Joseph Mazzello
First-time American writer director Aaron Wiederspahn's moody drama The Sensation of Sight concerns Finn, a middle-aged English teacher caught up in the unrelenting throes of a mid-life crisis. Driven by the guilt associated with a tragic incident for which he considers himself responsible, he drops out of his daily life and routine, and takes to selling encyclopedias. The past continues to haunt, however, filling his days with irrepressible anxiety, robbing his nights of sleep, and driving him inexorably toward a full self-awakening. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Strathairn, Ian Somerhalder, (more)
When the dreaded Headless Horseman returns to modern-era Sleepy Hollow in hopes of collecting some craniums, it's up to a teen who just happens to be a direct descendent of Ichabod Crane to put a stop to the headless happenings in this terrifying tale from director Kyle Newman. High school senior Ian Cranston (Kevin Zegers) is a newcomer to the town of Sleepy Hollow, and when Ian sets his sights on pretty cheerleader Karen (Kaley Cuoco) he soon incurs the wrath of her boyfriend, arrogant star quarterback Brody (Nick Carter). As Halloween approaches and Ian has a strange encounter with local gravedigger Clause (Stacy Keach), the tales of the Headless Horseman take an ominous slant as a pair of students go missing and Ian is told that he is a direct descended of the legendary Ichabod Crane. When the real Headless Horseman makes a shocking appearance at the annual Halloween hayride, Ian discovers that he is the only hope to save his father Carl (Judge Reinhold) from a grim fate at the hands of the vengeful entity. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Zegers, Kaley Cuoco, (more)
- 2003
Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) is determined to prevent a sexual predator, who has broken into the apartments of several single women and terrorized the occupants without actually harming them, from crossing the line into physical assault -- or even murder. On another front, Sara (Jorja Fox) investigates when her DA friend Melissa Winters (Elizabeth Mitchell) undergoes surgery to remove the bullet she received in the attack that killed her husband three years earlier. And Grissom (William L. Petersen) continues to suffer from a hereditary hearing loss. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A spoiled city kid learns the importance of family when his ailing grandfather arrives in Minneapolis for medical treatment in director Leszek Burzynski's affecting and affectionate comedy. Young Charles (Joseph Mazzello) has never been close to his grandfather Stoney (Peter Fonda), but when Stoney's pal Shuck (Kris Kristofferson) arrives to break his old friend out of the concrete jungle and take him back to the ranch, the curious youngster joins the pair for the adventure of a lifetime! It may take a wild trip back to the badlands of North Dakota for young Charles to appreciate his roots and join in the long tradition of becoming a "wooly boy," but it's never too late to connect with your past and the adventure that this trio shares will stay with them for the rest of their lives. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Withdrawn, skinny seventh-grader Spencer Griffith (Joseph Mazzello), who spends recess avoiding class bully Turbo (Joey Simmrin), gets some encouragement from his teacher, Janet Holloway (Corinne Bohrer), but his life remains stuck at the starting gate. One night Spencer spots a meteor, checks it out, and discovers the android Cyborsuit (Alex Daniels, with the voice of Arthur Burghardt), a being that seeks an organic host to inhabit its interior. Spencer does just that, and once inside, he learns that he has superpowers. Obviously, Turbo will prove to be no match, but then Spencer finds he must defeat the outer-space arachnid Broodwarrior (Brian Simpson). Filmed under the working title The Warrior of Waverly Street. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Mazzello, Joey Simmrin, (more)
This comedy-drama features a narration by Jim Carrey, looking back to childhood in a manner similar to the narration on TV's The Wonder Years. The film is the directorial debut of writer Mark Steven Johnson, scripter of Grumpy Old Men and its sequel. Johnson adapted only a small portion of John Irving's 600-page novel A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), but Irving requested a credit other than "based on" and also asked that the character name of Owen Meany be changed. So Owen became Simon Birch -- which then required a title change. In the title role is 11-year-old Ian Michael Smith, who is afflicted with Morquio's syndrome, a genetic disorder which causes dwarfism. The story begins when Joe Wenteworth (Jim Carrey) visits the grave of his childhood friend Simon Birch, whose stone is marked 1952-64. Joe explains that Simon is "the reason I believe in God." This is followed by a flashback to their friendship during the early '60s. In Gravestown, New Hampshire, young Joe Wenteworth (Joseph Mazzello) doesn't know who his father is, and his loving mother Rebecca (Ashley Judd) won't tell him. Joe's best buddy is young Simon Birch, born so tiny that his classmates pass him about like a "doll." Neglected at home, Simon turns to Rebecca as a surrogate mother, and he often has dinner with the Wenteworths. One night, Rebecca brings her friend Ben Goodrich (Oliver Platt) home for dinner, which annoys her crotchety mother (Dana Ivey). Later, the lives of the two 12-year-olds receive a cruel twist, and the two then become more curious to learn the secret of Joe's father. Shown in competition at the 1998 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian Michael Smith, Joseph Mazzello, (more)
Just when you'd think that scientists would realize dinosaurs and humans don't mix, along comes The Lost World: Jurassic Park to prove you wrong. In this sequel, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) summons chaos theorist and onetime colleague Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to his home with some startling information -- while nearly everything at his Jurassic Park had been destroyed, engineers were also operating a second site, where other dinosaurs, resurrected through DNA cloning technology, had been kept in hiding. Hammond has learned the dinosaurs on the second island are alive and well and even breeding; Hammond wants Malcolm to observe and document the reptiles before Hammond's financiers can get to them. Malcolm declares he had enough of the dinosaurs the first time out, but decides to make the trip when he finds out that his girlfriend, paleontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), is already there. However, Ian and Sarah aren't the only visitors expected on the island; a camera crew led by ecological activist Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn) is on the way, as is Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite), a world-class wild game hunter who is supposed to round up the dinosaurs and who hopes to bag a prehistoric trophy for himself in the process. This sequel to Jurassic Park boasted even more impressive special effects than the first film, though the acting and screenplay aren't always at the same level. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, (more)
In this offbeat comedy set in the 1950s, Patrick Swayze plays Jack McCloud, a drifter and beatnik who enters the conservative suburban life of the Holman family after Jeanne Holman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) accidentally hits him with her car. Jeanne takes Jack into her home while he recovers from his injuries. McCloud offends the neighbors and friends of the Holmans with his unorthodox behavior, including nude sunbathing and Buddhism. He tells the children, Tom (Joseph Mazzello) and Gunny (Seth Mumy), stories of a genie who has taken the form of a dog. Jeanne and her kids come under his sway as Jack's mystical powers help the kids' Little League team win a big game. Martha Coolidge directed the film from a script by Elizabeth Anderson, based on a short story by Ellen Green. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Swayze, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, (more)
Battered and left alone, a 10-year-old sharecropper's son finds comfort and unconditional love from a big-hearted farmer. Because, however, the kindly agrarian is a black man (Louis Gossett Jr.) and the boy (Joseph Mazzello) is white, their relationship causes an uproar in their heretofore peaceful Southern community. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Erik (Brad Renfro) is a 13-year-old boy whose single mother, Gail (Diana Scarwid), has just moved to a new home in Minnesota. Erik feels like a fish out of water with his Southern accent, and he has trouble making friends until he meets Dexter (Joseph Mazzello), a kid a year or two younger who lives next door. Erik and Dexter get along fine, but Gail tells Erik not to go near Dexter when she learns that he contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion a few years ago. Erik ignores his mother's instructions and stands up for the frail Dexter at school, while Dexter's mom Linda (Annabella Sciorra) gives Erik the warmth, affection, and home cooking that Gail is too busy to provide. However, both boys are painfully aware of Dexter's illness, and when one of them spots a headline in a supermarket tabloid that a doctor in New Orleans has discovered a cure for AIDS, they run away together, determined to find the doctor and bring Dexter back as good as new. The Cure was the theatrical feature debut for actor-turned-director Peter Horton, who cut his directorial teeth on the TV series The Wonder Years and thirtysomething. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Mazzello, Brad Renfro, (more)
In a change-of-pace role designed to prove that she could carry high-concept genre films as well as character-driven dramas, Meryl Streep headlined this fast-paced adventure as Gail, a whitewater rafting guide. For a vacation, Gail is accompanying her son Roarke (Joseph Mazzello) and workaholic husband Tom (David Strathairn) on a river trip. Gail and Tom are experiencing marital troubles and contemplating divorce, but their problems take a back seat when they encounter some menacing rafters led by Wade (Kevin Bacon). After Tom saves Wade from drowning, they discover that the men are murderous fugitives using the river as an escape route. Kidnapped by the killers, Gail's forced to leave her husband stranded on shore and guide the villains through the "Gauntlet," a raging confluence of rivers that few rafters ever survive. Meanwhile, Tom proves to be wilier than anyone suspected, following the raft on foot and plotting his family's rescue. Following a quartet of popular B-grade thrillers, director Curtis Hanson attempted to break partially out of the genre with The River Wild, which, despite the presence of a psycho killer, played as more a stunt-filled action movie than a murder mystery. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, (more)
- 1993
- PG
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This lavishly mounted adaptation of the play by William Nicholson tells the true story of the doomed love affair between novelist and noted Christian scholar C.S. Lewis and a Jewish-American poet. Anthony Hopkins stars as C.S. "Jack" Lewis, an Oxford professor and successful author of the Chronicles of Narnia series of children's fantasy novels. A confirmed bachelor, Jack's existence is an inward life of the mind. Somewhat detached from the world, his only social outlet is evenings out at a local pub discussing philosophy and religion with his fellow lecturers. Jack has been corresponding with a bluntly intelligent American woman, Joy Gresham (Debra Winger), who arrives to visit him, with her young son Douglas (Joseph Mazzello) in tow. She tells Jack that she has actually fled from an abusive marriage and plans to divorce, and Jack astonishes friends and family by agreeing to a platonic marriage with Joy so that she can obtain British citizenship. As their friendship deepens and Joy discovers that she has a terminal illness, the relationship between Joy and Jack becomes a genuine romance, and their marriage turns into a real commitment. Shadowlands (1993) had previously been filmed as a well-regarded British television movie in 1985 starring Joss Ackland as Lewis. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Debra Winger, (more)
A pre-Twister Jami Gertz heads the cast in the independently produced Jersey Girl. Born and bred in the Garden State, Gertz is overwhelmed by a desire to taste life in the Big City across the river. Once she lands in New York City, Gertz instantly meets Dylan McDermott, the man of her dreams-nearly totalling his Mercedes in the process. Likewise a refugee from New Jersey, the well-heeled McDermott feels both gratified and uncomfortable by Gertz's attentions; after all, she represents everything that he's fought long and hard to forget. Your enjoyment of Jersey Girl is utterly dependent upon your feelings towards Jami Gertz, since she's pretty much the whole show in this unpretentious PG-rated romance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jami Gertz, Dylan McDermott, (more)
Steven Spielberg's phenomenally successful sci-fi adventure thriller is graced by state-of-the-art special effects from the team of Stan Winston, Phil Tippett and Michael Lantieri from George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic. The film follows two dinosaur experts -- Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler Laura Dern) -- as they are invited by eccentric millionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) to preview his new amusement park on an island off Costa Rica. By cloning DNA harvested from pre-historic insects, Hammond has been able to create living dinosaurs for his new Jurassic Park, an immense animal preserve housing real brachiosaurs, dilophosaurs, triceratops, velociraptors, and a Tyrannosaur Rex. Accompanied by cynical scientist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who is obsessed with chaos theory, and Hammond's two grandchildren (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello), they are sent on a tour through Hammond's new resort in computer controlled touring cars. But as a tropical storm hits the island, knocking out the power supply, and an unscrupulous employee (Wayne Knight) sabotages the system so that he can smuggle dinosaur embryos out of the park, the dinosaurs start to rage out of control. Grant then has to bring Hammond's grandchildren back to safety as the group is pursued by the gigantic man-eating beasts. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Laura Dern, (more)
Two brothers are the victims of their widowed mother's violent drunkard husband who spares no rod with the youngest brother. Reverting to a world of make-believe, they imagine that their Radio Flyer wagon can fly and that in it they can escape their tormenting stepfather. This film deals in an almost make-believe manner with the serious issue of child abuse. It is narrated by Tom Hanks. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elijah Wood, Joseph Mazzello, (more)
- 1992
When his daughter Renee Witherspoon is stricken with leukemia, father Bruce Davison hopes to find a bone-marrow transplant within his own family. The most likely candidate is Renee's half-brother Joe Mazzello. But Joe's natural mother (and Renee's stepmother) Joanna Kerns, fearful that her son might endanger his own life, refuses permission for the operation. This being a TV movie rather than a weekly series, there are no easy answers to the dilemma, either morally or legally. Desperate Choices: To Save My Child was first telecast October 5, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joanna Kerns, Bruce Davison, (more)
- 1990
Unspeakable Acts is the all-too-true story of a 1984 Dade County (Florida) sexual abuse case. Frank and Ilana Fuster (Gregory Sierra and Bess Meyer), who operate an upper-class day care center in a Florida suburb, are accused of committing appalling acts upon their young charges. The prosecution's case hinges on the testimony of one emotionally scarred child. Jill Clayburgh and Brad Davis play Lauri and Joseph Braga, the husband-and-wife child development specialists who must convince the abused youngster to testify without causing additional damage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Rusty Sabich (Harrison Ford) is a bland, oppressed man who burns with a quiet, corrosive intensity that can flare uncontrollably. A Philadelphia prosecutor, Sabich's fire seems to have one outlet: his job. He loves prosecuting people. Otherwise, his life is dead-ended. He has a loveless marriage to a neurotic woman (Bonnie Bedelia) and an overbearing boss (Brian Dennehy) in a labyrinthine law enforcement world of corruption and twisted relationships. Then Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi) comes into his life. Lovely and seductive, Polhemus easily entices him to break his marital vows, but she schemes to get him to try for his boss' job. When he refuses, she leaves him. When she turns up dead, the victim of an apparent rape-murder, clues begin to point to Sabich. His blood type almost perfectly matches that in the semen found in the victim, carpet fibers at the crime scene match those found in his house, and most damning, his fingerprints are found on a beer glass in Polhemus' apartment. His protestations of innocence ignored, Sabich is put on trial for the murder and hires his biggest adversary (Raul Julia) to defend him. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy, (more)
In this glossy L.A. crime drama by Mike Figgis, Andy Garcia stars as Sgt. Raymond Avila, a cop who just joined the Internal Affairs division of the L.A.P.D. An investigation into police corruption has led Avila and his partner, Sgt. Amy Wallace (Laurie Metcalf), to Officer Dennis Peck (Richard Gere). Avila suspects something about Peck from the beginning; his influence and dominance over others seems to extend further than the reach of his badge. When officers who wish to testify against Peck start dying, the depth of his corruption becomes increasingly clear; at his disposal, he has an army of cops and criminals alike. He even agrees to assassinate a sleazy businessman's own parents, and humiliates the businessman while they make the deal. In his drive to dominate others, Peck attempts to seduce almost every woman around him and is obsessed with children and fatherhood. Peck is most dangerous when the investigation threatens his territory and his extended family; he stalks Avila and turns him against his wife (Nancy Travis). ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, (more)
