Ron Osborn Movies

The cycle of life on Earth hangs in the balance when Death becomes emotionally involved in this romantic fantasy. William Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) is a tremendously wealthy and powerful man who oversees a worldwide multi-media empire. Despite the loss of his wife, whom he dearly loved, William is content with his life, and he's very close to his two daughters, Allison (Marcia Gay Harden) and Susan (Claire Forlaini). One night, as William is fighting a hostile takeover of his company and Allison is planning an elaborate party to celebrate her dad's 65th birthday, William begins displaying the symptoms of a severe heart attack, and he is visited by a mysterious stranger, Joe Black (Brad Pitt). Joe is actually the angel of death, who has taken the form of a man who recently passed on to pay William a call. It seems that William is due to move on to the next world, but (no great surprise) he doesn't want to go. Joe, on the other hand, is curious to know what life is like for mere mortals, so the two men strike a deal -- William will have some time to get his affairs in order, and Joe will wait and see what it's like to be a human being. Joe decides that he likes it very much when he falls in love with Susan, but negotiating the slippery slopes of romance is no easier for Joe than for any ordinary man. Meet Joe Black is an updated version of Alberto Casella's play Death Takes a Holiday, which was adapted for the screen in 1934. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Michael Lehmann directed this post-modernist hash of To Catch a Thief and The Naked Gun starring Bruce Willis as Hudson Hawk, a cat burglar who wants to go straight, but the circumstances won't allow it. The story begins in a pre-credit sequence that takes place in the renaissance. Leonardo Da Vinci (Stefano Molinari) is rushing through his Mona Lisa painting to work on his latest invention -- a machine to turn lead into bronze. But Da Vinci makes a mistake and, instead of bronze, the machine turns the lead into gold. Realizing the danger of his invention if the contraption gets into the wrong hands, he hides three parts of the apparatus inside three of his other works. Four hundred years later, Hudson Hawk, the world's greatest cat burglar, is being released from jail after pulling a ten-year stretch. He wants to retire from the profession of cat burglary and drink some cappuccino, but two screwball billionaires -- Darwin and Minerva Mayflower (Richard E. Grant and Sandra Bernhard) -- won't let him. Their nefarious plot is to steal the three Da Vinci works, restore Da Vinci's gold-making machine, and destroy the world's monetary system. They blackmail Hawks into working with them to steal the Da Vincis by threatening the life of Hawks's pal Tommy Five-Tone (Danny Aiello). Along with the power-mad billionaires, Hawks has to deal with the CIA, in the person of George Kaplan (James Coburn), breathing down his neck. He also has Vatican art restorer Anna Baragli (Andie MacDowell) falling for his smirk. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A dying burglar hires Maddie (Cybill Shepherd) and David (Bruce Willis) to investigate a heist committed 25 years ago. No, the old man doesn't want to clear his name; instead, he wants to prove to the cops that he has committed the "perfect crime." Maddie wants no part of this, but David is intrigued. And besides, it will get their minds off the much-talked-about "Anselmo Case" (remember?) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is the only Moonlighting episode in which neither Cybill Shepherd nor Bruce Willis appear. Instead, the focus is on nerdish detective Bert Viola (Curtis Armstrong), who has gone into a deep blue funk over an imagined slight from Blue Moon secretary Agnes Dipesto (Allyce Beasley). In the course of a very long night in which Bert is required to guard an "experimental grapefruit", he dreams of his future with Agnes, in sequences inspired by Rudolph Valentino's silent "Shiek" pictures and the 1940s classic Casablanca (in which "As Time Goes By" is replaced by "Chopsticks"!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This third episode of a four-part story arc begins as fans of Moonlighting are interviewed in the street, offering their responses to, and opinons of, the previous two episodes. The story so far: Maddie (Cybill Shepherd) has fallen in love with her yuppie friend Sam (Mark Harmon), and David (Bruce Willis is none too happy--as demonstrated during a disastrous dinner date. Now, Maddie and David are obliged to go on surveillance together--to investigate a strikingly similar three-way romance. Sharp-eyed viewers will note that this episode is the "feminine doppelganger" of the previous week's (mis)adventure. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This opening episode of Moonlighting's third season upholds the series' unique juxtaposition of fact and fancy by carrying a "dedication" to a person who doesn't really exist! Wisecracking private eye David Addison (Bruce Willis) is uncharacteristically at a loss for words when his recently widowed father David Sr. (Paul Sorvino) announces that he is to marry again. But David has plenty to see when he learns the identity of his dad's future bride. In addition, a few unsubtle references are made to the many Emmy nominations received by Moonlighting during its second season; and by the way, what's the story about that sombrero and serape? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This classic episode begins when a youngster tunes into his favorite TV series Moonlighting, only to be ordered to switch off that "trash" and return to his homework. Inasmuch as the kid is studying William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew", he soon dreams up a wild scenario wherein all of the Moonlighting characters are recast as the principals in that boisterous battle-of-the-sexes comedy. What follows is an insane blend of faux Elizabethan dialogue and contemporary wisecracks ("Doth bears bear-eth? Doth bees be-eth?"), with a few "improvements" that the Bard of Avon would never have dreamed of--such as the swaggering Petruchio, aka David (Bruce Willis), escorting a bound-and-gagged Katherina, aka Maddie (Cybill Shepherd), to the altar! And since when did "Taming of the Shrew" include a sight gag straight out of the Warner Bros. cartoons, complete with a musical passage from composer Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse"? The episode's flippant credit title "from an idea by William 'Bud' Shakespeare" was obviously inspired by the infamous credit on the 1929 film version of Taming of the Shrew: "Based on the play by William Shakespeare, with additional dialogue by Sam Taylor." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This time out, the services of Maddie (Cybill Shepherd) and David (Bruce Willis) are engaged by the deceptively mild-mannerd Alan Tupperman (Guy Boyd). It seems that lonely Alan is in search of the "perfect mate", and he expects the detectives to find this elusive woman--or at the very least, locate several women from which he can choose. The episode's action is counterpointed by significant scenes culled from the 1935 horror flick The Bride of Frankenstein). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dana Delany guest stars as Gillian Armstrong, a former girl friend of detective David Addison (Bruce Willis). Having previously broken David's heart, she comes back into his life as a client, hoping that he can track down a missing heirloom. Naturally, David jumps at the chance, though his partner Maddie (Cybill Shepherd) is convinced that he is setting himself up for another fall. The plot thickens when Gillian's husband (Joel Colodner) is found murdered. Somehow this situation culminates in a zany chase sequences involving a hearse! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of a two-part story, the Night Court staff is cut off from their paychecks by a municipal budget crisis. This freeze could not have come at a worse time for Harry, who is trying to save a cleaning lady (Susan Ruttan) and her troubled son (Harold P. Pruett) from being tossed into the street by a nasty landlord (Charles Bouvier). Ultimately, tragedy strikes--and a frustrated Harry quits his job! This episode marks the first appearance of the Wheelers, a rambunctious family of indigents who claim to hail from West Virginia (future Star Trek: The Next Generation regular Brent Spiner is seen as Bob Wheeler). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide