Henry Brown
- 2000
A seen-it-all cop takes a walk on the weird side on this offbeat weekly comedy series. Daniel Henderson (Brian McNamara) was a Los Angeles police officer who enjoyed his work with the vice squad (especially when his work required him to dress like a woman) until his wife, an environmental activist, died while trying to save a school of dolphins. Not sure about what to do with his life now that he's a single parent, Henderson is offered a job as the sheriff of Manhattan, AZ, a town so small it doesn't even show up on the map. Henderson takes the position, and along with his teenage son (whose hobbies include looking for porn on the Internet) heads to Manhattan, only to find that the town's mayor, Jake Manhattan (Chad Everett), wasn't quite telling the truth about the full extent of his job; the town has enough eccentrics to make Los Angeles seem like Mayberry. Manhattan, AZ made it's premiere on the USA network on July 23, 2000. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian McNamara, Chad Everett, (more)
This independent comedy-drama concerns George (David Morse), who works as a janitor cleaning up at a bar in a small town. While no one's sure if George is retarded, he doesn't seem to live in the same world as the rest of them; if he's not unintelligent, he is unfortunately gullible and trusting and lacks the ability to dodge around people's emotions in conversation. George has always thought of his birthday as his good luck day, so one year he decides to celebrate by taking a trip to Reno, and for a change George's hunch is right on the money -- he wins big and comes home with enough money to buy his own house and start his own cleaning business. George finds he's lonely in his new home, and he asks Angela (Nina Siemaszko), a young woman who works at a discount store, to move in with him. Angela doesn't care for her job and is desperate to get away from her harridan mother, so she agrees, though life with George proves to be both funny and troubling. George B. was shown in competition at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1994
A judge is set up for murder in this suspenseful thriller. Criminal court judge Gwen Warwick is about to be appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court. One night she engages in sex with law clerk Martin in his office. They begin a torrid affair. A colleague of Gwen's, Charles Matron, is discovered murdered in his office. She is asked to judge the case. However, increasing evidence points to her as the prime murder suspect. Now she must prove that she is being set-up. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bonnie Bedelia, Will Patton, (more)
A holiday comedy with dark overtones, Mixed Nuts presents a supposedly humorous look at the behind-the-scenes events at a crisis hotline on Christmas Eve. Philip (Steve Martin) runs Lifesavers, a Venice, California organization dedicated to helping the depressed and troubled. Unfortunately, Philip is a bit down himself, having learned that Lifesavers is on the verge of eviction. His staff isn't feeling particularly helpful either, with Mrs. Munchnik (Madeline Kahn) giving gruff, often insulting advice, and Catherine (Rita Wilson) obsessing over her own unspoken love for Philip. As the holiday approaches, various weirdoes of all shapes and sizes -- from to a pregnant clothing store owner (Juliette Lewis) to a disenchanted Santa Claus (Anthony LaPaglia) -- begin dropping in, throwing the already strained office into utter chaos. Director Nora Ephron followed her smash success Sleepless in Seattle with this remake of the cult 1982 French comedy Le Père Noël est une Ordure, co-authoring the script with her sister Delia Ephron. However, Mixed Nuts met with little box office or critical approval, with most viewers finding the film's manic farce disappointingly forced and abrasive. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Madeline Kahn, (more)
An FBI agent stationed in Cleveland is assigned to investigate a case in Utah where a serial killer is molesting and murdering children. The agent discovers ties between the murders and a bearded, crazed religious fanatic who believes himself to be Noah and who is building a huge ark in a cave. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Glenn, Jesse Cameron-Glickenhaus, (more)
- 1993
Former Bewitched TV-star Elizabeth Montgomery plays against type and stars as a murderess in this made-for-television movie. Based on the book Preacher's Girl by Jim Schutze, Montgomery stars as the real-life killer Blanche Taylor Moore who was caught by authorities in 1989. The movie chronicles her transformation from the innocent 1950s daughter of a preacher into the serial killer known for poisoning her husbands with arsenic. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Montgomery, David Clennon, (more)
Superstars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover return with director Richard Donner for Lethal Weapon 3, the third in the phenomenally successful action series. In this film, Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is only eight days away from retirement and his partner Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) once again manages to get them both into hot water with the both LAPD and the bad guys, who this time are Jack Travis (Stuart Wilson) and a gang of hoodlums selling armor-piercing bullets. Joe Pesci returns as the fast-talking schmuck Leo Getz. A new addition to the cast is Rene Russo as Lorna Cole, a sergeant from internal affairs sent to investigate Riggs and Murtaugh, but who ultimately ends up falling in love with the caffienated Riggs. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, (more)
- 1992
- PG13
- AddHeroto QueueAddHeroto top of Queue
Stephen Frears' Hero is a contemporary re-working of a Frank Capra-styled fable about a two-bit criminal named Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) who saves several passengers from a plane crash and leaves the scene without being identified, leaving only a lost shoe for identification. One of the passengers happens to be news-reporter Gale (Geena Davis) who is intent on finding her savior, and offers a million dollars to the "hero" of the crashed flight. Bernie has since given his remaining shoe to a homeless man named John (Andy Garcia) who decides to cash in on the offer. A handsome, charming man, John wins the hearts of the entire city. Soon, Bernie realizes that he's been cheated out of a million dollars, and he begins an effort to get his proper recognition--and his money. Hero manages to be quite funny and satirical while sticking to a story that is essentially a Hollywood fable. That is to the credit of director Frears and the cast, who turn in uniformly excellent performances. Nevertheless, Hoffman is superb as a bitterly comic and spiteful variation on his classic Ratso Rizzo character. By the way, be on the lookout for Chevy Chase in a very funny cameo. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis, (more)
- 1990
- R
The princess here is a lesbian demon woman running a modeling agency where she "tries out" the models before setting them up on their gigs. A former police officer sets himself up as a private detective and takes a missing-person case, trying to find a young teen-aged girl. The missing girl is found working for the demon woman who preys on snoopy detectives. ~ All Movie Guide
Wings Hauser both stars in and directs The Art of Dying. Hauser plays Jack, a vice cop who tries to unravel the mystery behind a series of murders in which each of the corpses has been found with stage makeup on its face. Turns out that the killer is Roscoe (Gary Werntz), a demented movie-maker whose overwhelming desire for realism has resulted in a variety of horrible deaths for his unwary actors. Each victim is dispatched in a manner evoking a famous film: one is killed in the shower, another dies while playing Russian Roulette a la The Deer Hunter, and so forth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Do You Know the Muffin Man? was the first of a brace of TV movies about day-care abuse (see also Unspeakable Acts). Pam Dawber and John Shea play the parents of a preschool child who comes home one day with horrible stories about the staff of his day care center. The owners of the center are two highly respected social pillars, who automatically deny all charges and accuse the parents of fabricating the whole thing. Despite the looming spectres of public ridicule and financial ruin, Dawber and Shea hire lawyers and pursue the case. Once the story switches to the courtroom, the emphasis shifts from the adult litigants to the prosecution's difficulties in coaxing the children to testify without inducing further damage. Do You Know the Muffin Man? is handled with care and discretion, though dramatically it covers more legal and emotional ground than its two-hour length can hold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Five years ago, career criminal Johnny Banks (Henry Brown) was sent to prison on evidence provided to detective Hunter (Fred Dryer) by an anonymous informant. Now Banks is back in court, representing himself in an effort to beat the rap. The only way that Hunter can lock up Banks for keeps is to reveal the identity of his informant--a move that would undoubtedly prove fatal to at least one of the parties concerned! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A passable sequel to the excellent sleeper hit that preceded it, this film steers its story in a cartoonish, less horrific direction. Terry O'Quinn returns as the nameless family man who butchered one nuclear unit and was on his way to dispatching another when he was (seemingly) fatally stabbed. It turns out that he wasn't killed after all but was captured and sent to the loony bin. Now the deranged control freak has murdered his jailers and escaped from the institution. Establishing himself in a small, idyllic town as a family counselor, he thinks that he's found the perfect candidate for a family in Carol (Meg Foster), the real estate agent who lives across the street, and her son, Todd (Jonathan Brandis), who adores his mom's new boyfriend. Unfortunately, Carol's irresponsible husband shows up unexpectedly after abandoning his family -- and nosy neighbors and a variety of others stand as obstacles in the stepfather's path to perfection. The first film, The Stepfather (1987), by writer Donald E. Westlake was very loosely based on the real-life story of long-time fugitive John List, lending the film an eerie, skin-crawling air of psychological authenticity that this sequel entirely lacks. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terry O'Quinn, Meg Foster, (more)
A darkly comic and surreal contemporization of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, this effects-heavy Bill Murray holiday vehicle from 1988 sees the former SNL funnyman assuming the role of television executive Frank Cross, the meanest and most depraved man on earth. Cross will stoop to unheard of levels to increase his network's ratings -- even if it means mounting outrageous programs to retain an audience, such as "Robert Goulet's Cajun Christmas" and Lee Majors in "The Night the Reindeer Died," with an AK-47-toting Santa. Cross plots his foulest move, however, for the Christmas holiday, when he will force his office staff to mount a live production of A Christmas Carol on national television -- and thus work through Christmas Eve. Cross's life is turned upside down with visits from three ghosts: a craggy-faced cabbie known as The Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen); the sugar-plum fairy Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) (who gets her jollies by bonking Frank across the face with a toaster oven); and, eventually, the caped, headless Ghost of Christmas Future, who will send Frank sliding into a crematory oven -- just before he gives the sleazoid one last chance to redeem himself. Along the way, the spirits carry Frank to scenes from his past, present, and future (per Scrooge) and impart a glimpse of how he became so thoroughly rotten. The radiant Karen Allen co-stars as Frank's girlfriend, Claire Phillips, and the film packs in cameos from countless celebrities -- among them, Mary Lou Retton, John Houseman, Jamie Farr, and, in a truly grisly and tasteless bit, John Forsythe. Richard Donner directs, from a script credited to the late Michael O'Donoghue and Mitch Glazer. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Murray, Karen Allen, (more)
LA cop Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson), whose wife has recently died, is a loose cannon with a seeming death wish. This makes him indispensable in collaring dangerous criminals, but a liability to any potential partners. Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover), a conservative family man who wants to stay alive for his upcoming 50th birthday, is partnered with Riggs. As Riggs gets to know Murtaugh and his family, he begins to mellow, though his insistence on using guerilla tactics to catch criminals is still (put mildly) above and beyond the call of duty. The main villain is The General (Mitchell Ryan), a drug dealer responsible for the death of the daughter of one of Murtaugh's oldest friends. The General is also in charge of a deadly, militia-like gang of smugglers. Adding fuel to the fire is The General's chief henchman, played with all stops out by Gary Busey. Moviegoers familiar only with the relatively tongue-in-cheek Lethal Weapon sequels may be amazed to find out how dangerous and unpredictable Riggs is in the first Lethal Weapon -- and how likely it seems that Murtaugh might not survive until fade-out time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, (more)
- 1977
Sgt. Billy Tyler (Henry Brown), a former college football star, loses the will to live when Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and B.J. (Mike Farrell) are forced to amputate his leg. Can the hero-worshipping Radar (Gary Burghoff) save Tyler from being overwhelmed by his own melancholia? Elsewhere, greedy Frank (Larry Linville) turns boxing promoter, arranging a grudge match between Klinger (Jamie Farr) and Zale (Johnny Haymer). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
- PG
In Sky Riders, the off-camera tale behind the film cast a more interesting story than the film itself: when a Greek electrician died during an explosion, the film's producer, Terry Morse Jr., was arrested by the Greek government, and executive producer Sandy Howard was detained in Greece for several weeks. Finally, an out-of-court settlement was reached with the Greek government to release the film producer. The plot of the actual film has nothing to do with international incidents, although it does deal, on a comic-book level, with terrorism. The wife, Ellen (Susannah York), of an international industrialist (Robert Culp) and her two children are kidnapped from their Athens home by a terrorist group and taken to an abandoned monastery on an imposing, needle-shaped crag. The police immediately snap into action. Inspector Nikolidis (Charles Aznavour) attempts to free them, but the police force fails. Coming into the picture is Ellen's ex-husband, Jim McCabe (James Coburn). Pondering the situation, he notices a couple of crows in flight and gets a brainstorm. McCabe tracks down a flying circus of hang-gliding riders and requisitions them for the rescue. The hang gliders teach McCabe to fly, and McCabe teaches them to fight. Then, on the night of a full moon, the group glides off to the monastery to save Ellen. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Coburn, Susannah York, (more)
- 1975
A well organized ring of car thieves is flourishing in Manhattan, thanks to crime victims who appear more than willing to be ripped off. It's all part of an insurance scam, wherein cars are deliberately stolen so that the owners can collect huge settlements. Kojak (Telly Savalas) vows to stop the thieves in their tracks after a patrolman is murdered during one of the heists. A pre-M*A*S*H David Ogden Stiers appears as one of the suspects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Actor/writer Robert Shaw's powerhouse stage play The Man in the Glass Booth was transferred to the screen as part of the American Film Theatre series. Maximilian Schell plays Arthur Goldman, a Jewish businessmen living in Manhattan in 1965. A group of Israeli underground agents barge into Goldman's office and kidnap him. He is brought to Israel, placed in a bulletproof glass booth, and put on trial. His accusers charge that Goldman is not a Jew, but in fact a notorious Nazi war criminal, guilty of unspeakable crimes against humanity. Robert Shaw's name does not appear in the credits of The Man in the Glass Booth; he was so displeased with Edward Anhalt's screen adaptation that he had his name removed from the project. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maximilian Schell, Lois Nettleton, (more)
- 1974
In a disturbing turn of events, Lt. Theo Kojak (Telly Savalas) appears to be on the take, living extravagantly, spending lavishly and gambling heavily. Only a handful of intimates are aware that Kojak's "corruption" is actually part of a scheme to trap a heroin dealer who has repeatedly eluded the authorities. Complicating (and possibly compromising) this carefully calculated sting is the vengeful widow of a murdered mob courier, played by future Jaws costar Lorraine Gary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Jackie Cooper guest stars as scientist Dr. Norman Chase, who early in the proceedings is waylaid by the minions of a criminal named Caesar (Richard Jaeckel) and forced to put on an explosive belt that cannot be removed . Unless Ironside (Raymond Burr) agrees to release three of Caesar's cohorts from prison, the belt will detonate in five hours. Racing against time, the Chief seeks out a duplicate for the key to the fatal belt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
