Tod Feuerman Movies

"Being a vampire sucks." This pretty much summed up the attitude of the protagonist of this heady CBS mixture of suspense and the supernatural. Alex O'Loughlin starred as LA private detective Mick St. John, who'd become an "undead" vampire way back in 1947 thanks to his fang-bearing former wife Coralyn (Shannyn Sossamon. Though obliged to drink blood and avoid sunlight to survive (luckily he was impervious to such usual vampire repellants as wooden stakes and garlic), Mick made the best of a bad situation by taking a job that allow him to work nights and to spend his days sleeping in a freezer; and, good-hearted soul that he was, Mick sidestepped the embarrassing necessity of killing people for their blood by forming a strong friendship with morgue attendant Guillermo (Jacob Vargas), who provided him with an endless supply of fresh corpses. Against his better judgment, Mick fell in love with a mortal, intrepid girl reporter Beth Turner (Sophia Myles), who worked for the Buzzwire news service and who frequently accompanied Mick during his investigations. Rounding out the regular characters were Mick's mentor and best friend Josef (Jason Dohring), a remarkably well-preserved 400 year old vampire who supported his luxurious lifestyle as a professional fund trader, and who lacked Mick's compassion for human beings but was willing to avoid biting necks when Beth was around; and police lieutenant Carl Davis (Brian White), who by default was the only entirely normal character on the show. Curiously, the vampiric elements of the series took a back seat to the detective work, which followed the "procedural" format of such series as Law&Order and CSI. Created by Ron Koslow of Beauty and the Beast fame, Moonlight first flapped its wings on September 28, 2007. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This hastily assembled rehash of the infamous Laci Peterson murder case is based on Amber Frey's book Witness: For the Proseuction of Scott Peterson, which may explain why she comes off as the most sympathetic person in the film. Basically, the script adheres to the facts: The mistress of Scott Peterson (Nathan Anderson), Amber Frey (Janel Moloney) begins to suspect that something is amiss with her sweetheart when, during what is supposed to his trip to Europe, he is suddenly popping up on every TV station and cable service in the country, swearing up and down that he had nothing to do with the disappearance of his wife Laci and their unborn son Connor. Eventually, Amber decides to cooperate with the Modesto Police Department in their efforts to pin a murder rap on Scott, agreeing to wear a wire while conversing with Scott over his domestic travails. In his frenzied efforts to counteract previous lies by cooking up new ones, Peterson effectively puts the noose around his own neck--and Amber rightfully emerges as the heroine of the piece (though not, it is hinted, without putting her own life in jeopardy in process). Somehow, the film manages to work in several plugs for the self-help book "du jour", The Purpose-Driven Life. Produced for CBS, the made-for-TV Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution premiered May 25, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The new girl in town is 16-year-old Jacey Jeffries (Danielle Panabaker), who lives with her divorced mother, Terry (Mercedes Ruehl), and her two siblings. A popular and highly intelligent student, not to mention a talented athlete, Jacey nonetheless seems to be harboring a private, profound sadness -- or at least that's the perception of her high-school guidance counselor, Donna Cooper (Jane Krakowski). Ultimately Donna figures out the truth behind Jacey's melancholia: her baby "brother" Charlie is actually her own son, born out of wedlock and raised by Jacey's overbearing mother in a misguided effort to shield her daughter from disgrace. Upon discovering Jacey's secret, Donna takes a special interest in the girl's welfare -- an interest undoubtedly fueled by the fact that Donna herself is unable to have children. The scenes taking place in the sex-education class have an air of reality often lacking in made-for-TV films, due to the fact that the young actors playing the students were encouraged to improvise their dialogue. Produced for the Lifetime cable network, Mom at Sixteen first aired on March 21, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inspired by the themes of Steven Soderbergh's Academy Award winning 2000 film of the same name, Traffic: The Miniseries focuses on a group of people involved in the highest levels of illegal trafficking; dealing with the sale and trade of chemicals, weapons, and even people. DEA agent Mike McKay (Elias Koteas) goes missing in Afghanistan while at home, his son treads dangerously close to addiction. Meanwhile, different storylines follow Fazal (Ritchie Coster), whose wife and child die during illegal transport to the US, and Ben (Balthazar Getty), whose father's shipping company is being used to transport illegal immigrants into the country. The seemingly unconnected lives of the characters eventually begin to converge, illustrating the interconnected nature of issues surrounding the war on illegal transport. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

This Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation stars a heavily (and effectively) "aged" Ving Rhames as taciturn Texas rancher John Morgan. Long estranged from his daughter Natalie (Gloria Reuben), John is determined to effect a reconciliation. To this end, he embarks upon a long journey to Los Angeles, taking along his grandson Little John (Robert Bailey Jr.), whom Natalie, an unwed mother, had given up for adoption twelve years earlier. But Natalie, who through an ironic twist of fate has become a family-court judge, wants absolutely nothing to do with either her father or her son -- and her reasons are not quite as callous or cold-blooded as one might imagine. Boasting a distinguished African American cast (with Patty Duke as virtually the sole Caucasian actor), Little John was telecast by CBS on May 5, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A woman gets a crash course in the realities of love and commitment when she gets some startling news about the child she's carrying in this made-for-TV adaptation of the novel by Luanne Rice. Dianne Parker (Kimberly Williams) is a lovely young woman who is engaged to marry Mark McCune (Eric Close), a successful and self-confident young businessman. Dianne isn't aware that Mark's brother, pediatrician David McCune (Campbell Scott), has also fallen in love with her, but David can't bring himself to break up his brother's relationship. After Dianne and Mark wed, she becomes pregnant, but routine tests reveal that the child will suffer severe genetic defects. Mark decides having an disabled child is not something he can bear and he leaves Dianne. Dianne decides to keep the baby and raise it on her own. She gets valuable help from her mother, Hannah (Blair Brown), but David also pitches in to help raise Dianne's child, and soon Dianne gets a greater appreciation of what love is truly all about as she struggles with David to care for her baby. Produced for the award-winning anthology series "The Hallmark Hall of Fame," Follow the Stars Home first aired on May 6, 2001. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Perhaps befitting its subject, this cable TV biopic of Playboy magazine maven Hugh Hefner is as glossy and superficial as Playboy itself. In the tradition of Sunset Blvd., the story is narrated by a dead person: Hefner's assistant, Bobbie Arnstein (Natasha Gregson Wagner), who killed herself in 1975 in the midst of a drug scandal at Playboy Enterprises. Hefner himself, played by Randall Batinkoff, is given a much happier denouement, when, after nearly 40 years of heading a publishing empire that has elevated the nudie-mag format into an empire, he surprises everyone by (briefly) giving up his notorious girl-chasing hedonism and weds Kimberly Conrad (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos). Since this film was shown on the basic-cable USA Network, there was no actual nudity, but plenty of implication along the way. Pauly Shore appears uncredited as legendary comedian Lenny Bruce, whom Hefner regularly featured on his early '60s TV variety show. Hefner: Unauthorized originally aired on December 12, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This crime drama, based on the best-selling novel by Mario Puzo, follows 20 years in the long reign of powerful Mafia kingpin Don Domenico Clericuzio (Danny Aiello). For years, the Clericuzios have been warring with a rival crime family, the Santadios, which is not helped when Domenico's daughter Rose Marie (Kirstie Alley) decides to marry the son of the head of the Santadio clan. On the night of Rose Marie's wedding, Domenico orders the execution of the entire Santadio family, including his new son-in-law. Rose Marie is pregnant as a result of her brief honeymoon, and her son Dante (Rory Cochrane) grows up to become a hired killer with a bitter hatred of his grandfather. Meanwhile, Pippi De Lena (Joe Mantegna), Domenico's key enforcer who carried out the slaughter of the Santadinos, has been grooming his son Croccifixio (Jason Gedrick) to take over as the Clericuzio's new trigger man. However, after he muffs a crucial execution, Croccifixio is sent to work with the family's operations in Las Vegas, where he becomes involved with starlet Athena Aquitane (Daryl Hannah). Soon Dante makes a risky bid to seize control of the Santadio family's crime empire. Originally produced as a television miniseries, the home video release of The Last Don is 262-min. long and it includes material not used for television broadcast. The video version features adult language and nudity and received an R rating. The Last Don co-stars Robert Wuhl, Penelope Ann Miller, Seymour Cassel, Burt Young, and k.d. lang. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The fishing industry of a small Northwestern coastal town is nearly destroyed when a mysterious giant sea creature takes up residence. Based on a novel by Peter Benchley, the story bears more than passing resemblance to the author's most popular story, Jaws in that a few, including a scientist, learn the terrifying truth and try to convince a skeptical community that they are all in danger should they go too near the water. Once the town believes, it is up to the hero, a lady coast guard officer, and the scientists to stop the beast. This feature originally aired as a two-part miniseries on network television. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set in Utah (but filmed in Texas), the made-for-TV Shadows of Desire will probably seem fresh and original to anyone who hasn't seen the old Katharine Hepburn-Robert Taylor-Robert Mitchum theatrical feature Undercurrent--or, for that matter, to anyone unfamiliar with the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Central to the plotline is Rowena Ecklund (Nicollette Sheridan), a woman torn between her sincere love for the kindly, sensitive Jude Snow (Adrian Pasder) and her insatiable lust for Jude's arrogant, dangerous older brother Sonny (Joe Lando) (guess which brother has the longest hair and the sweatiest shirt?) The passions engendered by this triangle are matched only by the all-stops-out histrionics of Piper Laurie as Jude and Sonny's domineering mother Ellis. Originally telecast September 20, 1994, on CBS, Shadows of Desire has since been rerun on cable television and on Canadian TV under the title The Devil's Bed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV thriller was based on Robin Cook's bestseller Outbreak, but had to be retitled to avoid conflict with a similarly plotted theatrical feature of the same name (which in fact had been conceived long after Cook's novel hit the stands in 1987). Somewhere, somehow, someone has released a rare and deadly African ebola virus into the United States, apparently for the purpose of devastating major cities with death and disease. In her efforts to track down the root cause of this virus, fearless female medical researcher Marissa Blumenthal (Nicollette Sheridan) uncovers a sinister conspiracy that may involve her own colleagues--and in so doing, all but signs her own death warrant. First aired by NBC on May 8, 1995, Robin Cook's Virus has since been rebroadcast on cable TV under the title Robin Cook's Formula for Death, thereby distancing itself even farther from Outbreak (but not from another Cook novel called Coma, vestiges of which can be discerned in the plotline of this film!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Since two TV movies were inspired by the marriage of England's Prince Charles and Princess Diana, it is only logical that at least one made-for-TV feature would greet the decline and fall of that overexposed union. Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After, permitted the viewer the perverse delight of seeing Catherine Oxenberg, who'd previously played Diana in 1982's The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana, back again as the same (albeit older and wiser) character. Roger Rees costars as the redoubtable Charles, who despite his mile-wide character flaws comes off as relatively sympathetic. Other "royals" lurking about are Amanda Walker as Queen Elizabeth, David Quilter as Prince Philip, Benedict Taylor as Prince Andrew, and Tracy Brabin as "Fergie". Our favorite scene: Diana, dressed to the nines, sitting in the back of her luxurious limo and talking into her designer car phone, whining about how miserable her life is. Later retitled Charles and Diana: A Palace Divided, this gloriously trashy endeavor was first telecast December 13, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide