O'Neal Compton Movies

A woman finds love when all she wanted was a quick and painless death in this dark comedy-drama. Shawn (Selma Blair) is a deeply depressed young woman who is unhappy with her job as a bank teller and is frustrated with her romantic relationship with her boss (D.W. Moffett), who happens to be married. Deciding there's no reason to go on, Shawn climbs to the roof of the bank and steels her nerve to leap to her death. But before she can jump, a novice bank robber named Charlie (Max Beesley) stages a hold-up at the bank, taking Shawn hostage in the process. Charlie and Shawn are soon trapped in the bank, and Charlie asks Shawn to help him escape; she agrees, but only under the condition that he kill her later. He agrees, but after they make their getaway, Charlie finds himself increasingly attracted to Shawn and isn't so sure he wants to see her dead, while Shawn is similarly intrigued with Charlie and decides to join him in his life of crime. Kill Me Later received its premiere at the 2001 Santa Barbara Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Comedians Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence team up for a story that wouldn't appear to have many immediate humorous possibilities -- two men serving life sentences in prison for a crime they did not commit. Life opens in Harlem in 1932, where Ray Gibson (Eddie Murphy) is a small-time con man in debt to Spanky, a gangster (Rick James). Ray spots would-be bank teller Claude Banks (Martin Lawrence) at a gambling spot and, figuring him for an easy mark, lifts his wallet -- only to discover Claude is broke. Ray and Claude's mutual need to raise some cash brings them together when Spanky offers them a job bringing back a load of moonshine from bootleggers in the deep south. However, things don't go well for Ray and Claude, and they're arrested by a sheriff in Mississippi who recently killed a man and needs someone on whom he can hang the charge. Since Ray and Claude are black, from out of town and have been caught red-handed with a load of illegal liquor, the sheriff figures they're easy pickings and frames them for the murder. Soon the two men are inmates in a Southern work camp, where they spend the next 55 years learning to get along with the other inmates, avoiding the wrath of the guards, seeing younger prisoners come and go and never losing hope that someday, somehow, their innocence will be proven and they'll be released. Life is the second screen pairing for Murphy and Lawrence, who also shared screen time in 1992's Boomerang, and was scripted by Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone from an original idea by Murphy. The supporting cast includes Ned Beatty, Clarence Williams III, Bernie Mac, Nick Cassavetes and R. Lee Ermey. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Classic alert! When Kramer (Michael Richards) asks Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) to "pick up some Cubans" from his cigar salesman, he wasn't expecting real Cubans -- or even real Dominicans. Elsewhere, George (Jason Alexander) has his curiosity aroused when a woman mistakes him for a guy named Neil. Jerry enters into an athletic competition with an 80-year-old health freak named Izzy Mandelbaum (Lloyd Bridges). And Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) loses more than a boyfriend when she declares her hatred for The English Patient. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

Swaggering rebel Dude (David Arquette) crosses a corrupt sheriff and stumbles into a world of trouble, fights to stay on his feet as his voluptuous girlfriend (Salma Hayek) comes along for the ride. John Hawkes, Kevin McCarthy, and William Sadler co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Another "based on an actual event!" TV movie, Murder Between Friends is set in 1980s New Orleans. Two friends become involved in murder when the wife of one of them begins cheating on her spouse. Constructed along the lines of "Rashomon", the script offers two entirely different accounts of the homicide and the events leading up to it. Timothy Busfield heads the cast as the hardworking prosecutor who wants to cut through the bull. When first telecast on January 10, 1994, Murder Between Friends was accompanied by a "viewer discretion" disclaimer; smart move. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A handful of up-and-coming songwriters discover that love is as difficult to navigate as the music business in this romantic comedy-drama from director Peter Bogdanovich. Miranda Presley (Samantha Mathis) is an aspiring singer/songwriter from New York City who loves country music and has decided to take her chances in Nashville, TN, where she hopes to strike it big as a musician. After arriving in the Music City after a long bus ride, Miranda makes her way to the Bluebird Café, a local watering hole with a reputation as a showcase for new talent. The bar's owner, Lucy (K.T. Oslin), takes a shine to the shy but plucky newcomer, and gives her a job as a waitress. Before long, Miranda has gotten to know a number of other Nashville transplants who are look looking to land a gig or sell a song, among them sweet and open-hearted Kyle Davidson (Dermot Mulroney), moody but talented James Wright (River Phoenix), and spunky Linda Lue Linden (Sandra Bullock). As the four friends struggle to find their place in the competitive Nashville music scene, both Kyle and James display a romantic interest in Miranda, while she finds it difficult to choose between the two. The Thing Called Love features cameos from a number of noted country performers, including Trisha Yearwood, Pam Tillis, Katy Moffatt, Jo-El Sonnier, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Sadly, The Thing Called Love would be best remembered as the last film actor River Phoenix completed before his death in the fall of 1993. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Richard Benjamin directed this farce that plays like "Guess Who's Coming for Insemination?" Whoopi Goldberg stars as Sarah Matthews, who runs an African-American oriented bookstore in Oakland. She is raising her daughter, a beautiful high school student named Zora (Nia Long), on her own after her husband's death many years earlier. As a result of a science class blood test, Zora discovers that the man she thought was her father actually wasn't. Instead Zora finds she was the result of artificial insemination. After researching the sperm bank's records, Zora discovers, much to the surprise of Sarah and herself, that the anonymous sperm donor is in fact, Hal Jackson (Ted Danson), a loud, crude obnoxious (and white) used-car dealer who advertises on late-night television. Zora visits Hal while he is filming a commercial and Hal brushes her off. Enraged, Sarah tells Hal off, but after meeting Zora he now feels a paternal itch. Not only that, but he is beginning to feel an attraction to Sarah. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Free-spirited artist Lindsay Wagner learns that she's dying from cancer. She can handle that, but she worries about the future of her 6-year-old daughter Molly Orr. Enter high-powered executive Shelley Long, Lindsay's oldest friend. Despite the fact that they obviously move in different circles, Shelley commits herself to the task of properly raising young Molly. This lachrymose TV movie suffers from surprisingly noncommital performances by its stars. Message From Holly premiered December 13, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi