Matt Salinger Movies

Long before television and video games gave New York City kids the option of disappearing into alternate worlds for hours on end, the best option for passing the time and burning off energy was to hit the street for a game of stickball. In this documentary, narrator Hector Elizondo takes viewers back to a time when the city streets echoed with the sounds of laughing children, and games like Punchball, Skully, and Jonny on a Pony helped instill youngsters and their parents with a very real sense of community. In addition to offering a nostalgic glimpse into a bygone era, New York Street Games also explores the potential reasons urban adolescents no longer partake in the simple joys of games like Stick Ball, as well as the potential effects that today's more introverted forms of entertainment may be having on both their behavior, and our shifting social structures. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) calls into CTU, and lets Driscoll (Alberta Watson) know that Ronnie's been killed, and that he's currently trailing Kalil (Anil Kumar), the terrorist who kidnapped Andrew (Lukas Haas). Driscoll asks Jack for his location, because she wants to pick Kalil up immediately, but Jack thinks the terrorist will lead him right to the compound where Heller (William Devane) and Audrey (Kim Raver) are being held. He refuses to tell Driscoll where he is, so she decides that capturing Jack is now CTU's top priority. Office politics are charged at the CTU office, and things only get more paranoid when Driscoll brings in Marianne Taylor (Aisha Tyler), over the objections of her second-in-command, Curtis (Roger R. Cross). Curtis has had (intimate) dealings with the ambitious Marianne in the past, and doesn't trust her. She immediately begins questioning Edgar (Louis Lombardi) about the day's events. Jack convinces Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) to surreptitiously help him track Andrew's kidnapper. While Jack follows the suspicious terrorist, Chloe works on stealing satellite imagery of the area so he can follow from a safer distance. As Jack watches, Kalil pulls off the road and meets up with two thugs, who proceed to beat the helpless Andrew, demanding to know who he told about what he found on the Internet. Kalil drives off, leaving Andrew to be killed. Jack wants to follow him, but decides he can't leave Andrew to die. After saving Andrew's life, he rushes to catch up with Kalil. Kalil goes into a convenience store, giving Chloe a few more minutes to get Jack the satellite coverage, but she needs more time, and Jack is forced to take desperate action. Meanwhile, at the Araz home, Behrooz (Jonathan Ahdout) is horrified to learn that Dina (Shohreh Aghdashloo) has invited Debbie (Leighton Meester) over "to talk." ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Blood, sweat, and betrayal in the South East Asian jungles is what drives this action thriller about sleazy Canadian diplomat Carl Pimmler (Michael Ironside), who sends Peter Kernan (Matt Salinger) and his wife Johanna (Sam Jenkins) into deepest, darkest Cambodia to deliver "medicine." When the two realize the true nature of the items they are toting, they struggle to flee for their lives. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Matt Salinger suffers a double blow when his wife is murdered and his baby disappears. All evidence points to the grim possibility that the child has also met with foul play. With the help of reporter Lisa Eilbacher, Salinger unearths a horrible family secret that may hold the key to the mystery-and learns the truth about his baby. Cunningly written with a surfeit of nightmarish setpieces by Gordon Cotler, the made-for-TV Deadly Deception costars Bonnie Bartlett and Mildred Natwick as two human cogs in a wheel of lies. The film was first telecast March 8, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Blood and Orchids was adapted from Norman Katkov from his own fact-based book. The scene is Hawaii, 1937. The wife (Madeline Stowe) of a naval officer (William Russ) is beaten nearly to death by her lover (Matt Salinger)--her husband's best friend. Four native Hawaiians find the woman and take her to the hospital, then flee out of fear of being blamed for the assault themselves. The aristocratic mother (Jane Alexander) of the beaten woman knows the truth, but, coldly insistent upon maintaining white supremacy on the islands, orders her daughter to claim that the Hawaiian boys had abused her. A trial follows, complicated by an honest police officer (Kris Kristofferson), who doesn't believe the victim's story. This two-part TV movie digresses from the source novel by hoking up a romance between the cop and the young wife (Sean Young) of the prosecuting attorney (Jose Ferrer). Blood and Orchids was originally telecast in February of 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

American independent filmmaker Jay Craven directs the Vietnam-era coming-of-age drama The Year That Trembled, based on the novel by Scott Lax. Using stock footage along with a traditional narrative, the film takes place in Ohio following the 1970 student murders at Kent State. Right after high school, best friends Casey (Jonathan Brandis), Jim (Charlie Finn), and Phil (Sean Nelson) move into a cottage with activist-on-the-run Judy Woods (Meredith Monroe). The cottage is next door to their former teacher Helen (Marin Hinkle), who gets fired for her antiwar activities. Her husband, Charlie Kerrigan (Jonathan M. Woodward), is a lawyer torn between his moral opposition to the war and his own ambitions. Also starring Fred Willard, Martin Mull, and Henry Gibson. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Founder of the Slamdance Film Festival Paul Rachman makes his feature-length debut with this tale of dishonor among thieves, solidly in the vein of 1994's Shallow Grave. When four friends (Olivia Williams, Balthazar Getty, Daniel London, and Stacy Edwards) travel to Buenos Aires to crash a wedding reception, they have more on their mind than just a lively evening of free drinks and the Chicken Dance. With the aid of ace thief Felix (Tim Curry), they steal a precious Degas statuette from the mansion owner hosting the shindig and abscond to L.A. Unfortunately, the objet d'art is nowhere to be found, and the covert dealer (Forest Whitaker) who's expecting it is none too pleased. He demands that they come up with the piece or $1,000,000 immediately. To solve their problem, the four compadres take out life insurance policies on each another and plot out which friend is going to die in order to proffer the heist money. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

Jay Craven directed this post-WWII period drama adapted from a fact-based novel by Howard Frank Mosher. During the '50s, the service record of former Army chaplain Walter Andrews (Ernie Hudson) makes such an impression that he's hired over the telephone to serve as minister at a small town in rural Vermont. Only when Andrews arrives to begin work do the townspeople realize he's black. Despite some hostility from certain locals, he's accepted into the community. However, when young Claire LaRivierre (Jordan Bayne), is found murdered in the forest nearby, Andrews becomes the leading suspect because he gave her shelter. Contrasting accounts of Claire's final hours are revealed in the courtroom. Shown at the 1998 Hollywood Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

In this satirical "inside" look at the world of TV scripters, agent Danny (Tom Arnold) gives a 22-episode assignment to depressed, self-destructive writer-producer Brian (Stephen Rea), creatively spent and bereft of ideas. At his weekly poker game, Brian sees a romantic couple on a hotel balcony. When he tells the other writers about this, it triggers an impromptu story session. All four retreat across the street to the bar where Brian sees Georgia Feckler (Illeana Douglas) and decides she was the woman on the balcony. Desperate for ideas, he offers to buy the story of her life. After Brian vanishes with Georgia, his fellow scripters become concerned as to his whereabouts and decide to break into his living quarters. Shown at the AFI/Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

An average middle-aged guy finds himself in an extraordinarily weird situation in this off-beat romantic adventure that begins when 53-year-old car salesman Al goes to a local coffee shop with his friends and ends up escorting voluptuous oversexed jailbait Ellie back to the desert trailer she shares with her mom Julie and her brutal psycho boyfriend Boyd. While Boyd and Ellie take off for a while, Al ends up dancing in the moonlight with sweetly seductive Julie. The moon that night is extraordinarily large and the two end up falling asleep. Eventually Al awakens and tries to go home, but unfortunately, his car will not start. Julie then informs him that most cars have trouble starting there. Still he manages to leave. Stopping at a filling station, he is appalled to discover that someone has stuffed a corpse in his trunk. That turns out to be only the least of his troubles. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this actioner, a band of American soldiers are on a helicopter flight over Vietnam to find a downed plane when they suddenly crash land in enemy territory. The vegetation is dense and filled with Viet Cong and the usual jungle dangers, but that is the least of their worries, because it soon becomes apparent that one of their own engineered the crash. Unfortunately, the saboteur is the only one who knows the way back to safety. This does not stop their dangerously temperamental leader, Stewart, from executing him, causing the rest of the men to question his sanity. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Revenge of the Nerds is the juvenile sex comedy perhaps most synonymous with the 1980s, alternating gags and scantily clad women with a power to the underdogs mentality that prompted three sequels. The handsome jocks of Alpha Beta, led by Stan (Ted McGinley), run Adams College, which means that when they burn down their house after a stunt involving grain alcohol and an open flame, they kick a bunch of socially inept freshman out of their dorm and into the gymnasium. But sleeping on cots is only the beginning of their worries, as the so-called nerds soon become the target of pranks by Alpha Beta, assisted by Betty (Julie Montgomery) and the gorgeous gals of Pi Delta Pi. Instead of taking the abuse sitting down, the displaced freshman, led by Gilbert (Anthony Edwards) and Lewis (Robert Carradine), buy a ramshackle house, affiliate themselves with the only national chapter who will take them (the all-black Lambda Lambda Lambda), and use their superior intellect to launch a counterstrike. The bespectacled but loveable geeks set up surveillance cameras in the Pi bathroom and put liquid heat in the athletes' jock straps, then draft a sister sorority of misfits (Omega Mu) to strengthen their resources. The frats quickly become bitter rivals, and the goal is to win the annual fraternity decathlon, which involves such feats as a burping contest and a go-cart race, with bragging rights (and perhaps peace of mind) at stake. Look for John Goodman and future thirtysomething cast member Timothy Busfield in small roles, and expect a torrent of nasal laughter. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

In this comedy a Hollywood agent heads for Africa in order to convince a beautiful princess to sign a special release so her life-story can be made into a television movie. Instead he ends up entangled in a kidnapping scheme. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi