Harris Laskaway Movies

Dream House is an opposites-attract TV movie which strives mightily for social relevance. John Schneider plays a Georgia-cracker contractor who journeys to New York for a major building project. Out of love for Manhattanite urban planner Marilu Henner, he scraps his big-bucks assignment. Instead, he endeavors to build a "dream" house in the middle of one of New York City's most rundown ghettos. Dream House coasts merrily along on its star power alone; the storyline is acceptable, but nothing to break a date over. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1982 film version of the John Irving novel The World According to Garp attempts to captures the quirky spirit while condensing the Irving original. Robin Williams plays the title character, the son of unmarried, unorthodox feminist Jenny Fields (Glenn Close, in her film debut). Every effort made by Jenny to broaden Garp's outlook on life -- she even arranges for him to spend the night with a hooker (Swoosie Kurtz) -- crams more fears and phobias into his psyche. Aspiring to become a novelist, Garp succeeds in this goal at the same time that his mother publishes her first feminist manifesto. Though successful and happily married to college sweetheart Helen Holm (Mary Beth Hurt), Garp remains envious of his fearless mother, who has taken in the radical "Ellen Jamesians," a group named after a young woman who had her tongue cut out by a rapist. Mutilation, in fact, becomes something of a leitmotif in Garp's life, climaxing (in every sense of the word) in an auto accident brought about by Helen's tryst with Michael Milton (Mark Soper). There is, of course, much more to the story than this: standing out amongst the dozens of offbeat supporting characters is John Lithgow as Roberta Muldoon, a transexual ex-football jock. John Irving appears as a referee during a college wrestling match, while director George Roy Hill plays the pilot whose low-flying plane crashes into Garp's new home. The World According to Garp didn't attract as large an audience as other, more conventional Robin Williams vehicles, though Close and Lithgow would both be nominated for Best Supporting Actor statues. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

84-year-old James Cagney delivered his final performance in the TV movie Terrible Joe Moran. Cagney plays a former boxing champ, now enfeebled and bound to a wheelchair (we see him in his prime via a clip from Cagney's 1932 vehicle Winner Take All). Long estranged from his family, the ex-boxer grudgingly allows his granddaughter (Ellen Barkin) to move in with him and his former trainer (beautifully played by Art Carney). The girl is unfortunately a compulsive thief, carrying on a romance with a petty crook with mob connections. The broken-hearted grandfather agrees to pay off the boy friend's debts so long as his granddaughter leaves and never returns. But Terrible Joe Moran and his chastened grandchild are tearfully reunited in the finale. Critics in 1984 went overboard praising the obviously ailing James Cagney for his bravura performance; only after his death did the truth come out that most of Cagney's dialogue had been dubbed in by an impressionist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama set in LA during the '40s, an infamous Hollywood madam is arrested and mayhem ensues as the names of her famous patrons, among them government officials and policemen, are revealed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of a two part story, Hunter (Fred Dryer) is convinced that the murder of a movie star will be solved the moment he catches up with a Bulgarian hit-man in Mexico. Though Hunter's trip South of the Border clears up the mystery as to why the CIA is so interested in the case, the real killer remains at large--and worse still, the number of likely suspects has now increased considerably! This episode was adapted from a novel by former police detective Dallas L. Barnes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The made-for-TV Murder C.O.D. has a plot almost as complex and clever as its psychotic "protagonist." William Devane plays an adroit hitman who selects his victims before he's been hired to kill them. His modus operandi is to approach the person or persons who'd most benefit from the murder, then charge a $100,000 fee to go through with the plan. Patrick Duffy is the cop on the case, who periodically runs out of breath trying to keep up with the slippery Devane. While Duffy loses the acting sweepstakes to Devane, the viewer can be assured that Duffy's character in Murder C.O.D. will emerge triumphant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Not to be confused with the 1994 exchange-of-murders melodrama Dead On, this 1991 film was originally shipped out under the title Relentless 2: Dead On. You may recall that in the first Relentless in 1989, Judd Nelson starred as a serial killer. Nelson isn't around for the sequel, though two of his near-victims, a mother (Meg Foster) and her son (Leo Rossi), make return appearances. Relentless 2 elaborates on the possible aftereffects of Nelson's psychotic behavior, as manifested in young Rossi. Could the kid have learned too much about the inner workings of a murderer's mind? The premise is a workable one, and the film makes the most of it, with several genuinely frightening setpieces. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the mode of Quentin Tarantino, this film, directed by Gary Fleder from a script by Scott Rosenberg, concerns itself with hip, smart gangsters. The film is set in Denver, and the title comes from a Warren Zevon song. A retired, good-hearted gangster named Jimmy the Saint (Andy Garcia) runs a company that videotapes dying people giving life advice to their children and grandchildren, to be delivered when they come of age. Jimmy's former crime boss, The Man with the Plan (Christopher Walken), summons him. The Man is wheelchair-bound and doesn't have long to live; he explains that Jimmy owes him a favor and must perform one final job. It involves frightening the boyfriend of the ex-girlfriend of Bernard (Michael Nicolosi), the son of The Man, who has been so shaken by the girl's rejection of him that he has been fondling schoolyard children. Jimmy rounds up his old gang -- including Pieces (Christopher Lloyd), a porno theater projectionist; Franchise (William Forsythe), an ex-biker with a trailer-trash family to support; Critical Bill (Treat Williams), a psychotic, trigger-happy ex-con; and Easy Wind (Bill Nunn), an exterminator. Pieces and Bill pose as cops as part of the needlessly elaborate plan, which misfires badly. The Man, enraged, gives Jimmy 48 hours to leave town, and he orders his comrades wiped out, hiring the notorious hitman Mr. Shhh (Steve Buscemi) to track them down. But Jimmy can't seem to get the others to leave town, and despite The Man's decree, Jimmy is also reluctant to leave, because he's become romantically entangled with Dagney (Gabrielle Anwar). Jack Warden's character serves as a kind of Greek chorus who comments from time to time on the unfolding action. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Just as the original 1950 version of Father of the Bride spawned a sequel, so did the 1991 remake; like its counterpart four decades earlier, this story concerns a father who learns that his anxieties are just beginning after his daughter takes the big walk down the aisle. George Banks (Steve Martin) has finally adjusted to the marriage of his daughter Annie (Kimberly Williams) when the fates drop a new bombshell on his head: Annie and her husband Bryan (George Newbern) announce that they're going to have a baby. While George's wife Nina (Diane Keaton) is happy enough about the news, George is thrown into an immediate mid-life crisis; while he and Nina were once discussing the possibility of selling the family home and moving to a place on the beach, George impulsively sells their home to Mr. Habib (Eugene Levy), a greedy land speculator. Now, with ten days to move, George gets even more unexpected news: Nina, who had earlier been fretting about the onset of menopause, has just learned that she's pregnant as well. George now has to deal with being a father again as well as becoming a grandparent, while he also figures out how to get the Banks family home back. Martin Short returns as Franck, the oddly accented wedding planner from Father of the Bride, who has moved into a new career organizing baby showers and redecorating homes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Though not the first TV dramatization of the lives and careers of the popular 1960s singing group the Beach Boys, this two-part miniseries was the first that did not concentrate exclusively on Brian Wilson, arguably the most brilliant and troubled member of the quintet. Instead, the production details the triumph and heartbreaks of all five Beach Boys: Brian (here played by Frederick Weller), his brothers Carl and Dennis Wilson, and non-related members Mike Love and Al Jardine. Played by Kevin Dunn, the Wilson brothers' father Murray Wilson is cast as a complete monster, shown to be both verbally and physically abusive to his grown sons, as well as a money-grubbing dictator while managing The Beach Boys during their most prolific period. The miniseries also delves into the darker side of the singers themselves, especially when Dennis Wilson (played by Nick Stabile) begins carousing with a would-be tunesmith named Charles Manson (Erik Passoja). Producer John Stamos had originally wanted to appear in the production as Dennis (who died in a surfing mishap in 1983), but the ABC network decided that Stamos was too old for the part. Many (including, reportedly, Brian Wilson himself) complained loudly about the gross liberties taken with actual events in this picture. The Beach Boys: An American Family was originally telecast on February 27 and 28, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide