John Cullum

Based on true events, the film takes us back to the 1970's when a television reporter committed suicide on-camera.

What should have been a romantic getaway turns into one hilarious debacle after another when Michael's woman dumps him in the desert where he gets carjacked by a teenager and he is taken hostage in a stickup at the local Sip and Zip. While they're on vacation in the Southwest, Rae finds out her man Michael spent their house money on a classic car, so she dumps him, hitching a ride to Vegas for a flight home. A kid promptly steals Michael's car, leaving him at the Zip & Sip, a convenience store. Three bumbling robbers promptly stage a hold up. Two take off with the cash stranding the third, with a mysterious crate, just as the cops arrive. The robber takes the store hostage. As incompetent cops bring in a SWAT team and try a by-the-book rescue, Michael has to keep the robber calm, find out what's in the crate, aid the negotiations, and get back to Rae. The Stockholm Syndrome asserts its effect. —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

In the early 1800s, Prince Keoki Kanakoa of the Hawaiian island of Maui scolds the Yale Divinity School that they have not sent missionaries to his home but others in New England have come to take their land and bring their diseases. A new minister. Reverend Abner Hale, volunteers, along with others. But school leader Dr. Reverend Thorn informs him they will not send him until he is married, knowing the temptations of being around the native women would be too much. Dr. Thorn instructs Hale to come to his sister's house in Walpole, New Hampshire. He has persuaded Abigail and her husband Charles that their daughter, Jerusha, would do better to marry Hale than pine endlessly over her sailor that is the object of her affection, Captain Rafer Hoxworth. Captain Hoxworth is a whaler who returned to the see but seems to have abandoned her. Abner and Jerusha marry and, along with the other volunteers and Prince Keoki, sail for Lahaina, Maui. Abner and Keoki travel well but the rest are endlessly plagued with seasickness. Once in Lahaina, the native women wear no covering above the waist and swim out to greet the ship. The sailors on the ship are quite open of their sexual contact with the native women. This scandalizes the missionaries only to be topped when they learn that incest is practiced by the natives, including the queen. Keoki's father, Kelolo, is both the husband and biological brother of Keoki's mother Malama Kanakoa, the Ali'i Nui or the ruler whom the people consider god-like. Incest is believed to maintain a pure royal bloodline, and Keoki is expected to marry his sister, Noelani, who will one day become the Ali'i Nui. But, Keoki wants to be ordained as a Christian minister and learns from Abner Hale he must refuse it. Hale is infuriated at the altar to Hawaiian idols and has to be physically restrained from destroying them. The Hales labor to construct a church while residing in a grass hut. After saving a baby with a facial birthmark, Jerusha aids the locals and works to put an end to the custom of drowning babies who are malformed or unsightly. Micah, a son, is Jerusha's first child, born after a challenging labor. A little Hawaiian girl named Iliki, who was assigned to the Hales as a servant, is baptized by Abner as his first conversion. Malama consents to study Christianity, but she doesn't want to become a Christian as it would mean having to send Kelolo away. Malama sets a curfew for sailors and prohibits them from mingling with island girls at the Hales' request. Leading the protesting seamen is Captain Hoxworth, who has paused his whaling expedition. When Hoxworth learns that Jerusha is living in Lahaina and is wed to Reverend Hale, whom he hates for motivating Malama to enforce the restrictions, he is devastated. After helping to save the church from partial fire set by the sailors, the Hawaiians drive the sailors back to their ships. Hoxworth seduces Iliki to leave the island with him in retribution for Abner's marriage to Jerusha. When Abner reaches for her, he tosses him overboard. A shark attacks, leaving him walking with a limp. On her deathbed, Malama makes the decision to give up Kelolo as her spouse and undergo Christian baptism. The church is destroyed by a powerful gale that sweeps in after an Ali'i Nui dies, just as the islanders predicted. When Abner tells Keoki that he will never be ordained because he is not white, Keoki rejects Christianity and turns back to his original faith. Noelani takes up the role of Ali'i Nui. Abner learns that Keoki and Noelani are now married and that Malama converted to Christianity solely for the benefit of her people. The infant of Noelani and Keoki is terribly malformed upon birth. Jerusha begs Abner to save the baby, but he refuses, thinking it is God's retribution. Hale learns the child was drowned by Keoki. Jerusha died young because she was weak after years of overworking and having children. Abner grows closer to and more protective of the Hawaiian people after losing Jerusha. In an effort to stop plantation owners and white settlers from annexing additional land, he joins them. Abner votes against the other ministers' desire to acquire and profit from the land, and as a result, he is given to pastor a Connecticut parish. His three children are sent to the Bromley family in New England since he will not leave Hawaii. When Abner gets back to his hut, a young native man awaits him and tells him he wants to aid in Hale's missionary work. When he realizes that the young man was the disfigured baby Jerusha saved from drowning years ago, he is delighted.