little way of getting out of the red. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Day, Jason Barry, (more)
A handful of tourists looking for adventure get more than they bargained for when they cross paths with a massive man-eating beast in this thriller. Pete McKell (Michael Vartan) is a writer for an American travel magazine who has been assigned to write a story about vacationing in rugged Northern Australia. Pete signs up for a cruise along a river that's home to a large crocodile population, with tough but pretty Kate Ryan (Radha Mitchell) serving as guide. Pete soon finds he's roughing it in the Aussie wilds with an eclectic variety of travelers, including Russell (John Jarratt), who is dealing with the death of his wife; Simon (Stephen Curry), a tactless amateur photographer; and Allen (Geoff Morrell), a member of the British upper crust making the trip with his ailing spouse (Heather Mitchell) and their rambunctious daughter (Mia Wasikowska). While Kate's former husband, who also works on the river, makes a pest of himself in the early stages of the voyage, the travelers soon find they have more to worry about when their craft is attacked by a massive 25-foot crocodile, who is just clever enough to know how to trap its prey before enjoying them for dinner. Rogue was written and directed by Greg McLean, who made a splash among horror fans in 2005 with his debut film, Wolf Creek. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Radha Mitchell, Michael Vartan, (more)
A romantic weekend on the water turns into a terrifying struggle for survival when bad weather drives a vacationing couple into an isolated swamp in Urban Legend director Jamie Blanks' tense tale of terror down under. Forced to steer their sailboat to the nearest shore when a storm rolls in and the waters grow treacherous, a young couple has no idea of the depravity they will soon be forced to endure. Shortly after docking their sailboat on a remote island, the stranded pair is captured by a psychotic man and his two demented sons. As the storm gathers ferocity, the couple fights against being sexually enslaved and brutalized to the breaking point. But these maniacs don't have a clue how hard their prisoners are willing to fight in order to stay alive, and as the tables are turned the violence escalates into a visceral explosion of savagery and terror. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Brumpton, Nadia Farès, (more)
Three brothers who would argue that crime does pay have a hard time getting their fair share of the proceeds in this witty action thriller from Australia. Dale Twentyman (Guy Pearce) and his brothers, Mal (Damien Richardson) and Shane (Joel Edgerton), are serving time together in prison for robbery. Dale is the brains and the cool head of the group, Mal is the eager-to-please nice guy, and Shane is something of a loose cannon. Dale and his siblings are eager to get out of jail, and their lawyer, Frank Malone (Robert Taylor), has pulled a deal that could pare some time off their sentences, though the arrangement is strictly off the books. Mick Kelly (Vince Colosimo) and Jack O'Riordan (Paul Sonkkila) are a pair of crooked police detectives who have arranged with Malone to give the Twentyman brothers day passes from jail in order to pull bank robberies, with the siblings' share held in escrow until they're released. Dale thinks something a bit off in this operation, and his suspicions are confirmed when Malone tells the brothers after they're granted their early release that they won't get their money until they pull one last job -- an ambitious robbery at a Melbourne race track on the day of the nation's biggest horse race. Dale is convinced he smells a rat -- especially since he has good reason to suspect that Malone is having an affair with his wife, Carol (Rachel Griffiths). The Hard Word marked the directorial debut for writer/director Scott Roberts. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths, (more)
- 1996
- NR
Set on a remote South Pacific isle, this action adventure chronicles the battles that rage between a Japanese soldier and an Australian soldier. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Donovan, Koji Tamaki, (more)
What if virtual reality wasn't just for fun, but was being used to imprison you? That's the dilemma that faces mild-mannered computer jockey Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) in The Matrix. It's the year 1999, and Anderson (hacker alias: Neo) works in a cubicle, manning a computer and doing a little hacking on the side. It's through this latter activity that Thomas makes the acquaintance of Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), who has some interesting news for Mr. Anderson -- none of what's going on around him is real. The year is actually closer to 2199, and it seems Thomas, like most people, is a victim of The Matrix, a massive artificial intelligence system that has tapped into people's minds and created the illusion of a real world, while using their brains and bodies for energy, tossing them away like spent batteries when they're through. Morpheus, however, is convinced Neo is "The One" who can crack open The Matrix and bring his people to both physical and psychological freedom. The Matrix is the second feature film from the sibling writer/director team of Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski, who made an impressive debut with the stylish erotic crime thriller Bound. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, (more)
- 2004
This three-hour TV biopic of actress Natalie Wood emulates Citizen Kane by beginning at the end -- the tragically ironic drowning death of the water-phobic actress in 1981 -- then recounts her life story in flashback. Justine Waddell plays the adult Natalie, with younger performers Elizabeth Rice, Candice Moore, and Nadia Scappa portraying the actress in various stages of childhood, adolescence, and puberty. Although little Natasha Gurdin's Russian-born mother and father (here played by Colin Friels and Alice Krige) had drive and ambition, it was the girl herself who energetically and enthusiastically promoted her career as a child star named "Natalie Wood," and it was Natalie herself who demanded that producer stop casting her in cute-kid and ingenue roles and take her seriously as an adult -- even before she technically was one. Naturally, the film recounts Natalie's marriage to actor Robert Wagner (Michael Weatherley), the breakup of the union as she pursued affairs with the likes of Warren Beatty (Matthew Settle), and Wood and Wagner's ultimate reconciliation and remarriage. One might assume that the "mystery" of the film's title is Natalie's death by drowning -- to this day, no one quite knows how she managed to end up in the water -- but it also manifested in the enigma of Natalie herself, a woman who despite her aggressive and unending pursuit of fame and stardom might well have willingly given it all up just to be a wife and mother. In fine old Hollywood-biography tradition, the movie boasts an endless parade of celebrity lookalikes impersonating such friends and colleagues of Natalie Wood as James Dean, Edmund Gwenn, Marilyn Monroe, and directors Irving Pichel, Elia Kazan, and Nicholas Ray, as well as several real-life celebs offering their reflections on the film's protagonist, notably Margaret O'Brien, Robert Vaughn, and Henry Jaglom. Directed by no less than Peter Bogdanovich, The Mystery of Natalie Wood first aired over ABC on March 1, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Justine Waddell, Michael Weatherly, (more)
- 1996
- Add The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years to QueueAdd The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years to top of Queue
This follow-up to the wildly popular miniseries The Thorn Birds (based on the best-selling novel by Colleen McCullough) tells the tale of a period during World War II that was not covered in the original story. In 1943, Father Ralph de Bricassart (Richard Chamberlain) is a Catholic priest who loves Meggie (Amanda Donohoe), with whom he had an affair years before. Meggie has divorced her husband and is now caught up in a bitter court dispute over custody of their son Dane, while Father Ralph has mixed feelings about the church's response to World War II. Father Ralph takes it upon himself to help Meggie win custody of Dane, but they also find themselves tempted to rekindle their forbidden love. The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years also stars Maximilian Schell, Simon Westway, and Christopher Gabardi.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Chamberlain, Amanda Donohoe, (more)
Family differences and personal grudges add drama to an already tense situation as the lives of a team of mountain climbers hang in the balance in this action drama. Peter Garrett (Chris O'Donnell) and his sister Annie (Robin Tunney) are the children of Royce Garrett (Stuart Wilson), an avid outdoorsman and climbing enthusiast who died when an accident left all three hanging from a single rope; Royce ordered Peter to cut him loose to save the lives of his kids, even though he knew it would mean his death. Years later, Peter has given up climbing and become a respected nature photographer, while Annie, who holds Peter responsible for her father's death, is a famous world-class mountain climber who is hired by Elliot Vaughn (Bill Paxton), a self-made billionaire, to help him scale K2, a mountain in the Himalayas that's the second-highest peak in the world. In the midst of the climb, dangerous weather strikes, and Elliot, Annie, and their crew find themselves trapped in a cavern that's been sealed tight by an avalanche. Peter, who is near K2 working on an assignment, quickly organizes a crew of expert climbers to save Annie and the other mountaineers, who must work under a tight deadline before the trapped climbers run out of air. Peter's partners in the rescue include beautiful medic Monique (Izabella Scorupco), radical climbers Cyril (Steve Le Marquand) and Malcolm (Ben Mendelsohn), disciplined Pakistani crewman Kareem (Alexander Siddig), and Montgomery (Scott Glenn), an eccentric outdoorsman who has a score to settle with Elliot. While backgrounds were shot on location in Pakistan, most of the climbing sequences in Vertical Limit were actually filmed on mountain ranges in New Zealand. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris O'Donnell, Bill Paxton, (more)
