Geoffrey Rivas Movies
- 2005
Addison (Kate Walsh) is caught in the middle when her old friend Esme Sorrento (Janet Rotblatt) wants to have her uterus removed to prevent cancer, while Esme's husband Joe (Shelley Berman) is dead set against the operation. Elsewhere, George (T.R. Knight) is saddled with another eccentric patient, this one a suicidal window washer (Geoffrey Rivas); try though she might, Meredith can't avoid running into Derek (Patrick Dempsey); and Cristina (Sandra Oh) prepares for an important date with Burke (Isaiah Washington). The episode's pivotal moment occurs when Dr. Bailey discovers why she has been so unusually lethargic (a plot twist dictated by actual events in the life of actress Chandra Wilson, who plays Bailey). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2003
Things get personal for the CSI's Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan) when he heads to his old neighborhood to investigate a particularly tragic drive-by shooting. The victim, who was sleeping in her own bedroom, was the nine-year-old daughter of Warrick's old friend and mentor, Matt Phelps (Keith David). When the grieving Warrick presses a little too hard in putting the heat on the primary suspect, Grissom (William L. Petersen) is forced to take him off the case. Elsewhere, Nick (George Eads) investigates the murder of the much-despised CEO of a dot com, whose skull was crushed at his job site. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2003
The murders of a nightclub guest and a man working out in his own apartment had one thing in common: both victims were employees of professional dominatrix Lady Heather (Melinda Clarke). Grissom (William L. Petersen) reluctantly undertakes the murder investigation, knowing all too well that Lady Heather is the one person who can really get under his skin and force him to confront his own hidden demons. Elsewhere, Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) loses her professional detachment when her ex-husband Eddie disappears and her daughter Lindsay is nearly drowned after a car accident. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2003
A decomposed body is found in a chemical-waste drum abandoned in the mountains. Their subsequent investigation leads Catherine (Marg Helgenberger), Nick (George Eads), and Sara (Jorja Fox) into the wacky world of robot "demolition wars." And in another development, Warrick (Gary Dourdan) and Grissom's (William L. Petersen) probe of a murder in an alley is complicated when the medical examiner "misplaces" the evidence -- for well over a week. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2002
Did middleweight boxing champ Laroi Steele die accidentally from the beating administered in the ring by his hated rival Javier Molina (Greg Serano)? Or was this accident actually premeditated murder? Grissom (William L. Petersen) leans decidedly toward the latter option. Meanwhile, Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) investigates the shooting of an L.A. gang member, while Nick (George Eads) looks into a violent jewelry-store heist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2002
When Capt. Kelly (Raymond O'Keefe) orders Clark Jr. (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and Laughlin (Anthony Mangano) to call off their grudge boxing match, everyone assumes that Clark chickened out. Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) balks when his son Theo (Austin Majors) insists that McDowell (Charlotte Ross) accompany them on their Disney World vacation. Back on the job, the victim of a rape is unable to provide evidence that will nail her alleged assailant for two different crimes; and a shooting victim turns out not to be a doctor as originally assumed, but instead a snake-oil huckster who dabbled in sex-change operations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Simmons
- 2001
Heading the unit in Grissom's (William L. Petersen) absence, Warrick (Gary Dourdan) is all but overwhelmed by his new responsibilities. Warrick's biggest headache occurs during the investigation of the drug-related murder of a con artist (John Fugelsang). As the clues are assembled, a prime suspect emerges: Ellie Brass (Nicki Aycox) -- the spiteful and rebellious daughter of former CSI head Capt. Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle). Compared to this development, Sara's (Jorja Fox) investigation of a counterfeiting ring is practically a walk in the park...practically. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2001
A playground sandbox unexpectedly yields the nude body of a woman covered with whip and restraint marks. The ensuing investigation leads a slightly embarrassed Grissom (William L. Petersen) and Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) to an underground fetish club. And in another case, Warrick (Gary Dourdan) and Sara (Jorja Fox) must determine if a fatal shooting occurred during or after a robbery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2001
Having resolved the series' first-season cliffhanger with the life-saving gesture of CSI second-in-command Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) (the life saved was that of Catherine's boss, Gil Grissom [William L. Peterson]), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was able to go off on a new tangent for its second-season opener. The case at hand: the drug-related death of Las Vegas casino executive Tony Braun. Early evidence suggests that Braun OD'ed on heroin, but further investigation reveals that the victim was bound with duct tape just before his demise. Grissom's conclusion: Braun was forced to literally drug himself to death. Originally slated to air on September 20, 2001, "Burked" was moved back one week due to ongoing network coverage of the 9/11 tragedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2001
Sara (Jorja Fox) forms an attachment with a young woman who miraculously survived a rape and shooting in a mall parking lot. Meanwhile, Warrick (Gary Dourdan) and Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) are entrusted with the evidence for a murder trial that was collected by a CSI agent who abruptly quit. Making the job more difficult is Catherine's contentious ex-husband, Eddie (Timothy Carhart). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2001
The bodies of two girls are found stuffed in pipes at a rural highway construction site. Investigating, Grissom (William L. Petersen) and Sara (Jorja Fox) determine that the girls were sisters, and that one of them was intimate with a recently paroled convict. Elsewhere, another body found in the woods seems to have been the victim of a hunting accident, but Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) and Nick (George Eads) have their doubts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Billed as a Latina Waiting to Exhale, this film details the life and loves of four Hispanic women: Sofia, a therapist; Andrea, a divorced lawyer; Irene, a flashy clothes designer; and Lilly, an artist. The women gather every week at the nightspot Luminarias to discuss jobs, family, love, and sex. Sofia, who dates white men in the hope of fitting into Anglo culture, becomes smitten with an amorous Mexican waiter. On the other hand, Andrea, who believes that white guys are only interested in Hispanic woman as exotic love toys, finds herself falling for a Jewish lawyer. While Lilly deals with racism from her Korean-American boyfriend's family, sexpot Irene has her own conflicted feelings toward her transvestite brother. Luminarias was screened at the 1999 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelina Fernandez, Scott Bakula, (more)
- 1997
One of the most heavily promoted TV movies of the 1997-98 season, The Lake is a complex sci-fi/fantasy yarn with echoes of such past genre classics as Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Stepford Wives. Former Baywatch babe Yasmine Bleeth heads the huge cast as Jackie Ivers, a professional nurse who returns to her small California home town to care for her dying father. Upon her arrival, Jackie quickly ascertains that something is not quite right about the community and the people with whom she grew up. Put bluntly, every person in town is behaving in the exact opposite manner of what might normally be expected--and this bizarre mass character conversion has spread to Jackie's own family. Ultimately, the solution to the mystery manifested a polluted lake and an alternate earth, though the conclusion of the story provides a twist calculated to confound those who think they have everything figured out by the film's midway point. The best moments go to Marion Ross in what amounts to a dual role, and to Haley Joel Osment of Sixth Sense fame. The Lake made its NBC network bow on February 1, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
An ordinary woman is driven to the point of violent revenge in this tense thriller. Karen McCann (Sally Field) is a suburban wife and working mother with two daughters. Karen's life is turned upside down when her 17-year-old daughter is raped and murdered, a crime she overhears on her cellular phone. Sgt. Denillo (Joe Mantegna), a bright and resourceful police detective, soon tracks down the culprit, an especially sleazy criminal named Robert Doob (Kiefer Sutherland). However, due to a minor technicality, Doob escapes conviction, even though he's clearly guilty. Karen's husband Mack (Ed Harris) suppresses his grief and tries to go on with his life, but Karen doesn't find this quite so easy; she joins a support group for parents of murdered children, and she discovers that within the group is an underground society that seeks vigilante justice against killers who've slipped through the net of the judicial system. Karen buys a gun, learns how to use it, and begins training in martial arts. She starts keeping tabs on Doob, and learns that he not only intends to kill again, he's targeting her younger daughter. Beverly D'Angelo co-stars as Karen's best friend Dolly, and Philip Baker Hall plays Sidney Hughes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Field, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
- 1995
- NR
This adaptation of Dostoevsky's novella does an exceptional job of retaining the multi-textured richness of the original story about the intimate thoughts of an anonymous lonely building inspector known only as the Underground Man. Everything about the misanthropic civil servant is dull and unpleasant. His job is boring and his only joy comes in using bureaucracy to spitefully torment contractors and architects who despise him. Realizing that he has no friends, the Underground Man does try to ingratiate himself with acquaintances and only ends up even more lonely and bitter. It does not help that he believes himself intellectually superior to those he encounters. He gets involved with a prostitute, Liza, whom he sees at a local brothel. His relationship with her is as complex as he is. On one hand he inflicts his seething rage and the pain of his isolation upon her; on the other, he cares about her and wants to help her escape her sordid situation. He decides to take her to his home, but once she is there, he finds that he is unable to overcome his misanthropy and ends up making her even more miserable. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Czerny, Sheryl Lee, (more)
- 1994
A flustered Ross (George Clooney) covers for Greene (Anthony Edwards), who has called in sick so that he can spend some time with his wife, Jenn (Christine Harnos). Carol (Julianna Margulies) finds a kindred spirit in her newest patient, Jamie (Brigid Walsh), a suicidal rape victim. Benton (Eriq La Salle) reacts strangely when his mother (Beah Richards) is brought into the ER after injuring her ankle. And Carter (Noah Wyle) develops a crush on Lewis (Sherry Stringfield). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this high-tension thriller, Christopher Reeves plays Dempsey Cain, a paralyzed detective (ironically, it was filmed a year before the tragic accident that would make him a quadriplegic) whose arrogance and penchant for perfectionism has alienated his family to the point that his wife Gail (Kim Cattrall) turns to his brother Nick (Edward Kerr) for love. Nick is also a cop, but unlike Dempsey, he tends to be irresponsible and sloppy. It was he who was responsible for Dempsey's paralysis. Dempsey knows that Nick and Gail are trysting. This coupled with his disability makes life unbearable. Wanting to end his life, but knowing that his million-dollar life insurance policy will not cover his suicide, he approaches Nick and Gail with the perfect solution -- to murder him and make it look like a burglary. Dempsey plans his demise to the nth degree. Unfortunately, despite his careful scheming, Dempsey makes one fatal flaw -- he did not include his suspicious, resentful and jealous colleague Allan Rhinehart (Joe Mantegna) into the equation and things go horribly awry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1993
This made-for-television drama first aired on NBC and was made shortly after the tragic stand-off in Waco, Texas when a conflict between the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and a group of cultist led by charismatic leader and self-proclaimed messiah David Koresh turned into a bloody battle that left the believers' compound burned and many dead. Soon after the dust settled, investigations revealed that the bloodshed may have been unnecessary. Filmed on location, near Tulsa, Oklahoma, the film recounts events before, during and after the catastrophe. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Daly, Dan Lauria, (more)
A couple returns home from Mexico where they accidentally killed a cop on a highway and proceeded to flee the scene. Before long, however, they are confronted by an intimidating but charismatic man who mysteriously pops up--and who knows all about the incident in Mexico. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Rebecca De Mornay, (more)
Taylor Hackford directed this urgent melodrama about the realities of street crime, gangs, and prison life among the Chicanos of East Los Angeles. Miklo (Damian Chapa), Paco (Benjamin Bratt) and Cruz (Jesse Borrego) are three friends who are living in the East Los Angeles of 1972 as it is torn apart by violence. When the gang violence hits the three friends, they are affected by their participation in the bitter violence in different ways. Cruz, an artist, becomes crippled, and he sinks deeply into drug addiction. Paco, an accessory to murder, joins the military to avoid jail time, leading to a spot on the LAPD. Miklo, the kid with the gun, is sent to jail, where he slowly rises up in the ranks of La Onda, the San Quentin Latino gang. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Damian Chapa, Jesse Borrego, (more)
- 1992
Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story stars Jean Smart as the title character. One of the rare female serial killers on record, Wuornos was eventually charged with murdering seven men on lonely Florida roads. The killing spree took place between 1990 and 1991, thus this 1992 TV movie could pat itself on the back for its timeliness. At the time Overkill was made, there was some public doubt concerning Wuornos' guilt (she was then on death row). The script suggests that her crimes were a by-product of childhood sexual abuse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Smart, Park Overall, (more)
- 1992
In this futuristic sci-fi fantasy, a police officer is assisted in stopping crime by a giant mechanical dinosaur. The great creature was transformed from a child's toy by an enigmatic time traveler. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Taylor, Joan Chen, (more)
- 1992
In this made-for-cable thriller, Mimi Rogers portrays a cop who, burned out by her work, transfers to the forensics staff as an evidence photographer. While investigating a string of killings, the trail of evidence leads to the married man with whom she's having an affair. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1991
The Boys is an "a clef" celebration of the famed script writing team of Richard Levinson and William Link, the creators of Columbo, Murder She Wrote and so many other stellar TV projects. William Link himself wrote this story about two lifelong collaborator/friends named Walter (James Woods) and Artie (John Lithgow). Though Artie is a chain-smoker, it is Walter who contacts terminal lung cancer--the actual fate of the late Richard Levinson. Some observers have suggested that Link penned this tale more out of guilt than friendship; whatever the case, he wisely avoids overloading the material with sentiment, allowing the "boys" to kid around and squabble as much as they ever had. As a bonus, there's a Columbo-style mystery angle in the proceedings to keep the hard-core Levinson/Link fans happy. The Boys was produced for television and originally shown in April of 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
In this inspiring drama, a plucky 14-year-old boy with muscular dystrophy is abandoned in a ramshackle nursing home where he begins fighting to improve the living conditions of its residents. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Savage, Kevin Spacey, (more)
