Michele Marsh Movies

Reportedly adapted from the harrowing real-life experiences of Geoff Thompson (a doorman in Coventry, England), Neil Thompson's Clubbed pulls the audience into the deranged and increasingly violent realm of the club scene in 1980s Britain. The tale begins in the present day, with factory worker Danny (Mel Raido), experiencing prolonged marital estrangement from his wife, Angela (Maxine Peake). The narrative then flashes back to the '80s, when Danny makes the ill-advised decision to tote his young daughters to a brutal working-men's club -- and gets promptly jumped and beaten by henchmen of the crime boss Lord Billy Hennessy (Ronnie Fox). Reeling from the humiliation and suffering of this experience, Danny first attempts suicide, then does an about-face and opts to fight back by training as a boxer and taking a job as a bouncer at a local nightclub. Lo and behold, as it turns out, two of the men with whom Danny trained, Sparky (Scot Williams) and Rob (Shaun Parkes), not only have direct ties to Hennessy but opposing ties -- one is letting Billy's drug dealers in, the other attempting to keep them out. As Hennessy watches the curtain unveiled before his eyes on the men's doings, it sets off a chain of nasty and ugly retributions that ultimately culminate with Danny wresting control of the situation and engaging in violent action against Hennessy's goons. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

The 1947 holiday classic Miracle on 34th Street is transplanted to the 1990s with few changes in this family-oriented remake. The screenplay by the prolific John Hughes sticks close to the original outline, centering on Macy's executive Dorey Walker (Elizabeth Perkins) and her young daughter Susan (Mara Wilson), neither of whom much believes in the spirit of Christmas. Dorey is in charge of hiring Macy's Santas, including an old man named Kriss Kringle (Richard Attenborough). He does a remarkably convincing job, and he soon reveals that he actually believes himself to be Santa Claus. The authorities threaten to place the old man in an insane asylum, but a young lawyer comes to his defense. Meanwhile, Dorey and Susan find their own defenses melting and become reacquainted with the power of faith. Hughes and director Les Mayfield add a few modern touches, making Susan slightly more cynical and adding the requisite soulless corporate villains. Viewers familiar with the original may still prefer Edmund Gwenn's original Kris Kringle and consider the remake unnecessary, although the newer version reflects enough of the earlier film's spirit to prove entertaining to modern family audiences. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Season Five of Hunter begins as police detectives Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) and Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) try to break through the wall of silence surrounding a traumatized teenager. Danny Sanderson (Chad Allen) has not spoken a single word since witnessing the murder of his father and the wounding of his mother, presumably at the hands of a crooked sports agent with whom the father was doing business. Only after the main suspect is arrested and Danny's mother has recovered do the detectives realize that the case is far from closed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas team up one last time in Tough Guys. Harry Doyle (Lancaster) and Archie Lang (Douglas) are two old-time train robbers, who held up a train in 1956 and have been incarcerated for thirty years. After serving their time, they are released from jail and have to adjust to a new life of freedom, now as old men. Harry and Archie realize that they still have the pizzazz when, picking up their prison checks at a bank, they foil a robbery attempt. Archie, who spent his prison time pumping himself up, easily picks up a 20-year-old aerobics instructor named Skye (Darlanne Fluegel). Harry, on the other hand, has to waste away his days in a nursing home. They both have festering resentments --Archie for having to endure a humiliating job as a busboy; Harry for having to endure patronizing attitudes toward senior citizens. The two old pals finally go back to what they know best. After successfully robbing an armored car, they decide to rob the same train that they robbed thirty years ago. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Huckleberry Finn joins Tom Sawyer and Jim, a runaway slave, as they escape down the Mississippi River on a raft. ~ All Movie Guide

A pair of independent filmmakers become unwittingly involved in an international scheme by the largest oil corporations in the world. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

An Italian-American neighborhood is in the clutches of a swaggering Mafia don. By holding the residents in a grip of terror, the don manages to extort a great deal of money -- and undercover cop Tony Baretta (Robert Blake) is helpless to do anything about it, thanks to the refusal of the locals to speak up. This episode affords ample acting opportunities for the versatile Ross Martin and the tempestuous Katy Jurado. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Norman Jewison's adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical is set in the Ukranian ghetto village of Anatevka (the film was actually lensed in Yugoslavia). Israeli actor Topol repeats his London stage role as Tevye the milkman, whose equilibrium is constantly being challenged by his poverty, the prejudicial attitudes of non-Jews, and the romantic entanglements of his five daughters. Whenever the weight of the world becomes too much for him, Tevye carries on lengthy conversations with God, who does not answer but is at least more willing to listen than the milkman's remonstrative wife Golde. After arranging a marriage between his oldest daughter Tzeitel and wealthy butcher Lazar Wolf, Tevye is forced to do some quick rearranging when the girl falls in love with poor tailor Motel Kamzoil. Fancying himself more broad-minded than his gentile oppressors, Tevye cannot accept the notion that his other daughter Chava would want to marry Fyedka, a non-Jew. And after shouting the praises of "tradition," Tevye must change his tune-and his entire life-when he and his neighbors are forced out of Anatevka by the Czar's minions. Topol's co-stars include Norma Crane as Golde, Yiddish theater legend Molly Picon as Yente the matchmaker, and Leonard Frey as Motel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide