Don Hood Movies

By rights, Dr. Ken Garrett (Markus Flanagan) should consider himself lucky: He is the only member of a surgical team to keep his job after a child dies during an operation. Unfortunately, Garrett has been plunged into the depths of guilt and depression by the ordeal, forcing his wife Beth (Stephanie Zimbalist) to dust off her law degree and support her family by taking on medical malpractice cases. By what seems to be an amazing coincidence, Beth is hired to represent one of the nurses fired in the wake of the child's death. As the case progresses, a few unsavory facts are brought to surface suggesting that Beth's client may have an ulterior motive--and that somewhere along the line, two murders have been committed right under the noses of the authorities. The made-for-TV Malpractice was originally telecast on May 25, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A scientific experiment gone wrong causes a man to become his own evil twin in this made-for-TV thriller. Marty Stillwater (Stephen Baldwin) would seem to have it made; he has a beautiful wife, two loving daughters, and a great career as a bestselling mystery novelist. However, it soon seems there's a fly in the ointment -- or, more accurately, some of Marty's blood. An evil but brilliant industrialist's son is working with rogue scientists to create an army of superhuman mercenaries through DNA cloning who will do his bidding and conquer the world. However, a sample of Marty Stillwater's blood is used for the cloning process instead of DNA from the pumped-up warrior the would-be world leader had in mind. The clone, named Alfie, has murder on its mind, just as the scientists wanted, but it looks like Marty, talks a bit like Marty and even seems to share a few of Marty's thoughts -- enough of them that it finds Marty's home and moves in, and before long his family is wondering why Dad is displaying a split personality. Dean Koontz's Mr. Murder was originally shown as a two-part miniseries on ABC in April 1999. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

What does a biographer do when the truth about his subject is far less pleasant than the legend? That is the moral dilemma at the heart of Cobb, which explores the lives of both baseball's premier hitter, Ty Cobb (Tommy Lee Jones), and the sportswriter assigned to set his story down, Al Stump (Robert Wuhl). Stump arrives at the Tahoe home of the dying Cobb to write the official life story of the first man inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame. He finds a drunken, misanthropic, bitter racist who abuses his biographer as well as everyone else. Stump must either candycoat his subject's life or present an accurate picture of a disgusting man who happened to become an American sports hero. The movie's biting focus on Cobb, ferociously performed by Jones, is not matched by its weaker representation of Stump, an imbalance which ultimately weakens the film's overall effect. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Hollywood visionary Tim Burton pays homage to another Hollywood visionary, albeit a less successful one, in this unusual fictionalized biography. The film follows Wood (Johnny Depp) in his quest for film greatness as he writes and directs turkey after turkey, cross-dresses, and surrounds himself with a motley crew of Hollywood misfits, outcasts, has-beens, and never-weres. The real story, however, is his friendship with aging, morphine-addicted Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), whom he tries to help stage a comeback. Landau's unforgettable Oscar-winning performance must be seen to be believed, as must Rick Baker's Oscar-winning makeup. While it would have been easy to make a film simply ridiculing the bumbling director, Burton instead focuses on his driving passion for filmmaking and his unwavering persistence in the face of ridicule and failure. Possibly the most surprising aspect of the film is the genuine sentiment with which Burton treats the relationship between Wood and Lugosi; his devotion to Lugosi is touching, as is Lugosi's final soliloquy -- an inane bit of dialogue from the hilariously bad Bride of the Monster that grows into a poignant metaphor for the actor's life and ultimate triumph of his spirit. Even the look of the film is right; it manages to preserve the air of one of Wood's own films while retaining a sense of artistry in much of the composition on screen (note the scene at the drug rehab where Lugosi endures a horrifying night of detox). In all, Ed Wood is a unique film -- at times side-splittingly funny; at others, tragic or even frightening -- and a heartfelt tribute to the love of movies, good and bad alike. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell, and Drew Barrymore are the stars of this Western whose main gimmick is making heroes into heroines. They all start out as prostitutes, as Cody (Stowe) shoots a drunken colonel who attempts to molest Anita (Masterson). She is about to be lynched for defending her friend when the other "bad girls" ride in and rescue her, pursued by detectives. The rest of the film follows their adventures as they get caught up in hostage situations, bank robberies, shootouts, and romantic interludes with handsome young cowboys with never a hair out of place or an unsightly smudge of Western dust. Amazingly, all four former prostitutes are able to ride, shoot, rope, and fight as well. Bad Girls is not likely to be thought of as a realistic view of how women lived in the Old West. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Based on the true-life adventures of the late Drug Enforcement Agency spy Barry Seal, this exciting espionage adventure chronicles the events that lead up to his death in 1984. Before coming to work for the DEA, smooth-talking Seal (Dennis Hopper) had been a drug smuggler for the notorious Medellin Cartel in Colombia. The DEA captures him and he agrees to become their informant. Unfortunately, though he is a master con artist, he is no match for the con men running the U.S. government agency. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of a two-part story, the wedding of Jesse (John Stamos) and Becky (Lisa Loughlin) is only a few hours away when Becky's dad (Don Hood) lectures Jesse on the grim responsibilites of matrimony. Faced with the prospect of giving up his wild-and-crazy lifestyle, Jesse decides to take one last fling--and a mighty dangerous one at that. Elsewhere, Michelle (played by the Olsen twins) takes an instant dislike to Becky's nephew Howie (Michael John Nunes). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Made for the TNT cable network, The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson concentrates on the wartime service of major league baseball's first black player. Robinson (Andre Braugher), a star athlete at UCLA, is drafted during World War II. He hopes that his academic record will assure him entry into Officers Candidate School, but the racism inherent in the military at the time puts several roadblocks in his way. After finally making OCS, Robinson's belief in himself is strengthened tenfold--to the point that he refuses to bow to the "Jim Crow" laws regarding the seating arrangements on an Army bus, and is subsequently threatened with a court martial. Stan Shaw costars as boxing great Joe Louis, likewise a victim of prejudice during the war years (the script intimates that Louis was more willing to roll with the punches than Robinson). Ruby Dee, who played the ballplayer's wife in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story, is here seen as Robinson's mother. The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson premiered on October 15, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fear stars Ally Sheedy as a psychic who frequently helps the police track down criminals. This time, however, there's a serial killer at large who's a pretty efficient psychic in his own right. The story boils down to a battle of wills, and for while it looks as though the villain's will is the stronger of the two. Fear was tensely, tersely written and directed by Rockne O'Bannon, a veteran of the Twilight Zone TV-series revival of the 1980s, as well as the author of the screenplay for Alien Nation (1988). The star-studded supporting cast included Lauren Hutton, Michael O'Keefe, John Agar, Stan Shaw and Dina Merrill. Originally intended for theatrical release, Fear debuted July 15, 1990, over the Showtime Cable Network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Those who think that you can't make a suspense movie out of a true-life story wherein everybody knows the outcome are referred to the made-for-TV Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure. Jessica, of course, was the 18-month-old Texas girl who fell down an abandoned well in October of 1987. As the world looks on in anguish, the local fire chief (Pat Hingle) and police chief (Beau Bridges) supervise the efforts to rescue Jessica from her 22-foot-deep prison. The film effectively squeezes the 58 hours of the original incident into two, allotting plenty of time for a surface-level subplot involving the efforts of a Victim's Assistance Program volunteer (Patty Duke) to reassure Jessica's parents. In keeping with Hollywood child-labor requirements, little Jessica McClure is played by twin girls, Laura and Jennifer Loesch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this vaguely allegorical science fiction-crime film, a Los Angeles cop tries to solve the murder of his best friend with the help of his new partner -- a member of a star-faring alien race. In the near-future world of Alien Nation, the "Newcomers" are a race of formerly enslaved humanoids seeking refuge and integration into Earth society. These unusual immigrants face anger and resentment from some humans, including Matthew Sykes (James Caan), a cop whose partner, Tug (Roger Aaron Brown), was killed in a shoot-out with several Newcomers. In order to get some insight into Newcomer society and track down the "slags" who killed Tug, Sykes volunteers to take on a new partner,Sam "George" Francisco (Mandy Patinkin), the first alien ever promoted to the rank of detective. As Sykes tries to overcome his bigotry against George and his kind, who eat raw beaver and get drunk on spoiled milk, the friendly, helpful George soon learns the identity of Tug's killer: William Harcort (Terrence Stamp), a pillar of Newcomer society who is secretly manufacturing the same powerful narcotic that was used to enslave his race. It's up to Sykes and George to stop Harcort before he turns his fellow Newcomers into drooling addicts and pulls the skeletons out of his race's closet for all of humankind to see. Omen 3 director Graham Baker made his screenwriting debut with Alien Nation, as did co-writer Rockne S. O'Bannon. Kenneth Johnson, creator of the miniseries V, would adapt Alien Nation into a weekly television show in 1989 and several made-for-TV movies in the mid-'90s. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

A conniving nephew (Anthony Geary) wishes to get rid of his elderly uncle (Ralph Bellamy) to collect a large inheritance, so he hires the three worst orderlies he can find (played by the Fat Boys). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

The real-life Mel Fisher was considered a mercenary by some, a visionary by others. Whatever the case, Fisher was a famous treasure hunter, who spent nearly decades searching for a Spanish Galleon which sank off the Florida Keys in the 17th century. Against all odds, Fisher and his crew were able to retrieve a fortune in gold from the galleon in July of 1985. The made-for-TV Dreams of Gold: The Mel Fisher Story first aired November 15, 1986, not long after a drawn-out court battle between Fisher and the U.S. government over ownership of the treasure had come to a conclusion. Cliff Robertson stars as Mel Fisher, while Loretta Swit is cast as his wife, Deo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide