Robert Sedgwick Movies

A talented young rock keyboardist allows his life to fall into the gutter after he loses both hands during a mugging. He is later fitted with special hand extensions, but these neither allow him to play music nor much of anything else. Despondent, he starts drinking heavily and soon finds himself a self-pitying homeless street bum in New York. His life starts improving after he encounters Anamika, a New Age girl who befriends him and introduces him to special friends, one a computer genius and the other, her landlady, a metal sculptor. Together with some assistance from his roommate, the three devise a marvelous set of hands for the boy, ones endowed with special qualities that allow to play music even better than before. Billing himself as Cyberstorm, the lad becomes a star. A hometown concert gives him a chance at revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This feature-length spin-off of the popular television horror anthology is directed by John Harrison, who directed many episodes of the television series. The film consists of four grisly and gruesome horror teasers. "The Wraparound Story" stars Deborah Harry as Betty, a chef with a kitchen complete with Cuisinart and dungeon. She plans to cook a little boy, who delays his execution by telling Betty three tales of terror. The first tale is "Lot 249," based on the mummy story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The tale concerns Bellingham (Steve Buscemi), a bug-eyed graduate student who has raised a mummy from the dead. The second tale, "Cat from Hell," adapted by George A. Romero from a Stephen King story, deals with a broken-down millionaire (William Hickey), who has made his millions by developing habit-forming painkillers. He is convinced that, since 5,000 cats have been killed in his lab experiments in order to develop his pills, a stray cat has killed his family. He hires a hit man (David Johansen) to track down the cat and rub him out. The third tale, "Lover's Vow," is based on "Woman in the Snow," one of the episodes in Kwaidan.James Remar plays an artist who strikes a deal with the devil and is rewarded with a beautiful wife (Rae Dawn Chong) and a respectful art career. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

After winning an Academy Award for their documentary Down and Out in America (1986), actress-director Lee Grant and her producer-husband Joseph Feury filmed this comedy-drama based on an original script by playwright Monte Merrick. In a small Southern town, the McDermott family has owned and operated a popular chicken restaurant for years. Each of the three McDermott boys, Brian (Tim Quill), Kit (Dermot Mulroney), and Duncan (Sean Astin) expects to inherit part of the business from their father (Jim Haynie). While enjoying liberal amounts of skirt-chasing, marijuana-smoking, and alcohol consumption in their off hours, the McDermotts have big plans for the place, but then dad drops a bombshell -- he's sold the restaurant without consulting his family, leaving each son to struggle with his newfound, unwanted independence. In the meantime, mom (Melinda Dillon) considers reuniting with her old band. Because of the bankruptcy of its producer, Hemdale Film Corporation, Staying Together (1989) was shelved for over a year before its release. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

An ambitious father thinks nothing of using his own son to achieve his political goals in this adolescent comedy. The lonely boy has spent the last seven years tucked away and ignored by his parents, Senator Tom Morgan and his social-climbing wife Nancy, in a distant boarding school. As the story begins, he receives the depressing news that once again they will be too busy to have him home for the holidays. But then, out of the blue, they change their minds and invite him home to stay there for good. The boy is elated, but soon after his arrival, he learns the bitter truth: his father only brought him back because it is an election year and his campaign manager thought he might do better if the public saw him as more of a family man. The boy then decides that it is high time some changes were made around the house and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide