Jeff Olson Movies

Goodbye Bird is the story of a boy accused by his principal of stealing her treasured talking parrot. With the help of a veterinarian, the boy attempts to discover the true identity of the thief. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Who'd have thought that we'd ever watch Debbie Reynolds and Suzanne Pleshette playing grandmothers? Yet, grannies they are-and very glamorous ones-in the made-for-TV Battling for Baby. A pre-Friends Courteney Cox plays a young mother who decides to go back to work to help pay the bills. Cox's mother, Pleshette and her mother-in-law Reynolds battle over who will have the honor of looking after the baby while the new mom is away. A few "very special" dramatic scenes aside, this is essentially harmless froth, in the tradition of 1950s TV sitcoms. Battling for Baby originally aired January 12, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This 1970s true story features a fanatically religious woman and her son-in-law who hold her children prisoner while waiting for her late husband's resurrection in Utah. ~ Rovi

The Desperate Hours directed by Michael Cimino, is an attempt to remake the Humphrey Bogart classic of the same name with indifferent results. Bosworth (Mickey Rourke), a brutal criminal on the run with his partners, takes over a house occupied by an unhappily married couple Nora (Mimi Rogers) and Tim (Anthony Hopkins) and their young son and daughter. Bosworth has escaped from jail with the help of his defense attorney Nancy Breyers (Kelly Lynch). The film focuses on the interactions of the family and Bosworth as he plans his escape to Mexico. Cimino wastes little time in developing the characters or explaining the implausible premise that Bosworth would chose an occupied house and hold an innocent family captive when the logical choice would be to lay low and wait for his chance to escape. Both Hopkins and Rourke, usually excellent actors, give wildly over-the-top performances, aided by the lurid, over-written dialogue of the screenplay and the badly paced, ill-conceived direction by Cimino, which instead of creating tension and suspense, simply confuses the already muddled and incomprehensible plot. The Desperate Hours is a pale example of the original with little to recommend it. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

Based on a true story, the two-part TV movie I Know My First Name Is Steven tells the tragic story of Steven Stayner. At age seven, Steven was kidnapped by two men who held him captive in a tiny shed for seven years. One of the men, a habitual child abuser named Kenneth Parnell, sexually assaulted Steven on an almost daily basis during the boy's ordeal. At age 14, Steven finally was able to escape and return to his family. But we are shown that Steven's safe return was far from the happy ending it appeared to be. He's forced to adjust to a family he'd never really known, to convince himself that his parents had never forgotten him, and to put his seven-year hell behind him. While I Know My First Name Is Steven ends on an upbeat note, the real Stayner died in a motorcycle accident only a few months after this film was first telecast in May 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this made-for-video thriller, an undercover policewoman (Pamela Dixon) makes it a personal vendetta to hunt down the drug dealers and pimps who make their money by exploiting women. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

In this made-for-TV movie, a group of lonely, unattached people meet up in a local bar in search of love and friendship. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi