Bernie Brillstein Movies

The world's most obnoxious celebrity talk-show host demonstrates how he rose to mediocrity in this pungent show business satire. Jiminy Glick (Martin Short) is a corpulent entertainment reporter who is looking to kick his career into high gear. Hoping to snag some celebrity interviews, Jiminy and his wife, Dixie (Jan Hooks), head north of the border to Canada, where Jiminy will attend the Toronto Film Festival. At first, Glick's attempts to ingratiate himself with stars and semi-stars are little short of disastrous, but after the easily star-struck reporter allows egocentric filmmaker Ben DiCarlo (Corey Pearson) to shamelessly self-promote his latest project on air, word gets around that Glick is an "easy interview," and his star begins to rise. However, Jiminy's good fortune is tempered by his unwitting involvement in a murder plot centered around booze-addled actress Miranda Coolidge (Elizabeth Perkins) and her wildly pretentious husband, Andre Devine (John Michael Higgins). Somewhere along the way, filmmaker David Lynch (played by Short) happens along, offering his theories on the controversial murder of Lana Turner's paramour Johnny Stompanato. A large number of Hollywood celebrities make cameo appearances in Jiminy Glick in La La Wood, including Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Forest Whitaker, Kiefer Sutherland, and Sharon Stone. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Bob Odenkirk and David Cross stretch one of the characters from their HBO comedy sketch series Mr. Show into a full-length feature with Run Ronnie Run!. Ronnie Dobbs (Cross) becomes a media celebrity when he becomes the star of his own show ("Ronnie Dobbs Gets Arrested"). On this premise, the writers (and director Troy Miller) hang a series of pop culture spoofs. Among the targets are Mandy Patinkin, the television series Cops, and Survivor. South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker make a cameo appearance. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Music video and TV commercials director Antoine Fuqua made his feature directorial debut with this action thriller starring Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-Fat. Chinese immigrant John Lee (Yun-Fat) has a violent past as a professional killer. It brings him only remorse, but it makes him the ideal assassin. In exchange for his family's safety, Lee is forced to take a job with a powerful underworld figure, Asian crime kingpin Terence Wei (Kenneth Tsang), who wants Lee to settle a deadly vendetta against police detective Stan Zedlov (Michael Rooker) by killing Zedlov's seven-year-old son. At the last minute, with the boy in his sights, Lee chooses to face Wei's vengeance rather than go through with the killing. In addition to making Lee a target, the decision also endangers his mother and sister back in Shanghai. Planning a return to China, he visits document forger Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino) to get a phony passport, but they are interrupted by Wei's army of killers, and a lengthy chase and gun battle is set in motion.

Director Fuqua stressed to his team that the aim was to design a "Taxi Driver for the 1990s," with production beginning February 10, 1997 in downtown Los Angeles, and the first shoot at the historic Mayan Theater, refurbished into the trendy nightclub for the film's stylish opening scene with hundreds of extras carousing while Lee guns down Romero (Carlos Leon) at close range. The eight-story, nearly condemned Giant Penny building in the heart of L.A. served as locations for a police station interior, a hotel room, and Meg Coburn's office, and a chaotic gunfight was filmed amid the spray, brushes, and hoses of Joe's Car Wash in LA. The art department transformed one area into a Chinatown-like streetscape of damp, narrow alleys, and blinking red neon lights, site of a night filming where Yun-Fat shot off 546 rounds with two guns, one in each hand, while the repetitive action left his hands blistered and shaking. More gunplay was at a video arcade replicated at the original Lawry's center just north of downtown L.A., and Lee's tranquil Buddhist temple was fashioned under this same roof. In addition to physical training, Mira Sorvino, who had never handled a gun prior to this film, took weapons training to prepare for her role. Sorvino majored in Asian studies at Harvard, speaks Mandarin, and lived for eight months (1988-89) in Beijing, where she studied Chinese, taught English, and saw Chinese films, including Hong Kong action films. She felt The Replacement Killers brought her a step closer to her goal of making a film in Mandarin and working with a Chinese director. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

There's a bit of unanticipated irony in the opening episode of NewsRadio's fourth season, with Jon Lovitz cast as a would-be suicide who perches himself on the ledge outside the office of radio station WNYX's news director Dave Nelson (Dave Foley). One year later, Lovitz would join the cast as a regular, replacing the beloved Phil Hartman, who was murdered shortly after filming wrapped on Season Four. A quartet of subsequent episodes feature a story arc with Lauren Graham guesting as a manic efficiency expert. The abrupt departure of series regular Khandi Alexander obliges the writers to come up with a "Rashomon"-style episodes wherein everyone has a different story as to why abrasive news anchor Catherine Duke has left WNYX. Also, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross of Mr. Show fame, joined by one of that series' writers, Dave Posehn, show up as three members of the singing quartet to which Dave had once belonged; news reporter Lisa (Maura Tierney) becomes one of the guys--almost literally--when the station's other female staffers call in sick--and in a two-parter, pompous anchorman Bill (Phil Hartman) proves to be jaw-droppingly efficient when he briefly takes charge of the station. Best of the fourth-season batch is the fantasy finale "Sinking Ship", wherein the cast finds themselves on the deck of the "Titanic" way back in April of 1912, with resourceful maintenance man Joe (Joe Rogan) endeavoring to repair the iceberg damage with his ever-present roll of duct tape. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Adam Sandler's second popular starring vehicle after Billy Madison is a goofy lowbrow paean to golf, hockey, and the comic hysterics of its childlike star. In Happy Gilmore, Sandler plays the title character, a raw, determined, but ultimately untalented hockey player who keeps trying out for the pros. When Happy discovers his grandmother (Frances Bay) will lose her home if she doesn't fork over 270,000 dollars to the IRS, he tries to figure out how he can possibly scrounge up the cash. An idea strikes during a game of one-upmanship with a couple furniture movers stripping his grandmother's home: On his first-ever swing, he drives a golf ball farther than the movers have ever seen. Before long, he has transplanted the foul-mouthed, aggressive persona of the hockey rink to the links, winning an amateur tourney that earns him a spot on the pro tour. Throttling everyone from a helpless caddy to game show host Bob Barker during the course of his 90-day quest to amass prize money, Happy also wins the sport a legion of new fans with his in-your-face style. Guiding him on his quest is a whimsical retired pro who lost his hand to an alligator (Carl Weathers) and an attractive public relations woman charmed by Happy's antics (Julie Bowen). Opposing him, however, is sneering hotshot Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald), who will do anything to win his championship jacket and see Happy fail. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

This post-modern comic variation on The Defiant Ones concerns Keats (Damon Wayans), an undercover police detective trying to get the goods on crime kingpin Frank Colton (James Caan). Keats poses as a crook to make friends with one of Colton's underlings, a drug dealer and car thief named Archie Moses (Adam Sandler). Keats is using Archie as part of a sting operation to put Colton away; however, Archie doesn't care for this, and when he finds out Keats's true plan and actual identity, it leads to an altercation that ends with Archie shooting Keats in the head. Several months later, Keats emerges from the hospital with a metal plate in his skull, and he has to bring Archie in. However, now Archie and Keats are both on Colton's enemies list, and the two find themselves on the run in Arizona, trying to outwit Colton's team of assassins, but having Archie on hand doesn't do much good in the outwitting department. Bulletproof was directed by Ernest Dickerson, who got his start as a cinematographer for Spike Lee. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Wide-eyed Wisconsinite Dave Nelson (Dave Foley) becomes the latest in a long of a news directors brought in to the hype the ratings of New York all-news radio station WNYX as Newsradio beams forth its first season. Almost immediately, Dave clashes with newscaster Lisa Miller (Maura Tierney), who thought that she was in line for Dave's job. Lisa and Dave will eventually bury the hatchet and enjoy a brief affair, but not before our hero has made the acquaintance of the rest of the WNYX staff, namely his bombastic, buck-passing boss Jimmy James (Stephen Root), preening and pompous male news anchor Bill McNeal (Phil Hartman), antagonistic female anchor Catherine Duke (Khandi Alexander), terminally nerdish reporter Matthew Brock (Andy Dick), viper-tongued, all-knowing station secretary Beth (Vicki Lewis) and mercenary maintenance man Joe Garelli (Joe Rogan). In the opener for the series' seven-episode inaugural season, Dave finds out that his first responsibility is to fire his predecessor. Other crises loom large as Bill is forced to stop smoking in the office; a late-breaking news story takes second place to a turf battle involving desk sizes; Dave is stuck with the job of handing out unfairly distributed bonuses; and Beth spectacularly turns the tables on Bill when the lascivious newsman tries to make time with her at a restaurant. The season ends with a guest appearance by Janeane Garofolo as Dave's former girlfriend--who hasn't yet been informed that she is indeed his former girlfriend! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Baby-faced news director Dave Nelson (Dave Foley) continues to leap over unexpected obstacles in his efforts to put New York radio station WNYX at the top of the ratings heap as NewsRadio commences its second season. Ingredients essential to the action this season include a boobytrapped refrigerator (courtesy of indolent station maintenance man Joe Garelli [Joe Rogan]); a collection of nudie-cutie pictures featuring WNYX's acid-tongued receptionist Beth (Vicki Lewis); the short unhappy life of Mike the "office rat", and the rodent's subsequential funeral via the mail chute; the announcement by station owner Jimmy James (Stephen Root) that he plans to get married;a homicidal Santa Claus who has it in for swell-headed news anchor Bill (Phil Hartman); an embarrassing moment in which Dave overhears the staff making fun of him; a practical-joke war which threatens to go thermonuclear when Bill and his co-anchor Catherine (Khandi Alexander) are the combatants; a nocturnal poker game in which Jimmy loses Bill to a rival station; the dreams of nerdish staffer Matthew (Andy Dick) of having a "group home" in The Hamptons; and the on-again, off-again romance between Dave and news reporter Lisa (Maura Tierney) Season Two guest stars include John Ritter as a psychiatrist hired to de-stress the WNYX staff, Bebe Neuwirth as a friend of Beth's who copies her every move, and Mr. Show's David Cross as a pathetic magician. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ivan Reitman's sequel to the phenomenally successful Ghostbusters is looser and more self-assured than the original. The film opens with a title reading "Five Years Later" and finds the ghostbusters living in hard times. A restraining order has forbidden the boys to partake in paranormal warfare, and as a result they have had to seek other lines of work. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) spend their time performing at children's' birthday parties, and Egon (Harold Ramis) is busy conducting experiments investigating the effect of human emotions on the environment, leaving ghostbusting behind. Venkman (Bill Murray) and Dana (Sigourney Weaver) have split up. Venkman now hosts a local cable show called "The World of the Psychic." Dana, now divorced and the mother of a little baby named Oscar, works as an art restorer in a museum -- and this is where the plot kicks in. While Dana is restoring a portrait of a 16th-century tyrant by the name of Vigo the Carpathian, the portrait becomes hexed. The evil Vigo wants to return to life by taking over the body of Dana's little child. Vigo has enlisted Dana's boss, Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), to compel Dana to cooperate. Soon dirty sludge and slime flow through the streets of Manhattan, and the ghostbusters have to reunite to save the city from a funky paranormal evil. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The former Gordon Shumway, refugee of the long-gone planet Melmac, continues to wreak hilarious havoc upon his adoptive Earth family the Tanners as ALF enters its third season. By this point in time, virtually every member of the viewing public knew that Gordon's "new" name, ALF, was an acronym for Alien Life Form. They also knew that, for all his wisecracks and anti-social excesses (such as eating everything that wasn't nailed down and breaking everything else), ALF had a heart of gold, else why would the Tanners not have turned him over to the dreaded Alien Task Force long ago? Typical third-season episodes include the opener, "Stop in the Name of Love," in which ALF helpfully arranges a blind date for teenager Lynn Tanner (Andrea Elson) after accidentally scaring off her boyfriend; the two-part Thanksgiving story "Turkey in the Straw," wherein a bum repays ALF's generosity by trying to report him to the authorities; "My Back Pages," a flashback to the "hippie" days of uptight suburbanites Willie and Kate Tanner (Max Wright, Anne Schedeen); "Superstition," in which ALF performs a bizarre Melmacian ritual to expunge himself from guilt after destroying the history book possessed by young Brian Tanner (Benji Gregory); and the season finale, "Varsity Drag," the story of ALF's brief and extremely eventful career as a newspaper delivery boy. Though viewership for ALF eroded a bit during its third season thanks to the formidable competition of CBS's Newhart and ABC's MacGyver, the series still managed to end up in a healthy 15th place in the Nielsens. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Dan Aykroyd must have practiced for months to perfect his Jack Webb inflections for Dragnet. Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz's directorial debut (also written by Mankiewicz, along with Aykroyd, and Alan Zweibel) is a gentle spoof of the legendary '50s television police drama -- pitting '50s conservatism smack up against the attitudes of the '80s. Basically, the film is another 48 Hours or Beverly Hills Cop clone. Aykroyd stars as Joe Friday, the nephew of the original Friday. But with his brown suit, fedora, and lockjaw, he could just as well be the incarnation of Jack Webb. He is involuntarily assigned a smart alecky, street-wise partner, Pep Streebeck (Tom Hanks), and they are appointed to investigate a series of religious cult murders in L.A. The two cops follow the trail to a phony televangelist, the Reverend Jonathan Whirley (Christopher Plummer). From there, they are only at step away from uncovering an Orange County-based religious cult calling itself P.A.G.A.N. (People Against Goodness and Normalcy). After sneaking into a secret ceremony, Friday falls in love with the sacrificial victim Connie Swail (Alexandra Paul). So much so that even after his superior Captain Gannon (Harry Morgan, reprising his role from the '60s revival of the Dragnet program) orders him off the case, Friday continues on, with the requisite car chases and crashes that usually climax any '80s cop movie or comedy. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi