Bruce French Movies

Don's mysterious past comes back to haunt him; Peggy celebrates her new work success, but not all of her colleagues and co-workers are pleased or impressed; Salvatore's relationship with a client is questioned. ~ Ray Stackhouse, All Movie Guide

Made for cable, Walkout is the true story of a little-known but profoundly significant moment in the history of the Latino community in East Los Angeles. In 1968, Lincoln High School honor student Paula Crisostomo (Alexa Vega), outraged at the shabby treatment afforded Chicano students in the L.A. school system -- including habitually lowered expectations, poor facilities, a total absence of bilingual courses or textbooks, unfairly administered penalties for slight infractions, demeaning corporal punishment, and out-of-hand refusal to write letters of recommendation to choice colleges -- challenges the authority of her elders for the first time in her life by organizing a mass student walkout at five barrio high schools. Mentored by dedicated young teacher Sal Castro (Michael Pena), Paula and her fellow student activists intend to make their protest a peaceful one, but the L.A. cops typically use brute force to quell the "radicals." Even when it seems that the school board will capitulate to the Chicano students' demands, the kids are betrayed (there's an undercover police officer in their midst) and the leaders of the walkout are threatened with lengthy prison sentences on trumped-up "conspiracy" charges. It will not spoil the ending of the film to reveal that the students are ultimately successful; as directed by actor Edward James Olmos (who also plays one of the school board members), the dramatic thrust of the story is the lasting effect that the protest has on its participants -- especially the idealistic Paula Crisostomo. Executive producer Moctesuma Esparza, who'd been one of the original walkout organizers back in 1968, spent a full two decades getting this story on film; Esparza is played by Bodie Olmos, son of the director, while Esparza's daughter Tonantzin Esparza is seen as Vickie Castro. Also, Paula Crisostomo's daughter Marisol Crisostomo-Romo is seen as Mita -- and in addition, several of the former student activists are interviewed during the closing credits, or appear as extras in the crowd scenes. Produced for HBO, Walkout originally aired on March 18, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As Lorelai (Lauren Graham) repairs the fire damage at the Inn, daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) begins planning her mom's 35th birthday party by commissioning the world's largest pizza (well, almost the largest, anyway). Meanwhile, Luke (Scott Patterson) agrees to meet the family of current amour Nicole (Tricia O'Kelley) -- a major blunder, as it turns out; the web of lies spun by Jess finally catches up with him; and Paris (Liza Weil) returns to school with a mysterious bandage on her nose. Also, Richard (Edward Herrmann) continues trying to get back in daughter Lorelai's good graces -- but buying her affections has never worked in the past, and probably won't work now. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Thanks to the bad influence of his new college pals, the normally levelheaded Bailey (Scott Wolf) is torn between knuckling down to his schoolwork and taking "short cuts" in order to have a good time. High school seniors Julia (Neve Campbell), Sarah (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Justin (Michael Goorjian) compete in a writing contest, with Justin overstepping all bounds of taste and propriety by penning a tell-all piece about Julia. And Charlie (Matthew Fox) makes a shocking discovery about his troubled ex-fiancee Kirsten (Paula Devicq). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Farentino plays the chief of a big-city underground narcotics unit. When a drug buy goes awry, a shotgun blows away one of Farentino's best men--and closest friends. As the once-harmonious drug unit disintegrates into recriminations and guilt, Farentino becomes more and more withdrawn, until he's of little further value to the force. A chance for redemption for everyone arrives in the form of another big-time drug bust. In the Line of Duty: A Cop for the Killing was based on a true story, as were all the In the Line of Duty films produced for television in the late 1980s--early 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season Six of Night Court ends with the third of the series' "Day in the Life" episodes, in which the court staff is compelled to process a huge number of cases before a midnight deadline. On this go-round, the time limit is imposed when a water pipe bursts in the building's holding cells, forcing the handcuffed inmates to crowd into the courtroom. As the water rises and midnight approaches, Judge Harry (Harry Anderson) must convict as many inmates as humanly possible--a task made doubly difficult when several of the more dangerous criminals escape! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

David (Bruce Willis) finally meets Walter (Dennis Dugan), the man whom Maddie (Cybill Shepherd) has impulsively married. Rather than get angry or exhibit jealousy, David generously offers to throw a bachelor party for Walter. That David might have an ulterior motive is evidenced when the stripper hired for the party doesn't show up--and Bert Viola (Curtis Armstrong) takes her place! Highlights of this episode include a chaotic hospital scene, and the formation of "The Royal Order of Napkin Heads." Also: Brooke Adams makes a return appearance as Terri Knowles, the pregnant woman whom David met in a Lamaze class a few episodes back. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally shown in two parts, this four-hour TV movie stars Michael Biehn as the outwardly "perfect" doctor husband of Madolyn Smith. But Biehn is actually a psychopath, who is carefully plotting the murder of his wife. As the horrible truth slowly dawns upon Madolyn, she must find some way to prevent her murder--and to alert disbelieving authorities of her husband's duplicity. Based on a true story, Deadly Intentions first took shape as a book by William Randolph Stevens. The two-part format permitted the film's narrative to build up suspense in the first half, then concentrate on detection and courtroom proceedings in the second. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having embarked on separate Yuletide "goodwill" missions, Magnum (Tom Selleck), T.C. (Roger E. Mosley), Rick (Larry Manetti) and Higgins (John Hillerman find themselves marooned in the middle of nowhere when T.C.'s chopper is forced down on a deserted strip of land known as Frenchman's Island. Unfortnately, this particular island has been chosen for gunnery practice by the Navy--and there's a certain ship's captain out there who is far too concerned with breaking a record to notice the castaways' feeble pleas for help! Highlights in this frenetically funny episode include the sight of Magnum in a Santa Claus suit, and a bizarre bit of whimsy in which Rick envisions his own funeral. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The phenomenal success of the 1977 ABC miniseries Roots all but demanded a sequel to writer Alex Haley's epic story of his African and African-American forebears. Debuting February 18, 1979, Roots: The Next Generations picked up where its predecessor left off, with Haley's slave ancestors winning their freedom in the aftermath of the Civil War. Even so, life for black Americans was wrought with hardship and oppression thanks to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the staunch refusal of the white power structure to pass anti-lynching laws, and the formation of the dreaded Jim Crow laws which legalized racial segregation in the South (and much of the North). Covering the period from 1882 to the mid-1970s, the miniseries first focuses on blacksmith Tom Harvey (Georg Stanford Brown), great-grandson of Kunta Kinte (the protagonist of the original Roots), and his family. Meanwhile, reacting to the marriage of his son to a black woman, anal-retentive Southern colonel Warner (Henry Fonda) begins setting the legal wheels in motion to deny blacks like Tom the right to vote and to hold "white" jobs. A few decades later, Tom's son-in-law encourages his fellow blacks to stand firm against the KKK's reign of terror. His labors on behalf of his race are rewarded when his daughter Bertha (Irene Cara) becomes the first descendant of Kunta Kinte to receive a college education. It is Bertha Palmer who weds the equally ambitious Simon Haley (Dorian Harewood), who goes on to serve in WWI and to organize farmers and sharecroppers during the Depression. Simon's son Alex (played at various ages by Kristoff St. John, Damon Evans, and finally James Earl Jones) is just as determined to succeed in a white man's world as his father, and to that end becomes a professional writer after his own service stint in the Coast Guard during WWII. At the height of his professional success (largely due to his having ghost-written the autobiography of Muslim activist Malcolm X), Alex Haley pays a visit to his boyhood hometown -- where, almost by accident, he receives the first clue to his heritage, a clue that will lead him on an odyssey of self-discovery, arriving full circle at Kunta Kinte's birthplace in Africa. Although the miniseries' "money scene" was Haley's nervous interview with American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell (Marlon Brando in a superb cameo turn), the climactic episode, in which Haley tearfully embraces the living African descendants of Kunta Kinte, is one of the most unforgettable moments in the history of network television. Running 12 episodes and 14 hours, Roots: The Next Generations concluded on February 25, 1979, playing to huge ratings all along the way and ultimately garnering several Emmy nominations (and one win). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide