Clare Kirkconnell Movies
- 1994
An actress takes a dangerous detour on the road to success in this suspense drama. Jamie (Jennifer Rubin) is a struggling starlet who is trying to win a role in an upcoming film called Playmaker. Eager to gain advantage on the competition, Jamie's pal Eddie (John Getz) says that he can arrange an introduction with Ross Talbert (Colin Firth), an acting teacher with a reputation for grooming top talent. Ross agrees to tutor Jamie for $5,000; she scrapes up the money, only to discover that his lessons are mainly exercises in psychological abuse. Jamie learns that a number of Ross' students who didn't respond to his techniques have turned up dead, and she spies an "F" next to her name in his grade book shortly before he attacks her with a knife; she grabs a gun and kills him. The police determine that Jamie acted in self-defense -- but the man who she's been taking lessons with wasn't the real Ross Talbert. Playmaker features an original score by Mark Snow. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colin Firth, Jennifer Rubin, (more)
Although many genre filmmakers have managed to blend horror and humor with great success, movies employing this formula often run the risk of both elements canceling each other out, resulting in a horror comedy that is neither scary nor funny. Alas, Dead Heat is a textbook example of this kind of failure. It details the weird misadventures of a pair of mismatched L.A. cops -- the straitlaced and by-the-book Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) and wisecracking loose cannon Doug Bigelow (muscle-headed Saturday Night Live alum Joe Piscopo). Their quest is to reach the heart of a sinister crime ring that employs indestructible undead henchmen. In a strange twist, their inept handling of the case results in both cops -- first Williams, then Piscopo -- being killed in action and subsequently reanimated in a secret laboratory managed by the barely seen Vincent Price (whose walk-on role is more entertaining than the combined performances of the two leads). The potential for "splatstick" comedy in the mode of Evil Dead 2 or Peter Jackson's Bad Taste is defeated by two major obstacles: first, the painfully unfunny mugging of Piscopo, who was unwisely allowed to ad-lib much of his performance; and second, the MPAA's trimming of several minutes from Steve Johnson's sensational makeup effects in order to avoid the dreaded X rating -- including a clever scene involving a zombie go-go girl played by Linnea Quigley. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo, (more)
- 1987
The made-for-TV Island Sons stars real-life brothers Timothy, Joseph, Samuel and Benjamin Bottoms as fictional brothers named Tim, Joe, Sam and Ben (too bad there wasn't any Zeppo Bottoms). When their mogul father disappears in Hawaii in the aftermath of a scandal, the four brothers bury their own differences and head to the Islands. There they operate all of dad's neat stuff (his yacht, his limo, his hotel), while assistant DA Sam investigates the death in prison of his father's head bookkeeper. The boys get to the bottom of the scandal that ruined their father, and find more than they ever imagined. They don't, however, find enough to encourage a network and a sponsor to pick up Island Sons as a weekly TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
The A-Team's Thanksgiving celebration is put on hold when Stockwell (Robert Vaughn) orders our heroes to capture exiled political adviser A.J. Bancroft (Jeff Corey), who carries a diary implicating several high-ranking government officials in a sinister conspiracy. It turns out that Bancroft is willing to trade the diary for a reunion with a young woman who claims to be his long-estranged daughter Ellen--a woman whom Face (Dirk Benedict) is presently wooing. The situation reaches the crisis stage when the possibility arises that Bancroft is actually Face's father...which of course radically alters his relationship with Ellen! This is the famous episode in which the ending was originally determined by the call-in votes of the viewers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
Joan Collins tops the cast of the made-for-TV The Making of a Male Model. No, silly: Joan doesn't play the title role. Rather, she is cast as the barracudalike owner of a top modelling agency, while Jon-Erik Hexum (at the time, a real-life male model) costars as a Nevada rancher whom Joan selects for stardom-or, if you prefer, hunkdom. Watch for Rosemary Stack, the wife of actor Robert Stack, in a juicy cameo as Collins' chief rival. Making of a Male Model was originally telecast October 9, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
