Frank Medrano Movies
Jimmy Zoole (Steve Guttenberg, also making his directing debut) has been having bad, bad day. Not only has his one-man version of Hamlet (performed with hand puppets) just tanked, his girlfriend has left him, his cat is gravely ill, and his unfinished novel has been stolen. Plus, it's New Year's Eve. So when Jimmy finds Eddie (Lombardo Boyar), a gay burglar, lurking in his apartment, he isn't exactly thrilled. On the verge of a major breakdown, he ties up Eddie and uses him as an outlet for his multitude of frustrations. Eddie, it turns out, has a few of his own, including an ex-wife who won't let him see his child. What follows is a New Year's celebration replete with party hats, rope, and some very, very deep emotional issues. Based on James Kirkwood's cult novel (Kirkwood also won a Pulitzer as the author of A Chorus Line), P.S. Your Cat is Dead was screened at the 2002 Philadelaphia Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Guttenberg, Lombardo Boyar, (more)
A criminal follows his own sense of justice in this taut crime thriller. Fabio (Frank Molina) is a convicted counterfeiter who was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for his last caper. After serving ten years, Fabio is being released, but his shortened sentence isn't a matter of good behavior -- a pair of gangsters have pulled some strings under the condition that Fabio hand over two million dollars in high-quality forged notes he's been hiding. Back on the streets of New York, Fabio sets out to recover the funny money, and along the way tries to mend fences with his daughter while getting revenge against his treacherous former girlfriend Sonia (Maite Bonilla), as well as two former colleagues, Chory (Jules Graciolett) and Juan (Teddy Garces), who betrayed him and have been living off one of his old scores. Red Passport won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2003 La Cinema Fe Festival in New York City. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Molina, Maite Bonilla, (more)
A man thinks he's found the woman of his dreams until he discovers someone else already had the same idea in this romantic comedy-drama with a primarily Hispanic cast. Mike (Jaime P. Gomez) is employed at a psychiatric hospital in California, where he meets Gabriela (Seidy Lopez), a young woman who is also working there while she completes her degree. Mike finds Gabriela to be sweet, charming, intelligent, and very beautiful, but there's a problem -- Gabriela has a fiancé, Pat (Zach Galligan). While Pat and Gabriela's relationship is hardly perfect -- she's very busy with work and school, and he's very devoted to his career -- Gabriela takes it very seriously, and Mike tries to resign himself to the fact that he and Gabriela are never going to be anything more than friends. But as they spend more time together, sparks begin to fly between Mike and Gabriela, forcing her to choose one man over the other. Completed in 2000, Gabriela found a distributor in 2001, when it was picked up by the independent distribution firm Power Point Films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jaime Gomez, Seidy Lopez, (more)
This powerful HBO biographical drama recounts the rise and fall of Walter Winchell, a gossip columnist and reporter who changed the face of news reporting. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stanley Tucci, Glenne Headly, (more)
Robert DeFranco directed this comedy-drama about two New Jerseyites who graduated from college only to operate the oven at Lombardo's Pizza. Phil (Peter Facinelli) and Dennis (Dash Mihok) soon realize that the guys they once laughed at have moved on -- while they have been left behind in Nowhere City. Shown at the 1998 Hollywood Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Facinelli, Dash Mihok, (more)
In this romantic comedy, wealthy Chicago publisher Linda (Bonnie Hunt), hosting a wedding at her suburban estate, narrates the tale of how the couple arrived at the altar: Womanizing sportscaster Max (David Schwimmer) and novelist Jay (Jason Lee), friends since childhood, have different attitudes toward women. Incurable romantic Jay still carries a torch for his departed girlfriend Natasha (Vanessa Angel) and is unable to picture himself with any woman in the future. When Jay matches Max with his book editor Samantha (Mili Avital), the two strike such sparks that they get engaged within 14 days. The thought of settling down puts Max in such a panic that he proposes a peculiar loyalty test -- one that involves Jay seducing Sam. If Sam remains faithful to him, then he will proceed with the marriage. Jay doesn't agree to this, but book revisions keep bringing him together with Sam, forcing them to deal with the way they really feel about each other. Director Doug Ellin (Phat Beach) filmed at locations in Chicago. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Schwimmer, Jason Lee, (more)
Barry Levinson directed this crime drama based on a controversial bestseller. Jason Patrick stars as Lorenzo, a New York reporter more commonly called "Shakes," a nickname courtesy of his three childhood pals from Hell's Kitchen -- Michael (Brad Pitt), John (Ron Eldard), and Tommy (Billy Crudup). As kids, all four were sent to reform school after accidentally killing someone during a cruel prank. There, the boys were raped and beaten by several guards, including Sean Nokes (Kevin Bacon), a fact that they've kept secret into adulthood. Michael is now a rising star in the district attorney's office, while John and Tommy are founders of the Irish gang the Westies. When Nokes walks into John and Tommy's hangout, they kill him in cold blood and go on trial, defended by a drug-addicted lawyer (Dustin Hoffman). Michael and Shakes conspire with childhood friend Carol (Minnie Driver) and local priest Father Bobby (Robert DeNiro) to free their friends and get even with the surviving guards. Based on a true story chronicled by Lorenzo Carcaterra in his novel of the same name, Sleepers stirred controversy when the veracity of the book was challenged by reporters who could find no documentation of the events described. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, (more)
Robert De Niro is Gil Renard, baseball fan from hell. Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes) is the player he is nuts about. No sooner does the talented Rayburn sign a huge contract with the San Francisco Giants, than everything in his life goes horribly wrong. Not only does his field play deteriorate along with his batting average, but someone murders his chief team rival. It's not revealing too much to say that Gil killed him, in the mistaken belief that he was doing Bobby a favor. When superfan Gil insinuates himself into Bobby's everyday life, the situation grows much worse, because this fixated nut-case has some very strange ideas about family solidarity. Amusing highlights come from John Leguizamo as a ballplayer's agent, and Ellen Barkin as a radio sports announcer. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, (more)
Near the end of The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey, in his Oscar-winning performance as crippled con man Roger "Verbal" Kint, says, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." This may be the key line in this story; the farther along the movie goes, the more one realizes that not everything is quite what it seems, and what began as a conventional whodunit turns into something quite different. A massive explosion rips through a ship in a San Pedro, CA, harbor, leaving 27 men dead, the lone survivor horribly burned, and 91 million dollars' worth of cocaine, believed to be on board, mysteriously missing. Police detective Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) soon brings in the only witness and key suspect, "Verbal" Kint. Kint's nickname stems from his inability to keep his mouth shut, and he recounts the events that led to the disaster. Five days earlier, a truckload of gun parts was hijacked in Queens, NY, and five men were brought in as suspects: Kint, hot-headed hipster thief McManus (Stephen Baldwin), ill-tempered thug Hockney (Kevin Pollak), flashy wise guy Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), and Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a cop gone bad now trying to go straight in the restaurant business. While in stir, someone suggests that they should pull a job together, and Kint hatches a plan for a simple and lucrative jewel heist. Despite Keaton's misgivings, the five men pull off the robbery without a hitch and fly to Los Angeles to fence the loot. Their customer asks if they'd be interested in pulling a quick job while out West; the men agree, but the robbery goes horribly wrong and they soon find themselves visited by Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite), who represents a criminal mastermind named Keyser Soze. Soze's violent reputation is so infamous that he's said to have responded to a threat to murder his family by killing them himself, just to prove that he feared no one. When Kobayashi passes along a heist proposed by Soze that sounds like suicide, the men feel that they have little choice but to agree. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, (more)
Supermodel and sex symbol Cindy Crawford made her acting debut in this high-decibel thriller. Kate McQuean (Crawford) is a lawyer who -- in the course of a divorce proceeding -- attempts to seize a 157-foot freighter docked off the Florida coast in lieu of unpaid alimony. It turns out that the freighter is the current base of operations of Kazak (Steven Berkoff), a former KGB agent who has become an international money laundering expert and leader of a crack terrorist team. As one might imagine, Kazak is not especially happy about possible eviction, and soon Kate has a hefty price on her head. Kate, however, doesn't know the nature of Kazak's business and isn't sure why someone is trying to kill her. Loose cannon police detective Max Kilpatric (William Baldwin) is assigned to protect Kate, and romance begins to bloom as they dodge a remarkable number of bullets and explosions. Fair Game was originally slated to star Sylvester Stallone alongside Crawford (the film's location was moved to Florida at his request); when he dropped out, Crawford found herself co-starring with Baldwin, another model-turned-thespian. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cindy Crawford, William Baldwin, (more)
In 1946, a banker named Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of a double murder, even though he stubbornly proclaims his innocence. He's sentenced to a life term at the Shawshank State Prison in Maine, where another lifer, Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), picks him as the new recruit most likely to crack under the pressure. The ugly realities of prison life are quickly introduced to Andy: a corrupt warden (Bob Gunton), sadistic guards led by Capt. Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown), and inmates who are little better than animals, willing to use rape or beatings to insure their dominance. But Andy does not crack: he has the hope of the truly innocent, which (together with his smarts) allow him to prevail behind bars. He uses his banking skills to win favor with the warden and the guards, doing the books for Norton's illegal business schemes and keeping an eye on the investments of most of the prison staff. In exchange, he is able to improve the prison library and bring some dignity and respect back to many of the inmates, including Red. Based on a story by Stephen King, The Shawshank Redemption was the directorial debut of screenwriter Frank Darabont. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, (more)
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
Though Janice (Amy Brenneman) has been promoted to the Intelligence division, she must continue biding her time with the 15th precinct detectives. Despite damning evidence, Kelly (David Caruso) feels that his pal Charlie (Charles Haid) is being framed for murder. Fancy (James McDaniel) worries that his wife is in for another very difficult pregnancy. And, while visiting the family of Sylvia Costas (Sharon Lawrence), Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) has several drinks too many. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Director Robert K. Weiss gives a good accounting of himself in his first feature-length effort Amongst Friends. The film is set in an affluent Long Island neighborhood, the home of boyhood chums Patrick McGaw, Steve Parlavecchio, and Joseph Lindsey. With too much time on their hands, the kids turn to crime for "kicks". Events snowball into a climactic life-or-death drug deal, which threatens to end in disaster when one of the boys capriciously pulls a double cross. Barely released in 1993, Amongst Friends will probably get more play in future years thanks to the presence in the cast of Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Parlavecchio, Joseph Lindsey, (more)
