Pete Schrum Movies
- 1980
A professional boxer (Herb Jefferson Jr.) refuses to accept the official verdict that he delivered a fatal blow to his opponent, who collapses and dies several days after the fight.. At the same time, a chef (Pete Schrum) who works for Quincy's friend Danny (Val Bisoglio) unexpectedly dies after undergoing routine surgery in an doctor's office. Investigating, Quincy (Jack Klugman) determines that the two deaths were connected--and the culprit may be a cut-rate physician whose "skills" are as inadequate as his cheap surgical equipment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Thoroughly disillusioned by a lack of support, financial and otherwise, Louise (Isabel Sanford) and Helen (Roxie Roker) are on the verge of giving up the neighborhood Help Center that they have so lovingly nurtured. So far as the ladies are concerned, all their efforts have come to naught, so why not close up shop? But salvation is on the way, in the unlikely form of a young and seemingly unregenerate prostitute. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, (more)
- 1983
Long before an episode of David Lynch's Twin Peaks was narrated by a log, this installment of The Jeffersons featured a talking dollar bill. During a brief stopover at his old Queens dry-cleaning store, George recalls the day that he opened the store back in 1968. Inevitably, George's thoughts drift back to his first customer -- and, of course, his first dollar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, (more)
With the whimsical tagline "Jack Deth is back and he's never been here before," director Charles Band melds Blade Runner, The Terminator, and Jingle All the Way for this low-budget science fiction adventure. The story takes place in Angel City in the year 2247, when enforcer Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) has just retired from the weekly grind after vanquishing villain Martin Whistler (Michael Stefani) and his roving cohorts, called "trancers." But Whistler and his trancers have gone back to Christmas 1985, with the insidious plan of exterminating the ruling council by killing off all the council members' ancestors. So Deth agrees to go back in time to get Whistler and the trancers all over again. To do so, he must transfer his memory into the body of one of his ancestors, who in this case has just had an erotic interlude with the perky and attractive Leena (Helen Hunt), who works as a Santa's elf at a shopping mall and gets to wear a skimpy, tight-fitting elf suit. Deth discovers that Whistler has taken over the body of the police inspector and has started transforming the Los Angeles population into trancers --including Santa Claus. With Leena's help, Deth sets out to even the score. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, (more)
- 1985
- PG13
Written, directed by, and starring Robert Forster and his daughter Katherine, Hollywood Harry is a routine detective/human interest story about a low-end P.I. who sleeps with women at a rate of $5.00 each (they pay him) and is drinking his way into oblivion when his niece (Katherine Forster) arrives on the scene to snap him into shape. A client also comes in with a case Harry has to accept; money is running low. And so as the profligate detective is ready to hunt down his client's daughter, roped into porno films against the irate wishes of her father, his niece Danielle comes into the office indicating that her parents may be dead, while Harry's sharp secretary appears to have come into some sudden wealth. The plot lurches forward in several directions at once, as Harry's niece gets him out of the doldrums and into work. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Forster, Kathrine Forster, (more)
- 1986
- PG
A touch of comic relief adds to this otherwise predictable sci-fi actioner about a mad scientist (Roy Dotrice) holed up in a remote jungle fortress in Mexico with his time-machine and robotic know-how. He plans on zapping himself back to the Roman Empire to reign as emperor in Caesar's stead thereby ruining a certain 20th-century pizza franchise. Standing in the way is a pilot who was saved from imminent extinction when the evil doctor patched him together with mechanical body parts. Once the crazed scientist decides to do away with his "Man-droid," the 'droid-human escapes and rounds up a gang of accomplices to head back up-river and do the scientist in. Patrick Reynolds plays Mandroid. (Reynolds is the heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune who divested his stock and leads a national anti-smoking organization.) ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrew Prine, Denise Crosby, (more)
- 1990
Season Eight of Night Court goes into session with the first episode of a two-part story, as Judge Harry T. Stone (Harry Anderson) learns that, thanks to an unforeseen technicality, he must get a high-school diploma if he wants to keep his job. At the same time, public defender Christine Sullivan (Markie Post), returning to work after maternity leave, must do battle with a phantom, specifically the memory of her temporary replacement. And prosecutor Dan Fielding (John Larroquette) is receiving mysterious phone calls from a young woman named Donna (Susan Diol)--who turns out to be his long-lost sister. New to the series this season are Jolene Lutz) as scatterbrained court stenographer Lisette and S. Marc Jordan as blind, sarcastic newsstand owner Jack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
- R
An early, derivative effort from Charles Band's incredibly prolific direct-to-video outfit Full Moon Productions, this is an undercooked stew of a dozen horror plots, particularly Child's Play and Night of the Living Dead. A tough lady-cop (Tracy Scoggins) is forced to curtail her task of collaring a pair of sleazy gun-smugglers in an abandoned toy warehouse when the toys suddenly spring to life at the command of a murderous demon-child. While the policewoman tries vainly to organize the hapless humans trapped in the warehouse (pudgy rent-a-cop, transient, chicken delivery boy), the possessed playthings move in for the kill. The silly proceedings are helped along by whirlwind editing, the attractive, butt-kicking Scoggins, and a colorful assortment of monsters -- including a fanged jack-in-the-box, a laser-shooting robot, a ferocious teddy bear and the potty-mouthed "Baby Oopsy-Daisy." Though pretty slick overall, the entire exercise is flattened by the script's dreadful attempts at humor -- particularly from the demon himself, whose stupid Freddy Krueger-isms are like nails on a blackboard. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Long before she was in Friends, Courteney Cox had to deal with a few enemies in Blue Desert. A rape victim, Cox is given the runaround by the New York police. Fed up with city life, she heads for the wide open spaces of Arizona. Not long afterward, she is propositioned by lowlife Craig Sheffer. She reports this to sympathetic local cop D.B. Sweeney, who replies matter-of-factly that this is not the first time that Sheffer has been accused of a sexual offense. To her amazement, Cox is later visited by Sheffer, who agitatedly warns her not to trust the supposedly sweet-natured Sweeney. Someone is lying about something-and Cox plain doesn't know who to believe. When she finally finds out, it's nearly too late. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Courteney Cox Arquette, D.B. Sweeney, (more)
A sequel to the sci-fi action thriller that made him and star Arnold Schwarzenegger A-list Hollywood names, writer/director James Cameron upped the ante with this follow-up by employing a more sweeping storyline and cutting-edge special effects. Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah Connor, now a single mother to rebellious teen John Connor (Edward Furlong), during the late nineties. Having been informed by a time-traveling soldier in the first film that John will one day grow up to become humanity's savior from a computer-controlled Armageddon, Sarah has responded by becoming a muscle-bound she-warrior bent on educating John in survival tactics and battle strategies. Her ranting about humankind's future has landed Sarah in an insane asylum and John in the foster care system. The rebellious John has responded to his situation by getting into scrapes with the law. When a new and improved Terminator android called the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) arrives from the future to eliminate John, an older model T-800 (Schwarzenegger) is sent to protect the boy. The T-1000, however, has the ability to morph itself into any shape it desires, allowing it chameleon-like powers and near indestructibility. The T-800 saves John's life and helps break Sarah out of the institution. Staying only one step ahead of the dogged T-1000, Sarah leads her son and the T-800 to the headquarters of Cyberdyne Systems, the company that will invent a robotic intelligence that will eventually take over the world. There, they attempt to convince inventor Miles Dyson (Joe Morton) to help them stop the future from ever occurring by destroying his work. Dyson sacrifices himself in an explosion to save the world, leading to a final showdown between the two Terminators at a steel foundry. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), which won four Oscars in technical categories for its groundbreaking effects, was followed by a short sequel filmed exclusively as an attraction for theme parks, Terminator 2: 3-D Battle Across Time (1996). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, (more)
A dark, bitter commentary on modern American life cloaked in the form of a surrealist western, Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man stars Johnny Depp as William Blake, a newly-orphaned accountant who leaves his home in Cleveland to accept a job in the frontier town of Machine. Upon his arrival, Blake is told by the factory owner Dickinson (Robert Mitchum) that the job has already been filled. Dejectedly, he enters a nearby tavern, ultimately spending the night with a former prostitute. A violent altercation with the woman's lover (Gabriel Byrne), also Dickinson's son, leaves Blake a murderer as well as mortally wounded, a bullet lodged dangerously close to his heart. He flees into the wilderness, where a Native American named Nobody (Gary Farmer) mistakes Blake for the English poet William Blake and determines that he will be Blake's guide in his protracted passage into the spirit world. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, (more)
