Pat McNamara Movies

A relationship between two brothers literally becomes a matter of life and death in this drama from writer, director and actor Edward Burns. Francis Sullivan (Burns) was a street-wise thug with ties to the Irish mob until his younger brother Sean (Elijah Wood) was killed on Ash Wednesday in 1980 while trying to protect Francis from gangsters who were out to kill him. Three years later, Francis is a law-abiding man who is trying to stay on the straight and narrow and keep his eye on Grace (Rosario Dawson), Sean's widow. However, rumors have begun to circulate that Sean's death was just a ruse fabricated by Francis and a sympathetic priest, Father Mahoney (James Handy), to get mobster Moran (Oliver Platt) off Sean's back. Some people have spotted someone who looks a lot like Sean wandering around the neighborhood, and Moran, who doesn't forget a grudge, begins scouring the neighborhood in search of Sean, while Francis has worries of his own about Sean, since his relationship with Grace has started to move beyond simple family friendship. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Pembleton (Andre Braugher) is impressed by reporter Elizabeth Wu (Joan Chen), who is covering his investigation of a drug-related cop killing. He is, however, less than impressed when the inquisitive Wu proves to be a monumental nuisance. Elsewhere, Kellerman's (Reed Diamond) wild country-boy brothers Drew (Eric Stoltz) and Greg (Tate Donovan) show up in Baltimore, insisting that he return to Miami and join them in setting up a charter-boat service. What his brothers have neglected to tell them is that they are on the lam from a pair of murderous bookies -- and that they have stolen a valuable souvenir baseball. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in 1993, this comedy is filled with actors who have since found niches as stars and supporting actors in independent films. The story is set in Brooklyn where recent film-school graduate Les is attempting to make a documentary. When he learns that whole community has been grieving over the strange disappearance of young boy Jimmy Hoyt, son of Harold and Holly and brother of Tommy and Ed. Les begins looking into the mystery and filming it and as he goes, he decides to make a riotous comedy of the4 process. Along the way he encounters the FBI, the Catholic Church, the Mafia and a raft of daft fringe people. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The debut from writer/director Greg Mottola, The Daytrippers follows a Long Island family as they make a disastrous journey into New York City. The impetus is a love letter discovered by suburbanite Eliza (Hope Davis) which seemingly incriminates her publisher husband Louis (Stanley Tucci) in an extramarital affair. To solve the mystery, Eliza, her parents (Anne Meara and Pat McNamara), her oddball sister Jo (Parker Posey) and Jo's boyfriend Carl (Liev Schreiber) all pile into the family station wagon in a misbegotten attempt to track Louis down. Beginning as a playful, satiric look at family dynamics, The Daytrippers occasionally loses its way, becoming increasingly dark and venomous as it rushes towards the revelations of its final moments. For all of its flaws, however, it's often an engaging debut. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

In the concluding episode of Homicide: Life on the Street's two-part season-four opener, the discovery of a second body at an arson scene suggests that the fire was started to cover up a double homicide. With Bayliss (Kyle Secor) sidelined by illness, his partner, Pembleton (Andre Braugher), is reluctantly teamed with brash arson detective Kellerman (Reed Diamond), who continues to rub the homicide squad the wrong way when he turns down a transfer offer extended by Giardello (Yaphet Kotto). Meanwhile, Munch (Richard Belzer) and Howard (Melissa Leo) compete for a coveted promotion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Detectives Logan (Chris Noth) and Cerella (Paul Sorvino) swing into action when a Chinese-American honors student is killed. At first, it seems as though an Asian street gang was responsible for the killing. Then, more evidence comes to surface, leading to an intense scholarship competition and a dangerously ambitious family. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this multiple Oscar-winning thriller, Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a top student at the FBI's training academy whose shrewd analyses of serial killers lands her a special assignment: the FBI is investigating a vicious murderer nicknamed Buffalo Bill, who kills young women and then removes the skin from their bodies. Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into this case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out. Lecter does indeed know something of Buffalo Bill, but his information comes with a price: in exchange for telling what he knows, he wants to be housed in a more comfortable facility. More important, he wants to speak with Clarice about her past. He skillfully digs into her psyche, forcing her to reveal her innermost traumas and putting her in a position of vulnerability when she can least afford to be weak. The film mingles the horrors of criminal acts with the psychological horrors of Lecter's slow-motion interrogation of Clarice and of her memories that emerge from it. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

After earning rave notices for powerful supporting turns as a pimp in Street Smart (1987) and an alcohol abuse counselor in Clean and Sober (1988), actor Morgan Freeman began his ascent to stardom with this, his first lead role in a major motion picture. Freeman is real-life high school principal Joe Clark, a tough, harsh educator and administrator who in 1987 is given a nearly impossible task by his old friend, school superintendent Dr. Frank Napier (Robert Guillaume). Clark is asked to reform inner city Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ, a hotbed of delinquent kids and drug dealers. Considered the worst school in New Jersey, the state is threatening to take control of Eastside away from the local school board. If Clark can straighten out Eastside in time to get the school's basic-skills test scores up, he can have the job permanently. Although Clark's tyrannical approach and hard-line policies alienate many members of the staff and the community, his uncompromising campaign gets results and even makes him famous, much to the chagrin of his powerful enemies. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

The ads for The Stone Pillow tended to suggest that this TV movie was Lucille Ball's dramatic debut--completely ignoring the fact that Ball had started out as a "straight" actress in the 1930s who only occasionally played comedy until I Love Lucy came along. Whatever the case, the Ball we see in Stone Pillow is a cranky bag lady, fiercely independent and violently resistant to do-gooders who try to alter her homeless status. Daphne Zuniga plays an idealistic social worker who tries to get Ball off the streets. It is only after watching several of her fellow indigents die where they sleep that Ball agrees to give up her "stone pillow." Though meant to be intensely dramatic, The Stone Pillow looks more like an elongated I Love Lucy sketch in which Ball dresses up like a tramp in order to meet Red Skelton (or somebody). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joanna Crane (Kathleen Turner) is a cold, workaholic sportswear designer, divorced and dedicated only to her job. Once strapped into that role, Joanna looks for an "out" and finds it by donning a wig and hitting the pavement as a $50/trick hooker named China Blue. Explicit scenes show her at work on her night job, including a long S and M segment with a policeman. While making money as China Blue, Joanna runs into a menacing, fanatic preacher (Anthony Perkins) who is out to save her from this life of sin, but in the meantime, he is also busy watching nude girly shows. As China Blue and the sexually ambivalent Reverend heat up their relationship, he becomes difficult to read: is this psycho reverend a killer? While China Blue is plying her trade, Bobby Grady (John Laughlin) has finally realized after 12 years of marriage that his wife Amy (Annie Potts) is frigid and just as he has this remarkably delayed insight, he is assigned by Joanna's boss to find out if she is stealing designs or not. By tracking Joanna, Bobby sees her transformation as China Blue and as might be expected, sex is not far behind. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Ex-Vietnam chopper pilot Roy Scheider is now in charge of Blue Thunder, a high-tech copter designed to quell possible terrorism during the 1984 LA Olympics. His onetime comrade-in-arms Malcolm McDowell, now his bitter enemy, will stop at nothing to neutralize Blue Thunder and expedite an armed takeover of the United States. Well, there's the plot: now sit back and enjoy those eye-popping aerial scenes. Blue Thunder was later adapted into a weekly TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The civilian and military press make a media circus out of the 4077th when famous prizefighter Gentleman Joe Cavanaugh (Pat McNamara) suffers a stroke while touring the camp. After saving Cavanaugh's life, Hawkeye (Alan Alda) is lauded as a hero--an appellation he quickly comes to resent. And speaking of heroes, the usually unflappable Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) is distraught over the plight of his longtime idol Gentleman Joe. ~ 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