Hoke Howell Movies

This comedy pivoting around a Los Angeles home-security business was adapted by director Evan Dunsky from a play by Keith Reddin. Heinrich Grigoris (Stanley Tucci) welcomes new employee Tommy Hudler (David Arquette) to Grigoris Security. During his first day on the job, Tommy sells a system and then goes to bed with his customer, single mother Gale Ancona (Kate Capshaw). When Tommy introduces her to his parents, he finds they don't approve of his seeing an older woman. As he learns more about the home-security business, he discovers Grigoris profits from breaking into houses equipped with his system. Thus, Tommy suspects Heinrich when Gale and her son Howard (Ryan Reynolds) are murdered. Shown at the 1997 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

In this sci-fi thriller, huge alien spaceships from another galaxy circle the earth as UFO expert Edgar Chambers (Hoke Howell) tries to figure out who these visitors are -- and what they might want. As Sheriff Nate Bridges (Charles Napier) and his deputies are transporting prisoners to another jail, the aliens begin their attack, and they happen upon Chambers as they search for a safe haven. The men take cover in a cave, only to learn that chance has guided them to the nerve center of the aliens' elaborate plan to take over the Earth. Alien Species also features Jodi Seronick, Ashley Semrick, and Kurt Paul. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this erotic mystery sequel, a woman goes undercover as a go-go dancer in a sleazy nightclub to find her sister's killer. Kimberly Kelley stars as Jennifer Brennan, whose sister, a professional stripper, was murdered by a serial killer whose modus operandi includes suffocating his victims with plastic wrap. In hopes of catching the deranged culprit, Jennifer agrees to pose as the Los Angeles club's new striptease artist, with the secret aid of a paraplegic detective, John Donnelly (Ross Hagen). While she's seeking the man who ended her sister's life, Jennifer befriends co-workers Lacy (Tane McClure) and Cherry (Julie K. Smith) and discovers that she's got a natural talent for the art of taking it all off. After she performs a lap dance for him, Jennifer also beds one of the club's regulars, Paul Douglas (Jack Turturici), an artist. Eventually, the intrepid Jennifer discovers that all of the killer's victims were mothers and begins to suspect the club's abusive owner, Joe Martoni (Brett Baxter Clark). But a clue leads her investigation to a shocking conclusion. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Originally made for cable television, Roswell is an entertaining mix of purported actual events and science fiction. The narrative unfolds primarily in flashbacks as retired Army officer Jesse Marcel (Kyle MacLachlan) attends a reunion of the 509th Bomber Group and tries to come to closure on events that had taken place 30 years earlier. Back in 1947, Major Marcel had been part of a military team that investigated a crash site on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. The debris recovered from the site had exhibited some remarkable properties such as being able to repair itself instantly after being cut, suggesting that it might have been of extraterrestrial origin. The military brass had ordered Marcel to go along with their phony story that the material was ordinary metal foil from a weather balloon, and he had reluctantly complied. By the time of the 1977 reunion, Marcel is suffering from a terminal illness, and he feels compelled to try to find out what had really happened at Roswell all those years ago. MacLachlan gives an effective performance, particularly when he portrays Marcel as an older man trying to understand his past. Evocative location shooting in the American Southwest adds cinematic impact. ~ Rovi

This low-budget Troma film makes fun of low-budget sword and sorcery movies. The story centers on the battle for the mythical Sword of Aktar and its kidnapped keeper Ulric. But for a few stop-motion prehistoric creatures, the special effects are less than stellar. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

An interesting bit of casting enlivens this psycho-thriller set in a California boarding house run by eccentric Karen Black with a rogue's gallery of bizarre tenants and more dark secrets than the Bates Motel. Tenants have a habit of disappearing rather abruptly from this particular residence -- but not without first signing over their Social Security checks to the landlady, netting her a tidy fortune. This leads to the inevitable visit from a federal agent (Arte Johnson), who begins an investigation into Black's shady affairs, and uncovers the true identity of the killer. Despite presenting Black as a blatant red herring from the outset, the filmmakers manage to provide a few interesting twists, though they eventually stray a bit too deeply into Psycho turf. A cast full of familiar faces (including Virginia Mayo, Martine Beswick and Michael Berryman) tends to counterbalance the occasional moments of sleaziness, but there is little originality to distinguish the film from standard slasher fare. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

In this thriller, a seductive young woman returns to the home of her step-father, after having spent the last few years in an institution for the criminally insane for killing her mother, and causes all sorts of trouble. She comes in the midst of a terrible thunderstorm. Her step-daddy's girl friend Michelle is not pleased by Angel's sudden appearance, for she is truly a luscious lass. Meanwhile realtor, step-father Steven has his own problems as he and his partner have borrowed a fortune, from violent loan shark Johnny, to finance a failing Palm Springs condo scheme. In Johnny's business defaulting on loans is usually fatal and now he wants Steven to pay up, so he sends out his best killer. Back at home Angel uses her considerable physical charms on both Steven and Michelle to convince them to allow her to stay. When the killer suddenly shows up, Angel gets him into the sack and that's when all hell breaks loose. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

At times, Another 48 Hrs. seems less like a sequel to than a parody of the first 48 Hrs., especially when Nick Nolte, repeating his role from the earlier film, begins commenting on the cliched absurdity of the goings on. This time, Nolte risks life, limb and career as he obsessively tries to bring an elusive master criminal known as "The Iceman" to justice. Eddie Murphy, who stole the show in the first 48 Hrs. as the wheeler-dealer convict who becomes Nolte's reluctant partner, is brought into the plotline of the second film when a contract is taken out on his life. The adversarial relationship between Nolte and Murphy, supposedly dissipated by the end of the first film, is revivified in the sequel via a couple of plot devices. Still, Murphy rallies to the occasion, in the process saving Nolte from being thrown off the force. Though not as successful as the first film, Another 48 Hrs. proved that there were still enough Eddie Murphy fans around in 1990 to insure a strong box-office showing. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This gory medical thriller managed to pre-date an early-'90s spate of direct-to-video exploitation films dealing with sleazy black-market organ banks. The plot centers on the activities of the "Body Organ Replacement Network," a secret criminal organization (led by ubiquitous movie villain William Smith) which obtains donor organs -- by any means possible -- for anyone willing to meet their prices and keep their mouths shut. Their methods usually involve patrolling the city in an ambulance looking for unwilling "donors" (usually female), who are promptly chopped up on the operating table. The sinister wheels are put in motion again when a wealthy family approaches the B.O.R.N. network about obtaining a replacement heart for their ailing daughter. Though not quite as gory as it sounds, this is still a pretty sleazy exercise which plays like a tabloid-flavored version of Robin Cook's novel Coma, without the clever insight of Michael Crichton's 1978 film. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

A young woman kills a would-be rapist in self-defense and ends up serving a two year sentence for manslaughter. Once there she is killed by a macho, drug-dealing lesbian gang leader. The death is listed as a suicide, but the victim's sister, Laurie Collins, suspects otherwise and begs the authorities to do a full investigation. They refuse so Laurie, a movie stuntwoman, commits a crime, gets herself sent to the same prison and heads off for revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

When a little girl is killed by a German shepherd which had been purchased as a family pet, a kennel owner comes to Quincy (Jack Klugman) for help. The man explains that he'd originally sold the dog to a security service, which, after cruelly training the animal to be an attack dog, resold it elsewhere without any warning to the new owners. Thus begins another crusade for Quincy, as the compassionate coroner challenges the laissez-faire legislation which allows such dangerous transactions to take place. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Filmed on location at Alcatraz Island, this two-part "whole story" actually concentrates on a handful of the denizens behind the cold grey walls of "The Rock". Michael Beck plays the real-life Clarence Carnes, an Oklahoma Choctaw Indian said to be the youngest man ever incarcerated in the notorious maximum security prison. Serving a 99-year sentence for a gas station holdup and murder, Carnes makes periodic attempts to escape, the final attempt being the most violent. Many of the subordinate characters are fictional (as are most of the details concerning Carnes' escape efforts); the one exception is Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz", here portrayed by Art Carney as a gentle, kindly philosopher. Telly Savalas, a costar of the Burt Lancaster vehicle Birdman of Alcatraz, also guest starred in the 1980 film. Originally titled Alcatraz and Clarence Carnes, this made-for-TV movie wavers between gritty realism and "I'm bustin' outta here!" artifice. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi