Barbara Bell Wright Movies
Twenty years after being exiled from the village in which he was born, a mighty warrior returns to his home to find that a ruthless tyrant has slaughtered his family and spread death and despair across the land. Everything Turok ever knew is now gone, and the man responsible for this untold destruction is a ruthless warlord named Chichak. Now, with vengeance in his blood and nothing left to lose, Turok will cross fearlessly over into the Lost Land - a treacherous place where savagery rules, and primeval beasts stalk their prey with vicious ferocity. But Turok's tireless quest for revenge won't be easy, because before he reaches Chichak he will be forced to contend with not only man-eating dinosaurs and brutal cave-dwellers, but also the darkness that dwells somewhere deep within his own troubled soul. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adam Beach, Irene Bedard, (more)
Two of the most popular animated series on the children's cable network Nickelodeon get wrapped up in one big-screen package in this comedy-adventure, featuring the characters from Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys. Drew and Didi Pickles (voices of Michael Bell and Melanie Chartoff) decide to take a special vacation with their children, Tommy (voice of Elizabeth Daily) and Angelica (voice of Cheryl Chase), with their friends (both grown-ups and toddlers) coming along for the ride. However, the ship Drew has chartered isn't especially seaworthy, and their party ends up stranded on an uncharted island in the Pacific. The kids figure the day is saved when they discover that famous explorer and television personality Sir Nigel Tornberry (voice of Tim Curry) is also on the island with his family, but after he gets a world-class knock on the head from a coconut, Nigel's upper intellectual register gets knocked out of commission. The Rugrats are then forced to turn to Nigel's daughter, Eliza (voice of Lacey Chabert), who not only knows the wilds, but can talk to animals, which comes as quite a surprise to Spike (voice of Bruce Willis), the Pickles' family pooch. Rugrats Go Wild also features the voice talents of LL Cool J, Cree Summer, Nancy Cartwright, Jack Riley, and Flea. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Chrissie Hynde, (more)
The Nickelodeon cartoon series The Wild Thornberrys gets its first feature-length animated film, directed by show creator Cathy Malkasian with a screenplay by Kate Boutilier (writer of Nickelodeon's Rugrats in Paris). The main character is 12-year-old Eliza Thornberry (voice of Lacey Chabert), a braces-and-glasses-wearing eccentric girl in an adventurous family of travelers. Due to an interaction with a shaman, she has been granted the special power of communication with animals, as long as she promises not to tell anyone about it. Her powers are challenged when her parents, Nigel (voice of Tim Curry) and Marianne (voice of Jodi Carlisle), decide to take the family on an African safari to make a nature documentary. Also along for the trip is snobby sister Debbie (voice of Danielle Harris), feral youngster Donnie (voice of Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers), and pet chimpanzee Darwin (voice of Tom Kane). After her new Cheetah cub friend is stolen by poachers, Eliza is determined to get involved. However, the stuffy Thornberry grandparents get in the way by sending her to boarding school. It's up to Eliza and Darwin to defeat the poachers and save the cub. Also featuring the voice talents of Brenda Blethyn and Lynn Redgrave. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lacey Chabert, Tom Kane, (more)
- 1967
Circumstantial evidence suggests that a murdered cop was supplementing his income as a blackmailer. Chief Ironside (Raymond Burr), an old friend of the dead man, is determined to prove otherwise. In the course of his investigation, Ironside reopens an unsolved homicide case in which the deceased officer's girlfriend Adrienne May (Jan Shepard) was a key player. Featured in the cast is Robert Alda, the father of future M*A*S*H star Alan Alda. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The Trouble With Angels opens on the first day of school for a new batch of students at St. Francis Academy, run by a very strong-willed Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell). She is used to having things her way, but she may have met her match in the headstrong and independent Mary Clancy (Hayley Mills) and her newfound friend, Rachel Devery (June Harding). Mary, easily bored and ready to rebel at the drop of a hat, comes up with an endless series of "scathingly brilliant" schemes designed either to amuse her and Rachel, torture insufferable schoolmate Marvel-Ann, or in some way help them get ahead. Rachel, who would never come up with such ideas on her own, is delighted to go along with them. The duo starts right away by convincing several of the girls to join them in giving fake names to the sisters that register them. Future escapades include guided tours of the nuns' living quarters, illicit cigarette smoking that brings about the fire brigade, replacing sugar with soap bubbles, and many others. Several times the Mother Superior is on the brink of expelling the girls, but she relents, knowing something of their home lives and that they will benefit from the more nurturing environment of the school. By the end of the film, the girls have indeed grown, and Mary, in particular, has developed a special love for the Academy. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosalind Russell, Hayley Mills, (more)
- 1960
Every night, at precisely the same hour, pregnant housewife Laura Perkins (Peggy Ann Garner) insists that she hears the sound of an airplane buzzing over her house. Laura's husband John (John Lassell) hears nothing, and dismisses his wife's fears as a delusion arising from her delicate condition. Even so, Laura is obsessed with the belief that a plane will crash directly into her bedroom at 12:17 AM--but as it turns out, her future may hold something even more devastating. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Once again, Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) leave the confines of their downtown police station to venture into the wilds of Hollywood. 16-year-old movie starlet Joan Hamblin (Norma Eberhardt) has reported that a forged check has somehow shown up in her bank account. Can it be that someone within the girl's "trusted" entourage is taking advantage of her celebrity? (Coincidentally, some of the best lines in this episode go to Ben Alexander--who had once been a child movie star himself). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
The Cruel Tower is a dog-and-pony variation of a well-worn triangle plot. John Ericson is a handsome young steeplejack, working side-by-side on a dizzying new structure with brooding partner Charles McGraw. Mari Blanchard is McGraw's beautiful young wife, whose history of illicit romances immediately arouses McGraw's suspicions vis-a-vis Ericson. The problem with all of these "dangerous profession" mellers is that the villain invariably hatches a scheme to make a murder look like an accident--and nearly always ends up the victim of his own scheme. For a while in The Cruel Tower, however, it appears as though John Ericson is really going to fall for Mari Blanchard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ericson, Mari Blanchard, (more)
