Larry Carroll Movies

Practically everyone who previewed the USA network adventure series Peacemakers before its July 30, 2003, debut arrived at the same descriptive conclusion: "CSI Goes West." The series was set in the 1880s, in the frontier town of Silver City. Tom Berenger starred as Jared Stone, a hard-bitten, set-in-his-ways federal marshal who found himself teamed with Larimer Finch (Peter O'Meara), a British-born Pinkerton detective and specialist in the brand-new field of forensic science. Although Stone preferred to use tried-and-true methods in tracking down criminals, he begrudgingly acknowledged that Finch's newfangled techniques ("They're called fingerprints!") were of some value. Also joining in the weekly investigations was Katie Owen (Amy Carlson), a medical student who had returned to Silver City to run her family's undertaking parlor. Viewers with long memories may have noted some striking resemblances between Peacemakers and the old Richard Boone Western series Hec Ramsey. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This inventive low-budget action-fantasy from producer Charles Band was released briefly as Swordkill before undergoing a title change for home video. Basically a samurai variant on Iceman, the story involves the discovery of 400-year-old Japanese warrior Yoshimita (Hiroshi Fujioka) encased in glacial ice in the hills of Motosuka, Japan. Revived at a high-tech cryogenics facility in Los Angeles by scientist Dr. Chris Welles (Janet Julian), Yoshimita is forced to acclimate himself to the modern age, but his samurai code of honor compels him to continue the quest for his long-lost bride that he began in his own time. The standard fish-out-of-water premise is helped along considerably by the appealing Fujioka, who exhibits an appropriately stoic demeanor amid a blur of computerized, MTV-styled culture shock, and some well-handled action sequences. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Tobe Hooper's influential cult classic continues the subgenre of horror films based on the life and "career" of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, which began with Alfred Hitchcock's own influential cult classic Psycho. When Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) hears that the Texas cemetery where her grandfather is buried has been vandalized, she gathers her wheelchair-bound brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain) and several other friends together to see if grandpa's remains are still in one piece. While in the area, Sally and her friends decide to visit grandfather's old farmhouse. Unfortunately, a family of homicidal slaughterhouse workers who take their job home with them have taken over the house next door. Included amongst the brood is Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), a chainsaw-wielding human horror show who wears a face mask made out of human skin. Sally's friends are rapidly exterminated one-by-one by the next-door neighbors, leaving only Sally left to fight off Leatherface and his clan. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi