Anthony C. Hall Movies

The squad prepares a farewell party for the newly promoted Martinez (Nicholas Turturro, here making his last NYPD Blue appearance). Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) and Sorenson (Rick Schroder) trace a gun used in an earlier shooting to a more recent homicide, leading them to a deadly case of sibling rivalry. After a night of drinking, Denby (Scott Cohen) tells Diane (Kim Delaney) that he inadvertently let suspected drug trafficker Don Kirkendall (Erich Anderson) slip through his fingers. Later, Don contacts his ex-wife, Detective Jill Kirkendall (Andrea Thompson) -- who, after the conversation, seems uncharacteristically willing to place loyalty over duty. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A Jewish high school teacher, Phyllis Saroka (Rhea Perlman), steps in to take on the thankless job of coaching the school's inept basketball team, which is filled with ne'er-do-wells from the slums. She takes the job to get extra money to fulfill her dream of opening a restaurant on the Caribbean island of St. Croix. Phyllis has had bad luck with men, is dissatisfied with her teaching job, and is desperate to do something meaningful as she approaches middle age. Meanwhile, the players on the team are ambitious only about scoring drugs and girls and inventing their own rap songs. Butter (James Harris) is the team's only really talented player, but he wastes most of his energy chasing skirts. Busy-Bee (De'Aundre Bonds) is a small but highly energetic goofball. The mind of Spaceman (Terrence Dashon Howard) has been diminished by learning disabilities and drugs. Phyllis's greatest challenge is the brilliant, moody Shorty (Fredro Starr). Shorty teaches Phyllis the game, but he feels betrayed when he learns that she is planning to leave after one season. Perlman's husband, Danny DeVito, served as the film's producer. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Actor Billy Crystal co-wrote, directed, and starred in this romantic comedy. Forty-something couple Andy (Joe Mantegna) and Liz (Cynthia Stevenson) are about to be married, and as they gather with their friends for dinner not long before the wedding, they are told the story of their mutual friends Mickey (Billy Crystal) and Ellen (Debra Winger) as a cautionary tale of where a relationship can go wrong. Mickey is a top referee with the NBA who has traveled to Paris to bury his father, who wanted to be laid to rest with his Army buddies from World War II. The body is somehow lost in transit, and Mickey has an argument with Ellen, who works for an American airline in France. However, she likes his sense of humor, he is taken with her, and after a few days together in Paris, they decide to marry. However, once they return to Mickey's home in the United States, things get complicated; she's not so sure that she cares for his bachelor apartment ("a shrine to watching ESPN"), or juggling her career against his, while both have problems with their respective families. Several major basketball stars and sports figures appear in Forget Paris as themselves, including Charles Barkley, Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Marv Albert. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A sterling cast headed by Oscar-nominated Susan Sarandon makes this slick thriller one of the better adaptations of a John Grisham bestseller. Mark Sway (Brad Renfro) witnesses the suicide of a Mafia lawyer, who confesses that the Mob was behind the murder of a U.S. senator. Mark's brother is traumatized into a coma by the incident; gangster Barry Muldano (Anthony LaPaglia) is soon on Mark's trail, and in desperation, he arrives at the office of recovering alcoholic lawyer Reggie Love (Sarandon). With the Mob after them, and a ruthless federal attorney (Tommy Lee Jones) trying to force Mark to reveal what he knows, Love battles to guarantee the safety of her client and his family. The relationship between Reggie Love and Mark Sway is the center of the film, adding considerable character development to plot's routine elements. Director Joel Schumacher helmed another Grisham adaptation, A Time To Kill, in 1996. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi