Meeno Peluce Movies
- 1983
Taken from the Voyagers! television show, these two episodes follow the adventures of a man and an orphaned child as they travel through time in an attempt to prevent future disasters. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1983
B.A. (Mr. T) persuades his fellow A-Teamers to help him rescue his pal from Strikersville, a brutal Florida prison farm where sadistic warden (Clifton James) forces the inmates to participate in to-the-death boxing matches--then orders his deputies to hunt down and kill the "winner" like an animal. In addition to the team's efforts to get themselves arrested (it's "Three Stooges" time!), the real fun in this episode arises from their disguises: Hannibal (George Peppard) as a prissy hairdresser, the loquacious B.A. as a deafmute, and the sharkish Face (Dirk Benedict) as mad medico "Dr. Pepper." Former heavyweight boxing champion Ken Norton appears as the aptly named Jackhammer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Don't Go Near the Park begins in a cave 12,000 years ago, where an old crone with phony rubber hands curses her sinful children, Gar and Tre (Crackers Phinn, Barbara Monker). They will age ten years for every year of life and never die. To appear youthful, they must kill people by ripping their stomachs open and eating their guts. To end the curse, Gar must marry a woman and produce a virgin girl who will be sacrificed at age 16. The next segment follows Gar (now named Mark) as he hypnotizes his landlady (a young Linnea Quigley) into bearing him a child, Bondi. On her 16th birthday, Bondi is upset by her parents' fighting and runs away to Griffith Park, blowing up a van full of rapists along the way. In the park, supposedly cursed by the "demons of Los Feliz," Bondi is taken in by Patty, who is actually Tre in disguise. Patty lives in an abandoned ranch house with two other runaways. Cowboy (Chris Riley) is a handsome teen who shows Bondi his child-abuse scars and falls in love with her, while Nick is a sassy eight-year-old played by Voyager from the Unknown's Meeno Peluce, first seen as he tries to fondle Bondi in her sleep. Aldo Ray plays a writer named Taft who tells Nick about the park's curse, leading the three kids to try an escape. They end up in a corpse-filled cave, where Mark tries to rape Bondi until Patty hits him on the head with a rock. The witchy siblings shoot lasers out of their eyes at each other, then Bondi turns into their mother and causes all the corpses to come alive, devouring them. Reverting to her normal form, Bondi helps Nick and Cowboy escape the cave, but rips Nick's stomach open on a playground slide in a predictable "shock ending." Director Lawrence D. Foldes and co-screenwriter Linwood Chase appear as two of the van rapists, and their fiery demise at least provides some measure of revenge for the audience. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1980
After promising to play Santa Claus at the Help Center, Tom Willis (Franklin Cover) sprains his ankle. Thus, a reluctant George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley) is pressed into service and fitted out with whiskers and padding. George then proceeds to get himself and the Help Center in plenty of hot water when, after he assures the kiddies that they'll get "anything" they want for Christmas, one youngster asks for a mother and a father. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, (more)
- 1980
In this children's movie, a single executive enjoys her life on the fast track, but when she is talked into becoming a den mother to a rambunctious pack of Cub Scouts, her life is temporarily derailed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Fast Friends is a lumpy satire set "backstage" at a talk show (imagine what the film would have been like had it been made in 1989 rather than '79). Most of the action centers around egotistical, near-lunatic talk host Dick Shawn. His frantic antics are counterpointed with the story of career woman Susan Heldfond, a divorcee who re-enters the workplace for the sake of her child. This made-for-TV film costars former critic's darling Carrie Snodgress and then-hot actress MacKenzie Phillips. But the real attraction in Fast Friends is the prescient appearance of tenth-billed David Letterman as "Matt Morgan", a brash comedian who has the temerity to upstage the preening Dick Shawn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
"For God's sake, GET OUT!" was the ad campaign for the 1979 shocker The Amityville Horror. The film was based on the allegedly true story of the luckless Lutz family, who move lock, stock, and barrel into a new home, only to find that it is possessed by the demonic spirits of its previous owners. Variations of the Seven Deadly Plagues emanate from virtually every household fixture, while other forms of otherworldly mischief are suffered by the Lutz children. Enter kindly Father Delaney (Rod Steiger), who does his utmost to exorcise the house. The Amityville Horror was frequently greeted with laughs from its first-run audiences, especially after it was discovered that the "actual" events depicted in the film (based on a book by Jay Anson) were complete fabrications. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Brolin, Margot Kidder, (more)
- 1978
Based on a book by John C. Fuller, the made-for-TV Ghost of Flight 401 is predicated on the "actual events" surrounding a real-life plane crash. In December of 1972, Flight 401 nose-dived into the Florida Everglades, killing its flight officer (played herein by Ernest Borgnine). Though damaged beyond repair, the plane is cannibalized for its parts, which are recycled to newly built aircraft. On each of these new planes, it is reported that the ghost of 401's flight officer has made unexpected appearances, to warn the crews of impending disasters. OoooOOOOOOoooooooo..... Those who dared first watched The Ghost of Flight 401 on February 18, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Kojak (Telly Savalas) and his team are summoned to a hospital, where a mysterious strangler is preying upon staff members as they go about their rounds. Hospital psychiatrist Ellen Page (Zohra Lampert) suspects that one of her patients is the elusive killer. But as the case progresses, Kojak unearths evidence that points in several radically different directions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
