Murphy Guyer Movies

The immature heir to a billion-dollar empire finds himself cut off from the family fortune after rejecting his arranged marriage to a nouveau riche socialite, and instead falling for a free-spirited unlicensed tour guide in this remake of the sentimental 1981 comedy starring Dudley Moore. Arthur (Russell Brand) was raised in the lap of luxury. His family is wealthy beyond compare, and ever since he was a child his every whim has been catered to by his nanny, Hobson (Helen Mirren), and his chauffeur, Bitterman (Luis Guzman). But the party starts to wind down when Arthur's domineering mother (Geraldine James) insists that he marry Susan (Jennifer Garner), the daughter of a self-made millionaire (Nick Nolte) who isn't above intimidating his future son-in-law into marriage. Vehemently opposed to the idea due to the fact that he and Susan have nothing in common, Arthur rejects the proposal after falling in love with Linda (Greta Gerwig), an aspiring children's book author who pays the rent by giving unofficial tours of Grand Central Station. As a result, Arthur has to decide if he can face life as a normal member of the working class -- and without his trusty flask of booze. Television veteran Jason Winer (Modern Family) directs from a script by Peter Baynham (Brüno, Borat). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Thomas Lennon, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and Stephnie Weir star in first-time feature producer/screenwriter/director Paul Leuer's romantic comedy drama about a washed-up baseball player who dreams of escaping the trailer park and moving to Australia to live the American Dream. Shroeder Duncan (Lennon) is a former all-star baseball player whose life has taken a sharp detour into dissatisfaction. It's his thirtieth birthday, and Shroeder longs for a more meaningful existence than the one he shares in the Eden Court trailer park with his devoted wife Bonnie (Williams-Paisley). Trouble is, Shroeder's promising athletic career had been cut short by a fateful injury, leaving his choices in life severely limited. While his job as the groundkeeper at a local minor league baseball park at least gives Shroeder the chance to get out on the field and mingle with the players again, it pains him to see them moving on to achieve the kind of success that he always longed for. One night, depressed and sitting in font the television, it dawns on Shroeder that he could leave his old life behind in order to seek out his own American Dream in Australia. But staring over in life isn't always an easy task, especially when your wife, family, and friends vow not to let go without a fight. Ultimately, it's up to Shroeder to choose between living a life of freedom alone, or accepting his little slice of trailer park paradise in Eden Court. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Law & Order launched its tenth season with still another addition to the cast: former Ally McBeal regular Jesse L. Martin as detective Eddie Green, newest partner of series stalwart Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach). This episode acknowledges the devastating impact of the Columbine tragedy, opening with a Central Park shooting spree in which several female medical students are killed or injured. Once the detectives have traced the weapon, A.D.A. Sam McCoy (Sam Waterston) goes after two perpetrators: the man who pulled the trigger, and the manufacturer of the weapon. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Law & Order launched its third season (and its new Wednesday-night time slot) with a complex murder mystery involving a "high-fashion" photographer who sidelines as a pimp. Found murdered in his studio, the photographer has left behind a rather sizeable address book, crammed with the names and phone numbers of his models. As investigating detective Logan (Chris Noth) and Cerreta (Paul Sorvino) discover, virtually every one of the ladies in the dead man's "little black book" had ample motive to knock him off. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This Ken Burns documentary, narrated by Hal Holbrook, chronologically traces the well-documented 1804-06 military expedition of Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) and Lt. William Clark (1770-1838) to survey newly acquired lands and seek a Northwest Passage. Ordered by Thomas Jefferson (who labeled it the Corps of Discovery), the expedition was approved by Congress in 1803, and several dozen men were trained in Illinois in the winter of 1803-04. On May 14, 1804, the explorers departed from St. Louis, heading up the Missouri River by keelboat and continuing westward over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. Ken Burns spent almost four years on this project, retracing the route with cameras capturing mountains, rivers, waterfalls, and forests at the same time of year as first seen by Lewis and Clark. Traditional and Native American music provides an accompaniment to the grandeur of these vast vistas, while Stephen Ambrose and other historians offer illuminating anecdotes. Paintings and maps are intercut, but unlike other Burns documentaries, few archival photos are included (since photography was not invented until decades later). Reenactments, seen at a distance, are also kept at a bare minimum. The four-hour film premiered as a PBS two-parter on November 4-5, 1997. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

This made-for-TV miniseries recounts the muddled criminal investigation of the JonBenet Ramsey murder -- one of the most luridly publicized crimes in recent memory. As the crime unfolds, the Boulder police squad grow increasingly swamped by the elusive details of the crime and the unprecedented media attention. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

With his English-language political thriller The Feast of the Goat, action helmer Luis Llosa cinematizes Mario Vargas Llosa's sweeping, epic novel about the myriad of events leading up to the assassination of a real-life tyrannical despot. The story opens in 1992, when a Dominican émigré attorney, Urania Cabral (Isabella Rossellini) leaves her new home in the U.S. and heads back to her native country, for the first occasion in decades. She intends to confront her father, 80-year-old Augustin (Tomas Milian), about his former employment in the government of the supremely corrupt dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo (Tomas Milian). The film then flashes back to the events surrounding the assassination of Trujillo on a highway in late May of 1961, by delving into the lives and motives of each of the participants - from Amadito (Juan Diego Botto), whom Trujillo forced to execute his future brother-in-law, to that victim's father (Murphy Guyer), to Antonio (David Zayas), the brother of an incriminating witness whom Trujillo's men executed. One by one, as their stories are disinterred, the assassins gather on a nighttime road, brandishing guns, and prepare to shoot Trujillo and throw his body into the trunk of a car. Paul Freeman, Stephanie Leonidas and Richard Bekins co-star; Llosa co-authored the script with Augusto Cabada and Zachary Sklar. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi