Brad Blaisdell Movies

April Fool's Day brings a combination of the silly and the serious to the ER, with emphasis on the latter. A police officer shoots an elderly patient with dementia, but full blame for the incident may actually rest with two of the ER staffers. Several teenagers are injured while trying to "huff" carpet cleaner. A pregnant teenager treated by Kovac (Goran Visnjic) suffers complications in more ways than one. Corday (Alex Kingston) faces another career crisis. And on the lighter side, Carter (Noah Wyle) tries to brush off Rena (Lourdes Benedicto) by telling a fib that may spell trouble for one of his colleagues. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) goes on a date with a boring but rich hunk while Angel (David Boreanaz) and Doyle (Glenn Quinn) bust some vampire butt. One of the vamps escapes and attacks Cordy, whose date flees in terror. Doyle saves the day, and a light goes off in Cordy's little head that maybe the Angel's sidekick is worth getting to know a little big better. Just as things seem to be moving to the next stage, however, a face from Doyle's past shows up -- Harry (Kristin Dattilo), his estranged ethnodemonologist wife, who wants to obtain a divorce so she can remarry. Her fiancé, Richard Straley (Carlos Jacott), turns out to be part of a tribe of demons who have given up their barbaric ways and adopted human guises. Doyle grudgingly gives his blessing to the union, whereupon Harry convinces Doyle and Angel to attend Richard's bachelor party and Cordelia to attend her own shower. As the parties progress simultaneously, Cordelia makes a horrifying discovery about the traditions of Richard's clan -- just as the groom-to-be's brothers are preparing to force Doyle to participate in a grotesque and deadly ritual. Originally broadcast November 16, 1999, on the WB network, "The Bachelor Party" marked season one, episode seven of the supernatural comedy drama. In a twist on typical male and female names, Doyle's wife, Harry, calls him Francis, revealing that his full name is Allen Francis Doyle. During the scenes in which she considers a romance with "fixer-upper" Doyle, Cordy alludes to her abortive relationship with Xander Harris in seasons two and three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

In this action thriller, a group of Islamic terrorists, led by Nagi Hassan (David Suchet), highjacks a 747 jetliner with 400 passengers aboard, but Lt. Col. Austin Travis (Steven Seagal), a United States intelligence agent, is convinced that this isn't an ordinary case of air piracy. His suspicions are soon confirmed; Hassan's men have obtained a large cache of stolen Soviet nerve gas, and they are using the 747 to smuggle the deadly gas into the United States, where they intend to use it to wipe out Washington D.C. and possibly the entire East Coast. As the jet approaches the U. S., engineer Dennis Cahill (Oliver Platt) designs a plan in which a military plane will be able to transfer U.S. soldiers onto the 747 and regain control of the plane and its deadly cargo. However, when Travis dies in the course of the mission, intelligence agent Dr. David Grant (Kurt Russell) is forced to take his place alongside explosives expert Cappy (Joe Morton), commando Rat (John Leguizamo), and stewardess-turned-anti-terrorist Jean (Halle Berry). Executive Decision was the first directorial assignment for veteran film editor Stuart Baird; he cut the film as well. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A teenager wins an interactive robot that plays shooting games. Soon it starts loading with real ammo and hunting down other kids. This film is a stupid thriller but still manages to be occasionally fun. ~ Sean D. MacLaggan, All Movie Guide

Dana Carvey plays a private detective who forgets everything when he goes to sleep at night, waking up each morning with a "clean slate," in this hit-and-miss comedy that plays like a companion piece to the much funnier Groundhog Day. Pogue (Carvey) is afflicted with his unique form of amnesia after getting injured in a car explosion. With the aid of a mysterious woman (Valeria Golino) who allegedly died in the bombing, he must find a priceless coin and evade the murderous clutches of the mobster (Michael Gambon) who executed the explosion and who wants to silence Pogue before he can testify against him. Carvey fares reasonably well in his role, but the best moments are provided by Pogue's dog, a one-eyed Jack Russell named Barkley who makes a habit out of running into things headfirst. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

The Liars Club is a group of football buddies, so named because of their tendency to exaggerate their accomplishments. This sort of harmless fun comes to an end when one of the "club" members brutally assaults a young girl. Now the friends close ranks and become liars for real. The outlook continues to darken when the boys become involved in murder. The cast of the R-rated Liar's Club includes Soleil Moon Frye, once the adolescent star of TV's Punky Brewster, and Wil Wheaton, of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Developed by Tina Sinatra and approved by Frank himself, Sinatra is a made-for-television mini-series following the life and times of Frank Sinatra, one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the 20th century. Opening with his childhood in Hoboken, New Jersey, the film follows Sinatra's (Philip Casnoff) rise to the top in the '40s, through the dark days of the early '50s and his triumphant re-emergence in the mid-'50s, to his status as pop culture icon in the '60s, '70s and '80s. In between, the film hits all of the main events, including his three marriages, his connections with the Mafia and his notorious friendship with the Rat Pack. Even with the presence of Tina Sinatra as executive producer, Sinatra doesn't gloss over the more unsavory portions of Frank's life, which makes it all the more impressive. With the exception of a couple of early songs, all the music in the movie is taken from the original Sinatra recordings. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Action hero Don "The Dragon" Wilson appears in this third, quickie sequel to Bloodfist. Wilson plays Jimmy Boland, who has been sentenced to a California maximum-security prison for a murder that he didn't commit. When he sees some black prison inmates sodomizing his friend, he flies into a rage and kills the gang leader. The prison warden, in an effort to do Jimmy in, transfers him to the black wing of the prison, where he is sure the black prisoners will dispatch him quickly. This looks to be a safe bet, since the gang member Jimmy had killed was a drug supplier to Blue, the leader of the black prison gang. Wheelhead, a white inmate and leader of a group of white supremacists, takes Jimmy under his wing and offers Jimmy support if he joins the gang. Jimmy refuses, preferring to stay neutral. Meanwhile, Jimmy warms up to his cellmate Stark (Richard Roundtree), and Stark invites Jimmy to join a multi-racial group of prisoners who tend the rooftop prison garden. Jimmy has managed to maintain his neutrality, but at a price. Now both Blue and Wheelhead want to see him dead. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Corky (Faith Ford) feels more neglected than usual by her husband Will (Scott Bryce), who has gone to Hollywood on a scriptwriting assignment. With the man in her life temporarily out of her life, Corky toys with the notion of playing the field. Unfortunately, her choice as "surrogate lover" is former "FYI" anchorman Miller Redfield (Christopher Rich), who holds the distinction of being even more vapid than Corky! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sci-fi/horror sequel is set in the 21st century where the human race has been decimated by a man-made plague. Most of the normal survivors now live underground while the Earth's surface is populated by terrifying mutants. The survivors have developed a plague vaccine, but must gather the ingredients upon the dangerous surface. This version opens at the Rocky Mountain Lab, where they have run out of the vaccine and people are getting sick. A few days earlier they sent David Pennington topside to gather more ingredients. Unfortunately he has disappeared. The lead scientist then sends out three people to find David, but instead they end up tangling with a mutant. One of their party is killed. During the scuffle, they manage to cut off one of the creature's fingers and bring it back for research. Meanwhile, David wanders the desert world and meets the beautiful, pregnant Ariel, with whom he falls in love. Just before making it down to safety, the two are attacked by the mutants and one of them rapes her. When she eventually gives birth, her baby is terribly deformed. Meanwhile the finger regenerates into a new mutant horror and now with two of the dreadful creatures to deal with, things look bleak. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The landmark 1978 courtroom prosecution which determined that a married man can by law be brought up on charges of raping his wife, was meticulously--and tastefully--detailed in this made-for-TV movie. Linda Hamilton stars as Oregon housewife Greta Rideout, who after years of abuse at the hands her husband John (Mickey Rourke) (it is the sort of marriage described by one observer as "usually [winding] up as suicide or homicide") finally takes him to court, accusing him of forcing her to have sex against her will. Among those involved in the case are feminist activists Helen (Conchata Ferrell) and Jean (Gail Strickland) and opposing attorneys Gary Gortmaker (Eugene Roche) and Charles Burt (Rip Torn). Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case originally aired October 30, 1980 on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This drama examines the reaction of an African-American community to a love affair between a black man and his Caucasian girl friend. Their love is imperiled because so many of his family and friends are strongly against the match. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide