Stephen Polk Movies

Corbin Bernsen, of L.A. Law and The Dentist, stars in this family-oriented adventure from director Michael Kastenbaum. It concerns a group of five children who embark on a journey to an enchanted island, where a group of pirates are trapped in a crippling curse. Only the individual with a pure heart, it seems, will be able to end the curse's grip by finding Bluebeard's gold. Meanwhile, the children must contend with the vile actions of Hookbeard the Pirate, a marauder skilled in swordfighting and torture. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A stuttering street fighter becomes the voice of a new revolution in the first film structured around a shamanistic ritual and designed to have a transformative effect on the viewer by awakening the dormant areas of the mind with the power to fuel transformation and growth. Lou is a determined boxer with a stutter that belies his prowess in the ring. After receiving a closed head injury that forces him from fighting and threatens to rob him of his livelihood, Lou determines to make a name for himself as a fight trainer. When the 30-second-round format becomes too much for Lou to handle and his seemingly logical career choice receives a devastating blow, the dejected former fighter takes to the streets to create a volatile situation the likes of which have never before been seen in cinema history. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Two outlaws discover the harder they try to escape the hangman, the closer to him they seem to get in this impressionistic Western. Jake Finney (Jon Jacobs) is a small-time gunfighter who is arrested by a sheriff (Stephen Polk) who is keen on having him hung as soon as possible. As Jake is led off to jail, he meets a fellow prisoner, Steve West (Michael Kastenbaum), a second-rate horse thief. Steve discovers that Jake has an escape plan which involves a realistic looking phony gun Jake has carved out of wood; Steve is desperate to break free, and offers Jake a cache of gold if he'll help him escape. The jailbreak is a success, and Jake and Steve head for the Canadian border, with the sheriff in close pursuit. After a run-in with the law, Jake and Steve have to shoot their way out of a tight spot; they get away, but Steve is hurt, and they're forced to turn to a local woman, Annie May (Dawn Kapatos), who helps tend Steve's wounds. Before long, Steve and Annie May have fallen in love, and while Steve recuperates, Jake decides to renew his relationship with Stella (Haley Gilbert), a former girlfriend. Stella, however, turns her back on Jake, and once Steve is better, the outlaws are once again on the run from the law, with Annie May in tow and the Canadian border always out of reach. Actor and director Jon Jacobs directed The Wooden Gun in collaboration with his co-star, Michael Kastenbaum; the film was shot on 16 mm stock for only 7,000 dollars, but the final product went unseen for several years until it was screened at a retrospective of Jacobs' work in 2000. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Barbara Hershey stars in this understated road movie. Kate (Hershey) flags down a cab one rainy night in Times Square and tells the British-Indian cabbie (Naveen Andrews) to drive until they get to the desert. Fleeing from an abusive relationship, she offers the driver $300 a day for a week. As they wend their way through America's wide expanse, these two lonely souls begin to talk and understand one another. Drowning on Dry Land was screened at the 1999 Flanders Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

A sex therapist is forced to turn detective to keep herself out of prison in this steamy thriller. Journalist Shoshona Reed (Elizabeth Sandifer) has a knack for digging up incriminating information -- enough so that she's begun blackmailing a number of people and threatening to run incriminating stories about them if they don't pay up. Shoshona is a client of sex therapist Rebecca Mathis (Shannon Tweed), and when Shoshona is killed, Rebecca becomes a suspect in the murder investigation. To save her own skin, Rebecca begins investigating Shoshona's death, and she discovers that there are a number of people who might have wanted her dead, including Darrell Martine (Chad McQueen), a disturbed ex-convict, and Tom Mueller (Craig Stepp), a businessman with a secret. Indecent Behavior III followed this picture a year later. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Paul Mazursky directed this comedy, which blends a broad satire of the film industry with a thoughtful tale of a middle-aged man looking back on his life's failures. Harry Stone (Danny Aiello) is a film director who desperately needs a hit -- so desperately that he gets talked into directing an inane sci-fi film about a group of farm kids (led by Ally Sheedy) who grow an enormous pickle that they turn into a spaceship, allowing them to visit the planet Cleveland (ruled by Little Richard and his right hand man, Griffin Dunne) where everyone eats nothing but meat. Convinced that the film will flop, Harry is in a state of panic as he returns to New York with his Parisian girlfriend Francoise (Clotilde Courau), a mere 20 years his junior, and visits his ex-wife Ellen (Dyan Cannon); his mother Yetta (Shelley Winters); and his son Gregory (Chris Penn). Meanwhile Harry flashes back on his childhood and the film he could have made of it, and pitches his dream film (a historical epic about the life of Montezuma) to studio executives, who instead want him to make a movie kids can relate to. The Pickle was filmed in 1991, but only received a token theatrical release two years later. Actually, the sci-fi story with Little Richard as the undisputed ruler of Cleveland looks like it might have been an ideal vehicle for Edward D. Wood Jr.. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon play Thelma and Louise, two working-class friends who together have planned a weekend getaway from the men in their lives. Thelma's husband, Darryl (Chris McDonald), is an overbearing oaf, and Louise's boyfriend, Jimmy (Michael Madsen), simply will not commit. Though the road trip starts out as a good time, the pair eventually wind up at a bar. A tipsy Thelma ends up in the parking lot of the bar with a would-be rapist. Louise shoots the man dead. The two decide that they have no choice but to go on the run. They eventually meet up with a young criminal named J.D. (Brad Pitt), whose cowboy spirit rubs off on the timid Thelma. The pair is pursued by a police officer (Harvey Keitel) sympathetic toward their plight. He chases them to the Grand Canyon, where the women make a fateful decision about their lives. Directed by Ridley Scott, Thelma & Louise brought first-time screenwriter Callie Khouri many accolades including the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi