Alan Spencer Movies
Hexed is a lame, low-budget comedy spoof of Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction -- both of which are funnier than Hexed. The film concerns Matthew Welsh (Ayres Gross), a scheming hotel clerk at the Holiday Park Hotel whose life changes for better and worse when famed super-model Hexina (Claudia Christian) checks into the hotel. Matthew manages to lure Hexina back to his apartment for what he thinks will be an uninhibited night of sex -- but Hexina has other things on her mind. It turns out that she is being blackmailed over a series of murders committed in her youth when she was fat and dumpy. Hexina, whose psychological profile hasn't changed since she began to grace fashion-magazine covers, is still a raving paranoid schizophrenic who thinks that Matthew is her blackmailer. So, she acquiesces to bed down Matthew in anticipation of murdering him in the afterglow. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arye Gross, Claudia Christian, (more)
Quirky comedy, intense drama, and warm nostalgia are all combined in this eccentric look at one night in 1964 amongst the residents of the Five Corners neighborhood of the Bronx. The bulk of the film concerns Linda (Jodie Foster), a young woman who finds herself stalked by a disturbed rapist fresh out of prison. Needing protection, she turns to her formerly tough ex-boyfriend, only to discover that a recent political awakening has transformed him into a pacifist. The tension of Linda's situation is leavened by the film's attention to its bizarre subplots, which include a stolen penguin, partying teenagers who encounter trouble with an elevator, and a pair of detectives investigating a series of mysterious bow-and-arrow attacks. The script by John Patrick Shanley, who won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Moonstruck, manages to (for the most part) bring these seemingly unrelated stories together into a fairly logical conclusion. Even though numerous critics felt that Five Corners' mixture of widely disparate tones was not completely successful, the end result is a surprisingly charming and unique tribute to a time and a place. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins, (more)
A broad and brassy satire of hard-boiled detective shows, the weekly, half-hour ABC sitcom Sledge Hammer! first burst onto the scene September 23, 1986. Created by Alan Spencer, the series starred David Rasche as Detective Inspector Sledge Hammer, a tough, arrogant cop who played by his own rules and was nobody's patsy, no sir! Breaking 57 varieties of civil liberties every time he went out to collar a criminal, Hammer made no distinctions between the gravity of individual crimes, being just as tough and brutal on litterbugs as he was on bank robbers. You couldn't miss Hammer when he arrived on the scene, waving his beloved pearl-handed .44 Magnum and dressed in garish, mismatched clothes, with his ever-present sunglasses covering his beady little eyes. Although Hammer had an impressive resumé of big arrests, it was usually his smarter, quieter, and better-looking partner, Officer Dori Doreau (Anne-Marie Martin), who did most of the hard work. And in time-honored cop-cliché fashion, Hammer's volatile superior officer, Captain Trunk (Harrison Page), who never spoke when shouting would do, suspended our hero from the force each and every week, only to reinstate him for a job well done (by Dori Doreau, that is!). The series' first season contained perhaps the most bizarre cliffhanger ever conceived, with Hammer, muttering his trademarked "I know what I'm doing," accidentally detonating a nuclear device and destroying Los Angeles and everyone in it! This deliciously "noir" grace note was conceived by the producers when it seemed as if there was no way on earth that Sledge Hammer! would be renewed for a second season. When renewal did occur, the producers blithely explained that season two was a prequel to season one: Sledge Hammer: The Early Days. And in this same insouciant vein, the series went its merry way until it finally was canceled for keeps on June 30, 1988. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Rasche, Ann-Marie Martin, (more)











