Ron Dean Movies

This ER episode eschews the usual "multiple-subplot" format to focus on a single plot line involving little Corinna (Nicolette Little), a seven-year-old victim of a car accident. Inasmuch as the girl has an extremely rare blood type, it is necessary to locate her missing father -- a task that falls to Carter (Noah Wyle) and Lucy (Kellie Martin), who embark upon an odyssey through Chicago that takes them from Wrigley Field to a forbidding back alley. As time runs out for Corinna, Benton (Eriq La Salle) is forced into an unorthodox surgical procedure. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Four lifelong friends struggle to make the uncomfortable leap from adolescence to adulthood in this independent comedy-drama. Jimmy (Gabriel Olds) lives in the same Midwestern town where he was born; while Jimmy has always been bright, he's never had much use for academics, but his post-high-school career as a roofer is starting to make him wonder if college is such a bad idea. His best friend Trevor (Alan Tudyk) is busy with his romantic problems, owing to a frustrating relationship with a beautiful but flighty Amy (Kellie Overbey), a waitress who enjoys telling strangers about her sex life. Madeline (Jennifer Crystal) comes home from her first year at college looking for a summer job, and finds one; unfortunately, it's cleaning and painting the city's municipal swimming pool. And Jimmy and his pal Reid (G. Riley Mills) find their roofing jobs are threatened by a strike at the factory that provides most of the town's jobs. When Jimmy is forced out of the roofing business, he finds himself taking work as a scab laborer at the plant, which has unexpected -- and unpleasant -- consequences. 35 Miles From Normal had its world premiere at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This Swedish comedy is a sequel to the 1992 international hit movie, House of Angels. It continues the story of Fanny and Zak, a formerly down and out couple that finds wealth when Fanny inherits a large house from her grandfather who lived in a small, unfriendly village. Fanny, whose father is unknown, eventually charmed the whole town with two old men, Ivar and Axel, gladly coming forth to claim her paternity. Now, it is one year later and Fanny and Zak have just returned from a world-tour. Unfortunately, while she was gone, her house burned down. Ivar who won a lottery, takes his brother Gottfrid and the returned couple with him to New York where he will visit his other brother, Sven. While the foursome grows accustomed to New York, the villagers continue to ponder the true identity of Fanny's father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Plucky Daphne (Jane Leeves) has no qualms about going out on a date with ex-convict Jimmy (Tony Abatemarco). Her devil-may-care attitude is not shared by Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) and Niles (David Hyde Pierce), who vow to protect Daphne's honor if necessary. The fact that Frasier had not earlier been able to differentiate between the ex-con and an ex-cop does not diminish his diligence in "protecting" Daphne; and, of course, Niles' interest in the matter goes far beyond mere friendship. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Michael Ontkean stars as Zack Resnick, an honest Chicago cop drawn into a political assassination who discovers some shocking information about himself and his family. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Crime Story was a valiant attempt by Miami Vice producer Michael Mann to present a compelling police drama series in a serialized fashion. Introduced as a two-hour TV movie on September 18, 1986, the weekly, hour-long series was initially set in Chicago in 1963. Dennis Farina, a former cop in real life, starred as Lt. Mike Torello, head of the windy city's Major Crime Unit (MCU), who carried on a blood feud with young, ambitious gangster Ray Luca (Anthony John Denison). Assisting Torello in his efforts was prosecuting attorney David Abrams (Stephen Lang), a mobster's son who had "seen the light" and switched sides. Others on Torello's team included Sgt. Danny Krychek (Bill Smitrovich), and detectives Nate Grossman (Steve Ryan), Joey Indelli (Bill Campbell), and Walter Clemmons (Paul Butler), while Luca was backed up by his faithful but dangerously stupid henchman Paulie Taglia (played by John Santucci, who, in a perverse spin of the Dennis Farina situation, had been a genuine criminal before turning to acting).

Halfway through season one, Luca and Paulie moved to Las Vegas, only to be closely followed by Torello and his men, who had become federal agents. The season ended with literal bang, as Luca and Paulie took refuge in a small house in the Nevada desert that turned out to be smack-dab in the middle of a nuclear testing site. Miraculously, the two gangsters managed to survive an atomic explosion with nary a scratch, and spent the series' second and final season playing a game of hide and seek with the Torello forces. Ultimately, the "good guys" bearded their prey in Mexico. In the course of events, Torello's marriage to his wife, Julie (Darlanne Fluegel, broke up, whereupon he entered into a relationship with Inga Thorson (Patricia Charbonneau). Also, both the cops and the robbers had brief encounters with the mob's "big boys," portrayed by such diverse actors as Joseph Wiseman and Andrew Dice Clay. Although the ratings for Crime Story were mediocre, NBC had faith in the series and kept it alive for two years. Like many other Michael Mann productions, the series was rich with authentic period detail, and came equipped with wall-to-wall vintage music, including the theme tune "Runaway", re-recorded (and recreated) by its original artist, Del Shannon. But for all of NBC's promotional skills and Michael Mann's production expertise, the series never caught on (more's the pity), and last aired on May 10, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Belushi, king of the direct-to-video film, stars in Birthday Boy. Actually, the film first appeared on cable TV, but it was consigned to video shortly thereafter. This time around, Belushi plays an inept salesman who undergoes an epiphany upon reaching his 30th birthday. The catalyst for his "change of life" is a bizarre and oftimes disastrous business trip. Lifting this minor effort out of the ordinary is the fact that Belushi wrote the script himself. Ron Dean, Dennis Farina, and Michelle Riga costar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Chicago cop is wrongly accused of theft and dismissed from the force. In order to clear his name, he goes after the real culprits -- without the extra baggage of police regulations that might have made his task more difficult if he were still active in the department. This script was originally intended for a Dirty Harry vehicle, but was never realized. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

In this crime thriller, Jennifer (Hillary Tuck) is the beautiful but unfaithful wife of a wealthy and powerful man and has been cheating on her husband with a ruthless mobster. Meanwhile, a band of four thieves (Ron Dean, Timothy Patrick Klein, Jim Petersmith, and Mik Scriba) have been given a job that's a bit out of their league. Before long, they find themselves crossing paths with Jennifer, leading all parties concerned into a deadly web of uneasy alliances and outright betrayals. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When a washed-up boxer (Roger Daltrey) invites a British priest (Dennis Waterman) to minister in his South Chicago neighborhood, he never suspects that the priest is not who he says he is. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Tom Cruise juggles Martini shakers and ice cubes as the materialistic Brian Flanagan, a bartender who drops out of school to search for the perfect "rich chick" who will bankroll him into luxury. Brian meets up with bar veteran Doug Couglin (Bryan Brown) and they put together a dance-duo bar-tending act, taking five minutes to a mix a drink as they dance and toss gin bottles behind the bar to cutting-edge rock music circa 1988. The patrons, instead of demanding the booze, are dazzled by their antics and cheer them on. As a result, the bartenders become wildly popular -- in particular, Brian, who finds the bar babes falling all over each other to hop into the sack with him. As a result of their bar-tending success, they get hired to tend bar at a swanky disco, but there Brian and Doug have a falling out, and Brian takes off for Jamaica. There he meets vacationing New York City waitress Jordan Mooney (Elisabeth Shue) and the two fall in love. But then Brian meets rich New York fashion executive Bonnie (Lisa Banes) who wants to take Brian back to Manhattan with her to become her drink-mixing stud. When Jordan sees this, the love affair is put on hold. But not for long, as pangs of consciousness begin to filter through Brian's drunken haze. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Oscar-nominated in 1961 for his performance as pool hustler Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler, Paul Newman won that award a quarter century later when he reprised the role in The Color of Money. At the end of The Hustler, Felson was banned for life from playing the game professionally. In the intervening years, he has become what the despicable George C. Scott was in the 1961 film: a front man for younger hustlers, claiming the lion's share of the winnings. His latest "client" is arrogant young Tom Cruise, who is goaded into accepting Felson's patronage by his avaricious girl friend Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Cruise learns not only the refinements of the game, but also the dirty trickery that will help him lure in the suckers. As Cruise becomes successful on these terms, Felson seethes with jealousy, hitting the bottle and carelessly allowing himself to fall victim to another hustler. He tells Cruise to get lost, and vows to make an honest comeback. It is inevitable from this point onward that the younger and the older player will square off in a game for the biggest stakes of all: Fast Eddie Felson's self-respect. Both the original Hustler and The Color of Money were based on novels by Walter Tevis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Hughes wrote and directed this quintessential 1980s high school drama featuring the hottest young stars of the decade. Trapped in a day-long Saturday detention in a prison-like school library are Claire, the princess (Molly Ringwald); Andrew, the jock (Emilio Estevez); John, the criminal (Judd Nelson); Brian, the brain (Anthony Michael Hall); and Allison, the basket case (Ally Sheedy). These five strangers begin the day with nothing in common, each bound to his/her place in the high school caste system. Yet the students bond together when faced with the villainous principal (Paul Gleason), and they realize that they have more in common than they may think, including a contempt for adult society. "When you grow up, your heart dies," Allison proclaims in one of the film's many scenes of soul-searching, and, judging from the adults depicted in the film, the teen audience may very well agree. Released in a decade overflowing with derivative teen films, The Breakfast Club has developed an almost cult-like status. ~ Dylan Wilcox, All Movie Guide