Joel Polis Movies
A grim discovery in the basement of a crumbling prison reformatory reveals a demonic secret that cuts to the very base of mankind's struggle against sin in this supernatural thriller starring Michael Berryman, Bill Moseley, Michael Dorn, Adrianne Curry, and Kevin McCarthy. Far beneath the west cellblock of a turn of the century prison lies a malevolent secret that has lain dormant for one hundred years - a sub-basement structure with only one entrance and one exit. When the skeletal remains of seven brutalized children are discovered inside, a special CSI team is quickly brought in to conduct a more thorough investigation. What they find may change the entire way mankind views the wages of sin, for there dwell seven fallen angels; each responsible for one of the deadly sins and each determined to show mankind just how many ways there are to pass from this mortal realm into the next. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2005
This Hallmark Channel TV movie is one of a series starring John Larroquette as McBride (no first name), a hard-nosed cop turned compassionate defense lawyer, specializing in "lost causes." A brutal murder has been committed, and the victim is prominent Beverly Hills madam Heather Bradley. The most likely suspect (who of course is McBride's client) is virginal Omaha girl Marilyn Fletcher (Claire Coffee), a failed actress who out of desperation became a call girl, and who may have been seeking vengeance against Heather after her first "John", who was supposed to have been gentle and respectable, turned out to be anything but. Poring through the dead woman's cryptic e-mails, McBride finds out that she was not only a procurer, but also a big-time blackmailer--and thus the suspect list grows by leaps and bounds! McBride: It's Murder, Madam debuted March 4, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Marshall Uzzle's 2002 direct-to-video horror picture A Light in the Darkness concerns Taylor Melnick (Matt Terzian), a former mental patient who is discharged after four years in a sanitarium. He returns to his hometown and runs head-first into his own psychoses, then decides to seek violent revenge against the town for the treatment he received, axe-in-hand. Geoffrey Lewis, Troy Beyer and the legendary Karen Black co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Terzian, Geoffrey Lewis, (more)
- 2000
Originally titled Mercury Project, this made-for-cable thriller focuses on 17-year-old Todd Baker (Ryan Merriman) and his ex-astronaut grandfather, Gus Baker (Robert Wagner). Hoping to honor the memory of his late father, likewise a space explorer, Todd collaborates with Gus in restoring a Mercury Redstone Rocket (purchased from a junk heap for a mere $80,000) as a high school science project. When Todd grafts the Rocket to a Mercury 10 capsule found in a space museum, he brings down the wrath of the Feds, who inform him that he's committed an infinite number of security breaches. Denied permission to complete his project, our hero is nonetheless redeemed when a space shuttle crew is trapped hundreds of miles above earth...and only Todd's rebuilt rocket and capsule is capable of going to the rescue! About as credible as anything else on the ABC Family Channel ever since, Rocket's Red Glare debuted on August 27, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
George (Jason Alexander) spends most of this episode thinking of a perfect comeback line for a comment made by his co-worker Reilly (Joel Polis) -- but it may not be delivered to Reilly, or even in New York. Elsewhere, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) mulls over the fringe benefits of not exposing a tennis pro as a phony. Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Kramer (Michael Richards) reap different results from their video picks. And can you really recover from a coma? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this bittersweet comedy drama, a man nearing the end of his life seeks closure with his family and friends, and he confronts the issues of the right to die. Nick Stark (Eric Roberts) is a successful architect who is openly gay. He was involved in a committed relationship with Brandon Theis (Gregory Harrison), a television director, until Nick discovered that he's HIV-positive. Nick's first question to Brandon is "You won't leave me, will you? I don't want to die alone." Brandon, however, doesn't have the emotional strength to deal with Nick's condition and soon moves on. Several years later, even though Nick has been mindful of his health, he begins to display symptoms of full-blown AIDS, most notably the brain lesions that indicate Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy, an AIDS-related illness that has already claimed several of his friends. Wanting to go out with his dignity intact, Nick decides to throw one last party, which will give him the opportunity to say goodbye to his friends and family while he's still lucid -- shortly after which he intends to take his own life with painkillers. Nick attempts to make peace with his mother and father (Lee Grant and George Segal), who had difficulty accepting their son's lifestyle, and he enjoys a last laugh with his close friends, until Brandon -- who is hardly welcomed by the group -- shows up. Appearing as Nick's friends and family are Margaret Cho, Bronson Pinchot, Bruce Davison, Sally Kellerman, Marlee Matlin, Roddy McDowall, and Dennis Christopher. Writer and director Randal Kleiser loosely based It's My Party on his own personal experiences when his longtime companion was diagnosed with AIDS and opted to take his own life before his symptoms became too severe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Roberts, Gregory Harrison, (more)
- 1995
Forced into a bank vault during an armed robbery, Monica (Roma Downey) is trapped therein by an earthquake, along with bank president Max Chamberlain (Jack Scalia) and pregnant bank officer Alison Craig (Lisa Jane Persky). It turns out that the holdup man is Alison's husband Jackson Spears (Lisa Jane Persky), who had intended to get even with Chamberlain for his shady financial finagling. Now Jackson demands that Monica and Alison be freed--but that Chamberlain be left entombed in the vault. The crisis reaches its peak when Alison goes into labor! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on a popular novel by Judith Krantz, this sudsy romantic drama features a prominent photographer who heads to Gay Paree, unaware that greedy family members are plotting to bilk her father out of his valuable ranch land. Love blossoms in the City of Light when she encounters a fellow picture taker. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lisa Hartman, Cliff Robertson, (more)
- 1995
- R
The main attraction of this otherwise undistinguished Silence of the Lambs rip-off is former '70s exploitation star Pam Grier playing a police chief. The plot involves a murderous psychotic who volunteers for a medical experiment in order to escape his confinement. Teaming up to catch him are a retired "mindwalker" who can place herself inside the killer's head, and the cop who arrested him and regrets not killing him when he had the chance. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Realizing that he has no money while in the midst of remodeling his home, a panicked Larry (Garry Shandling) quickly contacts his business manager, Frank (Paul Willson), in hopes of getting to the bottom of the financial dilemma. When Frank suggests that the problem may lie in a faulty office accountant, Larry denies the possibility and shifts the blame toward Frank himself. As Larry opts to make a few quick bucks by appearing in Kentucky Fried Chicken commercials and other advertisements, Artie (Rip Torn) and Hank (Jeffrey Tambor) embark on a drunken spree of retribution in which they burn down Frank's trellis. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
A wealthy young bride is killed in what appears to be a mugging gone awry. The ensuing investigation reveals that the victim's husband was cheating on her. As it turns out, the solution to the case hinges on a valuable silver pin that was owned by the unfortunate woman. Nancy Marchand, best remembered as the aristocratic newspaper owner on Lou Grant and the mob matriarch on The Sopranos, is here seen as the imperious Mrs. Barbara Ryder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Actress Susan Ruttan, who played the quietly efficient legal secretary on LA Law, does an artistic about-face in the TV movie Deadly Medicine. She plays a Texas pediatrics nurse who may have committed several "mercy killings" of her charges. 43 babies die under mysterious circumstances, with Ms. Ruttan seemingly always lurking in the corridor. When confronted by doctor Veronica Hamel, Susan threatens to accuse Ms. Hamel of the murders--and she does, with astonishing success. Though constructed like a network "mystery of the week", Deadly Medicine is founded on fact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In return for Warner Bros. greenlighting his pet project White Hunter, Black Heart (1990), Clint Eastwood directed and starred in this more commercial film, an action caper about a mismatched pair of auto theft cops. Eastwood is grizzled veteran detective Nick Pulovski, who's determined to bring down the chop-shop operation being run by a pair of German crooks, Strom (Raul Julia) and Liesl (Sonia Braga). Although he's been officially removed from the case and partnered with a green, recently promoted detective, David Ackerman (Charlie Sheen), the hard-drinking Nick's not about to let the car thieves get away with murder. David, in the meanwhile, is dealing with his own issues, including the death of his brother (for which he was responsible), his unhappy girlfriend Sarah (Lara Flynn Boyle) and his estrangement from his wealthy father Eugene (Tom Skerritt). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Charlie Sheen, (more)
- 1990
The folks at Cheers challenge their rivals at Gary's Olde Towne Tap to a grudge basketball game. When Sam (Ted Danson) finds out that Gary plans to cheat his way to victory, he brings in a ringer: Cheers' temporary bartender (and full-time Boston Celtic) Kevin McHale. But McHale will agree to play only on a very special condition. This episode was dedicated to Cheers casting director and AIDs activist Stephen Kolzak, who died September 19, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
In this drama a woman suffers terribly after she finally admits having an affair with her married doctor. Her husband does not accept the news gracefully and trouble ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The only True Believer at the beginning of this drama is idealistic young attorney Robert Downey Jr., who apprentices under the guidance of celebrated civil-rights activist James Woods. Alas, in the years since the sixties, Woods has become a disillusioned, dope-smoking ambulance chaser. Goaded by Downey, Woods takes up one last "lost cause:" that of Korean-American prison inmate Yuji Okomoto, who is about to be tried for the self-defense slaying of another prisoner. As Woods investigates, he unearths several iniquities in the trial that sent Okomoto to prison. Despite the fact that the one witness who might clear Okomoto is an unhinged conspiracy theorist, Woods endeavors to re-open Okomoto's case--which plays right into the hands of sharkish, politically ambitious DA Kurtwood Smith. Chock full of plot twists and last-minute shockers, True Believer was popular enough to inspire a spin-off TV series, Eddie Dodd. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Woods, Robert Downey, Jr., (more)
- 1989
Once again, the Cheers gang is swept up in a rivalry with the folks at their chief competition, Gary's Old Towne Tap. On this occasion, the two establishments are vying to create "Boston's Best Bloody Mary." Will Woody (Woody Harrelson), the only Cheers man ever able to best the redoubtable Gary (Joel Polis), save the day again -- or will things get hilariously out of control as usual? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
A woman wearing a heavy veil shows up at the offices of the Blue Moon Detective Agency and hires David (Bruce Willis) and Maddie (Cybill Shepherd) to locate a recently paroled convict named Frank Harbert (Joel Polis). It seems that, years ago, Frank had horribly disfigured the veiled woman's face, and now she wants to find him--and marry him! Inevitably, Frank turns up dead, prompting the detectives to launch a second search for the killer. The episode climaxes with a profusion of people wearing black veils, in a chaotic mistaken-identity sequence reminiscent of The Pink Panther--or at the very least, the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Year after year, the staff at Gary's Old Towne Tap has defeated the gang at Cheers in one athletic contest after another. This year, however, it looks as if Cheers will be able to best Gary's at their annual bowling match. All Sam (Ted Danson) has to do is convince the reluctant Woody (Woody Harrelson) to stop hiding his kegling skills under a bushel basket. By the way, catch those cooool shades on Cliff (John Ratzenberger). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy try but fail to bring this flat comedy to life, while the story itself is hampered by intercutting between the years of 1982 in Los Angeles (Moore) and 1984 in Kuwait (Murphy), with no explanation of how these two disparate people and locations are related. Wylie (Moore) is an inept engineer trying to perfect a gyro system for his employers who contract projects with the U.S. defense department. Wylie accidentally gets some blueprints for another type of gyro -- and his company successfully manufactures the part, much to almost everyone's benefit. Unfortunately, these plans are coveted by a certain ruthless industrial spy (David Rasch), and the FBI itself is suspicious about the origins of the blueprints in Wylie's hands. Meanwhile (and in constant interspersed segments), Landry (Murphy) is trying to get his tank to stay on course, but no matter what he does the machine swerves and lunges at random -- could there be a gyro at fault here? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dudley Moore, Eddie Murphy, (more)
- 1984
Convicted murderer Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald had hoped that, by telling his side of the story to investigative journalist Joe McGinniss, the authorities would be persuaded of MacDonald's innocence. Instead, McGinniss ended up unswerving in his belief of MacDonald's guilt, and the result was the devastating best-seller Fatal Vision. In this two-part TV adaptation of McGinniss' book, Gary Cole plays MacDonald, a former Green Beret officer, while Frank Dent essays the role of McGinniss. MacDonald's wife and two children are brutally murdered in their Fort Bragg, North Carolina home on February 17, 1970. The prime suspect, MacDonald insists that the killings were committed by a gang of stoned-out hippies, a story that at first is accepted in toto by the doctor's father-in-law Freddy Kassab (Karl Malden). But after MacDonald is officially exonerated, Kassab notices several holes in his son-in-law's story, and becomes convinced that MacDonald was in fact the murderer. Through Kassab's persistence, as well as the uncovering of new forensic evidence, MacDonald is ultimately convicted for all three murders in 1979. Since the TV premiere of Fatal Vision on November 18 and 19, 1984, there has been a growing movement by MacDonald's sympathizers to discredit McGinniss' book and to retry the case--a movement that has been hampered time and again by MacDonald's own erratic behavior. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint, (more)
John Carpenter's The Thing is both a remake of Howard Hawks' 1951 film of the same name and a re-adaptation of the John W. Campbell Jr. story "Who Goes There?" on which it was based. Carpenter's film is more faithful to Campbell's story than Hawks' version and also substantially more reliant on special effects, provided in abundance by a team of over 40 technicians, including veteran creature-effects artists Rob Bottin and Stan Winston. The film opens enigmatically with a Siberian Husky running through the Antarctic tundra, chased by two men in a helicopter firing at it from above. Even after the dog finds shelter at an American research outpost, the men in the helicopter (Norwegians from an outpost nearby) land and keep shooting. One of the Norwegians drops a grenade and blows himself and the helicopter to pieces; the other is shot dead in the snow by Garry (Donald Moffat), the American outpost captain. American helicopter pilot MacReady (Kurt Russell, fresh from Carpenter's Escape From New York) and camp doctor Copper (Richard Dysart) fly off to find the Norwegian base and discover some pretty strange goings-on. The base is in ruins, and the only occupants are a man frozen to a chair (having cut his own throat) and the burned remains of what could be one man or several men. In a side room, Copper and MacReady find a coffin-like block of ice from which something has been recently cut. That night at the American base, the Husky changes into the Thing, and the Americans learn first-hand that the creature has the ability to mutate into anything it kills. For the rest of the film the men fight a losing (and very gory) battle against it, never knowing if one of their own dwindling number is the Thing in disguise. Though resurrected as a cult favorite, The Thing failed at the box office during its initial run, possibly because of its release just two weeks after Steven Spielberg's warmly received E.T.The Extra-Terrestrial. Along with Ridley Scott's futuristic Alien, The Thing helped stimulate a new wave of sci-fi horror films in which action and special effects wizardry were often seen as ends in themselves. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, (more)
