Carole R. Davis Movies

When Jill (Janeane Garofalo), the sister of reformed womanizer and former high-profile fashion photographer Jack (Nestor Carbonell), leaves her 17-year-old son with his uncle in an unstable bid to find herself, her brother and sister face an increasingly uncertain future in this dark drama from director Bobby Roth. Bored of working an endless string of weddings and bar mitzvahs and longing to return to the success he experienced before his luck took a nosedive, Jack attempts to connect with both his teenage son and nephew while pulling his life into focus. To make matters even more complicated, Jill's jobless ex-husband, Eli (John Ritter), has also decided to move in with Jack. Will the hapless photographer be able to keep his sanity as his dysfunctional family forces itself into virtually every aspect of his increasingly chaotic life? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This Yuletide-season TV movie reverses the standard "three girls on the make" formula of many an old 20th Century Fox movie, of which How to Marry a Millionaire is a choice example. This time out, a trio of enterprising young men decide to go on the prowl for rich wives, after first consulting a nonplussed department-store Santa with their intentions. The plan, as hatched by the impoverished heroes, Tom (John Stamos), Jason (Shermar Moore), and Mark (Joshua Malina), is as follows: They will pose as hot-shot Hollywood movie producers, the better to entice attractive and wealthy young women to invest in their newest "production" -- and hopefully, to entrap said women into matrimony. As so often happens in stories of this nature, however, love ultimately triumphs over money. A bit too top-heavy with racy double entendres and potentially unsavory situations, the film is redeemed somewhat by the presence of Dabney Coleman and Rhea Perlman, cast as an older couple named -- believe it or not -- John and Jackie Kennedy. How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale made its first Fox Network appearance on December 20, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An audacious film about faith, The Rapture is a contemporary fantasy that keeps its feet unnervingly planted in reality even as reality starts to collapse. Mimi Rogers, in a strikingly accomplished performance, stars as Sharon, a telephone operator who spends her off-hours engaging in casual group sex to blot out her boredom. By chance, she becomes aware of a small Christian sect whose members believe that they have found a child with the gift of prophecy who has seen the upcoming end times. Slowly but steadily, Sharon finds herself drawn to this group, and one night she abruptly turns a corner, renounces her old life, and embraces fundamentalism with passion. She marries one of her former lovers, Randy (David Duchovny), who takes up Sharon's evangelical fervor to atone for his past as a hired killer, and they have a daughter. All seems peaceful until Randy is unexpectedly murdered, and Sharon takes her child to the desert to await the rapture that will bring the chosen to heaven. The film neither supports nor scoffs at Sharon's views, and the superb performances add immeasurably to a film that presents the unbelievable (and unthinkable) at face value, making it seem oddly plausible in the process. Michael Tolkin has also written and/or directed such films as The Player (1992), directed by Robert Altman, and The New Age (1994), both of which also skewer contemporary American society as shallow, materialistic, and desperate for something authentic to believe in. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, Carlos Munoz (Cheech Marin) travels from America to Australia to find work, and gets a job at a Mexican restaurant. While there, he meets up with poor little rich girl Alex Hobart (Emma Samms) who hires him to pose as her fiance to scare her father into approving of her marriage with her unappealing boyfriend, Bruce Woodley (Vernon Wells). ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Elise (Arielle Dombasle) is content being the lover of Alex (Omar Sharif), a wealthy magnate who lavishes her with attention and money. When she gets religious and decides to hide from him in a French convent, Alex hires agents to bring her back. He offers money to the corrupt cult leader Noah (Pierre Vaneck), who then orders his young follower Marc (Hippolyte Girardot) and Elise to head a delegation traveling to Mexico. Marc turns out to be a journalist doing secret research on cults, but he quickly falls in love with Elise. She must chose between Alex and Marc in this uneven distaff melodrama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Stuart Rosenberg, under the guise of Alan Smithee, directed this action film concerning a soldier of fortune sent into a South American country to rescue a kidnapped American during a revolutionary upheaval. Harry Burk Jr. (Mark Harmon) and United States Ambassador Douglas (Bruce Gray) are held hostage by Colombian drug dealers who demand the release of associates who are imprisoned in the United States. But the U.S. government refuses to negotiate with the drug dealers. In disgust, Harry's brother Corey (Michael Schoeffling) and three of his friends (Tom Wilson, Glen Frey, and Rick Rossovich), along with an adventurous auto dealer named Jack (Gary Busey), hire mercenary soldier Shrike (Robert Duvall) to sneak into Columbia and rescue Harry. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Based on a 1983 novel by Dan Jenkins, Baja Oklahoma is set sometime in the 1950s. Texas barmaid Lesley Ann Warren wants more than anything to be a rich and famous country-western songwriter. Unfortunately, she spends most of her time sorting out her many dead-end romances. Just when she thinks she's ready for the big move to Nashville, along comes her erstwhile old flame Peter Coyote. Deftly stealing every scene she's in is Swoosie Kurtz as Warren's hot-to-trot best pal. Willie Nelson, who cowrote the film's title song with Dan Jenkins, makes a guest appearance, along with such other C&W favorites as Emmylou Harris and Bob Wills Jr. Actress Alice Krige is superb as songstress Patsy Cline-far better, incidentally, than Jessica Lange in Sweet Dreams. Playing the supporting role of Warren's daughter is Julia Roberts, who was later touted as the film's star when Baja Oklahoma was released to video. Made for the HBO cable service, the film debuted February 20, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

B.A. (Mr. T) owes his life to his fellow Vietnam veteran Captain Fallone (James Callahan), a former army doctor. Now it is B.A.'s turn to repay the favor when he and the rest of the A-Team respond to Fallone's call for assistance when the tropical island where his clinic is located is overrun by murderous drug dealers, who have enslaved the local populace to do their heavy lifting. A mercurial native woman named Kalani (Carole Davis) looms large in the proceedings, as does a derelict WW2 tank which the Team "resuscitates" in the slam-bang action finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This poorly scripted horror film about miniature, finny "jaws" details the mating rituals of the fictional "grunion" fish (falsely introduced as "piranhas" for more box-office recognition) and their need to attack and kill humans -- either inside or outside the water. These saber-toothed wonders have been hatched from a canister of eggs on a sunken ship in front of a posh Club Med resort, which features the mating rituals of humans who at times need to attack and kill fish. The product of a series of secret genetic engineering experiments, the toothy fish are to be tracked down by an undercover biochemist (Steve Marachuk), who is soon joined by the resident scuba diver at the resort (Tricia O'Neil). With believable gore but second-rate special effects, this film in no way presages the coming success of its debut director, James Cameron. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide