John Cunningham Movies

Robin Williams toned down his usually manic comic approach in this successful period drama. In 1959, the Welton Academy is a staid but well-respected prep school where education is a pragmatic and rather dull affair. Several of the students, however, have their thoughts on the learning process (and life itself) changed when a new teacher comes to the school. John Keating (Williams) is an unconventional educator who tears chapters of his textbooks and asks his students to stand on their desks to see the world from a new angle. Keating introduces his students to poetry, and his free-thinking attitude and the liberating philosophies of the authors he introduces to his class have a profound effect on his students, especially Todd (Ethan Hawke), who would like to be a writer; Neil ( Robert Sean Leonard), who dreams of being an actor, despite the objections of his father; Knox (Josh Charles), a hopeless romantic; Steven (Allelon Ruggiero), an intellectual who learns to use his heart as well as his head; Charlie (Gale Hansen), who begins to lose his blasé attitude; unconventional Gerard (James Waterston); and practical Richard (Dylan Kussman). Keating urges his students to seize the day and live their lives boldly; but when this philosophy leads to an unexpected tragedy, headmaster Mr. Nolan (Norman Lloyd) fires Keating, and his students leap to his defense. Dead Poets Society was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Williams; it won one, for Tom Schulman's original screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Writer Susan Isaacs and director Frank Perry of Compromising Positions re-team for this resurrection fantasy comedy. Shelley Long plays Lucy Chadman, the accident-prone wife of plastic surgeon Jason Chadman (Corbin Bernsen). When she chokes to death after eating a South Korean chicken ball, a funeral is held and she is mourned, but then everyone goes on with their lives and forgets about her. Everyone, that is, except her sister Zelda (Judith Ivey). Zelda runs an occult bookstore and as she peruses one of her books of incantations, she discovers a magical chant that can raise the dead. Obeying the rules of the incantation -- it has to be performed a year after the person dies and the resurrected person must find love within 30 days or the person will die again -- she brings back Lucy to life. Lucy immediately proceeds to her husband's home and finds that he is married to her best friend Kim (Sela Ward). She now has to deal with the changed circumstances of her husband, along with a burgeoning love affair with Kevin Scanlon (Gabriel Byrne), the emergency-room doctor who had tried to save her life. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Johnny Walker (Anthony Michael Hall) is a hot-shot high-school quarterback who receives intoxicating offers from spirited college recruiters in this adolescent teen comedy. Bathroom humor and sight gags are strung together in a story involving booze, broads, and other benefits for the coveted quarterback. Robert Downey Jr., Uma Thurman, and Paul Gleason co-star. Even cameos from Jim McMahon and Howard Cosell can't save this feature from itself, though it isn't the fault of the cast. Originally rated PG-13, it was reedited to R (with scenes added) for a home video release. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

The relationship between an unproven lawyer and the female convict he attempts to save from execution is detailed in this death-row drama. Sharon Stone plays against type as Cindy Liggett, convicted of murder at the age of 19, who has spent over a decade in prison awaiting execution. Having resigned herself to her eventual death, she cares little when her case falls into the hands of newly appointed clemency board attorney Rick Hayes (Rob Morrow). Hayes devotes himself to her case, however, and uncovers several inconsistencies regarding her earlier trial. Seeing a chance to save Liggett's life, Hayes fights for a stay of execution but finds himself facing opposition from powerful political figures and even Liggett herself. Largely ignored at the box office, the film suffered in comparison to Dead Man Walking (1995), the Academy Award-winning drama whose treatment of the death penalty theme may still have been fresh in the minds of audiences. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

A genetics researcher is found murdered in his trashed laboratory. At first, it appears that a militant animal-rights group was responsible for the killing. But the detectives and the lawyers unearth another possible avenue of prosecution when it is revealed that the dead woman's husband, Donald Walsh (John Cunningham), is a chronic philanderer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A frozen corpse, dressed in a tuxedo, is found in a dumpster. It soon develops that the dead man was killed five years earlier, and that he was a prominent Broadway producer. The detectives and the DA's office move quickly to prosecute the most likely suspect, the victim's hated show-biz rival. Frank Converse, star of the 1967 "cult" TV series Coronet Blue, appears as Gary Wallace. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A "black widow killer" is at the center of this episode. First, detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt). Next, A.D.A.'s McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Carmichael (Angie Harmon) shed the spotlight of suspicion on Dennis Pollock (Matt Keeslar), a young man who is romantically involved with two considerably older women. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Adam (George Segal) is an English instructor at a U.S. college who hopes to win a professorship and tenure. Tricia (Glenda Jackson) is an English divorcee. They both wind up on a French ski slope at exactly the wrong time, and in the resulting collision, break one another's legs. While they are slinging ever-wittier insults at each other, they are also falling in love. They soon wed, with Tricia joining Adam back in the States. There, it becomes clear that Tricia was not cut out to be a dutiful, meek professor's wife. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Oliver Stone, the most outspokenly political American filmmaker of the 1980s and '90s, directs this epic-length biography of Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the U.S., who was re-elected by a landslide in 1972, only to resign in disgrace two years later. Taking a non-linear approach, Nixon jumps back and forth between many different periods and events, from Nixon's strict upbringing at the hands of his Quaker mother, through the many peaks and valleys of his political career, to his downfall in the wake of the Watergate scandal. The facts of his life are blended with supposition and speculation to create a portrait that is often critical of the man's policies but displays an unexpected compassion toward his failings as a human being. Anthony Hopkins stars as Nixon, Joan Allen plays his long-suffering wife Pat, Mary Steenburgen portrays his mother Hannah, Bob Hoskins is cast as J. Edgar Hoover, Powers Boothe plays Alexander Haig, Paul Sorvino portrays Henry Kisinger, and Ed Harris plays E. Howard Hunt. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In the film Happy New Year (1987), actor Peter Falk donned old-age makeup to play a senior citizen. Eight years later, he did it again, twice, in the TV movie remake of The Sunshine Boys (1995) and this film, a comedy-drama. Falk stars as Rocky Holzcek, a cantankerous 76-year-old Polish-American baker who insists, despite relatives' protests, upon adopting his young grandson Michael when the boy's parents pass away. Twenty years later, Michael (D.B. Sweeney) is a medical student who's forced to take in his still-spry grandfather when the old man is evicted from his apartment building. Although the crusty, outspoken Rocky gets along fine with Michael's Chinese college roommates, he is less enthused about his grandson's girlfriend Beth (Julianne Moore). Eventually, Michael and Beth marry, move away and have children, while Rocky continues working as a baker, passing the age of 100. When a tragedy befalls Michael and his kids, the old man once again comes to his grandson's rescue, but even a force of nature like Rocky can't last forever. Roommates was loosely based on the real-life experiences of screenwriter Max Apple and his grandfather. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Based on a novel by Luanne Rice, this "Hallmark Hall of Fame" production begins in Manhattan at Christmastime. Christopher "Christy" Byrne (Tate Donovan), a Nova Scotian Christmas tree farmer, has arrived in the Big Apple to sell his wares, assisted by his teenaged children Danny (Michael Mitchell) and Bridget (Courtney Jines). After an argument between Christy and Danny sparked by the boy's desire to become a photographer rather than a farmer, Danny runs away, and is eventually befriended by widow Catherine O'Mara (Anne Heche), who had earlier refused to by a tree from the Byrnes family. One year later, a chance meeting brings Catherine and Christy face to face, leading to an extremely tense situation that can be alleviated only by Christy's acceptance of Danny's life goals--and by Catherine overcoming the grief attending the loss of her husband. Weaving throughout the narrative is a "silver bells" promotional stunt staged by the museum for which Catherine works, a stutnt which will (inevitably!) figure prominently in the tearful finale. Silver Bells premiered November 27, 2005, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Music video cinematographer Zack Winestine made his debut as a writer and director with this deeply psychological drama about an angst-ridden New York City woman, Lisa (Jennifer Van Dyck), who embarks on a quest to achieve an authenticity that her complacent existence lacks. An office manager for an underground Manhattan theater, Lisa feels that her life and her marriage to an impotent professor, Abel (Stephen Bogardus), are going nowhere fast. After she decides not to sleep anymore, Lisa embarks on a series of choices that seem ill-advised and impulsive, including an affair with a bitter, cynical stage director, Paul (John Cunningham), who preaches a neo-fascist philosophy. Lisa also takes an interest in the seamy world of pornography, which her actress friend Carol (Ellen Greene) knows all too much about -- but Lisa's nerve fails her in her effort to mimic Carol's sexual liberation. A fresh start on the West Coast with her husband fails to assuage the inner torment of the increasingly militant and violent Lisa. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi