Jeff Cadiente Movies

Directed by Paul Abascal, Paparazzi chronicles the aftermath of four paparazzi photographers whose search for the all-important "perfect shot" ends in a tragic car accident. Movie star Bo Laramie (Cole Hauser) is understandably furious when, thanks to the notorious celebrity-chasers, his wife, Abby (Robin Tunney), is seriously injured, and his eight-year-old son is paralyzed. After the accident, Bo dedicates his life to putting a stop to a paparazzo's deadly overzealousness. Chris Rock, Matthew McConaughey, Mel Gibson, and Vince Vaughn are reported to be featured in cameo appearances. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Director Jon Turteltaub followed up the hit While You Were Sleeping (1995) with this fantasy similar to Charly (1968) and a film from the previous year, Powder (1994). John Travolta stars as George Malley, a humble mechanic in a rural California town. On his 37th birthday, George celebrates at a pub with friends Nate (Forest Whitaker) and Doc (Robert Duvall), the local physician. When he steps outside, George observes a bright light in the sky that knocks him briefly unconscious. When he awakens, George has incredible intellectual powers. He checks books out of the library in armfuls, becomes an inventor, a psychic, has telekinetic powers, predicts an earthquake, and memorizes Portuguese in minutes. Using his newfound powers, George becomes a hero, but he can't totally win over the spooked townsfolk or the standoffish Lace (Kyra Sedgwick), a single mom burned by love once too often. As George's kindness breaks down Lace's reserve and a romance begins, his fame spreads, bringing him to the attention of the FBI and curious university scientists. Similarities between George's powers and the alleged benefits of Travolta's religion, Scientology, led to charges that the film was veiled pro-Scientology propaganda. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

The main attraction of this otherwise undistinguished Silence of the Lambs rip-off is former '70s exploitation star Pam Grier playing a police chief. The plot involves a murderous psychotic who volunteers for a medical experiment in order to escape his confinement. Teaming up to catch him are a retired "mindwalker" who can place herself inside the killer's head, and the cop who arrested him and regrets not killing him when he had the chance. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

In yet another sequel to the surprise family hit 3 Ninjas, the three young Ninja brothers, Rocky (Michael Treanor), Colt (Max Elliott Slade), and Tum Tum (Chad Power), are spending the summer with their grandfather (Victor Wong), who is tutoring them in the martial arts. However, there are foul doings afoot -- Jack (Charles Napier), an unscrupulous business tycoon, has been dumping toxic waste on a nearby Indian burial ground and keeping the matter quiet with kickbacks to the local police. When the Ninja brothers try to come to the aid of the local Indian tribe, Jack tries to intimidate them and their Native American friends, a plan that only makes the boys more determined to see that justice is done. 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up was actually shot in 1994, a year before 3 Ninjas Kick Back, and features the same three actors who played the Ninja brothers in the first film. However, 3 Ninja Kick Back, which replaced two members of the original cast, was released first. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A ruthless drug lord must be stopped, pronto. Three able-bodied cops go undercover to bring the drug dealer to justice -- or, preferably, to kill him. Once in a while, the bad guys call a halt to the film's bloodshed to allow a sex scene to play itself out. Otherwise, this is essentially cable-TV stuff, blown up (sometimes literally) for the Big Screen. A good cast, headed by Michael Nouri and John Saxon, is the film's most tangible asset. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An uneven but entertaining blend of graphic horror and black comedy from John Landis, very much in the mode of the director's successful An American Werewolf in London. French actress Anne Parillaud -- star of Luc Besson's acclaimed thriller La Femme Nikita -- plays Marie, a lithe and lovely vampire with a conscience who will not take "innocent blood" and maintains a low profile by dining exclusively on criminals and lowlifes. She finds a virtual smorgasbord in Pittsburgh's criminal underworld, arriving in the thick of a bloody mob war sparked by ruthless kingpin Sal Macelli (Robert Loggia). After preying on one of Macelli's hoods (Chazz Palminteri), Marie fumbles her attack on the boss himself and he manages to escape, eventually transforming into a vampire himself. Macelli soon comes to appreciate his new superhuman condition and hatches a diabolical scheme to control the syndicates by turning his underlings into vampires -- including his beleaguered lawyer, Emmanuel Bergman (Don Rickles). Marie, faced with a new and powerful undead enemy, is forced to take matters into her own claws. To this end she enlists the reluctant aid (and eventual affection) of undercover cop Joe Gennaro (Anthony LaPaglia), whose cover has just been leaked to the press, making him a target for Macelli and his growing army of blood drinkers. Landis has crafted a dark and brooding film, pumped up with bouts of extreme gore and gangland violence -- but where American Werewolf's occasional comic touches helped to ground the story and give the "straight" horror scenes more punch, most attempts at humor here seem jarring and out of place. The film's highlights come from numerous horror in-jokes, including cameos from Sam Raimi, Clive Barker, Dario Argento and Linnea Quigley; Rickles' explosive death scene ranks among the weirdest in cinema history. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

It probably takes an intimate acquaintance with East Germany's famously awful car, a smoky, noisy two-cylinder lawnmower on wheels, the Trabant 601, to fully appreciate the jokes in this extremely popular, celebrity-filled comedy. In the story, Gunther (German television star Thomas Gotttschalk) is an East German inventor who has journeyed with his homely car to an inventor's convention in Hollywood: he has figured out a way to get his Trabbi to run on turnip juice and zoom like a sports car. When his odd car is stolen, he tries to get it back, but L.A. and it's culture are alien to him and he is very much a fish out of water, despite the friendly advice he receives from Billy Dee Williams as a knowledgeable parking-lot attendant. Look for cameos by Milton Berle and Dom DeLuise, among others. This Trabbi film is a sequel to the enormously popular comedy Go, Trabi, Go. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide