John Schneider

An art photographer becomes convinced that the cabin on his new country property is haunted when the spirit of the deceased sorceress who once lived there begins to manifest itself in a variety of deadly and terrifying ways. Convinced to move to the country with his wife Helen (Maxine Bahns) in order to contend with the loss of their stillborn baby, Shawn Burnett (Andrew Bowen) experiences a series of disturbing events around his property that all seem to tie back to that decrepit old shack. According to the locals, a malevolent conjurer once lived in the cabin, and her vengeful spirit still dwells there. At first Shawn is skeptical, but when disturbing echoes of his troubled past reverberate into the present, he becomes convinced that forces beyond his understanding are at work. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The serine waters of Lake Placid stir once again in this sequel that finds laid-back Sheriff James Riley (John Schneider) teaming with an inquisitive Fish and Wildlife Agent (Sarah LaFleur), a quick-triggered big game hunter (Sam McMurray), and his intuitive guide (Joe Holt) to investigate suspicions that another killer crock may be on the loose in the rural community. Two years ago, a pair of thirty foot-long prehistoric crocodiles terrorized the residents of Lake Placid. While most of the locals assumed that the nightmare had ended when the murderous creatures were killed, local crocodile lover Sadie (Cloris Leachman) knows that the truth is far more terrifying. Beneath the surface of Lake Placid, the remaining predators have been quietly reproducing, awaiting the moment they will emerge from the water and cement their status on the top of the food chain. Now, as Sheriff Riley's rebellious teenage son (Shad Collins) departs for a relaxing lakeside camping trip, the desperate father realizes the danger that lies beneath the surface and races to confront a prehistoric predator that won't stop until it's consumed every last local. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A former car racer gets more than he bargained for when he attempts to settle down and start selling used cars alongside his former mechanic in this rubber burning chase film directed by and starring The Dukes of Hazard's John Schneider. J.R. Collier (Schneider) is a racecar driver who thrives on speed, but when his wife Becky threatens to divorce him and take the couple's daughter Danielle away, the devoted wheelman suddenly downshifts. Realizing that he could very well lose his family, Collier decides to abandon the racetrack for the life of a used car salesman. But Collier still longs to drive fast, and in order to build up his lot he begins racing other drivers for the pink slips to their cars. Of course it isn't long before Collier has built up an impressive array of automobiles. Trouble arises, however, when Collier races an overconfident, Ferrari driving Texan and wins the papers to a car with a valuable secret. As it turns out, the owner of the Ferrari is a man named Mr. Fanning, and Mr. Fanning is willing to do whatever it takes to retrieve his valuable property. After kidnapping Collier's wife and daughter, Mr. Fanning sends a team of his most talented men to get the car back. Not realizing that his wife and daughter are in grave danger, the unsuspecting Collier does his best to avoid the fast driving thugs at all costs as the situation grows increasingly tense. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This animated tale based on the story of David and Goliath focuses on a boy named Davie, who is the only one to volunteer when the king calls for fighters to defend the kingdom from the giant Golimyr. Looks can be deceiving, however, and soon it begins to look like the most seemingly unlikely hero could be the one who saves the day. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

Originally produced as a miniseries for NBC, 10.5 is a disaster film that wonders what might happen if the Western United States is ever ravaged by unprecedented earthquakes. After one quake wreaks havoc on Seattle, another strikes California, this one worse than the first. With scientists speculating that an earthquake registering 10.5 on the Richter scale could be next, the U.S. president (Beau Bridges) enlists the help of a seismologist (Kim Delaney) to somehow formulate a plan to prevent the deaths of millions of people. This film aired under the title Earthquake: 10.5 in the U.K. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Season three of Smallville brought several more hidden facts about the Kryptonian heritage of young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) to the forefront -- and also provided a few additional links to Clark's future life as Superman. The series also found the unsavory past of billionaire industrialist Lionel Luthor (John Glover) catching up with him, profoundly affecting his mixed-up son, Lex (Michael Rosenbaum), who had already been battered about when a team of doctors attempted to purge him of his "delusions" (read: his memories of Lionel's perfidy). The season began with Clark, still under the addictive influence of red kryptonite, angrily renouncing his friends and family in Smallville and exiling himself to Metropolis, where he briefly entered into a life of crime under the tutelage of sinister Morgan Edge (played variously during this season by Rutger Hauer and Patrick Bergin), who, like many villainous characters on the series, was an associate of the redoubtable Lionel Luthor. In order to rescue Clark, the boy's adoptive father, Jonathan Kent (John Schneider), entered into a strange bargain with Clark's Kryptonian birth father, Jor-El (Terence Stamp), the ramifications of which would permeate the action for the remainder of the season. Once safely returned to Smallville, Clark underwent the by-now-standard curious experiences wherein he was obliged to utilize his unique powers wisely and without giving his dual identity away. He also discovered a few new powers, among them super-hearing and (it was implied) the ability to fly. On the romantic front, Clark's relationship with Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) went through a variety of ups and downs -- especially during a rather harrowing story arc involving a mercurial young man named Adam Knight (Ian Somerhalder) -- reaching a climax of sorts at season's end when Lana decided to leave Smallville in order to study art in Paris. Meanwhile, another of Clark's female acquaintances, budding girl reporter Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) drew ever closer to unearthing a number of secrets involving both Clark and Lex. She also revealed something that many viewers had long suspected: she was related to a certain high-profile Metropolis reporter named Lois Lane (who would become a regular character in season four). Not satisfied with dangling this tantalizing foretaste of things to come for young Clark Kent, the Smallville producers also used season three to introduce Clark's future boss, Perry White, here played by Michael McKean -- the real-life husband of Annette O'Toole, the actress who played Clark's adoptive mother, Martha Kent.

As season three drew to a conclusion, Clark had come face to face with another refugee from Krypton, a superpowered girl named Kara (Adrianne Palicki), who urged our hero to renounce his earthly ways and fulfill his "destiny." Meanwhile, the true nature of Lex Luthor was exposed in all its tawdry glory, and two of the series' most stalwart characters, Chloe Sullivan and Pete Ross (Sam Jones III), were poised to make their respective exits -- and it was painfully clear that at least one of them would never, ever return. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Amy Palmer (Azura Skye), a girl working as a domestic at the Luther mansion, harbors an obsessive crush on young Lex Luther (Michael Rosenbaum). Before long, Lex's girlfriend, Victoria Hardwick (Kelly Brook), is victimized by an invisible but highly dangerous entity. Is Amy behind these unseen attacks -- or are there more sinister, kryptonite-engendered forces at work? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Catherine Marshall's novel of the same name, Christy: A Change of Seasons is the first episode of the two-part TV miniseries Christy: Return to Cutter Gap. Set in 1913, the story concentrates on feisty young schoolteacher Christy Huddleston (Lauren Lee Smith) -- a character based on author Marshall's own mother -- who attempts to bring literacy and enlightenment to the isolated North Carolina mountain community of Cutter Gap. A raging typhoid epidemic has heightened the superstitious nature of the local townsfolk, and ultimately causes Christy to suffer a crisis of faith when the disease claims one of her best friends. Also, the heroine finds herself torn between two lovers: Wild, irreverent, Scottish-born doctor Neil McNeil (Stewart Finley-McLaren) and the more sedate but still troubled Rev. David Grantland (James Waterston. Christy: A Change of Seasons first aired over the PAX Network on May 13, 2001, under the title Christy: Choices of the Heart, Part I. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"What was life like for Superman before he grew up to be Superman?" That was the questioned posed, and brilliantly, answered, on the weekly sci-fi/adventure series Smallville, the WB network's most successful new program of the 2001-2002 TV season. Without wreaking undue damage on the sacred Superman legend, as set down by 65 years' worth of comic books, radio series, TV shows, and movies, Smallville artfully wove its own mythos concerning the early years of Clark Kent -- not yet "the man of steel" Superman, but born Kal-El, "strange visitor from another planet" (namely, the doomed planet Krypton). The first episode, telecast October 16, 2001, rapidly established the fact that the child Kal-El's arrival on Earth in the year 1989 profoundly affected virtually the entire population of Smallville, a tiny Kansas farming community. The spacecraft bearing the alien toddler arrived at the same time as a cataclysmic meteor shower, which all but devastated Smallville. Among other things, the meteor bombardment brought about the deaths of the parents of little Lana Lang, and rendered completely hairless nine-year-old Lex Luthor, son of ruthless billionaire businessman Lionel Luthor. Though Lana was able to put the tragedy behind her thanks to the loving care of her aunt Nell (Sarah-Jane Redmond), Lex's sudden and spectacular hair loss left him cynical and suspicious of humankind in general, and his grasping father in particular. On a happier note, childless farming couple Jonathan and Martha Kent (John Schneider, Annette O'Toole) rescued Kal-El, renamed him Clark, and raised him as their own son.

As the years passed, it was painfully obvious that Clark (played in his teen years by Tom Welling), possessed Herculean strength and other powers "far beyond those of mortal men." To protect their adopted son from being exposed as an alien, and to prevent others from being accidentally injured by the boy's superstrength, Martha and Jonathan kept Clark from indulging in youthful horseplay, and refused to allow him to participate in contact sports. As a result, Clark earned a reputation as something of a namby-pamby nerd -- and his own growing realization that he was different from his peers kept him perpetually on the outside looking in, a natural-born loner. Which is not to say that Clark didn't have his own circle of friends at Smallville High School. Lana Lang (played as a teen by Kristin Kreuk), who had matured into the campus queen, regarded Clark as a loyal and faithful friend -- but, much to Clark's dismay, she reserved her romantic feelings for high school jock Whitney Fordman (Eric Johnson), who, thanks to a series of neat coincidences, tended to get the credit for the heroics performed by Clark (which of course, young Mr. Kent was bound not to claim as his own lest his secret be revealed). Conversely, fellow student Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack), a budding paranormal investigator who wrote for the Smallville High newspaper, the Torch, harbored a hidden crush on Clark. Our hero's best bud was the shy and self-effacing Pete Ross (Sam Jones III), who like everyone else in Smallville could not help but notice that strange things happened whenever Clark was around, but who seldom questioned these happenings for fear of damaging their friendship. As for Lex Luthor (played as an adult by Michael Rosenbaum), several years Clark's senior, he lived the life of a swinging bachelor in his family mansion, while dad Lionel (John Glover) wheeled and dealed from his headquarters in the city of Metropolis. A firm friend of the young Kent since Clark saved his life, Lex had his share of good and noble impulses, but they were often mitigated by his inbred avariciousness and lust for power -- and his overpowering desire to wrest the family business from the grasp of his father.

During season one, Lex had a fling with sexy Victoria Hardwick (Kelly Brook), but their romance fell victim to his self-absorption. And though Clark generally got along with Lex, the same could not be said for Jonathan Kent, who (not without reason) felt that the Luthor family's business ambitions posed a threat to Kent and his fellow farmers. Also muddying up the Luthor legacy was the cache of kryptonite -- the green, glowing element indigenous to Clark Kent's home planet -- which was kept on the premises of Smallville's LutherCorp plant. As everybody familiar with the Superman canon knows, kryptonite has an adverse and possibly deadly effect on Clark; in this series, the mineral also brought out the worst in everyone else who came in contact with it. The first season of Smallville studiously avoided any mention of Clark's future alter ego, Superman, though the viewers would see the young misfit painfully adjusting to his awesome powers, some of which (such as his x-ray vision) were brand-new to him. Also, several episodes placed those closest to him in dire jeopardy, forcing him to utilize his powers without giving himself away -- and in at least a couple of cases, Clark's friends would themselves develop temporary superpowers that they too had to learn to properly deploy. Along the way, Clark's campus rival, Whitney Fordham, would leave Smallville after a series of daunting personal setbacks, joining the Marines to see the rest of the world. Like many another network series of its ilk, Smallville closed out its initial season by setting up a cliffhanger, to be resolved at the beginning of season two. In this case, the "to be continued" elements involved the first kiss between Clark and Chloe, a potential unholy alliance between Lex and Lionel Luthor, a startling discovery made by an unscrupulous big-city news reporter named Roger Nixon (Tom O'Brien), and a devastating tornado that threatened to bump off the helpless Lana Lang. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A pair of deadly super-storms is set to collide over a Rutland, MO, and the only hope for the people of the small town is the trust a father places in his son in this elemental thriller that's sure to make Twister look like a dust devil. No one believes 14-year-old amateur meteorologist Eric Dobbs (Jesse Eisenberg) when he tries to convince them that their town is set to be leveled by the colliding storm systems, not even the National Weather Service. With time running short and winds picking up, Eric's father, Tom (John Schneider), takes his son's warning to heart when a series of supercharged electrical bursts plunge the town into darkness. As the sky darkens and the storm clouds roll in, it's up to Eric and his father to save the citizens of Rutland it's too late. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide