Jeremy West Movies
- 1996
Africa is revisited by a real-life Hollywood couple in this made-for-television documentary. Hume Cronyn and wife Jessica Tandy traveled to East Africa in 1966. In 1996, Hume and the couple's daughter (Jessica passed away in 1994) traveled back to Africa to remember the previous trip and examine the current state of the environment. Famed cinematographer Simon Trevor captured the mystical terrain on film, and Jessica's recorded musings on the previous trip are featured. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- 1995
This French family-oriented adventure is set in the Cameroons and Zimbabwe and follows the exploits of a 12-year-old French boy who, following the death of his mother, is sent to Africa to live with his father, the overseer of a large game preserve. The boy, Martin, has not seen his father since he was two. Martin's arrival doesn't make much impact upon his father, Garoubier, who is too busy with his work to pay attention or show affection to the grieving lad. He is sent to school where he is the only white, but soon makes friends with a native boy, Fofana, whose stepfather leads his village and is called the elephant master. One day, Fofana suddenly disappears and during the search, Martin and his dad finally begin to get a little closer. Later Fofana and Martin team up and set out on their own to locate a missing herd of elephants. Trouble follows and adventure ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jacques Dutronc, Erwan Baynaud, (more)
- 1991
- R
Part of a pointless string of sequels ostensibly based on the werewolf novels by Gary Brandner, this entry deserves credit for taking the creatively dead series in an interesting new direction. Set in the barren rural town of Canton Bluff, the story centers on the enigmatic figure of Ian (Brendan Hughes), a likable but severely solitary drifter who takes a job making repairs to the local church. Eschewing human contact, Ian seems unnaturally leery of the impending full moon, a fear shared by a man named Harker (Bruce Payne), the owner of a sleazy traveling carnival. Aware that Ian is a genuine werewolf, Harker is able to blackmail the young man into working for his carnival, where he is put on display with other human oddities. To further complicate matters, Harker is revealed to have a monstrous secret of his own -- he's a vampire, who sees Ian's condition as a cover for preying on the blood of local folk. In a nod to Tod Browning's Freaks, Ian joins forces with the other carnival freaks to destroy their evil master. Director Hope Perello's taut, suspenseful debut makes clever references to classic horror films without lapsing into parody or imitation, and the production has a classy look and feel, helping to shrug off the unpleasant stigma normally associated with the otherwise mediocre Howling franchise. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brendan Hughes, Bruce Payne, (more)
- 1988
- R
Despite the tendency of the Curse films to bear absolutely no relation to each other, this is perhaps the only film in that series to involve an actual curse. It's also one of the better installments. The curse in question is leveled upon the 16th-century monks of San Pietro by a demonically-possessed man, just prior to his being sealed alive in the catacombs beneath the Abbey. His curse plagues the monks' embittered modern-day descendants, who toil under the strict guidance of Father Marinus (Jeremy West). When an American schoolteacher (Laura Schaefer) comes into their midst to explore the sealed catacombs, Marinus fears the worst: not only does the woman represent a powerful temptation to the repressed brothers, but her tamperings with the 400-year-old seal threaten to unleash the horror lurking behind it. His fears are, of course, well-founded, and the demonic attacks begin. Frequent Charles Band collaborator David Schmoeller directs this demon-possession opus with surprising subtlety, eschewing gore effects and Exorcist-style weirdness in favor of a pervading atmosphere of dread, weighed down only slightly by a rather talky script. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Timothy Van Patten, Laura Schaefer, (more)
In this undistinguished parody of the sci fi genre, Robert Urich is Jason who leads a band of pirates in redistributing the wealth of the few to the coffers of the needy. He also joins up with Princess Karina Mary Crosby in searching for her father and a possible source of water in the next galaxy. Meant to be a campy romp through the sci fi genre, the film stops short of achieving a goal that should have been effortless. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, (more)
Two unwed youths head for New York tenements with their child after they are driven from their homes. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi
