Leslie Morris Movies

In this fact-based made-for-cable docudrama, Leonard Nimoy stars as Mel Mermelstein, a Nazi death camp survivor who wages a court battle against the revisionist Institute for Historical Review over their claims that the Holocaust never occurred. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Australian star Paul Hogan just couldn't seem to come up with a hit comparable to his 1986 international hit Crocodile Dundee. Hogan's Almost an Angel was a nice try, but no cigar. The star plays a lifelong thief who suffers a potentially fatal accident. While "in limbo", Hogan is visited by God (amusingly played by Charlton Heston-well, why not Charlton Heston?). When he recovers, Hogan is convinced that he'd been returned to the land of the living in order to do God's work. He turns over a new leaf, coming to the assistance of wheelchair-bound Elias Koteas and his pretty sister Linda Kozlowski (the real-life Mrs. Hogan). At first suspicious of Hogan, Kozlowski is finally won over by his new-found sincerity. So lightweight that it threatens to float away at any moment, Almost an Angel is held together exclusively by Paul Hogan's star appeal. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to insure a box-office success. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Enterprise transports Picard to Starbase Scylla 515 for a heart operation. During his absence, Geordi is taken hostage by the Pakleds, a group of primitive aliens who are in dire need of Geordi's technical expertise. The rest of the episode cuts back in forth between Picard's fight for life and Geordi's efforts to save himself and his "hosts." Written by Robert L. McCullough, "Samaritan Snare" was originally broadcast May 20, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this madcap comedy, Geena Davis plays Valerie, a manicurist living in the valley with her cold fiancé, Dr. Ted Gallagher (Charles Rocket). At the Curl Up and Dye beauty salon where she works, Valerie enlists the help of her boss, Candy Pink (Julie Brown), for some style advice to try and win back Ted's affections. After undergoing a brand-new hairstyle, Valerie learns that Ted is having an affair and she kicks him out of the house. Soon, while lounging around in her bikini, a spaceship from the planet Jhazzalan crash-lands in her swimming pool. Curious, Valerie befriends the ship's inhabitants -- three horny aliens covered in fur named Mac (Jeff Goldblum), Whiploc (Jim Carrey), and Zeebo (Damon Wayans). Introducing her new friends to Candy, the aliens get a shave and a total makeover transformation into hot, available dates. They all go out dancing at L.A. nightclubs and party. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

The first season of the lampoonish cop show Sledge Hammer! ended as the title character, a thick-muscled, thick-witted Los Angeles police detective (played by David Rasche), confidently set about to disarm a nuclear device. "I know what I'm doing," said Sledge -- but he didn't, and the season ended with Los Angeles and everyone in it going up in a puff of mushroom-shaped smoke! This bizarre finale had been conceived by series creator Alan Spencer when it seemed as though the series would not be renewed for a second season. However, a renewal came in at the last moment -- and thus it is explained at the outset that season two is a prequel to season one, officially titled Sledge Hammer!: The Early Days. Once we get past this outrageous bit of creative chicanery, it is easy to see that Sledge Hammer is just as arrogant, stubborn, brutal, and stupid as ever, while his partner, Officer Dori Doreau (Anne-Marie Martin), has become quite adept at concealing her superior intellect and allowing Sledge to think that he and he alone has solved all their cases. This season's crop of satirical storylines includes Sledge and Dori's smashing of a college neo-Nazi ring, a close encounter with the ghost of Humphrey Bogart (played by Robert Sacchi), various underground assignments in which Sledge poses as everything from a mob assassin to Australian automobile manufacturer "Crocodile Bruce," and wacky one-shot parodies of Vertigo, Dressed to Kill, and Robocop. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

David Rasche stars as the LAPD's toughest, nastiest, and stupidest detective as Sledge Hammer! bursts into its first season. The opener finds ultra-macho Inspector Sledge Hammer reluctantly teamed with a "mere dame," Officer Dori Doreau (Anne-Marie Martin). By episode's end, the sagacious Dori has masterminded the rescue of the mayor's daughter -- though of course it is Sledge who takes all the credit (this pilot episode has been released separately on VHS as "Under the Gun"). In subsequent (mis)adventures, Sledge and Dori are pestered by an inquiring reporter; a spoof of the Harrison Ford movie Witness finds Sledge forced to hide in "Manynote" community (it makes sense, honest it does); a former partner of Hammer's breaks out of jail to challenge our hero to a duel; the two thirtysomething cops pose as high schoolers to crack a car-theft ring; and the city is plague by a serial killer who preys on Elvis imitators. The season finale, conceived in the misapprehension that Sledge Hammer! wasn't going to be renewed for a second year, is a literal "blast," as the sublimely confident Sledge makes one teeny-tiny false move while disarming a nuclear device! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A broad and brassy satire of hard-boiled detective shows, the weekly, half-hour ABC sitcom Sledge Hammer! first burst onto the scene September 23, 1986. Created by Alan Spencer, the series starred David Rasche as Detective Inspector Sledge Hammer, a tough, arrogant cop who played by his own rules and was nobody's patsy, no sir! Breaking 57 varieties of civil liberties every time he went out to collar a criminal, Hammer made no distinctions between the gravity of individual crimes, being just as tough and brutal on litterbugs as he was on bank robbers. You couldn't miss Hammer when he arrived on the scene, waving his beloved pearl-handed .44 Magnum and dressed in garish, mismatched clothes, with his ever-present sunglasses covering his beady little eyes. Although Hammer had an impressive resumé of big arrests, it was usually his smarter, quieter, and better-looking partner, Officer Dori Doreau (Anne-Marie Martin), who did most of the hard work. And in time-honored cop-cliché fashion, Hammer's volatile superior officer, Captain Trunk (Harrison Page), who never spoke when shouting would do, suspended our hero from the force each and every week, only to reinstate him for a job well done (by Dori Doreau, that is!). The series' first season contained perhaps the most bizarre cliffhanger ever conceived, with Hammer, muttering his trademarked "I know what I'm doing," accidentally detonating a nuclear device and destroying Los Angeles and everyone in it! This deliciously "noir" grace note was conceived by the producers when it seemed as if there was no way on earth that Sledge Hammer! would be renewed for a second season. When renewal did occur, the producers blithely explained that season two was a prequel to season one: Sledge Hammer: The Early Days. And in this same insouciant vein, the series went its merry way until it finally was canceled for keeps on June 30, 1988. ~ Rovi

Endlessly imitated, The Terminator made the reputation of cowriter/director James Cameron -- who would go on to make 1997's titanic Titanic -- and solidified the stardom of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The movie begins in a post-apocalyptic 2029, when Los Angeles has been largely reduced to rubble and is under the thumb of all-powerful ruling machines. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), a member of the human resistance movement, is teleported back to 1984. His purpose: to rescue Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of the man who will lead the 21st-century rebels against the tyrannical machines, from being assassinated before she can give birth. Likewise thrust back to 1984 is The Terminator (Schwarzenegger), a grim, well-armed, virtually indestructable cyborg who has been programmed to eliminate Sarah Connor. After killing two "Sarah Connors" who turn out to be the wrong women, he finally aims his gunsights at the genuine article. This is the film in which Schwarzenegger declared "I'll be baaaack" -- and back he was, in "kinder and gentler" form, in the even more successful Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi