Mo Rocca Movies
David Alan Basche (Carry Me Home, crazylove) stars in I'll Believe You, as Dale Sweeney, the radio host of an immensely unpopular late-night talk program on the AM dial. The only listeners whom Sweeney ever manages to drum up are nutty, half-zonked small-town denizens who want to discuss UFO sightings on the airwaves. Just prior to the final broadcast, with the program in arm's length of cancellation, Sweeney receives a strange phone call from an individual who speaks anxiously in an unintelligible language. The next morning, two federal agents turn up to question Sweeney, demonstrating heightened interest in one of the latest UFO sightings. Dale thus concludes that the caller was in fact an extraterrestrial, lost in his small town. He decides to report on the happenings during his broadcasts (which quadruples his audience size) and then bandies the locals into a collective search for the alien. Paul Francis Sullivan directs. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Alan Basche, Patrick Warburton, (more)
Nora Ephron directed and co-wrote this updated adaptation of a classic situation comedy that also casts a satirical eye on the entertainment industry. Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell) is a movie star whose career has been going into a slow and steady decline. Desperate for a project that will give his reputation a jump start, Jack agrees to star in a film version of the once-popular television series Bewitched as hapless hubby Darrin Stephens, under the condition that an unknown actress be cast as the female lead so he won't be upstaged. After auditioning dozens of women who fail to make the grade, Jack meets lovely and charming Isabel Bigelow (Nicole Kidman), and is immediately certain she's the perfect choice to play witch-turned-housewife Samantha. However, there's one thing neither Jack nor the producers of the film know -- Isabel really is a witch, and while she's been trying to get along without her powers to better fit in among mortals, she will use her special talents when need be. The film also stars Michael Caine as Isabel's father, Nigel, Shirley MacLaine as Iris Smythson (the actress hired to play Endora), and Jason Schwartzman as Jack's agent. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, (more)
- 2003
Hosted by Mo Rocca, senior political correspondent of The Daily Show, this lighthearted cable TV special is a celebration of the popular Smoking Gun Internet website, which, since 1997, has been publicly exposing the bad behavior of the rich and famous. It will be remembered that it was The Smoking Gun which revealed that the "star" of a well-known reality show had been slapped with a restraining order from a former girlfriend, and that one of the contestants on another such program had been the star of innumerable "bondage" films. The website has also dug up the police mug shots of such high-profile miscreants as Yasmin Bleeth and Robert Downey Jr., pointed out that actor and self-styled political activist Ben Affleck hasn't been registered to vote since 1992, and had a veritable field day with the likes of Martha Stewart and Jennifer Lopez. The special is subdivided into segments bearing such titles as "Celebrity Marital Discord," "Reality Show Blues," "Nick Nolte Makeover," "Strange and Unusual Crimes," and "Backstage Pass," and it closes with an animated segment based on Smoking Gun's radio station, WMOB. Smoking Gun TV was originally seen on Court TV, which has owned the titular website since 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mo Rocca
