Jeff Lester Movies

In the Cold of the Night is an above-average erotic thriller, directed with superb visual style by Nico Mastorakis, but plagued by an uneven, derivative plot. Photographer Scott Bruin (Jeff Lester) is very successful but begins to have frightening visions of himself murdering a beautiful woman. When he meets the woman in those dreams, Kimberly (Adrienne Sachs), they begin a highly charged romance. When Scott becomes suspicious, he finds out information which leads to a "surprise" ending. In the Cold of the Night generated a great deal of controversy when it was originally released, and director Mastorakis had to cut the film to avoid an X rating. Despite the cuts and the weak plot, the extraordinary visual style of Mastorakis, and the haunting cinematography make In the Cold of the Night a treat for fans of erotic thrillers or anyone who appreciates technique and style in filmmaking. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) concludes the story arc begun with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and continued in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), but on a wholly new, different, and upbeat note. As the movie opens, months have elapsed since the events in Star Trek III; Admiral Kirk (William Shatner), McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Scott (James Doohan), Sulu (George Takei), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and Chekhov (Walter Koenig) are marooned in self-imposed exile on Vulcan, along with the resurrected and regenerated Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who also directed). While Spock tries to sort out the Vulcan and human halves of his resurrected psyche, the others prepare to return to Earth to face a brace of charges by the Klingon Empire and Star Fleet over events on Genesis. Taking off in their commandeered, jerry-rigged Klingon ship, they head to Earth, not knowing that a new crisis could destroy their home world -- a huge, immensely powerful alien probe has entered the galaxy and established a position near Earth, disabling every vehicle and installation in its path with its energy and communication output, and has ionized the entire atmosphere and started vaporizing the oceans, leaving the planet only hours to survive.

Spock determines that the probe is sending out signals to another intelligent terrestrial life form, humpbacked whales, which no longer exist. Using the gravity slingshot time-warp effect (established early in the original series) to travel back into Earth's 20th century, Kirk and company land in 1980s San Francisco to try and bring humpbacked whales to the 23rd century, to respond to the probe. Thus starts a surprisingly breezy, light-hearted, yet serious odyssey through the past (comparable to the best work of the original series), as the crew learns to deal with exact-change buses, angry drivers, punk-rock enthusiasts and other elements of '80s life, and Kirk tries to persuade a scientist (Catherine Hicks) of his good intentions for two whales in captivity. The screenplay, co-authored by Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Nicholas Meyer, and Harve Bennett (from a story by Nimoy and Bennett), is the cleverest and most sophisticated of all the Star Trek movie screenplays, recalling some of the elements of Meyer's earlier time-travel movie Time After Time and also anticipating the feel and tone of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation (which would be on the air not quite a year later). Nimoy's direction offers a combination of brisk pacing and a deep love of the characters and the actors, as well as a serious appreciation of the humorous aspects of the script, and Shatner gives his best performance of any of the movies. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Premiering January 17, 1981, on NBC, the hour-long crime drama Walking Tall was based on a extremely popular series of theatrical features -- which in turn, were inspired by the real-life exploits of relentless Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser (Pusser's story also served as the basis of a 1978 TV movie, A Real American Hero). Dedicated to smashing the political corruption all around him, Pusser was not averse to driving his points home with brute force, usually with the home-made club that he wielded at every opportunity. Naturally, the local bad guys did everything they could to put Pusser out of the way, including a number of assassination attempts -- one of which had claimed the life of the sheriff's wife, making his crusade against crime personal as well as professional. Starring as the TV version of Buford Pusser -- here in charge of McNairy County, TN -- was Bo Svenson, who had previously played the role in two of the three theatrical films, succeeding the original Walking Tall's star Joe Don Baker (the real Pusser had died in a highly suspicious car crash just before he was to star in one of the films himself). Others in the cast included Walter Barnes as Buford's dad Carl Pusser, Rad Daly and Heather McAdam as the sheriff's children Mike and Dwana, and Harold Sylvester, Jeff Lester, and Courtney Pledger as loyal deputies Aaron Fairfax, Grady Spooner, and Joan Lytton. Ultra-violent even by the standards of its era, Walking Tall remained on NBC's nighttime docket until June 6, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi