Douglas Cheek Movies
- 2011
Deaf photographer Tim Patterson (Russell Harvard) lives alone in an inherited house and revels in the natural beauty that surrounds him. It's an idyllic existence, and his life takes a promising turn when he meets and falls in love with Heather Barnes, a beautiful blonde real estate agent. But soon another newcomer shows up: a gaunt, creepy fellow named James Orwell who happens to be Tim's next-door-neighbor. Orwell claims that he actually owns Tim's land, making Tim a trespasser; this sends Tim spiraling downward into a bottomless abyss of nightmarish confrontations. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- 2005
- NR
- Add Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price to Queue Add Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price to top of Queue
Wal-Mart has become one of America's most successful retail chains by offering everyday goods at low prices for working families. But just how is Wal-Mart able to charge less than many of their rivals, and what has their success done for their employees? Documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald takes a look inside the discount retailer's empire in Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, and discovers a company short on scruples and long on shabby treatment of the people who work for them. Through interviews with labor experts and former Wal-Mart employees, Greenwald documents the firm's anti-union tactics, their history of paying wages often below the poverty line, the high price they charge for health benefits (employees are often encouraged to apply for government subsidized health care programs instead), their methods for driving away locally owned businesses, their practice of hiring illegal aliens for cleanup crews at a fraction of minimum wage, the abysmal working conditions and pay in the Third World plants where much of Wal-Mart's goods are manufactured, and more. Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price is one in a series of muckraking documentaries from director Greenwald which includes the films Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, Uncovered: The War in Iraq, and Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 2004
- Add Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism to Queue Add Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism to top of Queue
While the Fox News cable network has promoted itself as a "fair and balanced" news outlet -- so much so that they've even trademarked the phrase -- not everyone believes that they're living up to their slogan, and this activist documentary by filmmaker Robert Greenwald takes a close look at the political perspective of Fox's coverage. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism examines the right-wing slant of Fox News' reporting, as represented in stories the network chooses to cover and their shoehorning of editorial opinion into stories, revealed in interviews with former Fox employees and several noted journalists (including Walter Cronkite) who discuss the pro-conservative, anti-Democratic views of the channel's management and how they're manifested in their programming. The film also puts talk show host Bill O'Reilly under the microscope and offers potent examples of his frequently abrasive interviewing style. Production of Outfoxed was supported in part by the leftist political action network Moveon.org. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Douglas Cheek
- 2003
The PBS documentary special Peter and Paul and the Christian Revolution was put together by the same production team responsible for the network's 2001 series The Roman Empire in the First Century. As indicated, the emphasis is on two of Jesus Christ's most impassioned disciples: Peter, the fervent true believer, and Paul, the convert and organizer. In the 30 years after the Crucifixion, the blunt and proselytizing Peter and the urbane and sophisticated Paul endeavored, separately and together, to make Christianity relevant to the average citizen of the Roman Empire -- and to dispel the widely held belief that, in the words of a contemporary theologian, "A crucified Messiah was a failed Messiah." Narrated by actress Salome Jens, Peter and Paul and the Christian Revolution consists of two episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
People are disappearing all over the Big Apple. Nobody cares, though, because most of the missing are homeless. But when investigative reporter Murphy (J.C. Quinn) tips off principled photographer George Cooper (John Heard) to a government conspiracy involving the dumping of nuclear waste beneath the streets, Cooper decides to dig a little deeper. Soon he discovers the existence of C.H.U.D.s, or "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers," derelicts who have become grotesque monsters after being exposed to the mountains of hazardous waste. Meanwhile, Captain Bosch (Christopher Curry), a cop whose wife is among the missing, forms an unlikely alliance with the Reverend (Daniel Stern), a leftist soup-kitchen cook who knows the score. Murphy, Cooper, Bosch, and the Reverend soon run up against the stonewalling tactics of Wilson (George Martin), a government toadie. As the titular monsters begin to tire of their underground habitat, the protagonists -- including Cooper's wife, beautiful model Lauren Daniels (Kim Greist) -- face a race against time to defeat not only the C.H.U.D.s, but the government's cover-up. The debut, and only film, from writer Parnell Hall and director Douglas Cheek, C.H.U.D. was followed by 1989's C.H.U.D. 2: Bud the C.H.U.D. Co-stars Stern and Heard would later appear together in the first two Home Alone pictures, while Curry would appear in the third. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Heard, Kim Greist, (more)
Rating Systems
Blockbuster
BLOCKBUSTER name, design and related marks are trademarks of Blockbuster L.L.C.
2013 Blockbuster L.L.C. All rights reserved.
Portions of Content Provided by Rovi Corporation. 2013 Rovi Corporation.