Charlie Spradling Movies

A barrel containing the dismembered body of a woman is found in a house formerly owned by mobster Pete Mangrini (Al Sapienza). In their efforts to prove that the body is that of Mangrini's long-missing wife, thereby pinning a murder rap on the mob boss, Medavoy (Gordon Clapp) and Jones (Henry Simmons) are aided and abetted by plucky reporter Nicole Graf (Elizabeth Berkley). Meanwhile, Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) and Sorenson (Rick Schroder), pursuing another lead in the Mangini case, come up with a satisfying example of the postman ringing twice. And off the job, Sipowicz tries to help police medical examiner Dr. Kroft (M. Emmet Walsh) cope with his wife's terminal cancer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Scripter John Raffo made his directorial debut with this noir-slanted mystery thriller about free-lance crime-scene photographer Johnny Scardino (Peter Gallagher) and recovering alcoholic Alice (Frances McDormand). Scardino takes blackmail pictures of well-to-do types in rundown motels. After the blackmailers are bumped off, Scardino wonders if he's next on the hit list, so he searches for evidence or clues that might become visible in photo blowups. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

This grim psychodrama presents an intensely disturbing profile of the needlessly empty lives of Generation X-ers, modern youths from wealthy backgrounds living aimless lives fraught with unfounded despair. Featuring a largely non-professional cast and set within the Hollywood entertainment industry, the various lives of the characters are linked by a young woman's murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Paull Hipp plays "Dangerous" Dan O'Dare an entertaining radio host who gets locked up in the station's control room when an alien being takes over the broadcast. The being starts mesmerizing attractive female listeners with jivy tunes and then uses some sort of transmission contraption to shrink the listening lasses and transport them to the station, where they're placed in foot-high bottles. Apparently, he intends to take them back with him to wherever he came from. While all this goes on, the locked up DJ O'Dare is broadcasting the goings-on, but everybody listening thinks its another of the over-the-airwaves pranks that he's famous for. When a TV reporter named Lisa (Martha Quinn) shows up, the alien wants to bottle her up too, but O'Dare sees how the alien does it, and figures out a way to thwart his kidnapping scheme. ~ Rovi

In this adolescent comedy, a group of ski instructors spend their time sliding on the slopes, drinking too much, and trying to beat a rival ski school during the annual spring festival. The movie was filmed on location at the Whistler Mountain ski resort in British Columbia, Canada. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Val Kilmer delivers what was considered one of 1991's best performances as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's hallucinatory bio-pic of the seminal 1960s rock group The Doors. Stone cuts a jagged swath through Morrison's life, starting with a childhood memory where Morrison sees an elderly Indian dying by the roadside. It picks up with Morrison's arrival in California and his assimilation into the Venice Beach culture, followed by his film school days at UCLA; his introduction to his girlfriend Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan); his first encounters with Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan); and the origin of The Doors -- made up of Manzarek, Robby Kreiger (Frank Whaley), and John Densmore (Kevin Dillon). As the fame of The Doors grows, Morrison's obsession with death increases. The band grows weary of Morrison's missed recording sessions and no-shows at concerts. Morrison, meanwhile, sinks deeper into a drug-induced haze, having mystical sexual encounters with Patricia Kennealy (Kathleen Quinlan), an older rock journalist involved with sadomasochism and witchcraft. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

In this straightforward horror film, a new widow (Karen Black) and her daughter (Rainbow Harvest) have just moved into a new home. They don't discover until much later that the previous owner was mad, mad, mad. By then, the mirror that the woman left behind in the house has served its purpose as a gateway to demonic worlds, and the evil ones have wreaked havoc in this one. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Sherilynn Fenn heads the cast of Full Moon Productions' Kiss of the Beast. Fenn plays an art student who inherits a mysterious, accursed Italian castle. Before long, a troupe of Felliniesque circus performers take shelter in the drafty old manse. Assuming that Fenn is there against her will, a few of the performers draw up plans for her rescue. Malcolm Jamieson enlivens the proceeding as a pair of doppelganger twins. Also known as Meridian, Kiss of the Beast can best be described as Beauty and the Beast with blood and nudity. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A travel snafu bollixes up Maggie's plan to take the family on a trip to Martha's Vineyard. The result: Maggie (Joanna Kerns), Jason (Alan Thicke), Carol (Tracey Gold), Ben (Jeremy Miller) and baby Chrissy are stranded on the mainland, while Mike (Kirk Cameron) and the baby's nanny Julie (Julie McCullough) end up alone on the island--and in the same overnight shelter! This episode is highlighted by the performance of frequent Growing Pains supporting actor Bill Erwin in a dual role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After the phenomenal box-office and critical success of David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of The Fly, a series of big-budget remakes of '50s horror favorites rode in on its coattails in the late 1980s -- though none managed to rise above mere camp clones of their elders, albeit garnished with modern makeup effects in an attempt to draw modern teen horror-junkies. One remake that managed to live up to its cheesy inspiration was Chuck Russell's version of The Blob, in which the title goo crashes to earth and promptly begins digesting the residents of a small California town while growing to gargantuan proportions. The clean-cut teen hero originally portrayed by Steve McQueen (his first starring role) is replaced here with a rebellious outsider (Kevin Dillon) whose preppie rival (Donovan Leitch) for the affections of the cute heroine (Shawnee Smith) is quickly eliminated by the all-consuming space-gelatin. No sooner has the plasma menace set up house in the town sewers when a shadowy government Blob Squad shows up under the direction of the grandfatherly Dr. Meddows (Joe Seneca), to clean up the mess... or not. This high-spirited remake replaces the '50s "Daddy-O" conventions of the original with '80s cynicism -- not even likeable characters are spared from the slaughter -- and anti-government sentiment. It also pushes the gore envelope in ways unavailable to its low-budget parent -- e.g. the scene in which one victim is sucked through a sink drain was only hinted at in the 1958 film, but here viewers are treated to the entire bone-crunching ordeal. Though the quality of blob effects seems inversely proportional to the creature's size (some of the climactic "wall-of-blob" footage is painfully cheap-looking), the end result is more blob for the monster-movie fan's dollar. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

The title of Full House's second-season opener has a double-edged meaning. For starters, 6-year-old Stephanie Tanner (Jodi Sweeten) botches up a home-haircutting job on her uncle Jesse (John Stamos), forcing him to go to a professional hairdresser. Heading back home , Jesse "cuts it close" while riding his Harley, resulting in a crash which totals the bike and breaks both his arms. Stephanie feels responsible for Jesse's accident, and it takes the combined efforts of her dad Danny (Bob Saget) and the rest of the Tanner household to persuade her otherwise. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi