Stefani Brass Movies
It's yet another version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, with a gender-bender twist. Tori Spelling stars as Carol Cummings, a fabulously wealthy and enormously successful TV talk show host -- and a first-class shrew. Caring little for anything but the money and the celebrity that her job accrues, Carol mercilessly bullies and harangues everyone with whom she works, from her ulcerated producer Jimmy Fields (Michael Landes) to her long-suffering personal assistant Roberta Timmons (Nina Siemaszko), a single mom who dares not risk losing her job -- especially with Christmas just a few days away. While feverishly putting together a Yuletide TV special, Carol is visited by the ghost of her Aunt Marla (Dinah Manoff), who in her time was an even more insufferable diva than her niece. Warning Carol to change her ways before it is too late, Aunt Marla further proclaims that Carol will that evening be visited by three spirits who will show her the error of her ways. From this point forward it's the same old story, though it's fun to watch Gary Coleman as the Ghost of Christmas Past (appropriately in the form of a washed-up sitcom star!) and especially William Shatner as a Dr. Phil-style Ghost of Christmas Present. Also, the film represents one of the few times that the Scrooge character has a living love interest -- namely, Jason Brooks as John, a well-known Good Samaritan who continues to pine for Carol even after she has decided that he's the proverbial millstone around her neck. A Carol Christmas was first telecast by cable's Hallmark Channel on December 7, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tori Spelling, Dinah Manoff, (more)
Director Matthew Bright (Freeway) directs this tale of one of the most notorious serial killers in the annals of crime. Standing in stark contrast to the generally accepted view of serial killers, Ted Bundy (Michael Reilley Burke) was intelligent, quick-witted, and handsome. Engaged to a beautiful fiancée who never suspected his murderous tendencies, the feral Bundy develops a taste for murder that ultimately results in the deaths of at least 19 young women through the course of the 1970s. From posing as an injured driver and luring unsuspecting women to their deaths to an astonishing pair of jailbreaks and his ultimate death by capital punishment, viewers follow the murderous madman on a crime spree that shocked a nation and left the public's perception of what a serial killer is truly capable of forever changed. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Reilly Burke, Boti Ann Bliss, (more)
- 2001
Grissom (William L. Petersen) investigates when a jogger is apparently killed by a wild animal. Things get more and more curious when it develops that the victim's liver was removed before the authorities arrived. While the men of the CSI handle the jogger investigation, the women look into the death of a six-year-old child at a seedy carnival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2001
Detective John Clark Jr. (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) is put in the uncomfortable position of choosing between his father, John Sr. (Joe Spano), and his new partner, Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz). Back on the job, John Jr., Andy, Greg (Gordon Clapp), and Baldwin (Henry Simmons) investigate the death of an unstable Rikers correction officer, and a reluctantly teamed Connie McDowell (Charlotte Ross) and Eddie Gibson (John F. O'Donohue) look into another murder. Both cases reach dead ends until the eleventh-hour discovery of a drugstore receipt and a startling confession from an elderly woman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Simmons
- 2000
Greene (Anthony Edwards) takes care of his terminally ill father (John Cullum) at home, leading to a poignant moment between the elder Greene and Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston). Back at work, Corday tries to persuade an anorexic girl to continue treatment for her illness. Carol (Julianna Margulies) can't keep her mind on her work after receiving a silly birthday present. Carter (Noah Wyle) plunges back into his work and immediately runs afoul of ER policy. And Malucci (Erik Palladino) treats a young accident victim who is being sexually abused by her father. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
