Trent Sullivan Movies

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, Rovi

Most people have regrets in life, and many would like to find out how things would be if they had done a few things differently, but few people ever get to do anything about it. Pamela Drury (Rachel Griffiths), however, gets just that chance. While she has a solid career as a journalist, Pamela is single and very depressed about it -- so much so that on her birthday she tries to commit suicide in her bathtub, but fails miserably. The next day Pamela spots a woman who could be her double, and she sees that she's married to Robert (David Roberts), an old flame she often wishes she had married when she had the chance 13 years earlier. After a brief encounter with her doppelganger, the other woman disappears and Pamela is mistaken for Robert's wife; she decides to go along for the ride, complete with three children and a home in the suburbs. Pamela quickly discovers that life as a housewife is not all she imagined it to be (especially cleaning up after the baby), and while Pamela has high hopes of some romantic evenings with Robert, it's obvious that the spark was smothered in this marriage some time ago. Curiously enough, Pamela now finds that her best friend is suddenly single, and Ben (Sandy Winton), a man who had shown a bit of interest in Pamela before, is now quite keen on finding out if she would cheat on her husband. This fantasy was enthusiastically received at the Telluride, Boston, and Toronto Film Festivals in 1999. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi