Lenny Clarke Movies
- 2007
Created by Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy and American Dad fame, the weekly Fox comedy series The Winner was a remake of the 2002 movie Becoming Glen. The TV version was essentially extended flashback, recalled in "the present" by 43-year-old Buffalo resident Glen Abbott (played by former Daily Show contributor Rob Corddry). The action took place in 1994, when Glen was a 32-year-old virgin hypochondriac, still living at home with his parents Irene (Linda Hart) and Ron (Lenny Clarke). Most of the stories revolved around Glen's relationship with former girl-next-door Alison (Erinn Hayes), who'd returned to Buffalo a single mom with her 12-year-old son Keir (Josh Miller)--who, curiously, looked and behaved just like Glen--in tow. Throughout the series, the viewer was forearmed with the knowledge that, twelve years or so later, Glen Abbott would be a billionaire enterpreneur. . .though precious few clues were given as to how this metamorphosis would come about! The Winner debuted March 4, 2007, as a companion piece for Seth MacFarlane's animated Sunday-night offerings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rob Corddry, Keir Gilchrist, (more)
The documentary When Stand Up Stood Out charts the stand-up comedy boom and then decline that took place in Boston during the late seventies and eighties. Consisting of both vintage footage from the era and interviews with the people who were a part of the scene, the film showcases how this fertile comedic territory produced such famous names as Steven Wright, enis Leary, Bobcat Goldthwait, Colin Quinn, and Paula Pundstone. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Nick Hornby's acclaimed memoir about one man's struggle to balance his love of a woman and his love for soccer was the basis of a well-reviewed British film in 1997, and now gets a Americanized rewrite with this picture, in which the game is changed from soccer to baseball. Ben (Jimmy Fallon) is a high-school teacher who meets Lindsay (Drew Barrymore), who has a successful career in business. Ben and Lindsay don't appear to have much in common on the surface, but they hit it off and are soon involved in a serious romance. But when spring rolls around, Lindsay becomes aware of the true love of Ben's life -- the Boston Red Sox. Despite the team's lamentable record, Ben has been a fiercely loyal Red Sox fan since childhood, and Lindsay finds it hard to compete with his passion for baseball, while Ben is forced to choose between the obsessions of his youth and the enthusiasms of a responsible adult. Fever Pitch was shot in part in Boston during the 2004 baseball season, which to the surprise of the filmmakers saw the Red Sox winning baseball's world series for the first time since 1918. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Drew Barrymore, Jimmy Fallon, (more)
An aspiring rapper learns that it takes more than pure talent to succeed in the cutthroat recording industry in this hip-hop drama from writer/director/star GQ. There's no question that Stix (GQ) has the rhyming abilities to make it as a star, but when it comes to life choices he seems to be torn. Will Stix be able to sacrifice the party lifestyle that he and his friends have enjoyed in his quest to the top -- or will the temptations of the industry be too much to bear for the wannabe superstar? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- GQ, Omar Scroggins, (more)
- 2003
The ABC sitcom It's All Relative had its roots in the 1920s Broadway hit Abie's Irish Rose, which chronicled the trials and tribulations of an Irish-Jewish married couple and their constantly warring parents. This time around, the wedding-bound duo were Boston bartender Bobby (Reid Scott) and Harvard medical student Liz (Maggie Lawson). Though deeply in love and committed to one another, Bobby and Liz were saddled with parents who just plain couldn't see eye to eye on anything. Bobby's blue-collar dad and mom, Mace and Audrey O'Neill (Lenny Clarke and Harriet Harris), were the Irish-Catholic, conservative-Republican owners of a Boston pub. As for Liz, she had two "daddies," wealthy gay art-gallery owner Philip (John Benjamin Hickey) and his life partner, Simon (Chris Sieber). Gloriously anti-PC, the series showed that the gay couple were equally as intolerant of the "straight" O'Neills as the O'Neills were of them. And avoiding the usual "old people can't do it anymore" sitcom cliché, it was obviously that both sets of parents enjoyed robust sex lives. Created by Anne Flett-Giordano and Chuck Ranberg and produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron of Chicago fame, It's All Relative proved an instant winner when the series joined the ABC Tuesday-night lineup on October 1, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lenny Clarke, Harriet Sansom Harris, (more)
Frequent television director Brad Silberling directs the romantic drama Moonlight Mile. Set in a Massachusetts town in the early '70s, Joe Nast (Jake Gyllenhaal) is distraught after the death of his fiancée. He moves in with her parents, Ben (Dustin Hoffman) and JoJo (Susan Sarandon), while trying to sort out all of the legal troubles and painful details of the wedding cancellations. While trying to locate the wedding invitations in the mail, Joe meets Bertie (Ellen Pompeo), whose boyfriend has been MIA in Vietnam. Despite his growing relationship with his late fiancée's parents, Joe begins to foster a romance with Bertie. Also starring Dabney Coleman and Holly Hunter. Moonlight Mile is based on Brad Silberling's real-life situation following the murder of his TV-star girlfriend Rebecca Schaeffer. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jake Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, (more)
- 2001
- PG13
- Add What's the Worst That Could Happen? to QueueAdd What's the Worst That Could Happen? to top of Queue
The novel of the same name by crime author Donald E. Westlake becomes this MGM comedy starring Martin Lawrence as Kevin Caffery, a thief who breaks into the supposedly unoccupied beachfront mansion of billionaire Max Fairbanks (Danny De Vito). Max unexpectedly catches the burglar red-handed and summons the police, but before the criminal can be carted off, Max impulsively claims that Kevin's lucky ring is his own. Enraged, Kevin vows revenge on the tycoon, and so begins a game of one-upmanship from which neither party will cease and desist, even when the result becomes public scandal, financial ruin, divorce, and criminal proceedings. What's the Worst That Could Happen?co-stars John Leguizamo, Glenne Headley, Larry Miller, Ana Gasteyer, Richard Schiff, William Fichtner, Bernie Mac, and Nora Dunn. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Lawrence, Danny DeVito, (more)
- 1999
Monica (Roma Downey) is the leader of a support group consisting of five terminally ill people: Corey (David Kaufman, Stasi (Lisa Jane Persky), Dolores (Eileen Brennan), Larry (Lenny Clarke), and Rachel (Nancy McKeon). It is Monica's task to help each group member realize the one big goal that must be achieved before his or her death. All are willing to take on the challenge (though Rachel is at first strangely resistant), but the journey towards that goal is fraught with surprises--not least of which is the fact that the five main characters have always shared a common bond. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
- NR
Ron Burrus directed this low-budget romantic comedy, set in Boston. The lead role of Bostonian Christopher DiMarco is portrayed by Michael Landes (Jimmy Olson on Lois & Clark). After a blackout, the tux-clad Chris regains consciousness on the porch of a beachfront summer cottage, where he encounters attractive zoologist Melissa (Hedy Burress) and her annoying roomie Liz (Dina Spybey). Chris and Melissa become a twosome, but bad advice from his divorced pal Peter (Lenny Clarke) and intrusions by Liz lead Chris on a downward spiral. After another blackout, he seeks therapy from Dr. Maddie (Lane Smith), and long-lost, buried secrets are soon excavated. Shown at the 1998 Seattle Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Landes, Hedy Burress, (more)
John Dahl directed this exploration of New York private clubs devoted to high-stakes poker, with first-person narration from the film's central figure, law student Mike McDermott (Matt Damon), who loses his entire savings to Russian club owner Teddy KGB (John Malkovich). Mike then turns away from cards, devoting his attentions to his law studies and his live-in girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol), who's concerned when Mike's former gambling buddy Worm (Edward Norton) is released from prison. She has good reason to worry, since it takes Worm only a matter of minutes to draw Mike back into poker action. When she learns Mike has returned to the poker clubs, she moves out, and Mike begins to lose interest in his studies. Worm has a pre-prison debt, and the threatening Grama (Michael Rispoli) wants the money. Mike not only indulges the irresponsible Worm, he gets involved in Worm's debts. When Grama demands $15,000 on a five-day deadline, the two buddies go into high gear with a non-stop, no-sleep gambling binge that spirals downward toward an ultimate confrontation with Teddy KGB. Darkened club interiors and New York nights are captured by the cinematography of Jean Yves Escoffier, who moved from French films (the 1991 Les Amants du Pont Neuf) to American movies with the reflective surfaces of Excess Baggage (1997) and the patina of pathos found in Harmony Korine's experimental Gummo (1997). Shown at the 1998 Venice Film Festival and the 1998 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Damon, Edward Norton, (more)
Co-star Denis Leary co-wrote the script for this romantic comedy-drama. Leary plays Frank O'Brien, a no-class, small-time hood who is the boyfriend of Roz (Sandra Bullock), a cashier with a New York Jewish background who dreams of settling down and having kids. Roz wants out of the relationship but is fearful to break up. On a Friday, she accompanies Frank as he steals a painting. He tells her that it's his last job as a thief. Frank plans the delivery for Sunday evening so that they can turn the job into a getaway weekend. They go to a New England town and break into a huge home; the owners are on vacation. A sophisticated neighbor, Evan Marsh (Stephen Dillane), believes that they are friends of the owners' children and invites them to a party. Evan is an upper-class bachelor and is attracted to Roz. Roz goes horseback riding and boating with him, pretending a sophistication she doesn't possess, while Frank fumes at the rich rival. Meanwhile, Frank's crime boss Beano (Wayne Robson) learns that the painting Frank has stolen is a four-million-dollar Matisse and comes to the town with three henchmen. They are pursued by Detective O'Malley (Yaphet Kotto), who is trying to find a mysterious master art thief. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denis Leary, Sandra Bullock, (more)
- 1988
- PG
- Add The Wrong Guys to Queue
In this comedy, a group of former Cub Scouts (Louie Anderson, Richard Belzer, and Richard Lewis) get together for a reunion over twenty years later and land themselves in a mess of trouble when a deranged convict (John Goodman) takes them for FBI agents. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louie Anderson, Richard Lewis, (more)
