John Cassini Movies

Daryl Hannah, Campbell Scott, and Gil Bellows star in an end-of-days sci-fi thriller about a rogue archeologist who stumbles onto a terrifying alien conspiracy. Lloyd Walker scours the globe in search of answers to mankind's greatest mysterious, and what he's about to discover with forever change the fate of the human race. A series of strange events have been occurring all over San Francisco, and the only one who can make sense of these seemingly unrelated incidents is the archeologist with a bad reputation. Deep within the doomed Pericles space mission, in the enigmatic Room 86, dwells a secret that will illuminate a diabolical plan. A race of alien insects is preparing to enslave all of mankind, and the only one with the power to stop their nefarious mission of the man known as the "keeper of dead civilizations." But will Walker be able to act in time, or is it already too late for the citizens of the third rock from the sun? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

When a weary detective on the verge of retirement begins receiving ominous messages from a sadistic serial killer determined to stir up the past, the stage is set for a deadly confrontation in an all-star crime drama featuring Michael Madsen, Gary Busey, Meat Loaf, and Michael Rooker. Years on the job have shown Detective Harrison (Michael Madsen) more horror than most normal folks would experience in two lifetimes. As Detective Harrison prepares to pass the baton on to the up-and-coming rookie poised to take his place in the police force, the murder of numerous underworld heavies leave the befuddled veteran and his younger protégé grasping for clues. When the killer begins taunting Detective Harrison with a variety of stealthy clues and grisly photographs left behind at the crime scenes, an unsolved case from the past threatens to bring the sins of the past out of the shadows and into the light of the present. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Patience Philips (Halle Berry) seems destined to spend her life apologizing for taking up space. Despite her artistic ability -- she has a more than respectable career as a graphic designer for Hedare Beauty, a Goliath cosmetics company -- Patience is excruciatingly shy, quick to take blame, and, not surprisingly, more than a little depressed at the end of the day. This comes to somewhat of a screeching halt when Patience not only inadvertently lands herself in the middle of a corporate conspiracy of gargantuan proportions, but on the city police force's most wanted list. Newly quipped with a mysterious feline prowess, Patience is a different person come nighttime -- more accurately, a catwoman. Elusive, untamed, powerful, stealthy, and not necessarily prone to erring on the side of good, Patience has gone from doormat to vigilante. Police officer Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt), who has fallen for shy Patience, is determined to apprehend Catwoman and figure out her role in a recent crime spree, though his fascination with her doesn't cease with the end of his shift and it threatens to lead to the downfall of himself, his investigation, and the woman who was once the timid Patience Philips. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

A talented character actor with an undeniable presence on the screen but an uncanny track record of losing roles to more marketable "name" actors decides to take matters into his own hands after losing out on one too many roles in director Monika Mitchell's blood-soaked showbiz satire. Max Matteo (John Cassini) knows that he has what it takes to make it as an actor, but it always seems like there's a producer's nephew just waiting in the wings to snatch the role just out from under him. Now, with nothing left to lose but the role that will most certainly be offered to someone else before the cameras start to role, Max decides to take his fate - as well as various blunt objects - in his hands to ensure a long and rewarding career in a business where there's truly no room for the weak. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

No sooner had actor Joe Pantoliano's character literally lost his head as mobster Ralph Cifaretto on the HBO crime series The Sopranos than he switched to the "right" side of the law on the CBS weekly The Handler. Pantoliano was cast as veteran FBI agent Joe Renato, who was placed in charge of a group of rookie undercover agents operating in L.A. Each of Renato's chameleon charges was a master of disguise and deception, ideally suited for the various FBI stings to which they assigned -- but still not yet dry behind the years insofar as surviving deadly situations. Featured in the cast was another Sopranos expatriate, Lola Glaudini, as eager young agent Heather, Anna Belknap as Lily, Ken Weiler as Roy, Hill Harper as Darnell, and Tanya Wright as Marcy. The Handler debuted September 26, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The detectives investigate when a man claims that his current house guest has been robbing gas stations and slashing the attendants. In another case, Diane (Kim Delaney) and Jill (Andrea Thompson) go after a band of gypsies who've been scamming elderly people. But the episode's biggest development (and the one that will mold the direction of the rest of NYPD Blue's seventh season) occurs when Diane again crosses paths with disingenuous drug task-force officer Denby (Scott Cohen) -- whom she sees conversing with a man who looks exactly like Jill's deceased ex-husband, drug trafficker Don Kirkendall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Karis (Nicole Oliver) is a clothing store owner who picks up a handsome music executive, Lars (Christopher Shyer), in a bar and immediately engages him in some very hot sex that leads to an ongoing physical relationship. One morning Lars encounters Morgan (Rob Lee) in Karis' kitchen; Morgan is her future ex-husband and a policeman with a violent temper who begins a campaign of intimidation to make Lars stop seeing Karis. But wait: 30 minutes into the movie the point-of-view changes to Morgan's, and we see he's not such a bad guy after all and that Lars is the hot-tempered villain. But wait: 30 minutes later the point of view switches to Karis, and it turns out that she hasn't been completely honest about things. Whose story is the real one? ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide

Christmas and Hanukkah are simultaneously acknowledged during the holiday season at the ER. The faith of Holocaust survivor Hannah Steiner (Joan Copeland) is sorely tested when she is injured in a carjacking and her baby granddaughter is apparently kidnapped; and a priest (Tony Plana) who has been mortally wounded in a shooting at his own church prays that this tragedy will not result in wholesale gang war. As for the staffers, Greene (Anthony Edwards) sullenly prepares to spend his first Christmas without his wife; and Shep (Ron Eldard) finally expresses his true feelings toward Carol (Julianna Margulies). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A retired soldier (Gerald McRaney) is driving his family from Texas to California. As they cross the desert, they are terrorized by a gang of heroin-dealing bikers who kidnap his teenage daughter and take her across the Mexican border. He follows them to their hideout and devises a plan to rescue his daughter. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

This is the first mainstream film to deal with the harrowing true story of a Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes mountains in October of 1972 and who were forced to resort to cannibalism to survive more than two months of isolation. (The only other film to tackle the subject, Rene Cardona's Survive! was a seedy little mess that delighted in exploiting the cannibalism aspect.) The events depicted are primarily based on the novel of the same name by Piers Paul Read. The interview-style prologue features an uncredited John Malkovich as one of the survivors, whose spiritual ruminations on the disaster kick off the film's main action. We are briefly introduced to the characters before disaster strikes, in the film's most horrifying set-piece -- the depiction of the crash in grueling detail. The handful of survivors who manage to extricate themselves from the twisted wreckage seem incapable of working through their panic as they hope against all odds that a rescue party will locate them. One of the survivors, Nando (Ethan Hawke), awakens from a coma and makes a remarkable recovery -- enough to demonstrate level-headed leadership after team captain Antonio (Vincent Spano) begins to lose his nerve. As the weeks wear on and rations are depleted, the survivors are forced into a moral dilemma: the only remaining source of food seems to be the bodies of the dead. Those who choose for religious reasons not to consume their former companions must face the realization that they will soon starve or freeze to death. In the end, three men who choose survival above all else find the strength to set out on a treacherous mission to a ridge, where hopefully one of them will make it to civilization. Director Frank Marshall infuses the proceedings with sufficient intensity to keep the story moving, but the film fails to fully explore the often-recounted spiritual aspects of the ordeal as established in the opening monologue. Ironically, the writers' apparent attempts to remain true to Read's account of events -- resulting in some rather odd stretches of dialogue -- impede the drama even more than the Hollywood glamorization of the story's nominal "heroes," who remain rugged and handsome despite months of malnutrition and severe frostbite. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Tony lives in Ontario, but he has relatives all over the eastern part of the U.S. and Canada. Since he has been earning money by running marijuana from Pittsburgh to Canada, he's been avoiding them, but when his beloved grandfather bids him from his deathbed to take care of his wife, Tony's grandmother, he reluctantly agrees to do so. By now, he has already messed up a delivery for a dealer who is now gunning for him, so when his feisty grandmother proposes suing the American mining company grandpa worked with for causing him to die of black lung disease, he readily agrees to take her to Pittsburgh to file her suit. As they travel, these two angry and distrustful relations bicker and quarrel a lot but also uncover their true value to one another. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Hume Cronyn steals what there is to steal of Christmas on Division Street. Cronyn plays a smooth-talking skid row derelict who befriends wealthy Philadelphia "mainline" kid Fred Savage. Both the old bum and the young preppie have lost faith in themselves and the world. Both are redeemed by the spirit of Christmas and by the bonds of friendship. Made for TV, Christmas on Division Street is saved from being a heaping bowl of Yuletide mush by the ever-iconoclastic Cronyn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide