Norbert Weisser Movies

After foiling a plot to blow up an international seminar with a human bomb, Sydney (Jennifer Garner) is assigned by SD-6 to kidnap a German biotech engineer. CIA agent Vaughn (Michael Vartan) offers to help Syd double-cross SD-6 without their knowing it, using a CIA computer expert named Paul Kelvin (Tom Everett) as a decoy. Elsewhere, Sydney's father, Jack (Victor Garber), is driven to desperate measures to protect his daughter, and Will (Bradley Cooper) comes closer to solving the mystery of Danny's death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This futuristic sci-fi tale, filmed in the Philippines, is of a man (Keith H. Cooke) who is the only human fighter in cyborg kickboxer matches in "New Manila." His trainer, who is also his fiance, is kidnapped and becomes the sex slave of an evil, greedy corporate leader. He comes up with a plan to rescue his fiance and get his revenge on the man who kidnapped her. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

This long-delayed sci-fi/horror project from Charles Band's "B"-factory Full Moon Entertainment features Megan Ward and Peter Billingsley (once the cuddly hero of A Christmas Story) as a pair of suburban teens who discover that the neighborhood's most popular virtual-reality video game -- unimaginatively-dubbed Arcade -- is possessed of a malevolent intelligence and a hunger for young souls. After several Arcade junkies are captured by the digital demon, our heroes decide to strap on their virtual helmets and go head-to-head with the computer to rescue them, facing a confounding series of elaborate puzzles and eventually squaring off against the soul of Arcade itself. "B"-movie journeyman Albert Pyun handles the virtual reality fantasy scenes with verve, though the mediocre effects are hardly worth the endless delays that hounded this production. This film's entire premise was explored far more expertly 10 years earlier in Disney's Tron, and with far more interesting characters than this brooding bunch. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Sarah Pillsbury and Midge Sanford, the producing team responsible for the theatrical-movie "sleeper" The River's Edge, were the mentors of the made-for-TV Seeds of Tragedy. Filmed in semi-documentary fashion, the story involves a single cache of cocaine, from creation to consumption. The coca leaves are initially harvested by poor farmers in the Peruvian Andes. The coca moves forward to a small-time Amazon trader; then it is powdered under the supervision of a Colombian gangster, and finally it winds up on the mean streets of LA. Partially filmed in Mexico with a cast of relative unknowns, Seeds of Tragedy was an unusually potent entry in the Fox Network's "Monday Night Movie" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charles Hallahan makes his series bow as Hunter's new superior officer Captain Devane, whose first official act is to separate Hunter (Fred Dryer) and his partner McCall (Stepfanie Kramer). Thinking that the split was Hunter's idea, McCall vents her spleen on her feckless new partner, rookie Reilly Causland (Robert Firth). Meanwhile, Hunter is teamed with hard-nosed Harry Traynor (Tim Thomerson)--who, as it turns out, may have been responsible for the murder of his ex-partner, who'd called Hunter to impart some valuable information just before his death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Prolific B-movie director Albery Byun (Dollman, Omega Doom) takes the reigns for this tale of a small town overtaken by a highly contagious alien plague on the night of the senior prom. As the local teens party their way through prom night, a meteor crashes to the earth in a small California town, rattling Lawton rancher Larry Jenkins. When Larry puts a call in to the local police, Inspector Bardo is immediately dispatched to the scene to investigate. Upon arriving on the scene, Inspector Bardo is terrified to find that a horrific alien virus has infected the unsuspecting Jenkins. Before he can react, Inspector Bardo is savagely attacked by the rampaging rancher. Now, as the two unwitting hosts make their way into Lawton while viciously attacking and contaminating everyone in their path, adolescent lovebirds Cheryl and Timmy sit perched high atop Lover's Lane completely unaware of the approaching terror. When Timmy is infected, Cheryl is left to fend for herself in the darkened forest. Perhaps if Cheryl can make it to the authorities in time, she can prevent the infection from spreading to LA. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Sue Price, in her third go-round as Alex in the Nemesis series, runs afoul of mercenaries after killing the wrong man in this futuristic sci-fi/horror tale. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Alex is still man's last hope for survival against the cyborgs, as more come hunting for her head. Lots of guns, explosions and a pair of children left over from Village of the Damned. ~ Sean D. MacLaggan, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story, Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List stars Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler, a German businessman in Poland who sees an opportunity to make money from the Nazis' rise to power. He starts a company to make cookware and utensils, using flattery and bribes to win military contracts, and brings in accountant and financier Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) to help run the factory. By staffing his plant with Jews who've been herded into Krakow's ghetto by Nazi troops, Schindler has a dependable unpaid labor force. For Stern, a job in a war-related plant could mean survival for himself and the other Jews working for Schindler. However, in 1942, all of Krakow's Jews are assigned to the Plaszow Forced Labor Camp, overseen by Commandant Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), an embittered alcoholic who occasionally shoots prisoners from his balcony. Schindler arranges to continue using Polish Jews in his plant, but, as he sees what is happening to his employees, he begins to develop a conscience. He realizes that his factory (now refitted to manufacture ammunition) is the only thing preventing his staff from being shipped to the death camps. Soon Schindler demands more workers and starts bribing Nazi leaders to keep Jews on his employee lists and out of the camps. By the time Germany falls to the allies, Schindler has lost his entire fortune -- and saved 1,100 people from likely death. Schindler's List was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture and a long-coveted Best Director for Spielberg, and it quickly gained praise as one of the finest American movies about the Holocaust. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

From Hollywood to Deadwood is an agreeable private-eye yarn, at once a spoof and a tribute to the film noir output of the 1940s. Detectives Savage and Haines (Scott Paulin, Jim Haynes) are hired to locate Lana Dark (Barbara Schock), a movie actress whose absence is costing her studio tons of money. The two Sherlocks follow the evidence trail to Deadwood, South Dakota. Here, Savage begins a one-sided romance with the restless Lana. He learns that her disappearance was all part of an insurance scam. He further learns that now that he knows all, his life, not to mention the lives of Haines and Lana, aren't worth a plug nickel. Though the film wastes no time with inessentials, we learn a lot more about the emotional and psychological makeup of the three protagonists than is customary for films of this nature. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, an American insurance investigator goes to Paris to prove that a crippled client's claim is utterly bogus. While there, the detective finds himself seduced by a pair of beautiful women. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this well-wrought, fast-paced caper flick, a naive, good-hearted waitress doesn't think twice about helping her troubled roommate. Unfortunately, her help lands her in Central America fleeing for her life with a grungy mercenary. They are chased because the two are believed to have possession of a priceless religious icon. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

John Carpenter's The Thing is both a remake of Howard Hawks' 1951 film of the same name and a re-adaptation of the John W. Campbell Jr. story "Who Goes There?" on which it was based. Carpenter's film is more faithful to Campbell's story than Hawks' version and also substantially more reliant on special effects, provided in abundance by a team of over 40 technicians, including veteran creature-effects artists Rob Bottin and Stan Winston. The film opens enigmatically with a Siberian Husky running through the Antarctic tundra, chased by two men in a helicopter firing at it from above. Even after the dog finds shelter at an American research outpost, the men in the helicopter (Norwegians from an outpost nearby) land and keep shooting. One of the Norwegians drops a grenade and blows himself and the helicopter to pieces; the other is shot dead in the snow by Garry (Donald Moffat), the American outpost captain. American helicopter pilot MacReady (Kurt Russell, fresh from Carpenter's Escape From New York) and camp doctor Copper (Richard Dysart) fly off to find the Norwegian base and discover some pretty strange goings-on. The base is in ruins, and the only occupants are a man frozen to a chair (having cut his own throat) and the burned remains of what could be one man or several men. In a side room, Copper and MacReady find a coffin-like block of ice from which something has been recently cut. That night at the American base, the Husky changes into the Thing, and the Americans learn first-hand that the creature has the ability to mutate into anything it kills. For the rest of the film the men fight a losing (and very gory) battle against it, never knowing if one of their own dwindling number is the Thing in disguise. Though resurrected as a cult favorite, The Thing failed at the box office during its initial run, possibly because of its release just two weeks after Steven Spielberg's warmly received E.T.The Extra-Terrestrial. Along with Ridley Scott's futuristic Alien, The Thing helped stimulate a new wave of sci-fi horror films in which action and special effects wizardry were often seen as ends in themselves. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide