Bob Gunton Movies

Based on author Rick Porrello's book To Kill the Irishman: The War that Crippled the Mafia, director Jonathan Hensleigh's richly detailed biopic details the rise and fall of notorious Cleveland union rep Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson), who earned notoriety in the mid-'70s for his bold willingness to defy the Italian mob. Raised on the mean streets of Cleveland, Greene's tough reputation eventually lands him a contact with the local mob. Before long, the scrappy local has become a mafia enforcer, but after forming an alliance with notorious gangster John Nardi (Vincent D'Onofrio) and burning feared loan shark Shondor Birns (Christopher Walken), Greene starts to discover that he has the potential to become as powerful as any of his adversaries. Later, Greene develops a reputation as untouchable after surviving numerous assassination attempts, and dealing a devastating blow to organized-crime syndicates across the U.S. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

An English professor at a small private college finds his shot at tenure threatened by the sudden arrival of a pretty Yale PhD. onto the staff in this collegiate comedy form the producers of Rushmore. Charlie Thurber (Luke Wilson) isn't interested in school politics, and as a result his career is stalling out. But Charlie's a hit with the students, so when his chance for tenure comes up he's confident he'll get a fair evaluation. That confidence is shaken, however, when Elaine Grasso (Gretchen Mol) is hired on to the English staff. A published writer from a prestigious pedigree, Elaine has accomplished the things that Charlie's only dreamt about. Even Charlie's aging father, a celebrated professor, seems disappointed that his son hasn't accomplished more. Enter Jay Hadley (David Koechner); Jay is an anthropology teacher at the college who also happens to be Charlie's best friend. Jay isn't willing to sit idly by while Elaine takes Charlie's job, and is soon channeling all of his energy to sabotaging the well-intending newcomer's career. But despite being envious of Elaine's accomplishments, Charlie just can't bring himself to hate her; on the contrary, his attraction to her is growing by the day. As the time comes to make some decisions that will most certainly affect the course of his career, Charlie realizes that the only path worth walking is the one that you carve out for yourself. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A structural engineer (Anthony Hopkins) and an ambitious young district attorney (Ryan Gosling) become locked in a deadly battle of wits when the former is found innocent in the attempted murder of his wife in director Gregory Hoblit's tense tale of courtroom mind games. Ted Crawford (Hopkins) is an engineer who lives with his wife, Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz), in the couple's lavish Southern California home. One day, after carefully planning out the details to ensure that there is no way he can be convicted of murder, Ted shoots his wife in a blatant attempt to kill the woman. When head hostage negotiator Rob Nunally (Billy Burke) arrives on the scene to speak with Ted, he is shocked to find that the victim of the shooting is in fact his longtime lover. Though Jennifer survives the trauma of being shot in the head at close range, she hovers comatose between life and death as star prosecutor Willy Beachum (Gosling) reluctantly accepts the case while preparing to leave the Los Angeles criminal court system behind for a more promising career at a posh private law firm. Though the DA (David Strathairn) vehemently resents Beachum's lofty plan for departure, the hotshot young lawyer remains convinced that he can expedite the apparently open-and-shut case and be on his way to greener pastures in one week's time at the very most. Beachum's swelling ego betrays him, however, as his future boss Nikki Gardner (Rosamund Pike) begins to turn up the heat and fracture mechanics specialist Ted chooses to represent himself at the trial knowing well that a career spent spotting structural flaws in aeronautical systems has instilled him with just the kind of argumentative skills needed to riddle the swaggering young lawyer's "foolproof" case with doubt. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A high-stakes day trader wagers that his luck in the stock market will transfer to the gambling tables in a dramatic look at the lure of the almighty dollar starring Ethan Embry and Kathleen Robertson. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Saw duo James Wan and Leigh Whannell re-team for this chilling tale of a widower (Ryan Kwanten) who returns to his hometown to unearth clues about his recently departed wife's untimely death. In the quiet town of Ravens Fair, children taunt one another with spooky stories about a ventriloquist whose mind was ravaged by insanity. Mary Shaw was a popular entertainer until she was accused of murdering a young boy. Subsequently hunted and captured by the vengeful townspeople, Mary's tongue was cut out before she was mercilessly killed and committed to the earth in the company of her handmade collection of vaudeville dolls. In the years that followed, the town seemed to be haunted by those ghastly puppets. After mysteriously disappearing from Mary's grave, the menacing figurines would sometimes be glimpsed by the damned in the dead of night -- their appearance consistently foreshadowing the death of whoever laid eyes upon them. Entire families were found slaughtered, their tongues brutally torn from their mouths in a sickening scene that eerily recalled the execution of the elderly ventriloquist. Newlyweds Jamie (Ryan Kwanten) and Lisa Ashen (Laura Regan) both grew up in Ravens Fair. Now, following Lisa's inexplicable death, Paul has returned to the pair's hometown in order to say his final goodbyes and find out the truth about his wife's enigmatic demise. After being reunited with his ailing father (Bob Gunton) and the aging man's pretty young bride (Amber Valletta), the grieving widower will finally uncover the shocking truth behind the curse that has plagued Ravens Fair for as far back as he can remember. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) is a far from disinterested witness when Bree (Marcia Cross) goes out to lunch with the charming but slightly sinister George Williams (Roger Bart). Meanwhile, Bree's husband, Rex (Steven Culp), continues to suffer from ill health (can there be a connection somewhere?). And in other developments, Susan (Teri Hatcher) forgives Mike (James Denton) for his fatal "indiscretion"; Felicia (Felicity Huffman) takes a hand in Zach's (Cody Kasch) problems; and Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) finds out that birth control is not 100 percent effective -- especially when it's been tampered with. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The journal of the late Mrs. Huber forces Susan (Teri Hatcher) to tell all to Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) about the fire. Bree (Marcia Cross) is having second thoughts about dating George Williams (Roger Bart). Lynette (Felicity Huffman) allows a misunderstanding to go uncorrected to get her son in daycare while she does yoga. And the financial situation of Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) and Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) has been set on its ear thanks to recent unpleasant plot developments. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Five years after achieving commercial and critical success with his film Three Kings, director and screenwriter David O. Russell returns to the more idiosyncratic territory of his earlier work with this intelligent and offbeat comedy. Bernard and Vivian Jaffe (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) are a married couple who run an existential detective agency where they sift through the lives of their clients in order to discover the source of their angst. The Jaffes' latest client is Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman), an environmental activist who has a very large rock and a great deal on his mind; their study of Albert's problems lead Bernard and Vivian to Brad Stand (Jude Law), a public relations executive with a chain of successful variety stores, Huckabees. While publicly allying himself with Albert's environmental initiatives, behind the scenes Brad is running roughshod over responsible land management with little care for the consequences. When Brad learns he's being watched by the Jaffes, he hopes to co-opt them by hiring them himself; however, the plan has unexpected consequences when their questioning leads Brad's girlfriend, well-scrubbed model Dawn (Naomi Watts), into reassessing her life and relationships. Meanwhile, Albert finds himself joining forces with Tommy (Mark Wahlberg), a firefighter and fellow environmentalist who has been having second thoughts about Bernard and Vivian's ideas and methods after a long-term investigation and has since fallen under the spell of nihilist poet and philosopher Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

German filmmaker Katja von Garnier directs the HBO original movie Iron Jawed Angels, inspired by a pivotal chapter in American history. Hilary Swank plays Alice Paul, an American feminist who risked her life to fight for women's citizenship and the right to vote. She founded the separatist National Woman's Party and wrote the first equal rights amendment to be presented before Congress. Together with social reformer Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor), Paul struggled against conservative forces in order to pass the 19th amendment to the Constitution of the United States. One of their first actions was a parade on President Woodrow Wilson's (Bob Gunton) inauguration day. The suffragettes also encountered opposition from the old guard of the National American Women's Suffrage Association, Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston). The activists get arrested and go on a well-publicized hunger strike, where their refusal to eat earns them the title of "the iron-jawed angels." Iron Jawed Angels was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 before its television premiere on HBO. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Created by West Wing writer Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., the weekly, 60-minute political drama Mister Sterling was a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington for the 21st century. Josh Brolin starred as William Sterling Jr., the idealistic young "reformist" son of a popular retired California governor (James Whitmore). Selected by his state's political machine to fill out the term of a dead Democratic senator, Mister Sterling arrived in the nation's capitol with a naïvely altruistic agenda -- and with no party ties, since he was a registered Independent (though in West Wing tradition, he tended to veer toward the left). Doing their best to educate Sterling to the facts of life about Washington, and sometimes expressing amazement at how much smarter he was than the "established" politicos, were his chief of staff, Jackie Brock (Audra McDonald); his legislative director, Tommy Doyle (William Russ); and resident techno-geek Leon (David Noroña). Mister Sterling was elected to office on January 10, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Practically everyone who previewed the USA network adventure series Peacemakers before its July 30, 2003, debut arrived at the same descriptive conclusion: "CSI Goes West." The series was set in the 1880s, in the frontier town of Silver City. Tom Berenger starred as Jared Stone, a hard-bitten, set-in-his-ways federal marshal who found himself teamed with Larimer Finch (Peter O'Meara), a British-born Pinkerton detective and specialist in the brand-new field of forensic science. Although Stone preferred to use tried-and-true methods in tracking down criminals, he begrudgingly acknowledged that Finch's newfangled techniques ("They're called fingerprints!") were of some value. Also joining in the weekly investigations was Katie Owen (Amy Carlson), a medical student who had returned to Silver City to run her family's undertaking parlor. Viewers with long memories may have noted some striking resemblances between Peacemakers and the old Richard Boone Western series Hec Ramsey. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Dying from an inoperable brain tumor, impoverished single mother Lorena (Stacey Edwards) is determined to find a loving home for her 12-year-old daughter--and to make just enough money to pay for her own funeral. Tackling the second problem first, Lorena goes to work for Sidney Alcott (Bob Gunton, an embittered, hard-drinking funeral home director. Regarding Lorena as a nuisance, Sidney's first instinct is to turn her over to his assistant Monica (Roma Downey), who angelic presence in the proceedings is not immediately explained. Ultimately, it becomes crystal clear that Lorena was fated to link up with Sidney all along...and that Sidney truly needs Lorena in a way that he never could have imagined. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi