Peter Spellos Movies
- 2005
- R
- Add Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis to QueueAdd Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis to top of Queue
A pair of orphaned teens experience an unexpected reunion with their parents in this fourth installment of the long-running Return of the Living Dead franchise. After a traffic accident kills his folks, high-school senior Julian (John Keefe) leads a more or less typical suburban life. Sure, he's a little depressed, and sure, his brother, Jake (Alexandru Geoana), has a problem with matches. But otherwise everything is business as usual. All of that changes when their friend Zeke (Elvin Dandel) is injured in a dirt-bike accident and rushed to the hospital. Although the authorities claim Zeke is dead, he's actually carted off to a secret laboratory by the evil Hybratech corporation, whose scientists plan to experiment on him with a chemical that can reanimate the dead. Unfortunately for Julian and Jake, their uncle Charles (Peter Coyote) is one of the bad guys -- and he's not above using members of his own family as test subjects. With a group of friends in tow, the boys must infiltrate Hybratech's lab, find Zeke, and fend off a horde of angry zombies. Filmed back to back in Romania and Ukraine with Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave, Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis premiered on the SciFi Channel cable network before receiving a DVD release. Both films were directed by Ellory Elkayem, who previously helmed Eight Legged Freaks. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aimee Lynn Chadwick, Cory C. Hardrict, (more)
Otherworldly villains are on the loose again, and it's up to Earth's interstellar police force to bring them to justice in this sequel to the sci-fi comedy blockbuster Men in Black. Agent Jay (Will Smith) has become a high-ranking member of the Men in Black, the secret government task force designed to deal with unruly visitors from other worlds, while his former cohort, Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones), had his memory wiped clean and now lives a simple but contented life as a mailman. However, an especially nasty alien threat has reared its not-so-ugly head; Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) is a shape-shifting Kylothian alien who is in pursuit of another escaped visitor who holds the key to powers that would allow her to destroy the world. Making Serleena all the more dangerous is the fact she's taken on the appearance of a lingerie model, making her irresistible to most men. When the rampaging Serleena takes control of the MIB offices, Jay is forced to turn to the only man who can help him save the world -- the former Agent Kay. After restoring Kay's memory, the two remaining Men in Black set out to conquer Serleena with a motley band of friendly aliens, including a handful of worm creatures and a talking dog named Frank (voice of Tim Blaney). Jay, meanwhile, has his head turned by Laura (Rosario Dawson), an attractive waitress who was an unwitting witness to an alien attack. Men in Black 2 also features Rip Torn, Tony Shalhoub, David Cross, Patrick Warburton, and Johnny Knoxville. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, (more)
A handful of people who think they've survived it all are faced with a challenge they never counted on in this futuristic sci-fi story. After much of the Earth is devastated in a nuclear war, a hardy band of survivors -- including scientific and Marine Corps Colonel Paul Hamilton (John Blyth Barrymore), medic Leslie Morgan (Brinke Stevens), computer expert Milo Tyrell (Ted Monte), USMC Sgt. Frank Blaine (Peter Spellos), communications technician Carla Ferguson (J.J. North), and McQueen (Tim Abell), a straggler looking for his lost son -- roam the wastelands in search of food and shelter. Looking for a place to stay, they happen upon an abandoned military facility and break in. However, they soon discover they're not alone; a large and very bloodthirsty creature, created by intelligence agents as a possible weapon, was left behind, and these weary warriors quickly find themselves in the most desperate battle of their lives. Hybrid was directed by B-movie cult hero Fred Olen Ray. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly nearly set the screen on fire in this clever, female-powered twist on the standard Mob caper film. Gershon is Corky, an ex-con renovating the apartment next door to where Tilly's Violet lives. Violet is the moll of psychotic gangster Caesar (Joe Pantoliano), who uses the apartment as an occasional location for meetings and beatings, and also uses Violet as an occasional plaything for his Mob cronies. Violet is attracted to the super-sexy Corky, and the two begin an intense affair. Corky hatches a plot to escape with $2 million that Caesar is planning to give to a Mob boss, and the mayhem escalates from there. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, (more)
- 1995
Peggy (Katey Sagal) wins $10,000 in a bingo tournament on the same night that Al's group NO MA'AM calls an emergency meeting to choose a new official beer. The result: Al (Ed O'Neill) drinks so much that he forgets to pick up Peg, who must spend all her winnings for carfare home (what a tip THAT must have been!). The supporting cast in this episode features the mother and brother of filmmaker Ron Howard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Sometime in the future, cyborg units are threatening to take over the Earth. After their use is outlawed, four female androids are smuggled onto the planet, and it's up to Jack Ford (Marc Singer) to track them down. His efforts to do so take him on a journey from Phoenix to the underwater city of New Angeles, and finally into the nefarious realm of a megalomaniacal kingpin and his army of thugs. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marc Singer
- 1994
- R
Exploitation king Fred Olen Ray was well entrenched in his "Erotic Thriller" phase (typified by films like Inner Sanctum) when he turned out this oddball mix of salacious schemes and demonic possession. When creatively blocked horror writer Howard (Ted Prior) buys an oversized jar containing a silly-looking pickled monster from a tiny shop in Chinatown, he quickly falls under the thing's supernatural influence. Not only can he churn out reams of manuscript pages like never before, he also becomes more sexually aggressive -- a change which troubles his reserved wife Peggy (statuesque Sandahl Bergman), particularly after the arrival of sexy blonde live-in secretary Carol (Shannon Tweed, whose presence had become ubiquitous in films of this kind). The plot thickens when we learn that Carol is also conspiring with her partner Murray (Frank Sivero), Howard's greedy agent, to steal his manuscript. Carol soon becomes the puppet of the thing in the jar as well, playing violent sexual games with the couple, terrorizing Peggy at every turn, and ultimately turning on Murray -- leading to a hyper-violent climax which has nearly every character blasting away at his/her co-conspirator with automatic weaponry. Despite the heftier financial backing of Columbia Home Video, this is still exploitation in the classic Ray tradition, filled with the usual bucketloads of nudity and kinky sex, and featuring cameos from such familiar B-movie faces as Ray Silva and Turhan Bey, as well as Kato Kaelin as a busboy in the restaurant scene with Bey. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Comedian Pauly Shore goes to boot camp in this comedy adventure set in Chad. It was filmed on location in the California and Arizona deserts. Shore is cast as Bones, a dreamer who wants to open his own stereo shop with his best friend Jack. To earn the cash, Bones talks Jack into joining the Army reserves. In boot camp, they are trained as water purifiers. While in camp, they meet the feisty Christine who takes no guff from men and Fred who is afraid of everything. The foursome are called to active duty and positioned in the deserts of Chad. Through a great mix up, they find themselves driving a water tanker behind Libyan enemy lines. There they must extricate themselves and eventually save the day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pauly Shore, Andy Dick, (more)
- 1993
- PG
In this comedy-adventure for the family, Heather (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is a girl who can't stand her foster parents, so one day she runs away from home in order to track down her real mother. However, Heather's stepmother wants her back -- not because she cares about her, but because Heather is worth several million dollars, and she wants to make sure that she doesn't lose her meal ticket. Private detective Nick Frost (Howard Hesseman) is hired to find Heather and bring her back home, but it turns out that the stepmother has a trick up her sleeve -- once Nick finds Heather, rather than pay him, stepmom calls the FBI and tells them that Nick has kidnapped her daughter. Home for Christmas was originally released under the title Little Miss Millions. Jennifer Love Hewitt was 14 at the time -- a year away from her star-making role in the TV series Party of Five. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1993
No sooner did Jurassic Park score at the box office than the imitations began turning up like bad pennies. The redoubtable Fred Olen Ray, once more delivering a bankable project at the least possible cost, was responsible for Dinosaur Island. Typical of the Ray ouevre is the presence of several top-heavy young ladies, whose costumes can be mercifully described as immodest. The dinosaurs are rubber novelty-shop creations that wouldn't convince a dim-witted duck, but they serve their purpose in forcing the females in the cast to jiggle past the camera in abject horror. Ross Hagen, a veteran of this sort of fare, heads the cast of Dinosaur Island, doing an excellent job of convincing us that the dialogue he's been given is actually worth reciting. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The life of powerful union leader Jimmy Hoffa is the subject of this biographical drama. The focus is strongly on Hoffa's public and political life, from his early days as a labor organizer to his later conflicts with the Federal government -- and, eventually, his mysterious disappearance. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, (more)
Dolph Lundgren and George Segal star in this action thriller in which a man who was convicted of a crime he didn't commit escapes from prison and takes a woman hostage, not knowing she's a police officer. Meanwhile, the escapee is trying to set a trap to get revenge against the corrupt detective who sent him to the big house. The supporting cast includes Ken Foree and Bert Remsen. Also shown under the title Army of One. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Lenny (Tom Sizemore) is the kind of man who simply cannot get through the day without messing up, or suffering some amazing piece of bad luck. As a consequence, he has lost every one of the jobs his uncle has set him up with. That's how he loses his job as a gas station attendant: he leaves the place to ferry Eloise, a particularly good-looking girl, to a job interview. She looks like a good thing for him though, and they move in together, despite a lack of funds. Soon, he even loses his job at a porno flick, when that gets raided by the police. Oddly, he is almost insanely jealous of Eloise's former boyfriends. After the pair of them become homeless, he cooks up a scheme to recoup some money that proves he is completely clueless, once and for all. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Sizemore, Pam Gidley, (more)
- 1992
Based on a true story, the made-for-TV Child Lost Forever was advertised as a "docudrama." A unwed teenage mother is forced to give up her baby for adoption. 16 years later, the girl (played as an adult by Beverly D'Angelo), now married and the mother of two, decides to look for the son she lost. She finds that the boy died at age three under mysterious circumstances. The more she investigates, the more she realizes that she's stumbled upon a long-hushed-up case of child abuse. Child Lost Forever debuted November 16, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beverly D'Angelo, Michael McGrady, (more)
- 1991
- R
Someone is killing phone-sex girls and a policeman is obsessed with finding the killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1991
While the rest of the Seavers stay home for spring (actually winter) cleaning, Jason (Alan Thicke) and Mike (Kirk Cameron) head off for a communications workshop intended for dysfunctional families. Their purpose is to find some common ground in order to iron out their many differences. The workshop succeeds beyond imagination when, during a lively role-reversal exercise, it turns out that Mike and Jason aren't that much different after all--in fact, they're so alike that it's almost frightening! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
- R
- Add Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare to QueueAdd Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare to top of Queue
The producers insisted that this sixth entry in the Nightmare on Elm Street series marked the last; no points for guessing that additional sequels followed. This time, homicidal wraith Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) decides to extend his reign of terror past Elm Street. His agent-on-earth is his own long-lost daughter Maggie (Lisa Zane, sister of Phantom star Billy Zane). Securing a job as a dream therapist for troubled teens, Maggie is able to "open up" the minds of her patients so that Freddy can exercise his usual bloody prerogative. In a garish, 3-D climax, Freddy himself becomes the victim of the vengeful Maggie. Since what happens in this picture is laid out in the title, we can't possibly be accused of giving the ending away. Watch for cameos from Roseanne and her then-husband Tom Arnold, Alice Cooper, Elinor Donahue, and Johnny Depp, one of the stars of the very first Nightmare. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Englund, Lisa Zane, (more)
Based on the Japanese comic-book character created by Toshiki Takaya, this hyper-kinetic science fiction fantasy plays like a live-action cartoon. The title initially refers to a mysterious piece of technology capable of generating a powerful bio-mechanical exoskeleton around the body of its operator. After scientist Tetsu Segawa (Greg Paik) is murdered while trying to deliver it to CIA agent Max Reed (Mark Hamill), the device is stumbled upon by Sean Barker (Jack Armstrong), a friend of the scientist's daughter Mizki (Vivian Wu). Sean discovers the object's power when it encases him with protective power-armor during a fight -- armor which comes in handy when the similarly-clad minions of the diabolical Chronos Corporation come after him to reclaim it. The technology they employ is revealed to be from another planet, which has enabled the head of Chronos (David Gale) to transform his henchmen into reptilian creatures known as Zoanoids (whose ranks include Jimmie Walker from the '70s TV sitcom Good Times!). In the ensuing battle, Sean's consciousness becomes merged with the power of the Guyver, bestowing him with remarkable strength and agility, as well as the convenient ability to regenerate himself when damaged. Helmed by Kung Fu Rascals creator Steve Wang and special-effects wizard Screaming Mad George, The Guyver is a colorful but ultimately clumsy comic-book adventure, bogged down by a pedestrian "Hollywood" script that seems out-of-lace amid the exotic premise and fanciful creature designs. Apparently targeted at younger audiences -- who may enjoy the broad comedy and wild monster effects -- this is relatively safe sci-fi fare compared to its ultra-violent source material. Look for "Scream Queen" Linnea Quigley in a brief cameo. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Hamill, Vivian Wu, (more)
