Hart Bochner Movies

Debra Messing stars in this primetime comedy/drama based on the Emmy award winning mini-series of the same name. It focuses on the frequently wild experiences of Molly Kagan, once the wife of Hollywood royalty and now, a frantic divorcee struggling to figure out life on her own terms. Molly is faced with nothing but firsts, from raising her seven year old daughter Jaden as a single mom, to starting up a career in her 40's. The waters usually seem rough, but she's determined to stay focused on her future - even when her past keeps landing her in court. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

A woman sets out to stamp out unscrupulous baby brokers in this made-for-cable drama. Nathalie Johnson (Dana Delany) is a woman edging into middle age who has an eight-year-old stepdaughter with her husband Steve (Hart Bochner). Nathalie would like to have a baby of her own, but after discovering to her frustration that she is unable to conceive, she and Steve choose to adopt an infant. While investigating adoption options online, Nathalie sees a listing for a beautiful baby girl from Hungary, and immediately contacts Hungarian adoption agent Gabor Szabo (Bruce Ramsay). Nathalie soon learns that Szabo is less interested in the welfare of his children than in padding his bank account, and that the Hungarian is a black-market broker who essentially auctions off children to the highest bidder. Nathalie is suitably outraged and pledges to put Szabo and his kind out of business, though she soon discovers that the laws regarding adoption are neither as stringent or as easily enforced as she imagined. Originally produced for the Lifetime cable network, Baby for Sale first aired on July 12, 2004. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Liberty Wallace (Linda Fiorentino), the wife and business partner of wealthy weapons manufacturer Victor Wallace (Oliver Platt), is on her way to her regular assignation with her boyfriend, Russell (Martin Cummins), an actor who's about to go on-stage for the closing night of his hit play. Their plans are ruined by a mysterious gunman who calls himself Joe (Wesley Snipes). Joe straps Russell to a bomb in his dressing room, which will go off if he moves or speaks too loudly. Joe then calls Liberty on her cell phone and coerces her into chaining herself to a hot dog stand in a plaza outside the theater. The hot dog stand is rigged with a bomb, which will go off if Liberty hangs up her cell phone, or when it runs out of battery power. Joe also has a high-powered sniper rifle, her company's best gun, trained on Liberty. Joe doesn't make any demands at first, but it's clear that he has a problem with Liberty's weapons empire, which she inherited from her late father. He eventually tells Liberty that his young daughter was killed in a school shooting by one of the guns her company manufactured. Joe lets Liberty know that she's going to die, but she can die a hero if she exposes her company's shady business dealings and political connections before she's killed. As Joe monitors and records her every move, Liberty reveals secrets about her own past, and her business dealings. When Victor, who's also having an affair, finds out that his wife has been taken hostage, he's torn between following company protocol -- protecting himself and allowing his wife to be killed -- and going to help her. Liberty Stands Still was written and directed by Kari Skogland. The film premiered on Cinemax in July 2002. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Tall tales turn into chilling reality in this sequel to the 1998 horror hit Urban Legend. Amy Mayfield (Jenny Morrison) is a film student at Alpine University who for her thesis project (which will also be her entry to a prestigious competition for young directors) has decided to make a horror film about urban legends that suddenly and disturbingly come true. However, as Amy and her student cast and crew begin filming staged murders for the project, members of her team begin dying for real, and the survivors have to track down the killer before they become the next victims. And where do Travis (Matthew Davis), Graham (Joey Lawrence), and Toby (Anson Mount), three other students vying for the same prize as Amy, fit into this scenario? Urban Legends: The Final Cut marked the directorial debut for John Ottman, who previously distinguished himself as an editor and composer (he also performed both of those functions for this film). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this comic send-up of dramas set in urban schools (such as Lean on Me and Dangerous Minds), Jon Lovitz plays Richard Clark, a teacher who is persuaded to give up his position at Wellington Academy, an upscale private school (where the receptionist cheerfully answers calls with the question "Are you white?"), to take over a class at Marion Barry High School in Inner City, U.S.A. Marion Barry High is a far cry from the ivory-tower atmosphere of Wellington; the statue in the courtyard holds a crack pipe, the Michigan Militia sets up a booth for career day, and there's so much violence on campus that the school has its own graveyard; however, Clark is determined to reach his thick-headed charges, and he hopes to also make an impression on Victoria Chappell (Tia Carrere), a beautiful woman also on the teaching staff. Clark does battle with Evelyn Doyle (Louise Fletcher), the school's militaristic principal, in an effort to raise standards for the school's star straight-C students, and he finds that he's getting through to one of the school's toughest students, Grig (Mekhi Phifer). Screenwriters Pat Proft and David Zucker helped create The Naked Gun and its follow-ups. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A Native American struggles to find himself and maintain his cultural identity growing up with a White family in the Old West in this drama, originally produced as a TV miniseries. Gypsy Smith (Sidney Poitier), an African-American bounty hunter, helps lead a platoon of U.S. Cavalry soldiers on a raid of a Cheyenne Indian camp. Among the Cheyenne, one of the few survivors is a boy named White Wolf. Smith takes pity on the child and takes him home to live with a family of white settlers he works with, John and Nora Maxwell (Michael Moriarty and Farrah Fawcett). As he grows to adulthood, White Wolf is renamed Corby (Billy Wirth), and he falls in love with John and Nora's daughter, Rachel (Joanna Going). However, the Maxwells object to Rachel and Corby's romance, and they send her away to study in St. Louis. Corby feels that he doesn't belong in the White man's world and returns to live with the Cheyanne; meanwhile, Smith has become the Marshall of Freedom, a Black settlement in the Oklahoma territory. Shelby Hornbeck (Hart Bochner), a wealthy Oklahoma landowner, has married Rachel -- and is the leader of the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan. When Hornbeck and his thugs decide to level Freedom, Gypsy Smith and Corby reunite to lead the charge to stop them. A Good Day to Die originally aired under the title Children of the Dust. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A young man unthinkingly throws himself into a world of political and sexual turmoil in John Schlesinger's adaptation of the novel by Ian McEwan. Leonard Markham (Campbell Scott) is a British communications and surveillance expert who is sent to Germany in the early 1950s, at the height of the Cold War. Leonard is put under the command of Bob Glass (Anthony Hopkins), an American agent who goes out of his way to show him around town. Leonard is woefully naive about most subjects not directly involving his job, and when Bob takes him to a typically decadent Berlin nightclub, he is astonished to discover that Maria (Isabella Rossellini), a beautiful and mysterious woman, announces that she's quite attracted to him. Soon Leonard is no longer a 24-year-old virgin, but (as one might expect) Maria's interest in him is not entirely a matter of physical attraction. Bob's secret project is a hidden tunnel beneath Berlin that allows his forces to tap into Russian telephone transmissions, which is Leonard's responsibility. But the Americans are also obtaining coded information that they aren't passing along to the British; while Leonard helps Bob, he's also finding out what Bob knows and passing it along to the British. However, Maria is also looking for certain information, and she sees the innocent and gullible Leonard as an easy way to get it. The Innocent was originally completed in 1993, but it was not shown in the United States until 1996, when it was given a brief theatrical release before appearing on home video. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This stylish animated adventure is based on the '90s animated television series, which in turn is based on the original comics and Tim Burton's live action "Batman" films. Unlike the campy 1960s version of Batman, this version is half-mad from the superhero's obsession with justice. It is only his unusual sense of ethics that keeps him from becoming a full-blown psychotic. The story describes the origins of Batman as it follows the Dark Knight's attempts to capture the elusive, deadly Phantasm who kills a crime lord and makes it look as if Batman did it, causing a media smear campaign against the Caped Crusader. At the same time, millionaire Bruce Wayne holds a party at his mansion. There he meets Councilman Arthur Reeves, the man behind the accusations. Reeves derides playboy Wayne for allowing his college sweetheart Andrea Beaumont to leave him. Suddenly Wayne flashes back to his pre-Batman days. He remembers how he met her while visiting his parents' graves to renew his vow that he would spend his life fighting crime to avenge their wrongful deaths. He has already devised an early version of his alter-ego Batman, but that is nearly forgotten when he falls in love with Andrea. The story then jumps from past to present and back as the mysterious Phantasm strikes again. Batman continues his investigation and discovers a disturbing link between Andrea, who suddenly shows up after many years absence, and the villain. Meanwhile, the Phantasm, feeling that Batman is too close to learning his/her identity hires the Joker to kill him. But the Joker has his own agenda and much action ensues before the mystery of the Phantasm identity is solved, Batman clears his name, and justice is served. This film was originally made to go straight to video, Warner's studio liked it enough to release it theatrically. Some of the violence may be inappropriate for very young children. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Director Martin Donovan (real name Carlos Enrique Varela y Peralta-Ramos) directed this beautifully photographed western/horror amalgam. The story takes places in the American West in 1892. Jenny Hill (Mary Stuart Masterson) longs for the love of the local rough-and-tumble outlaw James Miller (Stephen Blake), who is also in love with her. But Jenny's mother (Fionnula Flanagan) doesn't approve, and instead marries Jenny off to James's half-brother Miller Brown (Hart Bochner), a polite and inarticulate farmer. Miller is in love with Jenny, but she can't stand his touch. Jenny begins to lapse into boredom until the full moon rises and she discovers Miller is a werewolf who spends his nights growling and baying at the moon, while Jenny remains locked inside their cabin. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Partially filmed in Hawaii and Tahiti, And the Sea Will Tell was a two-part TV movie based on a real murder case. A wealthy couple (James Brolin and Deidre Hall) are killed on their yacht off the coast of a secluded South American island called Palmyra. The suspects are a hippyish pair (Hart Bochner and Rachel Ward) whom the rich folks had befriended. It's fairly clear that the hippies were involved in the crime: The question is, did the man do it while the girl looked on helplessly, or was she a willing accomplice? Richard Crenna plays real-life defense attorney Vincent Bugliosi, upon whose book And the Sea Will Tell was based. The first part of this teledrama premiered on February 24, 1991; part two, in which the girl's testimony consumes most of the screen time, was shown on February 26. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi