Tuesday Knight Movies
- 2001
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When a group of kids on a field trip discover the bodies of children that have been missing for some time, a small western town becomes a web of deception, confusion, and mistrust. Will the community survive the revelation of who killed these children? ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tuesday Knight, Christopher McDonald, (more)
Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed, and starred in this serio-comic look at the trials (literally and figuratively) of an eccentric Arkansas family. Struggling musician Claude (Thornton) and his wife Ruby (Laura Dern) get the news that Claude's uncle Hazel (Jim Varney) has been accused of murder and is in jail awaiting trial. Claude and Ruby head for the Alabama town where they grew up, and, before long, there's a friendly (and sometimes not-so-friendly) war of words among the factions of the family, including Claude's mother Jewel (Diane Ladd), father O.T. (Andy Griffith), and sister Rose (Kelly Preston). Daddy and Them's supporting cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis and Ben Affleck as a pair of married attorneys, Brenda Blethyn as Hazel's wife Julia, and Jeff Bailey, and John Prine as Claude's brothers. While Daddy and Them was shot in 1999 -- and would have been his first directorial effort after his breakthough hit Sling Blade -- the film stayed in the editing room for several years, and wasn't released until after his third feature, All The Pretty Horses. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Bob Thornton, Jeff Bailey, (more)
- 1996
In this comedy drama, a winning lottery ticket gives four aspiring actors the chance of a lifetime. The quartet is first seen commiserating over the failure of their latest off-Broadway production in the Cottonwood Diner in Greenwich Village. To ease the sting of a scathing review, the four buy a lottery ticket and promise that they will use the wealth to make a film. Sure enough, they win $3 million. After viewing many popular hit movies including The Godfather, Rocky and When Harry Met Sally, they set to penning a highly derivative script. Trouble comes when one of them, a compulsive gambler, backs out and uses his share to bet the ponies. The remaining trio then bring in a new partner, the daughter of famed vaudevillian Danny Rose. After that they convince a relative to manage them and head off to solicit a hot young director. More trouble comes when the Screenwriter's Guild tries to sue them for plagiarism. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A nubile young babysitter (Alicia Silverstone) has no idea that she is the center of a maelstrom of male sexual fantasies. Based on a disturbing short story by Robert Coover, the drama presents a non-linear account of a perfectly mundane event. Having a social engagement, a couple calls for their babysitter. She arrives, they go out, her boyfriend comes over, and the weirdness begins -- for director Guy Ferland makes little distinction between the character fantasies and what is really occurring. Something will happen, and then it will happen again; only the outcome is different. What makes this dark film so disturbingly creepy is that none of the males involved, neither the frustrated boyfriend, the horny husband who hired her, or even her little charge has nice fantasies about her. The film contains several sexual scenes and some scenes of violence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alicia Silverstone, Jeremy London, (more)
- 1995
When a prostitute is murdered, detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) question deli owner McCracken (Brian Smiar), who has a history of harassing hookers. Another likely suspect is plastic surgeon Dr. Mark Danforth (Jonathan Walker), who may have been a client of the dead woman. At the end of the day, it is Assistant D.A. Kincaid (Jill Hennessy), rather than her more experienced associate McCoy (Sam Waterston), who must decide whether the right person has been accused of the crime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A young, married mother gets in over her head when she has an affair in this made-for-TV movie. Alicia Silverstone stars as Roslyn, a young mother who married her high school sweetheart (Jared Leto). She gets more than just excitement though when she accepts the nudging from a friend and has a fling with tough guy Matthew Flint. The film is a remake of the 1958 film of the same name. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
Veteran horror director Wes Craven was responsible for the hit 1984 film A Nightmare on Elm Street, which introduced the character of Freddy Krueger. After Craven sold the rights to his character, Krueger became filmdom's top grossing monster, with five sequels by 1991. In this post-modernist horror film, Craven plays himself, a filmmaker working on a script for a movie that seems to be spinning out of control. Also playing himself, as well as playing his customary character Krueger, is Robert Englund. The original teenage hero of the first Nightmare film, Heather Langenkamp, also plays herself. She is still haunted by Freddy dreams, but Craven convinces her to make another Krueger film to exorcise her demons. Unfortunately, her son Dylan (Miko Hughes) is being taken over by Freddy himself, who materializes and kills Dylan's beloved nanny, Julie (Tracy Middendorf). Dylan, possessed by the evil spirit, escapes from the hospital and tries to cross a freeway with his mother in pursuit. Craven finds that his character has literally become a creation out of his control. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, (more)
- 1992
Dee Cody (Rende Rae Norman) is a cold, perhaps even psychopathic woman, who has a problem with issues of trust. She doesn't give any, and her twisty ways make it difficult even for her daughter (Tuesday Knight), who is in cahoots with her, to trust her. When the two of them hire a good-looking young gunman (Billy Wirth) to help round out the team they are putting together to pull off a robbery, it only multiplies the distrust issue. In addition, the sexual chemistry and romantic longing the man puts out throws a difficult new factor into the equation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tuesday Knight, Billy Wirth, (more)
- 1992
- R
Successful character actor Barry Primus spent seven years trying to get financing for his feature debut as a writer-director, Mistress. In the film, a once-promising writer-director, Marvin Landisman (Robert Wuhl), who now directs instructional videos, is sitting home one night, watching his own print of Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion, when he gets a strange phone call. A producer, Jack Roth (Martin Landau), formerly a bigwig at Universal, tells Marvin he was cleaning out his office when he came across Marvin's old script, "The Darkness and the Light." Jack claims he can get financing to make the film, and agrees to Marvin's stipulation that he be attached to direct. They "take a meeting" at a low-rent diner, and Jack brings along a gung-ho novice screenwriter, Stuart (Jace Alexander), to help Marvin polish the script. They meet with three potential backers, played by Eli Wallach, Danny Aiello, and Robert DeNiro, each one more meddlesome than the last, and each with a girlfriend (played by Tuesday Knight, Jean Smart, and Sheryl Lee Ralph, respectively) whom they demand be cast in the film. At first, Marvin adamantly resists changing his serious, downbeat, and very personal script, about an painter who commits suicide, rather than betray his ideals. But eventually, Marvin gets caught up in the momentum of actually getting his dream project made, and starts compromising. He agrees to cast the three women; he agrees to make the script funnier and sexier; he even agrees to change the painter to a photographer to please his backers. Laurie Metcalf plays Marvin's long-suffering wife, and Christopher Walken has a cameo as a tortured actor. Mistress was the first film produced by DeNiro's independent production company, Tribeca Films. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Wuhl, Martin Landau, (more)
- 1990
- PG
A wealthy heiress must make up her mind in this romantic comedy. Her father wants her to marry a wealthy Ivy Leaguer, but her real passion is for an aspiring rock & roller. Of course then there's that handsome football star.... ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudia Christian, Adam West, (more)
- 1989
Based on a true story, The Preppie Murder begins on August 26, 1986. This was the day that 18-year-old Jennifer Levin (Lara-Flynn Boyle) was strangled to death in Central Park. The prime suspect, Jennifer's 19-year-old boyfriend Robert Chambers (William Baldwin), confesses to the crime. The well-to-do young man insists that the killing was accidental; he claims that it occurred during a "rough sex" session that Jennifer had inaugurated. The ensuing media frenzy forces the old "she asked for it" defense to rear its ugly head. The Preppie Murder's attempts at fairness caused a great deal of critical turmoil when the film first aired on September 24, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
- R
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This fourth trip down Freddy Lane was the most successful at the box-office, but although it has some impressive visuals, it is mostly an empty film. Credit must go to the effects team for some fine work, but otherwise, this entry from the director of Cutthroat Island (Renny Harlin) is extremely weak. Roland Kincaid falls asleep and awakens in the Springwood junkyard, where his dog -- named "Jason" in a sad foreshadowing of the film's giggly tone -- pees fire on Freddy's grave. The pyro-urinary baptism causes Krueger (Robert Englund) to reassemble from bones outward in an admittedly impressive sequence. Predictably, Freddy guts Kincaid, then appears in Joey's waterbed as a naked pinup girl (Hope-Marie Carlton) before slicing him to ribbons. And so it goes. The film has a few interesting ideas kicking around, but no real identification points. This is a video game, not a movie, and the characters seem to exist only in order to move the film from one effects sequence to another. There is a lot to be said for special effects, and the ones here are extraordinary and vivid. However, the wonderfully grim mood and subtle performances of Chuck Russell's outstanding third entry in the series are gone, abandoned by Harlin in favor of a splashy, comic book approach which would, unfortunately, dominate the series' later installments. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, (more)
- 1988
This fact-based TV drama recounts the trial of a California couple (Judge Reinhold and Rosanna Arquette) charged with manslaughter after their diabetic son died because they withheld his insulin due to their belief that a miracle from God would save him. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
