David McIlwraith Movies
- 2005
A beautiful young woman finds her storybook marriage may not have such a happy ending in this thriller starring Sarah Lancaster and Mark Humphrey. When Allison met wealthy software billionaire Phillip it seemed as if all the elements were in place for the perfect union. Before long, the couple was married and well on their way to a loving and committed future together. When Allison reluctantly begins to suspect that Phillip may have played a pivotal role in the death of his first wife, however, the cracks in their foundation begin to show as she begins to follow an ominous trail of clues left behind by Phillips' ill-fated former spouse. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
This TNT miniseries stars Alec Baldwin as Robert Jackson, the Supreme Court justice who served as the head prosecutor for the war crimes tribunal that took place in Nuremberg after the horrors of WWII and the Holocaust. The film follows Jackson from his preparations for the trial to the outcome of the trial itself, paying particular attention to the interplay between Jackson and the Nazi thugs he is trying to prosecute. Brian Cox co-stars a Hermann Goering, Hitler's right-hand man, while Christopher Plummer plays British prosecutor Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, and Jill Hennessey portrays Elise Douglas, Jackson's invaluable secretary and sometime lover. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Baldwin, Jill Hennessy, (more)
Tired of his bloodthirsty vocation, a gunslinger returns to his old hometown to help out his troubled former lover. Much to his surprise, he learns he has an adolescent daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lance Henriksen, Kay Lenz, (more)
- 1992
The made-for-TV Fatal Memories is based on a true story. Shelley Long stars as a California woman whose repressed memories suddenly burst forth. She promptly accuses her father of murder that occurred 20 years earlier. Then she experiences flashes of recollection suggesting that her father was also a party to her preteen rape. Many questions are raised but few are resolved during the climactic courtroom sequence. The theory of Repressed Memory Syndrome is in such disrepute nowadays that it's likely a rebroadcast of Fatal Memories will be even more controversial than its original telecast on November 9, 1992. The film has been syndicated as The Eileen Franklin Story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Long, Dean Stockwell, (more)
- 1992
In this haunting and complex coming-of-age drama, a 15-year-old student at a boy's preparatory school grows up a little faster as he tries to deal with his own problems and those of his fragmented family. His parents are divorced and since the split, he has become estranged from his father. The trouble begins when he learns that his mother has developed schizophrenia. His reactions to her illness and the changes it brings form the core of this provocative film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Davis, Matthew Ferguson, (more)
- 1989
Evil land developers, those most ubiquitous of 1980s movie villains, are the chief antagonists in the made-for-TV Mothers, Daughters and Lovers. Helen Shaver plays a truckstop/motel owner in the rural Northwest. She manages her business with the help of her two budding teenaged daughters--one studious (Perrey Reeves), one a rebel (Marcianne Warman). All three ladies ward off unwanted lotharios, entreat the attentions of those whom they care about, and band together to stop a new real estate development from eliminating their place of business. Mothers, Daughters and Lovers was written by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, the team responsible for American Graffiti (73). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- PG13
Where has director Michael Anderson been since Logan's Run? Earning his keep on such slick TV-style time-fillers as Millennium. Kris Kristofferson plays the head of an official committee investigating the head-on collision of two commercial jets. A thorough analysis reveals the presence of a weapon of unknown origin in the wreckage; it is also pointed out that some of the victims' watches are running backwards. This, coupled with the cryptic warnings by flight attendant Cheryl Ladd to drop the investigation, prompts Kristofferson to burrow further and uncover the truth: Ladd is a sentinel from 1000 years in the future, who has come back to the 20th Century to help repopulate her dying civilization. Plot pegs and obstacles are in the hands of such sideline characters as enigmatic professor Daniel Travanti and amiable android Robert Joy. Millennium was adapted by John Varley from his own story Air Raid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kris Kristofferson, Cheryl Ladd, (more)
- 1987
- R
Filmed in Canada, Too Outrageous is the belated sequel to the 1977 cult classic Outrageous. Craig Russell is back as gay hairdresser-turned-female impersonator Robin Turner, as is Hollis McLaren as his mentally unbalanced girlfriend. We learn that since last we saw him, Robin has become quite successful on the New York nightclub circuit with his imitations of Streisand, Garland et. al. We also learn that McLaren is as mixed-up as ever; this time she falls under the spell of a duplicitous bartender. That Too Outrageous isn't up to the standards of the original can be attributed to the fact that what was outrageous in 1977 was merely bemusing ten years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Russell, Hollis McLaren, (more)
- 1986
- R
This horror film is a variation on the Frankenstein theme involving the experiments of Alex Whyte (Richard Cox), a robotics engineer for NASA. Whyte has designed a cyborg that incorporates a human brain and a mechanical body. The cyborg is fitted out with a computer program that forces it to react with extreme violence to anything (or anyone) perceived as a threat. In order to shut off this reaction, the cyborg is also fitted out with a remote control receptor that cuts its current if things get out of hand. Theory becomes reality when Whyte murders Lauren Lehman (Teri Austin), a scientist who faults him for his improper use of government funding, and then installs Lehman's brain in the cyborg. The cyborg escapes before the remote control device can be installed and now there is no way to stop its murderous rages. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David McIlwraith, Teri Austin, (more)
- 1986
Originally telecast October 4, 1986, Really Weird Tales was meant to be a satirical spin on the old Twilight Zone series. SCTV regulars John Candy, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara and Joe Flaherty head the cast of this 90-minute comedy anthology. The tenor of the project can be gauged by the first playlet, "All's Well That Ends Strange," the story of a wastrelly lothario uncovering a Horrible Secret. Laughs? Of course there are laughs. All that's missing in Really Weird Tales is the strong storytelling sense that Rod Serling injected into his Twilight Zone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In the first of a series of made-for-TV films shot two decades after the original Perry Mason television series ended in 1966, Mason (Raymond Burr), now an Appellate Court Judge, must step down from the bench in order to defend his longtime secretary Della Street (Barbara Hale) against murder charges. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1980
- R
This routine drama-comedy about the trials of walking out of the closet has some notable performances such as that of Madeleine Kahn as a salty, warm-hearted, and terribly promiscuous neighbor, and Robert Viharo as an outgoing father. Francis Geminiani (Alan Rosenberg) has a romance going with Judith (Sarah Holcomb) until he drops her after a few nights of intimacy. Besieged by guilt and misgivings, Francis is eventually forced to admit that he is really in love with her brother Randy (David Marshall Grant), who does not really live up (or down) to his name. Randy is a wealthy, conservative Harvard student and Francis is a poor and liberal Harvard student. The story is based on the play Gemini by Albert Innaurato. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeline Kahn, Rita Moreno, (more)
Two misfits find love and support in each other's company, in this show-business comedy with a twist. One of them, Robin Turner (Craig Russell), is a male hairdresser and a gifted female impersonator, who tries out his act in local gay nightclubs. His roommate is Liza Connors (Hollis McLaren), an old high-school friend who is now a mumblingly strange pregnant woman, recently released from a mental hospital where she was being treated for schizophrenia. She is determined never to return to the hospital again, and he wants to be a show-business success with his impressions. When Robin loses his job, the two determine to try their luck in New York. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Russell, Hollis McLaren, (more)
