Alan Stock Movies
The always challenging transition from adorable child performer to sexy adult star was achieved flamboyantly by actress Drew Barrymore with this erotic drama that unfolds like a paranoia-drenched Lolita (1962). Sylvie Cooper (Sara Gilbert) is a misanthropic student at a private high school for children of the privileged. While calling in a phony bomb threat to the TV station where her father, Darryl (Tom Skerritt) is a producer, Sylvia attracts the attention of Ivy (Drew Barrymore). Ivy is an orphan from a poor family, attending the school on a scholarship. She and Sylvia quickly become best friends, and Ivy eventually moves out of her aunt's home and into the Cooper household. Ivy covets the Coopers' lavish lifestyle and luxuries, so she begins plotting to kill Sylvie's ailing mother Georgie (Cheryl Ladd), then seduce the alcoholic Darryl and frame Sylvie for the crime, thus taking over the Cooper house. Director Katt Shea Ruben and her co-writer husband Andy Ruben were veterans of the Roger Corman school of filmmaking. The success of Poison Ivy (1992) on video and cable television inspired a pair of sequels, Poison Ivy 2: Lily (1996) and Poison Ivy: The New Seduction (1997). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Drew Barrymore, Sara Gilbert, (more)
- 1991
- R
Featuring plenty of high, hard kicks, and flailing furious fists, this martial arts actioner tells an exciting tale of vengeance as a tough American street fighter stalks the streets of L.A.'s Chinatown in search of the organized criminals responsible for his guardian's death. Movie newcomer Jeff Speakman makes an appealing action hero, with fluid direction from genre veteran Mark DiSalle. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Speakman, John Dye, (more)
- 1990
- R
Best known as the sexy but intellectually challenged Kelly Bundy on Married with Children, Christina Applegate broadened her range a bit with this tough-minded drama in which she played a drug-addicted teenage prostitute living on the streets of Los Angeles. Sy (David Mendenhall) is a clean-cut, middle-class teenager who dreams of becoming a rock star, so he makes his way from the suburbs into downtown L.A. to check out the action. Shortly after arriving, Sy sees a man with a gun beating Dawn (Christina Applegate), a hooker who didn't let her customer get as rough with her as he wanted. Sy comes to Dawn's rescue, and he suffers some severe facial scratches for his trouble. Dawn takes Sy under her wing and gives him a guided tour of the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, where murder, theft and addiction are as common as jaywalking, and hundreds of homeless kids no older than Sy fight for survival. Meanwhile, as Dawn and Sy become closer, the psycho who attacked Dawn is hot on her trail, looking for revenge and unconcerned with who gets hurt before he finds her. Streets was directed by Katt Shea Ruben, who acted in several low-budget exploitation films for producer Roger Corman before moving on to direct several films for Corman's New World Pictures. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christina Applegate, David Mendenhall, (more)
- 1990
In this entry in the long-running mystery series, Perry Mason represents a former student who is accused of murdering a singing star. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The Hideous Sun Demon was a typically awful really low budget 1959 sci-fi monster movie which B-movie actor Robert Clarke produced, directed, and starred in. The current feature simply takes the original film and dubs in hip, funny, self-mocking dialogue to replace the old, stiff, self-conscious original dialogue, much in the manner of Woody Allen's creative redubbing of What's Up Tiger Lily?. Among the uncredited voices is that of comic Jay Leno. A small amount of new footage, carefully shot to match the original, has been added to fill out the story. In the original, a research scientist (Clarke) has been exposed to a radioactive substance which makes him turn into a reptile monster whenever he's exposed to sunlight. After this, he falls in love with a beautiful nightclub singer, but a series of mishaps result in his being killed while his love remains unconsummated. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Clarke, Patricia Manning, (more)
This uneven attempt at horror parody, direced by Norman Thaddeus Vane, gets off to a fairly promising start with a fun performance from Ferdinand Mayne (the imposing lead vampire in Roman Polanski's Fearless Vampire Killers) as the impossibly flamboyant horror superstar Conrad Radzoff -- whose idea of a memorable promotional stunt for his latest film involves the murder of its director. Though this proves a hard act to follow, Radzoff manages to do so by kicking the bucket himself. Then enter the annoying young members of a horror-film society who decide to steal Radzoff's corpse to use as a macabre centerpiece at their next hootenanny. Big mistake. Mrs. Radzoff is none too pleased and consults a spirit medium to reanimate her husband's body and avenge the desecration of his crypt. Sadly, what began as a clever comic nod to horror films of yore (and their die-hard fans in particular) collapses completely into routine slasher formula as Radzoff floats his coffin around the house in pursuit of his enemies, dispatching them in outrageously gory ways. Distributors released a title on video, shortly after the run of this film, entitled 'Frightmare II.' It was in fact a 1974 Pete Walker film all but unrelated to this one and erroneously advertised as the sequel to Vane's film. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ferdy [Ferdinand] Mayne
- 1983
Investigating the murder of an elderly woman at the hands of a Neo-Nazi street gang, Quincy (Jack Klugman) is himself assaulted and savagely beaten. Though his physicial injuries soon heal, Quincy is left with profound emotional scars that may never go away. With the help of his wife Emily and his circle of friends, Quincy struggles to conquer his new-found fears--and to personally bring his attackers to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
The A-Team sets about to rescue the passengers of a hijacked 747 with Hannibal (George Peppard)and Face (Dirk Benedict) posing as airline executives so they can trade themselves for the hostages. As it turns out, retrieving the plane is the easy part: The trouble arises when, while escaping from the villains, B.A. (Mr. T) goes into cataleptic shock at the prospect of flying, Hannibal is helplessly trapped in the airport tower, and a temporarily blinded Murdock (Dwight Schultz) is at the 747's controls! Without tipping the ending, it can be noted that a climactic action sequence was lifted from the theatrical feature Airplane (and we haven't even mentioned the possibility that "Howling Mad" Murdock may finally be declared sane--much to his dismay). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
- PG
In this skewed, unreal view of a woman's choice in men, almost nothing is believable. Amy (Lucie Arnaz) is a savvy, well-educated lawyer in Santa Fe who divorces her husband, an exec in the banking business, to become involved with Will (Craig Wasson) a street musician with the same iron-clad brain as her ex when it comes to women. The musician is regularly picked up by the police for his loitering, though he seems never to fully realize why they are doing this to him. Amy drops him at last, and when she finds out she is pregnant, she goes to the hospital to have an abortion -- and is introduced to a Boris Karloff-type doctor. Before anything further happens, Will comes along and forcibly carries her off to a remote, run-down building in a ghost town where he ties her to a bed intending to keep her there until she has the baby. Hard to believe, but things only get worse from here. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucie Arnaz, Craig Wasson, (more)
- 1982
- PG
In this horror outing, a California archaeologist has obtained the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamen and has taken it to his lab to be x-rayed. Unfortunately, the radiation levels he uses are too high and something begins to happen inside the coffin. Suddenly the mummy within storms out. Inside all the wrappings is an alien creature, the one who killed the king. He begins searching for the crystals he needs to return to his home planet. Frustrated, he begins a killing spree. Unlike movie mummies of old, this fellow is quite agile and can easily capture his human prey. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Murphy, Nina Axelrod, (more)
Stepping into the role made famous on Broadway by Tom Conti, Richard Dreyfuss stars as a profoundly handicapped sculptor in Whose Life is it Anyway? Left a quadraplegic after an auto accident, the embittered Dreyfuss feels utterly useless, as both an artist and a human being. He doesn't want his family's love, or his doctor's care, or his nurse's ministrations. Dreyfuss simply wants to die-but this is impossible, given the legal state of things in the 1970s. Whose Life is It Anyway? may be the only film in which a person's right to self-destruction is regarded as a happy ending. Not as depressing as it sounds, Whose Life Is It Anyway is perversely hilarious at times, with Dreyfuss at his acerbic best. The film was scripted by Reginald Rose and Brian Clark from Clark's stage play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, John Cassavetes, (more)
- 1979
Veteran police officer Tommy Bates (Neville Brand) catches Billy Harris (Richard Stanley), a young car thief whose wild behavior indicates that he is high on "angel dust." During the arrest, Harris dies, and his accomplice Steve (Michael Horton) accuses Bates of choking the boy to death. Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg), an old friend of Bates, pressures Quincy (Jack Klugman) to speed up the autopsy on Harris to learn the truth--while a cop-hating civil rights attorney named Charlie Trusdale (William Daniels) is likewise breathing down Quincy' neck. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
In the first episode of a two-part story, the Galactica is again attacked by a fleet of Cylon fighters. The crew's only hope of escape is through a space corridor past the ice planet Arcta--which is guarded by a Cylon pulsar cannon. Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) is ultimately forced to place the future of his space vessel in the hards of an army of criminals, led by Adama's son Apollo (Richard Hatch) and Apollo's best friend Starbuck (Richard Hatch). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, (more)
- 1978
In the conclusion of a two-part story, the fate of the Galactica rests in the hands of an army of criminals and misfits, under the command of Apollo (Richard Hatch) and Starbuck (Dirk Benedict). This ragtag band must destroy the Cylon pulsar cannon mounted on the ice planet Arcta. Can they depend upon the help of a race of clone miners, who have as much reason to hate the Cylons as anyone in the universe -- but who may not be willing or able to fight? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, (more)
