Charles Napier Movies

After a blow on the head, Monk (Tony Shalhoub) awakens in the tiny backwater town of Purnell, Wyoming, with both his memory and all traces of his identification gone. As Monk tries to figure out what's happened, a local woman named Cora (Laurie Metcalf) appears, declaring that he is her husband--and with no proof to the contrary, Monk takes Cora at her word, returning to her house and acting the role of dutiful helpmate! By and by, however, Monk's inherent detective skills begin to resurface, and soon he is investigating the mysterious disappearance of a waitress named Debbie (Bre Blair)--which may or may not be linked with the fate that has recently befallen local big shot Roger Zisk (Jim Parrack), whose body is covered with painful bee stings! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Superman's cousin, Supergirl (aka Kara), has been having weird nightmares in which she appears to be cast in the role of an assassin. When J'onn J'onnz is unable to telepathically decipher these dreams, Green Arrow and The Question try to help Supergirl -- who soon tumbles to the possibility that she might not be dreaming at all. Fans of The Manchurian Candidate will enjoy the plot twists in this episode, which establishes a plot strand that will be explored in further chilling detail in the later episode "Ultimatum." ~ All Movie Guide

A crime caper that gaily spoofs such antecedents as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and nods its head more than a few times to the work of Quentin Tarantino, Very Mean Men opens in a bar, where a bartender (Matthew Modine) finds himself serving drinks to a tough-looking guy (Martin Landau) he pegs as a cheap drinker. In order to keep the miniscule tips coming, the bartender makes up a story about warring mob families in the San Fernando Valley. In one corner there are the Minettis, who are led by Gino (Ben Gazzara), a mobster who's mellowed with age. Gino wants to make amends when Big Paddy Mulroney (Charles Durning) complains that Gino's clan is invading his side of the Valley. Gino's temperamental son Paulie (Scott Baio, sporting peroxided hair and a goatee to match) gives Mulroney money, only to then stiff Mulroney's waitress daughter on a tip after having lunch at the family's diner. Soon ethnic insults are flying like bullets, and everyone is out for revenge. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

A man becomes the unwitting last barrier between terrorists and nuclear holocaust in this action thriller. Rod Armstrong (Frank Zagarino) is a former Navy SEAL who travels to Moscow with his old friend Bob (Charles Napier) and Bob's wife Susan (Kimberly Kates) on a vacation. However, Armstrong soon discovers fun and games is not the first thing Bob and Susan have in mind; it seems that the happy couple is also working with U.S. Intelligence, and they've been sent to Russia to crack open a ring of illegal arms dealers selling stolen nuclear weapons to terrorists with cash in hand. However, shortly after Bob reveals this secret to Armstrong, he is killed. Now Armstrong and Susan are on the run from the Russians as they try to find the kingpin and bring him to justice before terrorists with nuclear weapons can destroy the world. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

All-purpose villain Jeremiah Surd hijacks Air Force One and kidnaps the president. Unfortunately, Surd has planted evidence pointing the finger at Benton Quest and Race Bannon. With government agents hot on their heels, the Quest Team teenagers -- Jonny , Jessie, and Hadji -- endeavor to absolve their parents of guilt and to track down the real miscreant. "Without a Trace" was first broadcast in the U.S. on December 30, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this youth-oriented made-for-cable adventure, 12-year-old Max accompanies his family on a vacation to ancient Incan ruins. While there he discovers an ancient and valuable mask. Suddenly the trip becomes lots more exciting, and dangerous. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A shuttle malfunction causes Quark, Rom, and Nog to crash-land on Earth. Normally, this would be a minor inconvenience: This time, however, the shuttle has passed through a timewarp, depositing the three travellers in Roswell, New Mexico, on that fateful day in 1947. As if the U.S. Air Force wasn't threat enough for our heroes, they are taken captive by a band of genuine alien invaders. Originally slated for telecast on November 13, 1995, "Little Green Men" was shown one week earlier on November 6. The episode was scripted by Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe from a story by Toni Marberry and Jack Trevino. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Horror virtuoso John Carpenter hosts this goofy horror anthology, originally produced for Showtime as a gory stepchild of HBO's Tales from the Crypt series. Playing an emaciated, eye-rolling "coroner," John introduces the audience to a triptych of creepy vignettes in the EC horror-comics mode while paddling about in the guts of assorted cadavers and cracking jokes more gag-inducing than anything oozing on the slab. Two of the stories are directed by Carpenter himself: "The Gas Station" is a retread (pun intended) of Halloween-style scare tactics as a pretty gas-station attendant watches various oddballs pass by her window after hearing that an escaped killer is on the loose; "Hair" is a morbid, hilarious look at man's obsession with his own virility in which Stacy Keach turns to a bizarre hair-growth clinic (run by David Warner & Debbie Harry) which promises instant results, but at a horrific price. The third segment, directed by Tobe Hooper, involves a baseball player (Mark Hamill) who receives an eye transplant after a car accident and soon begins having optical flashbacks revealing (you guessed it) the identity and tendencies of the eye's former owner -- a serial killer. The second segment is by far the most entertaining, featuring a wonderfully neurotic performance by Keach, but the first and last chapters are too derivative to offer much for the discriminating horror buff, although the same fans will enjoy several cute cameos from other genre directors, including Wes Craven, Sam Raimi and Roger Corman. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Action genre veteran David A. Prior wrote and directed this thriller that unfolds like a B-movie version of Midnight Run (1988). David Keith stars as Mace, a former cop now working as a bounty hunter or "skip tracer." When his daughter is murdered, the mayor (Charles Napier) of a small Southern town hires Mace to find the killer, who's suspected to be Mitch (Robert Hays), the victim's date from the evening of her death. Mace tracks down his target but when Mitch is nearly killed in an explosion, it becomes clear that he's innocent and the real killer is trying to wipe him out. After being ambushed and nearly killed, Mace and Mitch are joined by Sarah (Pamela Anderson), a hooker who witnessed the attack. As the three of them try to stay alive, they uncover a political conspiracy involving the deputy mayor (Stacy Keach) and the corrupt police force that Mace once quit in disgust, led by a crooked detective (Leo Rossi). Also known as Skip-Tracer. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Lonely Hearts is a modern film noir in which a lonely woman meets and falls for a man whom she refuses to let go. Alma (Beverly D'Angelo) is a wallflower who lives with her mother and works at a Social Security office. In her desperation to make some sort of social life for herself, she answers a personal ad and meets Frank (Eric Roberts) with whom she falls in love. Frank turns out to be a con man and a swindler, but Alma is obsessed with him. She begins to help him by posing as his sister while he cons other women, until she and Frank are forced to flee when one of the victims hires a private detective. Beverly D'Angelo plays Alma with the perfect mixture of both predator and victim and director Andrew Lane understands and directs his actors well, making Lonely Hearts a very well-thought-out and executed thriller despite a somewhat languid pacing. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Bill Bixby stars as physicist Dr. David Banner, the mild-mannered alter ego of the raging green mutant The Hulk (Lou Ferrigno), in this made-for-TV film based on the 1978 series (which was inspired by the Marvel Comics characters). In this outing, Dr. Banner teams with Thor, the Norse god of thunder. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

In the second half of Murder She Wrote's two-part Season Three opener, Jessica's long-missing brother in law Neil Fletcher (Jackie Cooper), who has been working under an alias with the Carmody Circus, has confessed to the murder of circus manager Hank Sutter. Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is convinced that Neil is innocent, and that he is covering up for somebody else--and this proves to be a reasonable conclusion when a second murder occurs, in which the victim is rival circus owner Harry Kingman (Joe Dorsey). Seriously hampering Jessica's investigation is the stone wall of resistance built up by the highly clannish circus folk--and by the curiously hostile local authorities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Italian director Ruggero Deodato is best known for his notorious Cannibal Holocaust and the brutal action film Inferno in Diretta. In this derivative slasher entry, Deodato shows very little of the vicious realism which distinguished those films. A group of average teenagers vacation at a campground run by the vituperative David Hess (Last House on the Left) and his wife (Mimsy Farmer). The teens are murdered one by one by an unseen killer, and the massacre turns out to be the result of Farmer's adulterous affair with local policeman Charles Napier years before, which caused her son to go insane. The main attraction of this film is its cast, which also includes horror veterans John Steiner and Ivan Rassimov, because although Deodato generates a fair amount of suspense in the murder scenes, the effect is weakened by the overly familiar structure. Hess and Farmer are typically strong leads and Napier is at his two-faced best, but Camping del Terrore remains one of Deodato's least interesting films. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide