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Christopher Murray
French director Roger Vadim pillages his own grave in this nominal re-make of his 1956 creamy sensation And God Created Woman -- the film that made Brigitte Bardot an international star. Unfortunately, he is unable to do the same thing for the cool and cryptic Rebecca DeMornay in this version. DeMornay plays an escaped convict who lands in the limousine of New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Frank Langella and seduces him. For some inexplicable reason, she turns into a hot singing act. DeMornay also seduces innocent stud carpenter Vincent Spano along the way and suckers the poor guy into marrying her so that she can get an early parole. But the joke is on him when she announces that their marriage does not include sexual relations. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rebecca De Mornay, Vincent Spano, (more)
Versatile Canadian comedian Martin Short plays a 10-year old boy in this comedy aimed at younger audiences. The tale is told in flashback to another little boy. Clifford is a manipulative brat. Clifford really wants to visit Dinosaur World in Los Angeles. Clifford wants to go so badly that he manages to force the Hawaii bound plane he and his parents are on to land in L.A. His parents need to attend a convention in Hawaii so they leave him with his Uncle Martin who despises children. Martin's fiance adores kids, so he pretends to be ecstatic about Clifford's visit. He must also pretend that Clifford is the angel child he isn't. Because Martin reneges on a promise to take him to Dinosaur World, Clifford begins an elaborate plot for revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Short, Charles Grodin, (more)
- 1981
Written for television by Allan Sloane, Family Reunion stars Bette Davis as an ageing New England schoolteacher who is given an "unlimited" bus ticket as a retirement present. She uses this gift to visit the farthest-flung members of her long-estranged family. In her absence, Davis' small town falls prey to corruptive influences, but with the help of her more honest relatives (four generations' worth, including Bette's real-life grandson J. Ashley Hyman), everything is resolved at the annual Founder's Day gathering. Family Reunion originally aired in two parts, on October 11 and 12, 1981; the preponderance of Davis' family members and unresolved plot strands would seem to suggest that this 4-hour film was intended as a series pilot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this interesting drama based on a novel by Robert Cormier, flashbacks to two different periods of time mixed with scenes from the present slowly unveil the mysterious circumstances surrounding a lonely teen (Robert MacNaughton) who meets regularly with a psychiatrist delving into his past. The boy is in an institution and often rides around the grounds on his bicycle, pretending that the guards, groundskeepers, and personnel are his enemies. As the psychiatrist probes deeper, more of the boy's family's past comes to light. His father (Don Murray) had been a successful journalist until he testified in a criminal court case that made him a target of assassins -- and so he faked his death in an accident, changed his name, and moved out to Vermont. He never told his son who he was, and when he and his wife (Hope Lange) are killed one day in an "accident" the boy sees it and goes into shock. Now as he continues in his treatments at the institution, he begins to suspect that his psychiatrist and the institution's staff are, in fact, his father's enemies and orchestrated the assassination of his parents. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert MacNaughton, Hope Lange, (more)
The novel by John Katzenbach becomes this legal thriller starring Sean Connery as Harvard Law School professor Paul Armstrong. A legal expert whose days of trying cases are long behind him, Armstrong is moved by a plea he receives from a Florida death row inmate, Bobby Earl (Blair Underwood). It seems that the educated, upstanding Earl has been railroaded by an overeager sheriff (Laurence Fishburne) zealously trying to solve the kidnapping and murder of a little girl. Once Armstrong arrives in Florida, he is able to locate the murder weapon and cast doubt on Earl's innocence, even identifying a much more likely culprit in the homicidal genius Blair Sullivan (Ed Harris). All is not as it seems in the case of Bobby Earl, however, and Armstrong is going to end up regretting his interest in the case. Ruby Dee, Kate Capshaw, and Ned Beatty costar in this film from producer-turned-director Arne Glimcher. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, Laurence Fishburne, (more)
- 1993
Season nine of Murder She Wrote comes to an end as famous romance novelist Sibella Stone (Carroll Baker) descends upon Cabot Cove, home turf of mystery writer Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury). It isn't long before Sibella's assistant is murdered, and at first it appears that the novelist herself was the killer's original target. But when Jessica probes into the situation, she discovers that the dead woman was having an affair with the husband of Sibella Stone's publisher...and there are several other people who would like to have seen the victim get knocked off. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Are women more attracted to big creepy thugs than to nice guys? Carter (Sean O'Bryan) seems to think so; as a hopelessly nice guy, he's had a long string of unsuccessful relationships with women who thought he was a sweet person and a good friend ... and then left him to get involved with an obnoxious macho side of beef. At 31, he's tired of being a loser in love, so when he becomes infatuated with a woman named Maggie, Carter tries a new approach -- he tries to spark her interest by acting like a slug who couldn't care less about her. The trouble is, for once Carter is chasing a woman who really is looking for a nice guy; more than anything, Maggie wants to meet a man who will treat her right and bring her flowers. A bittersweet romantic comedy, Nice Guys Sleep Alone features a supporting performance from Morgan Fairchild and was screened at the 1999 Gothenburg Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean O'Bryan, Sybil Temchen, (more)
- 1989
- PG13
This film is a somewhat contrived pairing of two divorcees who are giving it a second go. They're up against considerable odds, however, because the children of each are not too pleased with their new "parent." Jeff Bridges stars as the husband and Alice Krige plays his second wife. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Alice Krige, (more)
- 1992
Surprisingly good soap opera in which the suspense and thrills are genuinely good revolves around a wealthy woman who awakens from a fourteen-month coma after an attempt is made on her life and now must remember who tried to kill her in order to prevent it from happening again. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lindsay Wagner, David Dukes, (more)
When a shifty magician turns state's evidence against a Las Vegas underworld heavy, the high price placed on his head sparks a fevered race to rub the snitch out and collect a tidy paycheck in Narc director Joe Carnahan's dark action comedy. Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) is a small-time scammer who has somehow managed to get the goods on big-time mobster Primo Sparazza. Upon discovering that Buddy is about to deliver the evidence needed to get him thrown in jail for life, Primo takes out a sizable contract on Buddy that entices every two-bit thug, grizzled bounty hunter, deadly vixen, skilled assassin, and ladder-climbing Mafioso within a hundred-mile radius into taking a shot at the prize. Now holed up in his luxurious Lake Tahoe hideout with only two FBI agents (Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta) standing between him from a virtual army of money-hungry rogues, Buddy is about to find out just how far this motley crew of killers is willing to go in order to take him out and hit the jackpot. Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys, and Martin Henderson co-star in a bullet-strewn, ensemble crime comedy that never stops to reload. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, (more)
In this action comedy, director Gregg Champion relies on the premise that, indeed, "country boys can survive," as Sonny (Kiefer Sutherland) and Pepper (Woody Harrelson, always game) head off to the Big Apple in order to rescue a mutual friend's daughter from the clutches of an evil sweatshop owner. Naturally, there are lots of encounters highlighting the two fishes out of water; there are opportunities to lasso bad guys; there's even a chase on horseback through the city streets after Sonny and Pepper steal a pair of NYPD horses. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Harrelson, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
- 1981
This true-life TV movie stars Glenda Jackson as Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal and Anthony Page as her author husband Roald Dahl. In 1964, Neal is felled by a stroke, which endangers not only her life but the life of her unborn child. Both survive, but it looks as though Neal will never be able to speak coherently again. Dahl bullies, cajoles and caresses his wife into recovery; she rallies under this treatment and is finally able to resume her career and lead a normal life. The film does not touch upon the serious domestic problems which would lead to Neal and Dahl's later divorce, nor does it dwell on the "dark side" of the notoriously mercurial Mr. Dahl. Nonetheless, both Neal and Dahl felt that the book upon which Patricia Neal Story was based, (Barry Farrell's Pat and Ronald) was far too revelatory for their tastes. They severed their longtime friendship with author Farrell and never spoke to him again; nor did they have anything to say publicly about The Patricia Neal Story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Embroiled in an affair with Thomas Callahan (Sam Shephard), her alcoholic professor, precocious 24-year-old Tulane University law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) writes up an insightful theory about the recent murder of two Supreme Court justices, one of whom, Abraham Rosenberg (Hume Cronyn), served as Callahan's mentor. When Callahan shares this so-called "Pelican Brief" with buddy Gavin Verheek (John Heard), an FBI lawyer, the document makes its way to White House flack Fletcher Coal (Tony Goldwyn), who believes it could topple the current administration. When Callahan is murdered and the President (Robert Culp) convinces the FBI to hold off on investigating Darby's theory, the resourceful student must go into hiding, stalked by relentless assassin Khamel (Stanley Tucci). Her only hope of escaping Callahan's fate and proving her theory lies in Washington investigative reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington), who's already had one confidential source back out of sharing information about the assassinations. This John Grisham adaptation is fairly faithful to the best-selling novel, but the book's interracial romance between Shaw and Grantham was left out of the script (or at least the finished product), leaving many progressive viewers annoyed at Hollywood's conservatism. Fans of HBO's Sex and the City will notice one of its future stars, Cynthia Nixon, in a small role as one of Darby's New Orleans classmates. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, (more)
In a futuristic, high-tech world run by huge corporations, Parker Barnes (Denzel Washington) is an L.A. policeman serving time for killing the psychotic who murdered his wife and child. Lindenmeyer (Stephen Spinella), a Dr. Frankenstein of the computer era, has created a monster, Sid 6.7 (Russell Crowe), a virtual reality entity which is programmed with the character traits of scores of mass murderers. Sid 6.7 has escaped the control of its creator and is now running amok. The privatized police force in charge of keeping the peace in the city is run by Elizabeth Deane (Louise Fletcher). Barnes has volunteered to test a new criminal tracking system based on a virtual reality device. His job is to find Sid 6.7, with the help of psychologist Madison Carter (Kelly Lynch). Barnes gets out of prison and reinstated to the police force to pursue his dangerous prey. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denzel Washington, Kelly Lynch, (more)
