Bob Gunton Movies

Beware of what goes "bump" (and "squeak" and "flap flap flap") in the night. Dr. Sheila Casper (Dina Meyer) is a respected zoologist dispatched by the government to Gallup, TX, a small community suffering from an unusual number of reported bat attacks. Casper finds this news puzzling, since bats are generally placid creatures who avoid contact with humans. The local sheriff, Emmett Kimsey (Lou Diamond Phillips), assures Casper that the reports are on the level and that something needs to be done about swarms of aggressive bats so thick they blot out the moon. Caspar and Kimsey discover that a new breed of genetically altered bats have escaped from a research facility and taken up residence in a cave near Gallup -- but the nocturnal bloodsuckers have no intention of leaving as quickly as they arrived. Bats was written by John Logan, who had two other projects hit the screen within a few months of Bats' release: Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday and Ridley Scott's Gladiator. The supporting cast includes Leon and Bob Gunton. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The fact-based story of an unconventional physician who attempted to heal patients with laughter, based on his own book and mixing equal doses of scatological humor and pathos. Robin Williams stars as Hunter Adams, a troubled young man who commits himself to a mental institution in the late 1960s. His experiences there convince Adams to become a doctor, and he enrolls in medical school, where he is appalled at the cold, clinical professionalism that alienates patients from their caregivers. Determined to provide emotional and spiritual relief as well as medicine, Adams clowns around for his patients, getting to know them personally. Although his efforts seem to work wonders and the hospital nursing staff is grateful for the levity Adams provides, his methods alienate his uptight roommate Mitch (Philip Seymour Hoffman) as well as the staff and faculty of his school. Adams perseveres, however, even starting his own low-cost rural clinic called the Gesundheit Institute, and wooing a pretty fellow student, Carin (Monica Potter). Tragedy strikes, and Adams' career is put in jeopardy, forcing him to defend his style and philosophy before a board of jurists determined to bar him from practicing medicine. Patch Adams (1998) was produced by former M*A*S*H (1972-83) star Mike Farrell, who met the real-life Adams when the offbeat doctor served as an advisor to the actor's popular TV series. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In this comedy with dramatic overtones, Susan "Soosh" Teagarden (Moira Kelly) is an aspiring artist with plenty of emotional baggage. Her father Theo (Christopher Lloyd) is a famous painter; he's also an alcoholic who has never been able to express his affection for his daughter. Soosh's mother died when she was young, and she still cherishes her memory but also feels deep loss. These days, Soosh has trouble with men, her job at a clothing store, her art, and her landlord, after she's caught shoplifting. Looking for somewhere to stay, she goes to a nearby convent and tells them a sob story that moves the Mother Superior (Eileen Brennan) to take her in. Soosh discovers that Christian charity isn't the easy street she expected; she has to work alongside the sisters at the convent and follow their schedule, and Soosh isn't accustomed to rising at 5 a.m. and having to be in by 11 p.m. But the Mother Superior sees Soosh's paintings and realizes that she has a true gift; she encourages her in her art and tries to help her put the broken pieces of her life together. Along the way, Soosh also falls in love with Felix (Dylan Walsh), who happens to run the art supply store where she steals most of her supplies. Changing Habits also stars Shelley Duvall as a speechless nun and Teri Garr as one of Soosh's co-workers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Two cops with almost nothing in common find themselves brought together to capture a psychotic murderer in this action thriller. Jack Cole (Steven Seagal) was once a government intelligence operative known as "The Glimmer Man," because he could move so quickly and quietly that his victims would only see a glimmer before they died. Having left international espionage behind him, Cole -- steeped in Eastern mysticism and not used to working with others -- has become a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, where he's paired up with Jim Campbell (Keenen Ivory Wayans), a tough, no-nonsense cop with a weakness for weepy movies (Casablanca is one of his favorites) and little patience for Cole's New Age philosophies and outsider attitude. Cole and Campbell have to set aside their differences when they're assigned to track down a serial killer the press has dubbed "The Family Man," for his habit of dispatching entire households at once. However, when the Family Man's latest victims turn out to be Cole's former wife and her current husband, Campbell learns about Cole's secret past, and they both think that Cole's former bosses may somehow be involved with this current crime wave. Leading man Seagal also wrote and played guitar on several blues-based songs that appear on the film's soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Hong Kong director John Woo's second U.S. film (his first was Hard Target) delivers a number of exciting action sequences but is let down by a credibility-straining plot. John Travolta plays Vic Deakins, an Air Force pilot on what is supposed to be a routine night flight mission with his co-pilot, the younger Riley Hale (Christian Slater), whom Deakins constantly kids for lacking the "will to win." Deakins is actually a traitor who crashlands their Stealth Bomber in Death Valley so that he can steal two nuclear warheads onboard and sell them to terrorists who plan to blackmail the government. Deakins meets up with his cohorts, who have been waiting in the park, while Hale survives and teams up with a young, attractive park ranger (Samantha Mathis) to foil Deakins's plans. Plenty of action ensues, with car chases, collapsing mine shafts, fights on burning trains, and even the underground detonation of a nuclear device. Despite the script's implausibilities and inconsistencies, Woo amply displays the expertise with action sequences and man-to-man conflict that has made his Hong Kong films cult favorites. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Actor Ken Olin directed this real-life story of five American Calvary soldiers who took a stand against General Douglas MacArthur and fought his 1930s plan to trade men on horses for tanks. After defying a direct order to destroy their horses, the men find themselves on the wrong side of military law fighting to survive. This made-for-cable movie was filmed on location in New Zealand and Australia. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

A daughter who has come to imagine the worst about her mother learns the facts are quite different -- and more shocking than she ever imagined -- in this adaptation of Stephen King's best-selling novel. Dolores Claiborne (Kathy Bates) has spent nearly a quarter of a century looking after a mean-spirited woman named Vera Donovan (Judy Parfitt) on a small island off the coast of Maine; when Vera is found dead after falling down a flight of stairs, Dolores is considered a prime suspect in her murder. Word of the affair reaches New York-based journalist Selena St. George (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Dolores's estranged daughter. Though she's about to leave on an important assignment, Selena instead flies to Maine to find out what's happened with her mother. Selena's father, Joe St. George (David Strathairn), died under mysterious circumstances 15 years before; more than a few people believe Dolores killed Joe, and many feel she did the same with Vera. Though the strong and tough-talking Dolores stands her ground, police detective John Mackey (Christopher Plummer) is convinced that there's more to her story than she's letting on, and in time Selena learns the ugly truth about her mother's connection to both deaths. This was Kathy Bates's second starring role in a film based on Stephen King's work; she earned an Academy Award for her breakthrough role in the movie version of King's Misery. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Originally made for cable television, Roswell is an entertaining mix of purported actual events and science fiction. The narrative unfolds primarily in flashbacks as retired Army officer Jesse Marcel (Kyle MacLachlan) attends a reunion of the 509th Bomber Group and tries to come to closure on events that had taken place 30 years earlier. Back in 1947, Major Marcel had been part of a military team that investigated a crash site on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. The debris recovered from the site had exhibited some remarkable properties such as being able to repair itself instantly after being cut, suggesting that it might have been of extraterrestrial origin. The military brass had ordered Marcel to go along with their phony story that the material was ordinary metal foil from a weather balloon, and he had reluctantly complied. By the time of the 1977 reunion, Marcel is suffering from a terminal illness, and he feels compelled to try to find out what had really happened at Roswell all those years ago. MacLachlan gives an effective performance, particularly when he portrays Marcel as an older man trying to understand his past. Evocative location shooting in the American Southwest adds cinematic impact. ~ All Movie Guide

Just after the turn of the 21st century in L.A., Harry (Belushi) works for a television station that uses a revolutionary technology, virtual reality projected for at-home viewers with 3-D holographic programs. A sinister group known as the Fathers, headed by Senator Kreutzer (Loggia), has a scheme to use it for mind-control. ~ All Movie Guide

The plot of this action film begins in 1996, with Los Angeles in a violence-crazed conflagration. One of the LAPD's most notorious cops, John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), known as "the demolition man," is in hot pursuit of blonde-haired psychopath Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), who is so nasty he even kills sometimes just because he feels cranky. John captures Simon, but not before Simon kills innocent hostages. John is blamed for the deaths of the hostages, and both he and Simon are cryogenically frozen to remove their brand of ultra-violence from a society that is simply just too violent. The film shifts to the future world of 2032, where Los Angeles has become a megalopolis called San Angeles. There is no poverty, Arnold Schwarzenegger was (at one time) president of the United States, and Taco Bell is the sole survivor of the Franchise Wars. Into this peaceful and bland society, Simon is summarily defrosted by reigning benevolent dictator Dr. Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne) to have Simon murder Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary), the leader of a group of underground rebels. But Cocteau bites off more than he can chew when the melted-down Simon proceeds to go on a murder-and-looting spree. Reluctantly, Cocteau defrosts John to hunt down his old adversary. As John adjusts to self-driving cars and having sex wearing helmets, he pairs up with Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock), a bored cop with a nostalgic fascination for 20th-century culture. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-cable thriller, Mimi Rogers portrays a cop who, burned out by her work, transfers to the forensics staff as an evidence photographer. While investigating a string of killings, the trail of evidence leads to the married man with whom she's having an affair. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Stressed out LA detective John Berlin gets too near the edge following the destruction of his marriage and decides to leave the violence an un-ending hub-bub of the big city and take a job in the supposedly quiet northern tow of Eureka. Unfortunately, he isn't there long before he finds himself obsessed with pursuing a serial killer with a thing for blind young women. The case isn't new and Berlin's old-time buddy, Freddy Ross and his boys have spent the last six months investigating a string of seven murders. They have dubbed the case "Jennifer 8" because Berlin is positive that he knows the identity of the next victim. She is beautiful blind student Helena Robertson, the roommate of the latest victim. As he steps up his investigation, Berlin finds himself falling for Helena. Meanwhile, he has become so obsessed with finding the killer that pal Ross begins worrying that Berlin is having a breakdown and so goes with him on a late night surveillance of Helena's school. A tragedy ensues leaving Berlin to not only go it alone, but also to clear his own name. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The tragic wreck of the super-tanker Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 24, 1989 was one of the most devastating ecological disasters in recent history. Immediately after the ship ran aground and began pumping over 11 million gallons of suffocating oil from its ruptured hold, experts were sent out to assess the damage and clean up the mess. This gripping docudrama tells their story. Much centers on the conflict between local officials, the fishing industry, and the Exxon official sent out to oversee the clean-up and take the rap. With unflinching moral outrage, the filmmakers point out that much of the aftermath could have been minimized had the officials in charge been better prepared and not spent so much time involved in useless red-tape and petty bureaucratic bickering. Most of the film was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, but it also utilizes archival filmclips of the actual disaster and clean up efforts. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide