Wynn Reichert Movies
- 1996
The grim lives of five middle-aged travelling salesmen provide the basis of this cynical, satirical and violent docudrama that marks the directorial debut of Daniel J. Harris. As the title implies, the men simultaneously hawk bibles and guns. The main characters are all salesmen in real life and are seen pitching their wares to real residents of a ramshackle Las Vegas trailer park, but the story line and the characters they play are all fictional. The story begins in Anaheim, California as Stan and Phil talk earnestly to an older couple. Stan works the Good Book angle with the woman while Phil attempts to sell her delusional and paranoid husband a few guns for added protection. Stan and Phil's co-workers include Mike, Bill and Sidney. Each of them has serious mental problems and none are adequately coping with the onset of middle age. More problems come when it is announced at an annual convention that the bigwigs are going to shut down the company's Anaheim branch due to lack of sales. This sends the Anaheim boys to Las Vegas where they sell their hearts out to compete with a rival group from Texas, and they get themselves involved in a number of strange situations that escalate into violence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1993
This made-for-cable version of Arthur Miller's play The American Clock was adapted for television by Frank Galati. Inspired partly by Studs Terkel's oral history Hard Times, and partly by Miller's own recollections, the film is set at the beginning of the Depression. When the stock market crashes, the well-to-do Baumler family (John Rubinstein, Mary McDonnell, Loren Dean) loses everything. The Baumlers are forced to move from their plush penthouse apartment to the less-attractive Brooklyn digs of Mrs. Baumler's sister (Joanna Miles). Twelve-year-old Lee Baumler (Dean), the Arthur Miller counterpart, hits the road to find out how others are coping with the Long National Nightmare. The alternately depressing and uplifting storyline moves along briskly to a surprisingly abrupt climax. Kelly Preston, David Strathairn, Eddie Bracken, Darren McGavin, and Estelle Parson co-star in The American Clock, which premiered over the TNT Cable Network on August 23, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Nothing original or innovative will be found in this slasher flick. The terror begins when a gaggle of coeds decide to celebrate their graduation in a secluded cabin in the woods. The owner of the cabin is an uncle of one of the girls. He was formerly an archaeologist, but one day, while excavating a site in a local cave he finds a big stone head that turns the uncle into a blood-thirsty beast. Back at the cabin, the party begins as the girls and their various guys engage in various erotic activities until the stoned creature comes along and brutally begins murdering them. The blood really starts flowing when a fugitive convict stumbles into the fray. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
