Tucker Smallwood Movies

Bizarre occurrences plague a home, but it remains unclear if they signal a manifestation of evil or the illusory products of a woman's mental breakdown in Dark Mirror, director and co-screenwriter Pablo Proenza's tense supernatural thriller. The tale begins when a family of three -- photographer-cum-mother Deborah (Lisa Vidal), her husband, Jim (David Chisum), and their son, Ian (Joshua Pelegrin) -- move into a house with a number of oddities attached, including not only a shady history, but creepy aesthetic touches such as mirrors that reflect to infinity and panels made of beveled glass. Deborah begins to work toward rebuilding her career behind the camera, but everyone who appears in her photographs suddenly and inexplicably dies. On an even more unsettling note, Deborah begins to suspect that the two women closest to her -- her best friend and her mother -- are in fact the walking dead, or zombies. The occurrences in the house seem to manifest themselves as omens, beckoning Deborah to interpret everything, but the signs conflict -- and threaten to drive Deborah beyond the point of comprehension when she discovers an odd book left behind by the prior owners, and filled with strange, cryptic diagrams and notations. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A spitfire coffeehouse poet catches the attention of a conservative publisher, only to find that her attempts to get him to take part in an underground poetry-reading contest mask a much deeper motivation in the feature directorial debut of longtime television writer E. Paul Edwards. To Jake Thompson, poetry is the purest way of expressing his inner rage. Marni Elliot is an attractive publisher who is drawn to Jake's use of words, and convinced that he could take home the top prize at the Los Angeles Poetron -- a competitive poetry contest that has set the underground literary community ablaze. Though Jake at first refuses on the grounds that competition spoils the purity of art, he is intensely drawn to Marni and soon relents after the pair fall into bed together. When Marni reveals to Jake that she is HIV-positive, he quickly breaks the relationship off. As the Poetron draws near and Jake learns that he will be competing against Marni's former lover, however, he comes to realize that he cannot get the publisher out of his mind, and that his sympathy for her condition has helped him to overcome his anger as it transforms him into both a better poet, and a more capable competitor. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A terrified teenage suicide survivor has a horrific supernatural encounter in this haunting tale that's sure to send a chill down the spine of even the most hardened skeptic. It's been quite a while since 16-year-old Kelly (Lauren Birkell) and her workaholic mother Laura Lee (Marina Sirtis) have spent time together, and when the troubled teen attempts to kill herself, the near-death experience serves as a wake-up call to both mother and daughter to get their relationship back on track. Though a secluded summer cottage offers the ideal setting for some quality mother-daughter bonding, Laura Lee is troubled when Kelly makes the acquaintance of a mysterious teenage boy who only the young girl can see. When Laura Lee makes a call to Kelly's psychiatrist Dr. Halsey (Dean Haglund), the open-minded doctor refers the concerned mother to gifted psychic Will Franklin (Tucker Smallwood). It doesn't take long for Will to discover that it's not the house that's haunted but Kelly herself, and the race is on to save the girl's soul before it falls prey to the vengeful spirits who seem to be manipulating her every move. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

William Byron Hillman's family comedy Quigley stars Gary Busey as a cold-hearted billionaire. Early in the film he dies. After dying, he learns that he will only get into heaven if he learns lessons about compassion and selflessness. In order to have a chance, he is reincarnated on Earth as a Pomeranian. As a dog, he seeks to undo much of the damage he inflicted on those around him when he was human. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Bob Misiorowski's thriller Air Panic features an unhinged computer whiz named Cain who plans to kill a number of innocent victims unless a federal agent with the capacity to match wits with him can thwart the plan. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

After months of dating the acerbic and outspoken Sherry Dempsey (Marsha Mason), Martin (John Mahoney) decides it is time to pop the question. This does not rest well with Martin's sons, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) and Niles (David Hyde Pierce), who have never warmed up to Sherry -- and are even less enamored of her once they learn some shocking facts about her past. Without giving away the ending of this episode, suffice to say that the cast of Frasier will soon be "lighter" by one. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The search for life outside our solar system becomes a personal and spiritual quest for a young researcher. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) is a scientist who lost her faith in God after her parents died when she was a child. However, Ellie has learned to develop a different sort of faith in the seemingly unknowable: working with a group that monitors radio waves from space, Ellie hopes that some day she will receive a coherent message from another world that will prove that there is a world beyond our own. Ellie's hard work is rewarded when her team picks up a signal that does not appear to be of earthly origin. Ellie decodes the message, which turns out to be plans for a space craft, which she takes as an invitation for a meeting with the aliens. Ellie and her fellow researchers soon run into interference from a White House scientific advisor, David Drumlin (Tom Skerritt), who cuts off their funding and tries to take credit for their achievements. However, Ellie receives moral support from Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey), a spiritual teacher who advises President Clinton and tries to persuade her to accept the existence of a higher power, and financial backing from S.R. Hadden (John Hurt), a multi-millionaire willing to fund her attempts to contact the source of the message. Contact was based on a novel by Carl Sagan, who advised director Robert Zemeckis during the film's production until his death in 1996. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The "slobs versus snobs" formula of lowbrow comedy gets a twist in this mindless Pauly Shore vehicle that pits slobs against scientists. Shore plays Bud Macintosh, a Tucson, Arizona, slacker and junior college student. Bud and his best pal Doyle Johnson (Stephen Baldwin), have just suffered the humiliation of being dumped by their girlfriends when they stumble into what they think is a new mall. However, the facility is a scientific research laboratory known as a bio-dome, a self-sustaining habitat in which five scientists, led by Dr. Noah Faulkner (William Atherton), are to conduct experiments. The catch is that the bio-dome has just been sealed for a year and cannot be opened. As their twelve months pass, Bud and Doyle with their amorous behavior and toilet humor are a constant source of irritation and annoyance to the legitimate residents, but they find romance and eventually get an unexpected chance to prove themselves. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

66 is kidnapped by KAOS and used in a mind-control plan to kill a dignitary (Tucker Smallwood). ~ Damian J. Holbrook, Rovi

When Murphy's "hot" story is shelved, she decides to take a weekend trip to the Caymans with Peter (Scott Bakula). No sooner have they arrived than Murphy (Candice Bergen) receives word that her story is going to be telecast as scheduled. Any dreams of romance between the vacationing couple are quickly shattered when Peter gets a juicy lead on Murphy's story--thereby jump-starting the cutthroat competition that had previously been part and parcel of the Murphy-Peter relationship. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam was first telecast April 3, 1988, over the HBO cable service. Based on the book of the same name, the program is devoted to poignant recitations of letters to and from American participants of the Vietnam war. The letters are heard over images culled from news footage, home movies and still photography, with contemporary music added to put things in the proper historical context. The 2-hour film, featuring readings from various well-known actors (see cast list), was a co-production involving Bill Couturie, a previous Emmy winner for Vietnam Requiem, and the Vietnam Veterans Ensemble Theatre Company. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Combining electric song and dance performances with drama (both on and off screen), Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984) looks back to the 1920s-1930s peak of the legendary Harlem nightclub where only blacks performed and only whites could sit in the audience. Mixing historical figures with characters loosely based on actual people, Coppola and co-writers William Kennedy and The Godfather's Mario Puzo create a panorama of love, crime, and entertainment centered on the Club. Among them are cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere, playing his own solos), who escapes psycho gangster "benefactor" Dutch Schultz (James Remar) for a George Raft-type Hollywood career as a gangster film star; Schultz's nubile mistress Vera Cicero (Diane Lane), who loves Dixie against her mercenary instincts; Cotton Club Mob owner Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins) and close associate Frenchy Demarge (Fred Gwynne); Vincent (Nicolas Cage), Dixie's no-good Mad Dog Coll-esque brother; Club tap star Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines), who woos ambitious light-skinned Club singer Lila Rose Oliver (Lonette McKee); and cameos by Charles "Honi" Coles and Cab Calloway impersonator Larry Marshall. Complementing the period story, Coppola evokes the style of '30s gangster movies and musicals through an array of old-fashioned devices like montages of headlines, songs and shoot-outs. Conceived by producer Robert Evans as his crowning achievement and directorial debut, Evans had to hand over the troubled production to Coppola, but the budget spiraled out of control as the script was repeatedly re-written throughout the chaotic shoot. By the time it was released, The Cotton Club's epic production story of power struggles, financial bloat, and even a murder overshadowed the "reunion" of The Godfather's creative team. Neither a Heaven's Gate-sized failure nor a wallet-saving hit like Coppola's Apocalypse Now, The Cotton Club got some favorable critical notices (although it drew fire for subordinating the African American stories). It did not, however, find a large enough audience to justify its expense and controversy, becoming another mark against 1970s "auteur" cinema in increasingly blockbuster-driven 1980s Hollywood. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

This pilot film for the TV detective series Cagney and Lacey stars Loretta Swit as Chris Cagney and Tyne Daly as Mary Beth Lacey. C and L are NYPD undercover officers, spending their first week on the job disguised as hookers. It's all part of a plan to flush out the person who's been going around beating up prostitutes. The storyline, which also includes the murder of a diamond merchant, shifts from Cagney and Lacey's street duty to their constant struggle against sexism at precinct headquarters and at home. Executive producer Barney Rosenzweig claimed that he'd come up with the idea of Cagney and Lacey after reading a Molly Haskell piece concerning the patronizing treatment of women in films. First telecast on October 8, 1981, the pilot film for Cagney and Lacey held its own opposite the season premiere of Taxi, leading to a weekly series which lasted from 1982 to 1988. But when the series proper went into production, Loretta Swit was replaced by Meg Foster, who in turn was replaced by Sharon Gless (later the wife of executive producer Rosenzweig). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi