Amazon.com

In Family of Cops III, Charles Bronson plays the aging, paunchy patriarch of a... well... family of cops. The point of this series seems to be the contrast between the family's hard-as-nails attitude toward crime and their warm, loving treatment of each other, but the writing is so cliché-ridden, and the acting so dominated by smug, ham-fisted machismo, that the most mediocre episode of NYPD Blue or Homicide: Life on the Street must be 10 times more compelling than this. There's a main story line about a murder within a prestigious banking family and a subplot about a young buck who feels responsible for the death of a fellow cop. There isn't a shred of intelligence, originality, or suspense in this entire movie. Does Bronson really have enough of a following to warrant making three of these? --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Death Wish 5, all is forgiven.
As a big Bronson fan I don't know what to think of these "Family Of Cops" TV movies. Did they really HAVE to make three ?. I don't think they had to, but unfortunately they made them anyway. The first one was o.k., and more than enough, but three is stretching it too far. -The old copper he portrays here is simply not interesting enough. Personally, I'd much rather have liked to see Bronson play two other final characters in two other final movies, than have this dull cop come back twice. (The father/daughter-relationship between Bronson and Dana Delaney in the TV movie "Donato & Daughter" would've qualified a lot better as a series of TV movies, actually.) I'm afraid absolutely nothing of interest to most Bronson fans happen in this series, and it's a bit of a shame he chose to end his acting career with this dud and not with a bang. It's not that I mind Bronson doing a bit of serious drama and less action, especially at his age, but the combination doesn't work here. Also, the "F.O.C." movies suffer from the same problem many TV series and movies today face; they have too many characters, and not enough time to care about them. ... Read more

Description

The people of New York City face certain death. Dr. Nora Hart has five days to save them. Kate Jackson ("Charlie's Angels") stars as Dr. Nora Hart in this shocking story that finds modern-day New York City threatened by a disease more devastating than AIDS, cancer and heart disease combined. A killer so powerful that it could destroy the city's entire population in five days--unless Dr. Hart can stop it. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Pretty Fine For A Made-For-TV Movie
Not being much of an aficiando of this made-for-TV genre of disaster film, I was pleasantly surprised by this DVD, bought at a recommendation from a friend. The premise is clever and even somewhat plausible: The Black Death---alias the bubonic plague---resurfaces in the modern world in New York City. By the time the pathogen is identified, several cases have already erupted and the city's health officials are really worried that an epidemic looms on the horizon. Their efforts to find those exposed and to contain the spread of the dangerous disease are stymied by politicians afraid of the impact this "inconvenience" might have on the city's tourism. Fortunately, the infected are tracked down and the threat ended, but not before some people lose their lives.

The movie has a reasonably good feel, sometimes teetering a little close to histronics, but the situations and characters seem pretty authentic. There are, of course, some cliches---the crusading doctors versus the slimy politicos, for example. Yet even these are handled well, thanks to the professionalism of the cast. Kate Jackson emotes well as Dr. Nora Hart, the point physician in the effort to quell the disease, while Jeffrey Nordling as Dr. Prescott provides solid support combined with small-town naivete. Al Waxman handles the thankless role of the mayor, bringing to this potentially cardboard role some depth. Howard Hesseman is indescribably creepy as an infected congressman who sickens his mistress and abandons her in a hospital emergency room. As the head of the city's health department, Jerry Orbach (Dr. Vincent Callafato) brings realism to the part, going from skepticism to full support of Dr. Hart's team as soon as he realizes the severity of the situation. Those who play the victims bring pathos to the movie, putting a human face on the suffering, especially Alma Martinez, who portrays a health worker who develops the illness despite preventive measures. She commits suicide, placing a sticker on herself that reads "Warning: Infectious Substance/ Biohazard". This is one of the saddest scenes in the movie.

All in all, this isn't top-notch, but then it wasn't made for theater release, and certainly didn't have the budget of a big movie. These factors considered, this is a decent suspense film, quite entertaining and evoking some genuine emotions in the viewer. Good cast, good writing, reasonable production . . . overall, good entertainment and worth the time and money invested. ... Read more

Description

Keith Carradine and Annette O'Toole star in this powerful family drama adapted from the best-selling novel "The Sign Of The Beaver" by Elizabeth George Speare that's become required reading in schools throughout the country. "Keeping The Promise" begins as the hopeful tale of a colonial family seeking a new and promising life in the deep wilderness of Maine in 1768. But their hopes, dreams, and very survival as a family are severely tested when the father reluctantly leaves his 13-year-old son, Matt, alone in the wilderness to protect their claim until he can return with the rest of the family and their belongings. Weeks of waiting turn into months, and months into seasons, as his family struggles against a deadly epidemic and other hardships in their journey to rejoin their boy. Young Matt's ability to survive his lonely and dangerous vigil becomes more questionable with each passing day...until he's befriended by a band of Penobscot Indians. The experience transforms Matt as his Indian benefactors teach him life's most important lessons about survival, trust, loyalty and hope. First seen on the CBS Television Network as a Clorox Diamond Presentation.Extra Features: Elizabeth George Speare: Biography of the Author; Frontier Maine: Historical Background; Thoughts to Be Shared With Family & Friends; Previews of Additional Questar Family Classic Films. ... Read more

Description

December 1949.Joseph Stalin rules Russia through a brutal regime of terror and systematized torture. Inside Mavrino Prison, the first circle of penal hell in Stalin's Russia, the inmates - physicists, mathematicians, electrical engineers, and technical experts - are forced to operate a scientific research center. The term of their sentence is undefined. A discovery useful to the government could mean freedom. A failure could mean a labor camp in Siberia. From a phone booth on a dark Moscow street, a man makes a furtive and hurried phone call to the American Embassy. His call is being recorded by The Ministry of Security, for whom establishing the caller's identity becomes a matter of mounting urgency. At Mavrino, a voice print analysis machine is in late-stage development. The pressure to complete it becomes relentless. As tension, suspicion and the risk of betrayal mount each scientist must struggle to retain his humanity in the face of overwhelming tyranny. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

No Happy Endings in Stalin's Hellish World
This film is based on Alexander Solzhenitsyn's famous novel of the same title. It is based on the story of a special prison designed for scientists who would carry out research supported by the state in which the conditions of incarceration were better than those in the hellish camps of the Gulag Archipelago. The father of the Soviet space program, Sergei Korolev, worked in a prison laboratory like the one depicted here.
The story depicts the different types of people who are caught in Stalin's world-prisoners, NKVD warders and "investigators", the priviledged Communist Party elite and common people outside the prisons who are just trying to survive. Among the prisoners there is the type who is an enthusiastic supporter of Stalin (he believes that his imprisonment is simply "a mistake"), the idealist who will not compromise his values even if this endangers himself, opportunists who inform on their fellow inmates in order to improve their own situation, and those who debate whether it is moral to help the tyrranical regime in order to increase their chances of release.
The problem with this film is its uneven quality, on the one hand it was filmed in Moscow and the scenes showing the prisons, the shabby side streets and the official goverment offices (which have pictures and busts of Stalin in every scene) give the film a feeling of authenticity. The directing is sometimes outstanding, particularly in scenes involving the wife of Gleb the idealist getting her annual half-hour visit with her husband and one with Innokenty being interrogated by an NKVD man. On the other hand, there are scenes involving NKVD officers and high officials in which they are portrayed as comical buffons with scenes taken straight out of "The Three Stooges". Also there is a young woman character who is the daughter of an important Communist Party member who works as an NKVD clerk in the prison/laboratory. In reality, people from families in the priviledged "nomenklatura" would not have any contact with "zeks" (prisoners). These really lowered my estimation of the film. After all, no one would make a film showing Heinrich Himmler as a comical figure. I have concluded that Solzhenitsyn was not consulted on making the film and I believe that Russians (and not the Canadians and French who did this one) should make a film of this type in order to make it more authentic. People from Western countries who did not experience the horrors of Stalin's regime really can't convey to outsiders the full meaning of it. Having said this, the film is still quite useful in conveying at least part of the horrible reality that was Stalin's USSR. Don't expect any Western-style "happy endings" when you view this film. ... Read more

Description

She is a respected doctor and pioneer of woman's rights. She decides on a political career. The media gets hold of a small indiscretion in her past. It causes a political frenzy. She is forced to make a choice...speak her mind and preserve her self-respect at the risk of losing the campaign, or play the media game. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

excellent, little known film
this is a great video, apparently not available everywhere. for people who liked "the candidate," "the contender," and other stuff like that, this is a must see.

A convincing portrayal of the media's role in politics!
This movie (which was based on the play "An American Daughter", by Wendy Wasserstein), shows how the media can turn an innocent past mistake by a political candidate (Christine Lahti) into an issue that the whole country is talking about. Sound familiar? Issues like this constantly plague the news now, and this movie shows how ludicrous it all is. Tom Skerritt is in this movie too, an adds quite a convincing performance as Lahti's seemingly weak husband.

Two thumbs up for the movie and for Lahti!! I feel this is one of Christine Lahti's best performances. She takes you inside the life of a politician, who is being shunned by the media (thus, the nation) for reasons that are debatable.

Great Flick!
This movie brilliantly explores the challenges of being a woman and having power. In order to achieve, women are forced to sacrifice so much, and are often sabotaged by a society that feels threatened by their accomplishments. With suburb acting, this movie rings particularly true in our modern age. ... Read more