Ric Waugh Movies

Two generations of radical bikers face off in this rubber-burning action drama. Manuel "Smoke" Galloway (Laurence Fishburne) is the leader of the Black Knights, an underground motorcycle club. Smoke, like most of his fellow Knights, is a successful white collar worker who can afford fancy leathers and top quality bikes, and Smoke has earned a reputation as the "King of Cali," willing take on anyone in a drag race, legal or no. Kid (Derek Luke) is a gifted young rider whose father was once Smoke's mechanic; when Kid's dad died after an accident, Kid set out to become the best biker he could be to carry on his father's name and reputation. Smoke, however, has no room in the Black Knights for Kid, and so he and several fellow outcast riders start their own club, the Biker Boyz, and challenge Smoke to prove once and for all who is the fastest rider on the scene. Biker Boyz also features appearances from Orlando Jones, Lisa Bonet, Djimon Hounsou, Larenz Tate, and Kid Rock. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The first original sitcom from cable's Animal Planet network, Beware of Dog was told from the p.o.v. of a "typical" mutt named Jack. His voice provided by Park Bench, Jack was no "superdog" like Lassie or Rin Tin Tin; even so, he always managed to come to the rescue of his human family by teaching them how to reach out to one another whenever an emotional crisis reared its ugly head. The furry hero wasted no time in his mission to patch up human emotions; in the very first episode, he pretended to be hit by a car so that he'd be adopted by cute little Jessica (Alex Appel), the daughter of Mary and Bill Poole (Carolyn Dunn, Richard Waugh) -- thereby enabling him to iron out an argument between the grownups and to save Jessica's brother Matt (Gage Knox) from a gang of neighborhood toughs. Beware of Dog debuted August 13, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This ambitious and unusual feature from Seattle-based independent filmmaker Gregg Lachow was shot without a soundtrack, and is exhibited by Lachow with a troupe of seven actors providing the narration and dialogue live at each screening, accompanied by a six-piece jazz combo who perform the film's score. Silence! begins with a young boy watching a home movie of his parents from the days when they were still just dating; the boy begins to imagine that his folks were the stars of a vintage silent film, and soon Megan (Megan Murphy) and Michael (Michael Chick) find themselves living in a pre-sound Hollywood production, directed by an autocratic German filmmaker (Judith Weber), with both the parents and the "real" cast dumbfounded by the eccentricities of the production crew. Gregg Lachow generally performs with the film as the narrator, and his son Sam Lachow often tags along to provide the voice of the young boy. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Birkoff (Matthew Fergusan) is traumatized when he forced to make his first kill. Madeline (Alberta Watson) puts Birkoff in "abeyance," ostensibly until he has recovered sufficiently to be of value to Section One. Knowing full well that abeyance is one step short of "cancellation," Nikita (Peta Wilson) endeavors to save Birkoff's life. Tara Sloane makes her first series appearance as Gail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A single mother and her difficult son find family life isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be in this drama adapted from writer and professor Tobias Wolff's 1989 memoir of the same name. Nomadic, flaky Caroline (Ellen Barkin) just wants to settle down in one place, find a decent guy, and provide a better home for her handful of a son, Toby (Leonardo DiCaprio). When she moves to Seattle and meets the respectful, respectable Dwight Hansen (Robert DeNiro), she thinks she's got it made. Toby, however, feels differently after spending a few months with Dwight and his children and away from Caroline. The boy's stepfather-to-be seems to want to mold Toby into a better person, but to do so he emotionally, verbally, and physically abuses the kid. The marriage proceeds, and soon Caroline, too, recognizes Dwight's need to dominate everyone around him. She sticks with it, though, convinced it's the best thing for her son, and several years of dysfunction ensue. During this time, Tobias befriends another misfit, the possibly homosexual young Jonah (Arthur Gayle), while continuing to chafe under the yoke of his repressive stepfather. This Boy's Life provided the first lead role for future superstar DiCaprio. The film was written by Robert Getchell, who also penned such mother/son fare as Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and The Client. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

In Kuffs, Christian Slater plays George Kuffs, an irresponsible 21-year-old who walks out on his pregnant girlfriend Maya (Milla Jovovich) and runs, broke, to see his big brother Brad (Bruce Boxleitner) in San Francisco. Bruce is the owner of a Special Patrol, a franchised civilian auxiliary police force. During George's visit, Bruce is killed, and George, who witnessed the killing, takes over the patrol to seek revenge. But first George has to earn respect from the patrol, and at first all of them want him out. But with the help of a police liaison (Tony Goldwyn), he uncovers an illicit scheme involving $50 million, a case Bruce was just about to break when he was killed. George decides to stick around and complete the work his brother started. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide