Herb Lovelle Movies

Writer and director Woody Allen returns to the Manhattan of the past with this romantic comedy set in 1940, the era of fedora hats and gumshoe detectives. Allen stars as C.W. Briggs, an insurance investigator whose razor-sharp instincts have just led to the successful conclusion of another case, the recovery of a stolen Picasso. While he's a valued employee, Briggs is under fire from efficiency expert Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt) for his antiquated attitudes and refusal to accept modern crime-solving techniques such as fingerprinting. C.W. claims he puts himself directly into the criminal mind, a skill that will do him no good when he and Betty Ann are hypnotized at a Rainbow Room gathering one night by the magician Volton (David Ogden Stiers). As a parlor trick to entertain their co-workers, Volton makes C.W. and Betty Ann believe they're a couple that's deeply in love. But the performer secretly keeps up the ruse after the party's over, calling C.W. to whisper a magic code word and ordering the detective to rob wealthy homes with security systems that C.W. himself has designed. With no memory of his thieving activities, a frustrated C.W. can't solve the high-profile jewel burglaries, while he and Betty Ann struggle with their odd new attraction for each other, made more complicated by the fact that Betty Ann is romantically involved with their boss (Dan Aykroyd). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

A car dredged out of the Hudson River yields the remains of a human male. This gruesome discovery reopens a 30-year-old murder case involving a campus protestor. The D.A.'s office is met with a great deal of "brass resistance" from the NYPD in prosecuting the case -- perhaps because a security guard named Darryl Grady (Michael Higgins) is one of the key players. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When a prostitute is murdered, detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) question deli owner McCracken (Brian Smiar), who has a history of harassing hookers. Another likely suspect is plastic surgeon Dr. Mark Danforth (Jonathan Walker), who may have been a client of the dead woman. At the end of the day, it is Assistant D.A. Kincaid (Jill Hennessy), rather than her more experienced associate McCoy (Sam Waterston), who must decide whether the right person has been accused of the crime. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this family drama from director Sidney Lumet, Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti play Arthur and Annie Pope, a pair of '60s radicals who have eluded the FBI for 16 years after bombing a napalm laboratory as a Vietnam War protest. This lifestyle involves continually moving their base of operations and establishing new identities, which is especially hard on their children, 18-year-old Danny (River Phoenix) and 10-year-old Harry (Jonas Abry), who can never amass a group of friends or an academic record. This last problem comes to the fore when they arrive in a New Jersey town where the high school music teacher (Ed Crowley) takes an interest in Danny's piano playing, encouraging him to apply for early admission to Juilliard. Danny yearns to follow this dream, but knows that separating from his parents would be a permanent break -- the aging hippies rarely even see their own parents, and can never inform anyone where they've moved. Arthur can't stand the idea of breaking up the family unit, which has provided the support that's allowed him to tolerate life on the move, but Annie sees her own sacrificed dreams in her son's prodigious musical talents, and begins pressuring Arthur to grant the boy his independence. Complicating factors, Danny has fallen in love with the daughter of his music teacher (Martha Plimpton), but can't allow himself to get too close to her, because he may have to leave again at any moment. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi