Tom Atkins

In this drama, the life of a San Francisco widow changes forever when she has a brief encounter with a younger man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In the tradition of This Is Spinal Tap, producer/ director/ star Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts is a satire disguised as a documentary. Robbins plays the titular Roberts, a wealthy, well-connected young man running for a senatorial seat in Pennsylvania. On the surface, Roberts is an ingratiating glad-hander, a sincere believer in the restoration of such intangibles as national pride, family values, etc. But the longer Roberts is followed about by documentary filmmaker Brian Murray, the more we become aware that the candidate is a textbook case of cynicism and contempt. Only Giancarlo Esposito, a reporter for an underground newspaper, is willing to dig beneath Roberts' veneer--a habit that leads to the film's ironic conclusion. Several well-known actors make cameo appearances as TV commentators, notably Tim Robbins' longtime partner Susan Sarandon. Bob Roberts started out as a Tim Robbins-directed short subject for the TV series Saturday Night Live, then was expanded into a $4 million feature. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Horror-meister George Romero directs this thriller about a 99-pound weakling who strikes back at everyone who has wronged him in the past. Henry Creedlow (Jason Flemyng) works at a fashion mag called Bruiser for the short-fused, dictatorial Miles Styles (Peter Stormare). Henry spends much of his day fantasizing about killing himself and killing others, particularly his nagging wife Janine (Nina Garbiras). After learning that Miles is shagging his wife and that his stockbroker best friend swindled him out of a stack of money, Henry wakes up the following day to learn that his face has mysteriously been rendered white and featureless. Soon, like a mime with bloodlust, Henry violently dispatches with everyone in his life, save Miles' wife, whose paintings may be responsible for his sudden transformation. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Cry in the Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann eschews the usual "today's headlines" approach to fact-based TV movies. This 1991 film recounts an event which took place in Shade Gap, Pennsylvania, way back in 1966. A lunatic backwoodsman (David Morse) abducts a 17-year-old local girl (Megan Follows) and spirits her away to the deep woods. During her eight-day ordeal, Peggy Ann develops a sort of sympathy for the pathetic creature who has kidnapped her out of a misguided sense of love. Meanwhile, virtually every authority within a 50-mile radius scours the timberland in search of the girl and her captor. Whether or not Cry in the Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann was necessary 25 years after the fact is debatable, but one can't deny that the accomplished performances of David Morse and Megan Follows smooth over the script's bumpier sections. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-TV film, a high-school counselor (Joyce Brothers) faces ineffectual help from administration in combating drugs, so she recruits several students to help in the battle. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

The only installment of the Halloween series to abandon the Michael Myers story line, Halloween III: Season of the Witch is an intricate sci-fi horror hybrid. A week before Halloween, an older man named Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry) is wounded by a mysteriously dispassionate group of assailants in an industrial parking lot. After receiving treatment at a local hospital from Dr. Dan Challis (Tom Atkins) -- a hard-drinking divorced father of two -- Grimbridge is killed by an assassin who later sets himself on fire. Blowing off his own kids, Challis teams up with Grimbridge's daughter, Ellie (Stacey Nelkin), to find out why the middle-aged toy salesman was murdered. The duo's search soon leads them to a Halloween-mask factory run by inventor and practical joker Conal Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy). In between bouts of passionate lovemaking, Ellie and Challis begin to realize that the sinister old businessman has something other than treats in mind for America's kids -- something to do with the Silver Shamrock masks that Challis' children and thousands of other youngsters have bought for the holiday. Original screenwriter Nigel Kneale, whose scripts for Britain's Quatermass TV series made him a beloved science fiction fixture, sued the producers of Halloween III to have his name removed from the credits after seeing the gory finished product; director Tommy Lee Wallace ultimately received screenplay credit. John Carpenter, director of the first Halloween film, co-produced the third installment with Debra Hill, who would later soldier on without Carpenter for additional, belated sequels. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Originally written in 1970, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lanford Wilson's play Lemon Sky was brought to television by way of PBS' American Playhouse anthology. Based loosely on Wilson's own experiences, the story concerns a 17-year-old boy (Kevin Bacon) who hasn't seen his father in a dozen years. Utilizing a complex flashback-flash forward technique, the protagonist recalls his six-month stay with his dad (Tom Atkins) and dad's second wife (Lindsay Crouse). Featured in the cast is Bacon's actress wife Kyra Sedgwick, here playing his half-sister. Lemon Sky premiered February 10, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charles (David Ogden Stiers) is more obnoxious than ever, thanks to an extremely painful toothache. But despite his agony, Charles is terrified at the prospect of seeing a dentist. Elsewhere, the doctors try to find out why the combat-engineer outfit commanded by a certain Major Weems (Tom Atkins) yields an inordinate number of black casualties. Watch for Laurence Fishburne in a key supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Its title inspired by the famous Robert Frost poem "Stopping By a Woods on a Snowy Evening," Miles to Go Before I Sleep stars Martin Balsam and MacKenzie Phillips. Balsam plays a lonely senior citizen, seeking a means of keeping busy in a world that has shut him out. He takes a part-time job at a youth rehabilitation center, where he meets incorrigible delinquent Phillips. Tentatively reaching out to one another, the two lost souls both find a reason for living. Miles to Go Before I Sleep was first telecast as a 90-minute GE Theater special on January 8, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A family faces new crises while trying to resolve an old one in this drama. After the death of Cal Malby (Miles O'Keefe), a miner who died in an accident that eventually leveled the economy of a small Pennsylvania community, his sons Patrick (Jason Widener) and Cole (Tyler Christopher) have been trying to find out what caused the disaster while also caring for their mother Elizabeth (Sally Kirkland), who is now bedridden. As Patrick and Cole try to uncover the truth, they have to struggle to hold on to the family's home as Penny Hart (Dee Wallace Stone), a widow who owns the farm the family has long called home, attempts to sell the property out from under them. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A pair of murders occur within a few days of each other, but there seems to be no relation between the two deaths. At least, that's what the authorities believe until Quincy (Jack Klugman) finds a common factor: both victims were killed by the same handgun, which had been stolen from its original owner nearly five years before. Embarking upon another in a long line of crusades, Quincy endeavors to change the current firearm laws which allow unlicensed gun sales to proceed without any legal checking system. The episode's shattering climax was obviously inspired by the equally powerful finale of the classic 1974 TV movie The Gun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This police drama is the pilot episode of the Serpico television series and follows the straight arrow New York undercover cop Frank Serpico as he investigates racketeers and drug smugglers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide