Balazs Koos Movies
- 1999
Virtually every "alien at large" movie ever filmed is referenced in the made-for-TV shocker Survivor, which nonetheless manages to sustain audience attention with a few adroit cliché reversals. It seems that, billions of years ago, a race of extraterrestrials bred pre-evolutionary human beings for organ-harvesting purposes. Unfortunately, the alien ship bearing these primitive humans crashed on contact with the earth, and has remained frozen in the Arctic wastes ever since. Flash-forward to the present: Oil driller Adam King (Greg Evigan) and his team, cut off from civilization, inadvertently revive the sole survivor of the long-ago crash. Turns out that this creature is very, very hungry after his long sleep--and he has a distinct preference for the taste of human flesh! Originally aired as part of UPN's "Nightworld" movie series, Survivor made its American TV bow on May 13, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greg Evigan, Rachael Crawford, (more)
- 1999
The life and career of Ricky Nelson--from awkward kiddie TV star to teenaged singing idol to "young hasbeen"--is adequately encapsulated in this made-for-cable movie, one of several celebrity biopics produced for VH-1. Told in flashback as Ricky Nelson (Gregory Calpakis) recounts his experiences to a worshiping fan in the last hours before the 1985 air crash that would take his life, the story begins around 1952, as the adolescent Ricky is recruited by his bandleader-producer father Ozzie Nelson (Jamey Sheridan) to play "himself" on the movie and TV version of the popular radio series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Anxious to crawl out from under the shadow of his dictatorial father Ozzie, his vocalist mom Harriet (Sara Botsford) and his marginally more talented older brother David (Anthony Lemke), the 16-year-old Ricky begs for a chance to sing on the family's series. The wildly enthusiastic audience response to Ricky's warblings prompt Ozzie to aggressive promote Ricky's musical career, but ultimately Ricky breaks loose from the family's influence to strike out on his own. Alas, after several years at the top, Ricky's career and fan following plummets, before he has reached his 30th birthday he is grasping at straws by performing at county fairs and trade shows. Making matters worse is his unhappy marriage to Kris Harmon (depicted as something of a conniving opportunist by Anne Openshaw) and his ever-increasing dependence upon drugs. Astonishingly, the film never allows us to hear Ricky perform "Garden Party", the song that enabled him to make a spectacular comeback. Ricky Nelson: Original Teen Idol first aired on August 22, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The blurry line between a rumor and the truth is stretched to the breaking point in this drama. Three arrogant and self-centered college students, Jones (Lena Headey), Derek (James Marsden), and Travis (Norman Reedus), are brought together for a class project, in which they decide to start a rumor and keep track of how it spreads. Looking for possible gossip material, they see Naomi (Kate Hudson), a girl known for her high-minded views on saving sex for marriage, drunkenly making out with Bo (Joshua Jackson) at a party. The three students begin passing around the rumor that Naomi became a victim of date rape later that evening, embroidering the truth with allegations that Bo forcibly seduced Naomi after she was too inebriated to put up a fight. Before long, the rumor makes its way back to Naomi herself, who suffered a black-out on the night in question after too much alcohol. Naomi panics, and convinced that the rumor is true, contacts the police, who assign Detective Kelly (Sharon Lawrence) to investigate the charges of rape filed against Bo. Featuring a cast of young actors best known for their work on television, Gossip was an appropriate first feature film for director Davis Guggenheim, who previously distinguished himself on such TV series as ER, NYPD Blue, and Party of Five. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Bogosian, Marisa Coughlan, (more)
- 2000
Max Hanson (Jonathan Jackson), a popular high school student with considerable artistic and athletic talent, finds himself under pressure from everyone--especially his parents--to focus exclusively on art and to give up ice hockey. The only person who apparently harbors no judgmental attitudes towards Max is a teenage girl named Molly (Carly Pope), with whom he falls in love. Unfortunately, Molly is "into" wild parties and drugs--and before long, so is Max. As he sinks deeper and deeper into the morass of heroin addiction, Max seems to be beyond redemption . . . and far beyond the influence of his caring but domineering mother Sophie (JoBeth Williams). Posing a number of tough questions, but wisely offering no easy answers, the made-for-TV Trapped in a Purple Haze originally aired on April 17, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jonathan Jackson, JoBeth Williams, (more)
- 2001
Simon Baker stars in this weekly, 60-minute drama series as Nick Fallin, a hotshot attorney working for his father Burton's (Dabney Coleman) prestigious Philadelphia law firm. Arrested for doing cocaine, Nick is sentenced to 1,500 hours of community service. Reluctantly, he signs on as a part-time child advocate for an inner-city Legal Aid Services, all the while handling his usual high-profile clients. Ever so gradually, Nick finds himself caring more about his younger, poorer charges than he does about his wealthier customers -- and in so doing, he becomes the titular "guardian" of this CBS series. Also in the cast are Alan Rosenberg as Nick's skeptical new Legal Aid supervisor Alvin Masterson, Erica Leerhsen as Amanda Bowles, and Raphael Sbarge as Jake Strata. Created by David Hollander, The Guardian was originally set to premiere on September 18, 2001, but late-breaking news events caused the network to move the series up to September 25. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simon Baker, Dabney Coleman, (more)
Following up on her 1998 opus Bedrooms and Hallways, Rose Troche directs this ensemble film about suburbia and its discontents. Once an up-and-coming singer/songwriter, Paul Gold (Joshua Jackson) now lies in a coma, attentively nursed by his mother Esther (Glenn Close), who dotes on her son to the exclusion of her husband and her daughter Julie (Jessica Campbell). Meanwhile, Jim Train (Dermot Mulroney) is a workaholic lawyer who is closer to his tortes than to his spouse Susan (Moira Kelly). Their son Jake has taken a morbid fascination with his sister's foot-high girl doll. At the same time, Paul's former lover Annette Jennings (Patricia Clarkson) is trying to pull her life and her family back together after a particularly brutal divorce. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Close, Dermot Mulroney, (more)
Initially titled The Colony, this made-for-TV thriller offers the nightmarish scenario of thousands upon thousands of verminous rats swarming over a posh Manhattan department store. Inevitably, the dirty rodents threaten the entire city, and it is up to such hardy souls as hero Jack (Vincent Spano) and heroine Susan (Madchen Amick) to prevent this catastrophe. As The Rats, the film was originally slated for broadcast on September 17, 2001. For reasons that should be obvious, the Fox Network felt it would be more diplomatic to shelve the film for a while--for 367 days, to be exact, so it would not appear to be a tasteless exploitation of the first "9.11" anniversary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daveigh Chase, Shawn Michael Howard, (more)
Marking their first theatrical-release feature since 1995's It Takes Two, the Olsen twins bring their adventures back to the big screen with New York Minute. Billed as a sort of Ferris Bueller's Day Off for tweens, the plot involves the escapades of two enterprising Long Island girls, Roxy (Mary-Kate Olsen) and Jane (Ashley Olsen), as they decide to dupe their parents and spend a day on the island of Manhattan. It seems the high-minded Jane has a speech to give to a scholarship committee, while the punky Roxy wants to meet her favorite rock band. When Jane's planner gets swiped, however, the girls find themselves embroiled in a political scandal involving a high-powered senator (Andrea Martin), as their high school's truant officer (Eugene Levy) doggedly pursues them. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ashley Olsen, Mary-Kate Olsen, (more)
Two kids with nothing in common are brought together in a very unexpected way in this comedy. Nell (Samaire Armstrong) is a pretty but hopelessly geeky teenage girl who loves Shakespeare and wants little more than to study literature at Yale when she graduates from high school in a few months Woody (Kevin Zegers), who lives next door, is the quarterback on the school's football team, and seems like a sure bet to land a lucrative football scholarship despite the fact he isn't especially bright. Nell and Woody are not at all friendly and normally have nothing to say to one another, but one day during a class field trip to a historical museum, the two fall under the spell of an Incan icon and when they awake the next morning, Woody's mind is in Nell's body, and vice versa. Neither is comfortable with their sudden gender switch or having to assume the other's personalities, but they quickly realize that until they can find a way to reverse the spell, they have to work together if Nell is to go to Yale and Woody is to get his scholarship and move away from this loutish parents (Sharon Osborne and Maury Chaykin. Elton John was an executive producer on It's A Boy Girl Thing, and songs from his back catalog appear on the soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Zegers, Samaire Armstrong, (more)
