Michael Earl Reid Movies
- 2006
Season Five of Monk begins as San Francisco's most efficient--and most obsessive-compulsive--private detective Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) finds himself the central character of an upcoming movie. Much to Monk's relief, he won't be forced to play himself: Instead, the role of Monk has gone to Hollywood superstar David Ruskin (Stanley Tucci). Unfortunately, Ruskin is one of those method actors who insists upon meticulous pre-film research, and soon he is relentlessly dogging Monk's trail during a murder investigation. At first, Monk doesn't seem to mind, and actually enjoys showing off for Ruskin's benefit--but things take a sinister turn when Ruskin so loses himself in the role of "Adrian Monk" that he tries to exact his own personal vengeance against a suspect in the long-ago murder of Monk's wife Trudy! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2003
Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) moves to Venice, CA, to bond with his long-estranged father Jimmy (Rob Estes) -- and to cope with Jimmy's eccentric neighbors. Back in Stars Hollow, Lorelai tries to tell Rory (Alexis Bledel) that Jess is gone and that her college financial aid has been rejected while the two ladies prepare for their European backpacking trip; and Lane (Keiko Agena) tearfully reconciles herself to being shipped off to a conservative college where the boys and girls aren't even allowed to spend free time in the same park. The episode ends with a surprise for Lorelei -- a good one, for a change! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
After a tweedy British gentleman gets his neck broken by a demon, Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) reveals that he knows the man as Philip Henry (Stuart McLean), an old friend who has a tattoo oddly identical to one on Giles' arm. Soon after, Philip awakens from death, possessed by the demon that killed him, and leaves the morgue. Meanwhile, Giles descends into a state of brooding drunkenness and misses a meeting with Buffy. She discovers Ethan Rayne (Robin Sachs) sneaking about the library, and he informs her about the Mark of Eyghon -- the tattoo on Giles' arm. A reluctant Giles soon reveals that as a young man he rebelled against his Watcher duties and formed a circle with five friends, including Ethan, to dabble in the occult. They summoned the demon Eyghon, who then killed one of them. Moving from victim to victim to stay alive, Eyghon is now attempting to kill everyone bearing his mark. Giles' relationship with Jenny (Robia La Morte) is also endangered as she becomes possessed by Eyghon. ~ All Movie Guide
The third in director Sam Raimi's stylish, comic book-like horror trilogy that began with The Evil Dead (1982), this tongue-in-cheek sequel offers equal parts sword-and-sorcery-style action, gore, and comedy. Bruce Campbell returns as the one-armed Ash, now a supermarket employee ("Shop Smart...Shop S-Mart") who is transported by the powers of a mysterious book back in time with his Oldsmobile '88 to the 14th century medieval era. Armed only with a shotgun, his high school chemistry textbook, and a chainsaw that mounts where his missing appendage once resided, the square-jawed, brutally competent Ash quickly establishes himself as a besieged kingdom's best hope against an "army of darkness" currently plaguing the land. Since the skeleton warriors have been resurrected with the aid of the Necronomicon (the same tome that can send Ash back to his own time) he agrees to face the enemy in battle. Ash also finds romance of a sort along the way with a beautiful damsel in distress, Sheila (Embeth Davidtz), and contends with his own doppelganger after mangling an important incantation. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, (more)
- 1990
Whenever there's a TV movie about a "lone holdout" juror, you can bet that reality will be left behind at the front door. Killer Among Us is no exception. A Different World's Jasmine Guy plays a doubting jury member on a homicide case. She not only believes the defendant innocent, but suspects that the foreman of the jury, played by Dwight Schultz, is the guilty party. To make a long story short, which the scriptwriter didn't, Guy ends up being stalked by the real murderer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
In the season finale episode, Faber (Fred Dalton Thompson) is the new supervisor at Wellman Plastics. He gets on Roseanne's bad side by enforcing some new rules. She makes a deal with him: if he treats the workers better, she will ease up on the wisecracking remarks. Guest star Fred Dalton Thompson went on to become a Republican senator for Tennessee in the United States Senate in 1994. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
This is a very enjoyable tongue-in-cheek horror film about some homicidal maniacs who break out of an asylum and terrorize a psychiatrist's family on a dark and stormy night. Martin Landau and Jack Palance are particularly funny, but there are some genuine scares as well. One scene, in which a frightened woman is menaced on her bed by a maniac thrusting a butcher-knife up through the mattress, is a clever send-up that will nevertheless linger in the memory. The coda, in which the crazy Palance has a bizarre encounter with a spaced-out punk chick in a nightclub, is a real gem. Recommended. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence, (more)
- 1989
- R
Loosely based on the novel by Alberto Moravia, Me and Him concerns an architect (Griffin Dunne) whose penis begins giving him advice on business and love. It urges him to leave his wife and seduce a series of co-workers and acquaintances. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Griffin Dunne, Ellen Greene, (more)
