Doug Hale Movies
Notoriously obsessive director Michael Mann and star Will Smith devoted nearly two years and over 100 million dollars from the coffers of Columbia Pictures and other financiers to creating this biography of boxing great Muhammad Ali, which focuses on the ten-year period of 1964-1974. In that time, the brash, motor-mouthed athlete quickly dominates his sport, meets and marries his first wife (Jada Pinkett-Smith), converts to Islam (changing his name from Cassius Clay), and defies the United States government by refusing to submit to military conscription for duty in Vietnam. His world heavyweight champion title thus stripped from him entirely for political reasons, the champ sets about to win back his crown, culminating in a legendary unification bout against George Foreman (Charles Shufford) in Zaire, dubbed the "Rumble in the Jungle." In his travels, Ali becomes a symbol of power to disenfranchised African-Americans everywhere and meets such luminaries as Malcolm X (Mario Van Peebles), Martin Luther King Jr. (LeVar Burton) and Maya Angelou (Martha Edgerton). Ali features an all-star supporting cast that includes Jon Voight, Giancarlo Esposito, Jamie Foxx, Nona Gaye, Michael Michele, Joe Morton, Paul Rodriguez, Ron Silver, Mykelti Williamson, and Jeffrey Wright. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, (more)
Corbin Bernsen plays a hard-boiled 1940s private eye operating in the 1990s in the made-for-TV Love Can Be Murder. No, he's not a senior citizen: he's dead. It is the ghost of Bernsen who teams with the very much alive Jaclyn Smith, a contemporary PI. She's trying to solve the decades-old homicide case which Bernsen was working on when he was sent into the Big Sleep by persons unknown. Topper Returns, anyone? Love Can Be Murder was originally telecast December 14, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Attendees of a Southern California cocktail party find themselves reevaluating their convoluted, faulted lives following a major earthquake and a series of aftershocks in this hip comedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Perry, Jennifer Holmes, (more)
- 1987
In the first episode of a two-part story, Roz (Marsha Warfield) seriously considers quitting her job when she is diagnosed with diabetes--and later disrupts the decorum of the courtroom when she o.d.'s on insulin. Come to think of it, however, the courtroom's decorum has been disrupted from the outset by a surfeit of Presidential impersonators, hired for a TV special on American history. And we haven't yet mentioned the unhinged Nesbit Sherman (Jeremy Lawrence), who is wielding a cigarette lighter and threatening to destroy an original draft of the U.S. Constitution! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In this drama, an angry, bereaved husband decides to get his own kind of justice after the man who killed his wife and son is freed on a legal technicality. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Charleston is a brazen rip-off of Gone with the Wind which premiered over NBC on January 15, 1979--one month before CBS' planned telecast of Wind. Delta Burke, who was an unknown in 1979, very nearly remained that way in the role of post-Civil War Southern belle Stella. As Stella fiddle-dee-dees around in an effort to raise the tax money to maintain her mansion, her faithful ex-slave Minerva (Lynne Moody) runs the household with an iron hand (that must hurt). Also lurking about is Stella's cousin Valerie (Patricia Pearcy), who squanders her own savings in an effort to find her missing husband. This is the sort of film in which the aggressively urbanized actor Mandy Pantinkin plays a corn-fed character named Beaudine Croft. Martha Scott, the only "name" actor in Charleston, is wasted in a peripheral role as Stella's mom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Beth (Gretchen Corbett) asks Jim (James Garner) a favor on behalf of her current client (and her onetime college rival) Susan Kenniston (Margaret Impert). Jim is to check up on Richard Lessing (a pre-Dallas Larry Hagman) the principal investor in a suspicious-looking undersea research project in which Susan is involved. When murder rears its ugly head, both Jim and Susan find themselves in the direst of dire peril. This is the episode in which Jim's girlfriend Beth makes a crucial career decision which not only changes her life but also precipitates the exit of series regular Gretchen Corbett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Hero worship takes a sinister turn when emotionally disturbed cab driver Lawson (James Sutorius becomes obsessed with his idol, a controversial nighttime radio talk host. Convinced that the radio personality is speaking directly to him, Lawson vows to become the man's faithful lieutenant, eliminating the "enemies" of society in a violent fashion. Kojak (Telly Savalas) must somehow catch up with the demented cabbie before he strikes again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
- R
In this sophomoric comedy, a burglar wreaks havoc on a massage parlor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1975
- R
Earl Owensby, the Orson Welles of the South, produced, directed and starred in Manhunter. Playing a soldier of fortune, Owensby vows to squash organized crime in America. Deciding that fish rots from the head, he goes after the "untouchable" political biggies he holds responsible. Calling the directorial shots while Owensby was acting was his loyal assistant, Martin Beck. The cast is the usual mixture of regional professionals and ambitious college drama students. For a film with a next-to-nothing budget, Manhunter is pretty good. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
