Bruce Meade Movies
Two carefree Americans embark on an overseas vacation that soon becomes a nightmare in this powerful drama. Alice (Claire Danes) is a headstrong teenager who wants to do something different to celebrate her high school graduation, so she persuades her more reserved best friend Darlene (Kate Beckinsale) to join her on a trip to Bangkok. While enjoying sun and scenery, Alice and Darlene meet Nick Parks (Daniel Lapaine), a charming Australian who shows them the sights and sweet-talks Darlene into a romantic assignation, which is something of a surprise to her bolder friend Alice. Nick then suggests that they join him on a side trip to Hong Kong, but they soon discover that Nick's interest has been neither friendly nor romantic: he has hidden a large amount of heroin in their luggage and is using them as drug runners without their knowledge. When the heroin is found by customs officials, Alice and Darlene are quickly tried and sentenced to 33 years in a hideous prison known to inmates as Broke-Down Palace. Their plight comes to the attention of "Yankee Hank" (Bill Pullman), a renegade American attorney in Asia, but while Hank struggles with the court system to get Alice and Darlene released, they must deal with the living hell of life behind bars, and their own doubts about each other. Brokedown Palace was directed by Jonathan Kaplan, who previously dealt with judicial injustice in The Accused and teens in difficult circumstances in Over the Edge. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Claire Danes, Kate Beckinsale, (more)
Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell, and Drew Barrymore are the stars of this Western whose main gimmick is making heroes into heroines. They all start out as prostitutes, as Cody (Stowe) shoots a drunken colonel who attempts to molest Anita (Masterson). She is about to be lynched for defending her friend when the other "bad girls" ride in and rescue her, pursued by detectives. The rest of the film follows their adventures as they get caught up in hostage situations, bank robberies, shootouts, and romantic interludes with handsome young cowboys with never a hair out of place or an unsightly smudge of Western dust. Amazingly, all four former prostitutes are able to ride, shoot, rope, and fight as well. Bad Girls is not likely to be thought of as a realistic view of how women lived in the Old West. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
- Starring:
- Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, (more)
- 1985
Director Ramzi Thomas had his name removed from this silly horror film from Halloween producer Moustapha Akkad, adopting the common no-fault pseudonym "Alan Smithee." One can hardly blame him. The plot has comatose Garrick Dowhen possessed by Attis, an Egyptian tree god, and stalking his babysitter and other teenagers by use of astral projection. Much the same plot had been used in 1974's Psychic Killer with somewhat better results. Michele Little is the damsel in distress and cartoon fans will recognize Dayton Allen (the voice of Deputy Dawg) in a small role. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michelle Little, Michael Wyle, (more)
