Alan Fudge Movies

Tourist season sets the stage for terror when a greedy developer attempts to transform a quiet California fishing town into a gaudy tourist trap, and a swarm of man-eating Great Whites begin devouring anyone who dares venture into the once-peaceful waters. Decades of dumping has turned the Pacific Ocean into a toxic cesspool, and while some species died out others somehow managed to survive and adapt. Full Moon Bay is a sleepy seaside town populated primarily by fisherman, though slimy industrial millionaire Hamilton Lux (Armand Assante) is planning to rape the land a reap a profit. Should Lux have his way, overpriced shops will flank historic landmarks and a luxury resort will draw tourists from around the world. Of course this will put a stranglehold on the local business, such as the nearby fishery fun by Daniel (John Schneider) and Brook Wilder (Daryl Hannah). Wilder isn't about to go down without a fight though, and though he's never seen eye to eye with his estranged brother Phillip (Roark Critchlow) - a noted professor and environmental expert - the siblings are about to reunite to fight for a common cause. Just as Phillip returns to town, word emerges that a number of locals have been torn to shreds and eaten alive after venturing into in bay. When Marine biologist Amy Zuckermann (Heather McComb) arrives to survey Lex's developments, she makes a most disturbing discovery - a beached bull shark with sensory organs that still display predatory instincts even after death. As if this news wasn't horrifying enough, Amy discovers that a swarm of Great White sharks are stalking the waters and killing for pleasure. Each day the number of sharks grows, and each day they become more violent. With the sun shining bright and the tourists turning up in droves, Amy, Daniel, and Brook must figure out a way to stop these killing machines before the feast begins. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

In this feature-length follow-up to the long-running TV series Murder, She Wrote, homespun mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) leaves her Cabot Cove residence to attend a big-city writer's conference. As generally happens wherever Jessica shows up, a murder takes place; in this instance, the victim is a former KGB agent (Duncan Regehr) who was about to publish his tell-all memoirs. Teaming up with fellow author Warren Pierce (Richard Crenna), Jessica sets about to solve the murder -- much to the dismay of the local constabulary. Allegedly written as far back as 1998 (by Babylon 5 stalwart J. Michael Straczynski), Murder, She Wrote: A Story to Die For finally arrived on the CBS prime-time manifest on May 18, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A time capsule buried 20 years ago is unearthed, yielding letters written in childhood by Joe (Tim Daly), Brian (Steven Weber), and Helen (Crystal Bernard). In a series of fantasy sequences, the three lifelong chums visualize what their lives would have been like had they fulfilled their childhood ambitions. Joe cuts quite a figure as a big-league ballplayer, while Brian is coolness personified as a Bond-like secret agent -- but only Helen's ambitions came to full fruition in real life. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This time we're off to the Canadian Rockies, where vacationer Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is stranded in a small town. At the same time, a bitter turf war has developed between a local Native American tribe and a powerful mining company. Not one but two murders result from this conflict, whereupon Jessica really cuts her vacation short to solve the mystery. The episode is distinguished by the presence of two leading Native American actors, Graham Greene and Ned Romero. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A motion picture crew descends upon Cabot Cove to film a historical documentary. In the course of production, the crew unearths an old document signed by George Washington, which claims that the town's most venerated Revolutionary War hero, Joshua Peabody, was actually a traitorous scoundrel. Evidently someone isn't pleased about having his or her illusions shattered: shortly after the document appears, the film's director is murdered. Now it is up to Jessica (Angela Lansbury) to burrow through the multitude of likely suspects. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Liars Club is a group of football buddies, so named because of their tendency to exaggerate their accomplishments. This sort of harmless fun comes to an end when one of the "club" members brutally assaults a young girl. Now the friends close ranks and become liars for real. The outlook continues to darken when the boys become involved in murder. The cast of the R-rated Liar's Club includes Soleil Moon Frye, once the adolescent star of TV's Punky Brewster, and Wil Wheaton, of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Nancy Landon (Vera Miles) swoops down on Cabot Cove with the announcement that her son Steve (Richard Gilliland) had been fathered by the late husband of Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury). With this in mind, Nancy insists that Jessica is obligated to help clear Steve fraud and murder charges related to the Landons' construction business. Though it pains her to do so, Jessica does what she can to prove Steve's innocence. Also in the cast is Martin Milner as Jessica's friend Clint Phelps, who may know more about the case than he's letting on. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Actress Susan Ruttan, who played the quietly efficient legal secretary on LA Law, does an artistic about-face in the TV movie Deadly Medicine. She plays a Texas pediatrics nurse who may have committed several "mercy killings" of her charges. 43 babies die under mysterious circumstances, with Ms. Ruttan seemingly always lurking in the corridor. When confronted by doctor Veronica Hamel, Susan threatens to accuse Ms. Hamel of the murders--and she does, with astonishing success. Though constructed like a network "mystery of the week", Deadly Medicine is founded on fact. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands opens as an eccentric inventor (Vincent Price) lovingly assembles a synthetic youth named Edward (Johnny Depp). Edward has all the essential ingredients for today's standard body, with the exception of a pair of hands. For what is initially thought to be a temporary period, he is fitted with long, scissor-like extremities that, while able to trim a mean hedge, are hardly conducive to day-to-day life. When the kindly inventor dies, however, Edward is left lonely and cursed with some very heavy metal for hands. He is eventually taken in by Peg Boggs (Dianne Weist), an Avon lady who takes pity on him after seeing his bleak existence. Edward, in spite of his inherent ability to slay anyone he comes across, is a gentle soul whose only wish is to be loved. His impromptu family has, at best, a limited understanding of Edward, but he finds himself drawn to Peg's weary but sympathetic daughter, Kim (Winona Ryder), who is dating Jim (Anthony Michael Hall), the neighborhood bully. Meanwhile, Edward finds himself a local celebrity after the town realizes that his talents include creative hedge trimming and an unrivaled ability to cut hair. His so-called friends are proven fair-weather when Edward is accused of a crime, after which his only supporters are Peg and Kim. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Like 1976's Sybil, Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase was a two-part TV movie based on the true story of a woman plagued with multiple personalities. Shelly Long stars as a woman whose abused childhood has resulted in the fragmentation of her psyche into 22 separate personalities. Before her therapy is finished, Long reveals that 70 more personalities are struggling within her to break free. The film was based on Truddi Chase's autobiography When the Rabbit Howls. That Voices Within was not the ratings grabber that Sybil turned out to be can be chalked up to its network competition during its initial 1990 telecast: The final episode of Newhart. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Full Exposure: The Sex Tapes Scandal was advertised as being inspired by "today's headlines", though most of those headlines were generated by TV tabloid shows. In her first TV movie, dethroned Miss America Vanessa Williams plays a hooker who specializes in S & M. She videotapes her kinky sexual liaisons, then blackmails the participants. When a mystery killer begins bumping off some of Williams' female compatriots, assistant D.A. Lisa Hartman (we missed that election) is called in on the case. Full Exposure: The Sex Tapes Scandal was mercifully buried in the ratings by its powerhouse competition: the premiere telecast of Lonesome Dove. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy (which claims a strong pedigree -- it was written by John Sayles and directed by Bill Forsyth), Burt Reynolds plays Ernie, an aging career burglar who knows just about everything there is to know about breaking and entering. One night, Ernie has stealthily slipped into a home only to discover someone else is already there -- Mike (Casey Siemaszko), a guy in his early 20's who likes to sneak into other people's houses so he can raid their refrigerators and watch their televisions. Ernie is taken aback by Mike's recklessness, but is impressed by his skills; he's convinced the kids has the makings of a first-class thief, and offers to make him his protege. Mike agrees, and soon the two are working together, with Ernie trying to explain the importance of playing it as safe as possible while Casey follows every youthful impulse to make some fast money and throw it away just as quickly. Breaking In marked a change-of-pace role for Burt Reynolds, in which he acknowledged his age and played a character role instead of an action hero; the results garnered him some of the best notices of his career. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Shootdown, based on a controversial book by R. W. Johnson, examines the aftereffects of a politically sensitive air disaster. Angela Lansbury portrays the real-life Nan Moore, a US government employee whose son (Kyle Secor) is among the 269 people killed when Korean airliner KAL 007 is shot down by the Russians on September 1, 1983. The official story is that the plane accidentally invaded Russian airspace, then was mistaken for a spy plane when the crew did not identify itself. Ms. Moore doesn't swallow this, but in seeking the truth she runs up against a stone wall of bureaucracy. This film adheres to Ms. Moore's theory that KAL 007 was engaged in an actual spy mission, a theory dramatized in a "reconstruction" assembled by investigator John Cullum. Reportedly, the original telecast date of Shootdown was delayed because of its criticism of the Reagan administration; the real Nan Moore insisted that the film's production was slowed down because she didn't want to offend any members of her family. The intention of Shootdown was to put pressure on the US congress to inaugurate a hearing for the benefit of Ms. Moore. In 1989, a second TV movie based on the KAL 007 tragedy was released: Tailspin, which tells the story from the point of view of the government investigators. Since the original telecast of both films, new evidence has surfaced indicating that Flight 007 was not on an espionage mission, and that the Russian fighter pilots had acted on the orders of their over-zealous superiors. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi