Adam Gunn Movies
- 1981
Once seen, the made-for-TV Fallen Angel can never be forgotten. Dana Hill is nothing short of brilliant as Jennifer, a 13-year-old runaway girl who is slowly but inexorably seduced into the world of child pornography. Adding depth to Lew Hunter's screenplay is the fact that the older man responsible for Jennifer's downfall, played by Richard Masur, is not a slavering villain. Instead, partly because of his own abused childhood, he is as pathetically misguided as his victim, truly believing that his filthy activities are expressions of affection. First telecast February 24, 1981, Fallen Angel was one of the highest-rated TV movies of its time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Hill, Richard Masur, (more)
While John Carpenter's 1978 horror classic Halloween irrevocably changed the style of horror cinema with its simple but relentlessly tense story, it triggered more than a decade's worth of uninspired, exploitative knock-offs, and one could easily list Halloween II among these failures. As with its predecessor, this film was written and produced by Carpenter and Debra Hill, but the terse style and unbearable suspense of the first film are missing, replaced by a more simplistic stalk-and-slash scenario. Directorial duties were handed over to Rick Rosenthal, whose lack of expertise is quite evident (though he managed to hit his stride two years later with the prison actioner Bad Boys). The plot picks up exactly where the original left off: Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), shaken and injured from her battle with unkillable psycho Michael Myers, is taken to the Haddonfield Hospital for observation, while Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) continues his desperate search for his monstrous patient. An interesting plot twist has Loomis' investigations revealing Michael's true identity (some of these sequences incorporate footage of young Michael originally shot for the television version of Halloween, which contained scenes hinting at the link between Michael and Laurie). After slashing his way through the town, Myers manages to track Laurie to the hospital, where the remainder of the action takes place. Numerous night-shift employees are slaughtered in a variety of gruesome ways before Loomis catches up with his quarry, leading to an explosive -- and seemingly conclusive -- confrontation. Pleasence is compelling as usual, but Curtis, who made an auspicious debut in the original, is sadly wasted here, her character reduced to shuffling half-drugged through darkened hospital corridors and screaming helplessly. Carpenter's active involvement in the Halloween franchise continued to dwindle steadily from one sequel to the next, getting scarcely a mention by the time producers Hill, Moustapha Akkad and Irwin Yablans revived the series in 1988 for three more sequels. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, (more)
- 1977
In the short-lived TV series Mulligan's Stew, high school football coach Michael Mulligan (Lawrence Pressman) and his wife Jane (Elinor Donahue), already the parents of three children, suddenly find their family unit increased from five to nine. This occurs when Michael's sister and brother-in-law, whose name was Friedman, perish in a plane crash, whereupon the dead couple's four youngsters move into the already crowded Mulligan manse in Birchfield, California. Much of the drama (and humor) revolve around the culture clashes between the laid-back Mulligan kids and their three urban "step-siblings"--not to mention Kimmy (Sunshine Lee), a Korean war orphan adopted by the late Mr. and Mrs. Friedman. Add to this the fact that Michael's salary can hardly cover the needs of his "real" family, and the viewer has a stew indeed. The pilot for Mulligan's Stew aired June 20, 1977, on NBC; the series proper was broadcast by the same network from October 25 to December 13, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lawrence Pressman, Elinor Donahue, (more)
