Craig Berenson Movies
Forget terrorists or hijackers -- there's a handful of deadly assassins aboard a jet liner and they don't even have arms or legs in this airborne thriller. Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) is an FBI agent handling what seems like a routine assignment -- serving as bodyguard for Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips), a Hawaiian surfer dude who is flying to California to testify in a high-profile criminal trial after witnessing mobster Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson) murdering one of his underlings. However, Flynn's job gets a lot more challenging when he discovers Kim's associates don't want Jones to talk, and have devised a unique way to ensure his silence. A cache of highly dangerous poisonous snakes has been hidden on board the jet, and is released using a timed mechanism once the flight is well underway. The snakes quickly attack several members of the flight crew and are eagerly eying the passengers when Flynn decides its time to get medieval on the reptiles. Also starring Rachel Blanchard, Benjamin McKenzie, and Mark Houghton, Snakes on a Plane was produced under the title of Pacific Air Flight 121, but in several interviews Samuel L. Jackson expressed his enthusiasm for the script's original title, Snakes on a Plane, and the high-concept moniker quickly made the film's title and theme a favorite with bloggers and on Internet fan sites all over the world. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, (more)
In this follow-up to Fortress, Stuart Gordon's 1993 sci-fi adventure drama, John Brennick (Christopher Lambert) and his wife Karen (Beth Toussaint) are once again on the run in a totalitarian regime of the future, where a multi-national corporation called Men-Tel has taken control of the world. While Karen eludes capture, John is arrested and sentenced to a penal colony in space. 26,000 miles from home, he must perform hard, dangerous labor in a punishing environment alongside some of the most fearsome criminals in the galaxy. Monitored by an elaborate computer system, his body implanted with a security camera that allows his jailers to see where he is at all times, John would seem unable to escape -- but that would underestimate his ingenuity, or his desire to be with Karen again. Fortress 2: Re-Entry also stars Pam Grier and Patrick Malahide; former Tangerine Dream member Christopher Franke composed the musical score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Lambert, Pam Grier, (more)
This slapstick farce features Dusty Bottoms (Chevy Chase), Lucky Day (Steve Martin), and Ned Nederlander (Martin Short), as three silent movie cowboy stars who get the axe from their Hollywood studio. Just at that opportune moment, a woman named Carmen (Patrice Martinez) asks them to come to her forgotten little town south of the border and do some work for her, for a tidy sum. The three "stooges" agree, thinking they are going to perform their singing cowboy routine, but instead Carmen wants them to get rid of the nasty El Guapo (Alfonso Arau) who is running roughshod over the good citizens of the town. Not the kind of heroes they appear to be in the movies, they have a difficult time helping out the distressed townsfolk. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, (more)
- 1985
Carla (Rhea Perlman) is worried that her teenage son Anthony (Timothy Williams) is contemplating marriage. She prevails upon Sam to convince Anthony that there is far more fun in bachelorhood. In other developments include Diane's interview with a colleague of her former fiancé Sumner Sloane and the cultivation of the celebrated Nixon Potato. Future Twin Peaks co-star Sherilyn Fenn is seen as Gabrielle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
With the Jerry Zucker-Jim Abrahams-David Zucker team absent, this sequel to the cash-cow 1980 spoof Airplane once again finds garrulous man-with-a-past Ted Striker (Robert Hays) compelled to take over the controls of crippled aircraft, all the while trying to patch up his relationship with stewardess Elaine (Julie Hagerty). This time, the first passenger space shuttle is launched into orbit -- and takes off for the moon - but the on-board computer malfunctions and sends the craft hurtling toward the sun, threatening the lives of everyone on board. Lloyd Bridges and Peter Graves return from the first Airplane, while William Shatner, Chad Everett, Sonny Bono, Raymond Burr and Chuck Conners join the cast, as they too lampoon their established images. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, (more)
This spoof of the Airport series of disaster movies relies on ridiculous sight gags, groan-inducing dialogue, and deadpan acting -- a comedy style that would be imitated for the next 20 years. Airplane! pulls out all the clichés as alcoholic pilot Ted Striker (Robert Hays), who's developed a fear of flying due to wartime trauma, boards a jumbo jet in an attempt to woo back his stewardess girlfriend (Julie Hagerty). Food poisoning decimates the passengers and crew, leaving it up to Striker to land the plane, with the help of a glue-sniffing air traffic controller (Lloyd Bridges) and Striker's vengeful former captain (Robert Stack), who must both talk him down. Along the way, we meet a clutch of stock disaster movie passengers like the guitar-strumming nun, a sick little girl, a frightened old lady, and two African-American travelers whose "jive" has to be subtitled. Leslie Nielsen portrays the plane's doctor, launching a new phase of the actor's career that carried him through the next two decades in several similarly comedic roles. The trio of directors Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker, and David Zucker responsible for the film would eventually go on to solo careers, but not before making Top Secret! and Ruthless People. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, (more)
