Joe Inscoe Movies

Gary Cole stars in this delightfully improbable TV movie as Jerry Harden, a conservative husband, father, and bank loan officer. Harden's well-ordered existence is turned upside down when a scruffy-looking guitarist named Izzy (David Jensen) shows up at the bank, hoping to get a loan in order to re-organize the legendary KISS-like heavy metal band Rock Toxin. When Jerry sees Izzy, his heart sinks: It looks as though his "cover" will be blown, and that the whole world (including his children) will discover that, 20 years earlier, Jerry had been "Dagger", Rock Toxin's lead singer! At first turning down Izzy's loan request, Jerry is forced to reconsider when he finds that he hasn't enough money to send his 17-year-old daughter to college. Thus, Jerry not only bankrolls the revived Rock Toxin, but he also embarks upon a hectic double life: Nerdish pillar of society by day, heavily-made-up rock singer by night. Further complicating matters is the fact that Jerry's wife Allison (Sherilyn Fenn), is the campaign manager for Helen Hunter (Shannon Eubanks), the politician wife of Jerry's boss Carl (Joe Inscoe)--and the cornerstone of Helen's campaign is her crusade against heavy-metal music! Pop Rocks debuted over the ABC Family Channel on September 10, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A serial killer with a difference is on the prowl in a small Virginia town in this darkly comic horror story. Brent Marken (Michael Biehn) is the sheriff of the city of Cherry Falls, a quiet community that suddenly has a big-city problem to contend with when Marken discovers a murderer is on the loose. The killer is targeting teenage girls who attend the local high school -- and his victims are all virgins. This causes no small amount of anxiety for Brent's teenage daughter Jody (Brittany Murphy), who is not as ready for intimacy as her boyfriend Kenny (Gabriel Mann). Brent has personal problems of his own to deal with; his relationship with his wife Marge (Candy Clark) has hit an impasse, and he shares a dark secret with Tom Sisler (Joe Inscoe), the principal of the high school. Cherry Falls marked the American directorial debut for Australian filmmaker Geoffrey Wright; the cast also includes Jay Mohr, Caroline Perreyclear, and Rick Forrester. Cherry Falls enjoyed its first theatrical engagements in the United Kingdom, several months after it was first slated to open in the United States, thanks in part to the difficulty the producers had with the MPAA in securing an R rating for the picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This TV comedy-drama series takes place at Linc's, a Washington, D.C., bar and grill where blacks gather to talk about issues they face in a society dominated by whites. Widower Russell A. "Linc" Lincoln (Steven Williams) runs the tavern, host to a diverse Capitol Hill gang of customers. In the one-hour pilot episode, children's rights activist Eleanor Braithwaite Winthrop (Pam Grier), who's married to a white man, and dynamic lobbyist Johnnie B. Goode (Georg Stanford Brown) discuss a bill she's trying to get through Congress, while Linc is startled by some revelations after his Army daughter Rosalee Lincoln (Tisha Campbell) comes home from Fort Bragg. Other regulars include sharp-tongued waitress CeCe Jennings (Golden Brooks); token white Harlan Hubbard IV (Joe Inscoe), who heads a pedophile senator's staff; Nigerian cabdriver Winston Iwelu (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje); and earthy Eartha (Daphne Maxwell-Reid), a prostitute privy to D.C. dirt when Washington elite unveil secrets in the bedroom. Filmed in Petersburg, Virginia, this series premiered August 1, 1998 on Showtime with a one-hour pilot kicking off the half-hour series. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Deserted by her no-good mother Angie (Ally Sheedy), Emma Baker (Rachael Lee Cook) has been raised by her grandfather, a tough but compassionate old coal miner named Clayton Hayes (George C. Scott). Now 15 years old, Emma insists upon a reunion with her drink-sodden mom--only to be raped and impregnated by Angie's current lowlife boyfriend Ray Wilcox (Don Diamont). When Clayton goes to court in hopes of adopting Emma's sickly baby, he is thwarted by a misguided legal system that regards Wilcox as a more suitable guardian! Outraged, Clayton steals the baby and embarks upon a lengthy odyssey, with the authorities dogging his trail and a virtual battalion of truck drivers and other "little people" treating the old man as a folk hero. Produced for the CBS network, the made-for-TV Country Justice premiered January 14, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A woman is brought to civilization after spending her life in the wilds in this drama. Dr. Jerome Lovell (Liam Neeson) happens upon a shack deep in the woods, where he discovers a strange woman who appears to be about 30, speaking an incomprehensible language. The woman, named Nell (Jodie Foster), was raised in the cabin by her late mother, who was incapacitated by strokes (Nell speaks English, but distorted -- as it was by her mother's infirmities); with the exception of her twin sister, who died as a child, Nell has had contact with no other human being. Lovell brings in a psychiatrist, Dr. Paula Olsen (Natasha Richardson) to help determine what, if anything, should be done for Nell; Olsen thinks that Nell should be committed to an institution, but Lovell demands a period of unobtrusive observation instead. When it becomes obvious that the courts will demand that Nell be hospitalized for psychiatric observation, Lovell and Olsen take it upon themselves to gently introduce Nell to the outside world. Jodie Foster's performance in Nell earned her an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress, and she won the Screen Actor's Guild award in that category. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Vernon Johns Story is the inspirational saga of the man who preceded Martin Luther King Jr. as pastor of a Montgomery, Alabama Baptist Church. Described as "one of God's most brilliant preachers," Johns campaigned tirelessly for Civil Rights long before the cudgel was taken up by the "mainstream." Before leaving his post, Johns passed the torch to young Reverend King, who is but a minor character in this positive, uplifting TV-movie. James Earl Jones curbs his tendency to ham it up as Vernon Johns, delivering an understated and most effective performance. The Vernon Johns Story was syndicated to local stations during the week of January 15-21, 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-television movie is based on the true story of a landmark Supreme Court decision. Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God) stars as Carrie Buck, a woman who was used as the test subject in a 1927 experiment to sterilize mentally-challenged women. The test was allowed after a controversial Supreme Court ruling came down in favor of the procedure. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

"Remake fever" spread in 1991 to the producers of the TV-movie Night of the Hunter. 36 years earlier, writer James Agee, director Charles Laughton and stars Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish combined their considerable talents to create the original Night of the Hunter, a first-rate allegorical suspenser involving stolen funds, a homicidal phony preacher, and two innocent but resilient children. The 1991 remakes stars Richard Chamberlain in the old Mitchum role as Harry Powell, the bogus preacher with the words LOVE and HATE tattooed on his knuckles. In pursuit of stolen money hidden by an old prison cellmate, "Reverend" Powell ingratiates himself with the cellmate's widow (Diana Scarwid), then kills her. The woman's children seem to know where the money is, so Powell pursues them through the woods, nearly catching up with them before they are taken in by a kindly old woman. The 1991 Night of the Hunter couldn't come up with an adequate substitute for Lillian Gish, so the new script altered the ending, thereby diminishing most of the property's inherent value. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dead Poets Society and Die Hard bash heads in this action drama set in a Northeastern prep school. The film opens as a crazed Central American terrorist, Luis Cali (Andrew Divoff), goes on a shooting spree, attempting to gain his drug baron father's release from extradition to the United States. The following sequence introduces some malcontented rich kids from the prep school --Joey Trotta (Wil Wheaton), the son of a New Jersey mob leader; Billy Tepper (Sean Astin), a reprobate who has been to four boarding schools in as many years; Snuffy Bradbury (Keith Coogan), whose rich banker father is the chairman of the Republican Party; Ricardo Montoya (George Perez), the son of a big-shot lawyer; and Hank Giles (T.E. Russell), whose father is the head of the House Armed Services Committee. The boys disregard their studies and spend their waking hours giving Dean Parker (Louis Gossett Jr.) a hard time. The two storylines collide when Luis, with a group of terrorist goons, make their way across the U.S. border and invade the boarding school, planning to take hostage the son of his father's judge. But the authorities have already removed the boy from danger, so Luis and the terrorists decide to hold the entire student body hostage until their demands are met. Working with the FBI and the special government forces, the rebellious groups of boys have to devise a plan to short-circuit the hostage situation. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The promise made by 15-year-old Georgia boy Ricky Schroder is to his dying mother (Veronica Cartwright). Schroder vows that he'll keep his parentless family--all seven brothers--together, no matter what. He keeps his word, through starvation, deprivation and natural disaster. It says in the ads that the made-for-TV A Son's Promise was based on a true story. Real or fabricated, the film offers a good workout for your tear-ducts, even when lapsing into the Obvious. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mother's Day was the first made-for-TV movie produced for the CBN Cable Service (now known as the Family Channel). Given CBN's religious track record and the film's innocuous title, it comes as a mild shock that Mother's Day concerns itself with drug dealers, murder charges and "women in jeopardy." Malcolm Jamal-Warner stars as an urban African-American teen convicted for a drug-related murder. He didn't do it, or so he says. The police don't seem to be concerned over this potential miscarriage of justice, so Malcolm's mother, played by Denise Nicholas, investigates the murder herself--putting her own life on the line in the process. The script's plot hinges on the fact that the teenager and the killer bear a striking resemblance to one another--a fact underlined in broad, blunt strokes by having Malcolm Jamal-Warner play both roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The lonely wife of a struggling tobacco farmer succumbs to temptation and sleeps with a transient harvester in this drama set in Depression-ravaged North Carolina. The drifter offers her more excitement than the bored young mother has felt in years and it is no surprise that she and he begin plotting to murder her hard-working husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide