Ken Thorley Movies

For his fifth effort as a feature-film director, one-time cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld brought his cartoonish visual style and darkly humorous sensibilities to this adaptation of, appropriately enough, a tongue-in-cheek sci-fi comic book. Will Smith stars as James Darrel Edwards, a New York City cop with an athletic physique and a flippant, anti-authoritarian attitude toward law enforcement. After chasing down a mysterious perpetrator one night who turns out to be an alien, James is recruited by "K" (Tommy Lee Jones), a veteran of a clandestine government agency secretly policing the comings and goings of aliens on planet Earth. Nicknamed the "men in black" for their nondescript uniform of black suit, shoes, tie, and sunglasses, the agents are assigned to recover a bauble that's been stolen by an intergalactic terrorist (Vincent D'Onofrio). It seems the item is none other than the galaxy itself, and its theft has plunged humanity into the center of what's shaping up to become an interstellar war, unless K and his new wisecracking partner, now renamed "J," can stop the bad guy. On their side but somewhat in the dark is a pretty, unflappable city medical examiner (Linda Fiorentino) who has been zapped one too many times by K's ingenious memory-sapping device. Men in Black was a box office smash, inspiring an animated children's television series and a hit soundtrack album that featured a performance by star (and rapper) Smith. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

A serial killer is transformed into a computer virus out to destroy more than your hard drive in this sci-fi thriller. Terry Munroe (Karen Allen), a single mother, is looking for a gift for her boss and visits a computer store, where one of the employees demonstrates a hand-held scanner than can transfer the information from her address book into a software program that will store the information on her PC. Unknown to Terry, one of the employees of the store is Karl Hochman (Ted Marcoux), known in the press as "The Address Book Killer," who likes to steal other people's address books and murder all the people listed within, including the book's owner. Terry accidentally leaves her book behind at the store, and Karl lifts it, but as he drives to her house to strike her off the list first, he is injured in a serious accident and taken to a hospital. While Karl is being given a CAT scan, lightning strikes the building and Karl is transformed into a series of electrical impulses that can travel as computer code from one system to another, or as current through power lines. Soon Terry begins to suspect something is wrong as her friends succumb to attacks by microwave ovens, hot-air blowers, and other household objects. Terry and her computer-savvy son, Josh (Wil Horneff), realize that they're at risk after Karl appears in Josh's virtual reality games; it's up to Bram Walker (Chris Mulkey), a brilliant hacker-turned-computer maintenance technician, to isolate and destroy the Karl virus before it can kill again. The film's soundtrack features such hip-hop stars as D-Nice and Too Short, Schoolly-D, Grandmaster Slice, and Kool Moe Dee. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A suicide found in the desert with 500,000 dollars cash stuffed in a briefcase makes Sheriff Ray Dolezal (Willem Dafoe) curious. What was the dead man up to? Sensing that if he follows the money, he'll find crime at the end of the trail, Dolezal assumes his identity. He soon discovers the dead man was a paid informant for an FBI agent (Samuel L. Jackson) trailing an arms dealer (Mickey Rourke) who works with an intermediary (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). Dolezal begins to suspect that he's being set up to take a big fall when the money is stolen from him and the dead man's girlfriend (Maura Tierney, in an early role) gets killed after she tells him that her beau had a partner in a scheme to steal the money from the FBI. Will his enemies discover his real identity? Will the FBI agent turn on him? Will he get back the money? ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., Rovi

A series of bizarre occurences plagues the members of the Enterprise crew after an unexpected alien visit. It is soon revealed that the crew personnel are being kidnapped, one by one. The captives are then experimented upon by their alien abductors, then returned to the Enterprise, with only vague memories of the harrowing experiments. A clever spin on the old "Betty and Barney Hill" plot device, "Schisms" was scripted by Brannon Braga, from a story by Jean Louise Matthias and Ron Wilkerson. Curiously, when the episode first aired on October 24, 1992, its synopsis was missing from the pages of TV Guide. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Originally telecast June 20, 1992, this episode was the third of Next Generation's season-ending cliffhangers. Things begin on a gruesome note when, during an archaeological investigation on Earth, the excavators come across the severed head of Lt. Cmdr. Data. In as much as Data is still alive and well, it is assumed that the decapitated relic represents the remains of a shape-changing alien. While following up this theory, the Enterprise crew passes through a time vortex, catapulting Data back to 19th Century San Francisco. As before, the outcome of this two-part adventure would not be revealed until the series returned for its sixth-season opener on September 26, 1992. Both parts one and two of "Time's Arrow" were based on a story by Joe Menosky and Michael Piller, with Menosky handling the scripting chores for part one. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Albert Brooks wrote, directed, and stars in this philosophical comedy about a man having a hard time making a case for himself in the afterlife. When advertising executive Daniel Miller (Albert Brooks) finds himself in a fatal car crash minutes after taking delivery on a new BMW, he's whisked away to Judgment City, where the recently dead are put on a sort of trial to decide their fate. If in your time on Earth you were able to face your fears and learn from your mistakes, you get to move on to a life in a better world. However, if you didn't, you have to go back to Earth and try again. As he spends the next several days watching various episodes from his life, Daniel gets the impression he doesn't stand much of a chance of moving on -- and his representative, Bob Diamond (Rip Torn), seems to have little confidence in his case. In the meantime, he frequents Judgment City's many restaurants (where the food is delicious and you can eat all you want without gaining an ounce), pays a visit to the Past Life Pavilion, and meets Julia (Meryl Streep), who seems so kind, sweet, and noble that her advancement is practically assured. Daniel and Julia fall in love, but what's going to happen if they don't end up in the same place? Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep make a witty and engaging romantic team in Defending Your Life, and Shirley MacLaine appears in a highly appropriate cameo. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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, Rovi

This is the celebrated "lost" episode of Married... With Children, in which Peg (Katey Sagal) and Al (Ed O'Neill) spend a weekend at the sleazy Hop-On-In Motel. Tuning in to an X-rated cable station, the Bundys are surprised to see their own neighbors Steve (David Garrison) and Marcy (Amanda Bearse) in a porno film. It turns out that the motel has been secretly videotaping the sexual shenanigans of its guests -- including the Bundys. Outraged, Al and Peg join Steve and Marcy in filing suit against the hotel owners, with surprising (and humiliating!) results. Although this episode was slated to air in February of 1989, the Fox network would not approve the final version, which had an unprecedented 15 "censor notes." As a result, "I'll See You in Court" was not broadcast on the United States until it was run by cable's FX service on June 18, 2002 -- over 13 years after it was taped. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This cut-rate horror anthology is packaged in a TV-series format, lacking even the most rudimentary production values and enhanced only slightly by the brief narrative presence of Vincent Price, who appears in a linking story as a sinister postman who delivers the stories on videocassette to an unwary young couch-potato. The tales involve a fisherman ensnared by his own line, a delivery boy trapped in an endless time-loop in a woodland town, a jogger pursued by mischievous forest monsters, an old scavenger who chances across a crashed alien craft, and a two-bit thief who steals a magical wishing stone. These vignettes run the gamut from tedious to downright silly, bogged down by mealy-mouthed moralizing and childish humor; viewers should be grateful that only five are presented instead of the ten chapters erroneously suggested in the prologue. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi