Richard Smith Movies

Something of a Ghostbusters without the laughs (or the high-end special effects), the direct-to-video thriller Phantom Force involves a prehistoric rock which holds the power to revive ancient demons. Long buried in the ocean, the rock is found by the crew of a nuclear submarine--which is immediately demonized and transformed into a floating weapon of mass destruction. Counter-terrorism expert and part-time psychic Mark Dupree (Richard Grieco) and his crack Phantom Force team are summoned to save the day, and the world. Dupree and company end up duking it out with malevolent spirits in an alternate dimension. Rated "R" on home video, Phantom Force nonetheless looked like the pilot for an unsold TV series, and as such was perfect fare for cable's Sci-Fi Channel, where it made its premiere on March 27, 2004. (Incidentally, director Christian McIntire tried but failed to have his name removed from the credits. Take heed). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the dark waters of the Gulf of Mexico, several great white sharks complicate things for a secret U.S. military mission. Once enough sailors are lost to the surprisingly cunning beasts, MIT drop-out marine biologist Robin (Simmone Jade MacKinnon) and renegade fish expert Dane (Lorenzo Lamas) are taken to a classified submarine where they are to help the Marines get rid of the dorsal-finned predators. But there's more than that happening on the sub, and before long Dane and Robin don't know the good guys from the sharks. Bullets fly, sharks attack. ~ Buzz McClain, Rovi

U.K. filmmaker Marc Evans directs the psychological thriller Trauma, produced for the Ministry of Fear division of Little Bird Productions. Colin Firth stars as Ben, a man who wakes up from a coma to discover his wife, Elisa (Naomie Harris), has been killed in a car crash. He tries to start a new life on his own, but he's haunted by images of his wife and strange happenings in his apartment. Having no family connections left, he reunites with old friend Tommy (Tommy Flanagan). He also makes friends with neighbor Charlotte (Mena Suvari), who takes him to psychic Petra (Brenda Fricker). Trauma premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

An invisible, shape-shifting extraterrestrial has invaded a Russian nuclear power plant with the aim of causing international chaos, and now the only hope for the human race lies in one tough soldier. When Lieutenant Sean Lamber (Oliver Gruner) learns that the alien's aim is to bring about a devastating nuclear winter, he makes it his personal mission to prevent the extraterrestrial menace from executing its diabolical plan. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

In this made-for-cable sequel to Pythons, the U.S. Army's Colonel Jefferson (Marcus Aurelius) has successfully neutralized the horrific 12-ton, 57-foot python that had been developed as a jungle weapon by a top-secret intelligence organization. Unfortunately, still another synthetic "Beta Snake" has escaped from Sub-Basement 9 of the Russian-American Joint Military Operations -- and this one is 85 feet long, and even meaner and more invulnerable than the original python prototype. When the slimy predator slithers into the Ural Mountains, it is up to disgraced ex-ballplayer Dwight Stoddard (Dana Ashbrook) and his Russian wife Nadia (Simone Jade McKinnon) to capture and kill the monster. Alas, mysterious American Greg Larson (Billy Zabka), who claims to be a "biotechnician," proves to be the real snake in the grass in this melodramatic Bulgarian-American coproduction. Pythons II was first telecast in the U.S. by the Sci-Fi Channel on August 17, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A covert US/Soviet military experiment designed to create the ultimate telepathic and telekinetic soldier backfires when the sole successful test subject goes AWOL in an explosive tale of action-packed conspiracy starring Judge Reinhold. It was a risky venture from the onset, and when only one of the five test members emerged from the top-secret military experiment suitable for battle they could never have imagined the trouble he would cause after learning the real purpose of his training. With time running out before the powerful soldier called Mindstorm decides to turn on his handlers in an attempt to get revenge for their deception, it's up to former Black-Ops officer Evan Mink (Reinhold) to find and contain the unstable warrior and ensure that the government's dirty little secret doesn't hit the headlines. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi