Merle Kennedy Movies

Writer/director Michael Meredith's ambitious first feature, Three Days of Rain, weaves together a large number of tales, loosely based on short stories by Anton Chekhov, and set in present-day Cleveland. Thunder (Michael Santoro) is a struggling tile-maker, an artisan whose leaky roof threatens to destroy his business and his life. Denis (Joey Bilow) is a mentally impaired railroad worker who finds his job in jeopardy when a co-worker, Jim (Chuck Cooper), questions his competence. Tess (Merle Kennedy) is a drug-addled young woman who performs sexual favors for a sleazy judge in order to visit the young daughter of whom she's lost custody. Waldo (Peter Falk) is an old rummy who repeatedly manipulates his caring son, Michael (Bill Stockton, who also produced the film), and then apologizes for doing so. Alex (Erick Avari of The Mummy) begins to question everything about his life after an encounter with a homeless veteran. A cab driver, John (Don Meredith), tells everyone who will listen about the recent death of his son. Through it all runs the commentary of a disc jockey (Lyle Lovett), who plays the smooth jazz that comprises the film's soundtrack. Three Days of Rain came to the attention of Wim Wenders through an editor on the project, Peter Pryzgodda, and Wenders, impressed with Meredith's work, became involved with the film. Three Days of Rain was shown in competition at the 2002 Tribeca Film Festival. The film features cameos by Blythe Danner, Jason Patric, Max Perlich, Wayne Rogers (of M*A*S*H fame), and avant-garde filmmaker George Kuchar. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Scripter Jeb Stuart (Die Hard) made his directorial debut with this thriller about an FBI agent in pursuit of a serial killer. Politically ambitious Amarillo police chief Jack McGinnis (William Fichtner) uses a local murder to gain votes in his campaign, a setback for Sheriff Buck Olmstead (R. Lee Ermey), up for re-election. The situation looks better for Olmstead after FBI agent Frank LaCrosse (Dennis Quaid) arrives to track the killer. LaCrosse has a personal agenda: he's convinced this killer is the man who kidnapped his son. Meanwhile, ex-medical student Lane Dixon (Jared Leto), hitchhiking across New Mexico, gets a lift from friendly Bob Goodall (Danny Glover), a former rail worker who later rescues Dixon from menacing miners in a bar. Red herrings throughout conceal the true identity of the killer. Some scenes were filmed at an altitude of 10,000 feet in Red Cliff, Colorado. Working titles include: Going West in America, Going West. Shown at the 1997 Denver Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Ultimate manly man Arnold Schwarzenegger learns what it's like to be an expectant mother in director Ivan Reitman's high-concept comedy. Schwarzenegger plays Dr. Hess, a medical researcher working on a revolutionary drug to help mothers carry endangered infants to term. When government regulations prevent Dr. Hess from testing the drug through normal channels, his partner Dr. Arbogast (Danny DeVito) develops an unorthodox solution: they will steal a female egg and implant it in Hess, who will carry the child himself. Predictably, much of the subsequent humor centers on the incongruous sight of the muscular Schwarzenegger undergoing the trials and tribulations of pregnancy, from morning sickness to labor pains. Emma Thompson returns to her comic roots and provides romantic interest as an incorrigibly clumsy but intelligent scientist who catches on to Hess' deception. Reitman, Schwarzenegger, and DeVito had previously had a hit with Twins (1988), which revolved around a similarly ludicrous medical premise, but they failed to repeat that film's success here, as audiences largely ignored the film and reviewers criticized the humor as disappointingly obvious. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Incredible as it must seem to some, quite a few families and individuals have agreed to give up all or part of their privacy and permit a film crew to record their every act. Therefore, the premise of this send-up of "reality television" is not so far-fetched as might be supposed. In the story, a ratings-hungry television executive (Robby Benson) persuades the Webber family to become subject to this sort of intrusion, in return for lots of money and the opportunity to live in a really fancy mansion. The star of the resulting show is the family's nubile and sexually active daughter (Jennifer Tilly), who takes casts of each of her dates' better body parts in hopes of one day putting together a model of her ideal man. The highly intellectual father in the family is a psychiatrist (Jeffrey Tambor) with some very strange patients, some of whom have agreed to appear on camera as well. The mom (Rita Taggert) becomes a popular role model, even though she feels neglected by the rest of the family, and especially her husband, and the son (David Arquette) just moons around, in mourning for his recently dead girlfriend. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Set in a WW III-decimated 21st-century Los Angeles in which humans compete with cyborgs, this low-budget special-effects laden thriller chronicles the attempts of a heroic fellow to clean up the town and keep the androids from taking over what's left of the planet. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Intergalactic super-cop Brick Bardo (Tim Thomerson) crash-lands in the Bronx while on a cosmic head hunt, only to find himself just over a foot tall in our world. Bardo spends time bringing street gangs to justice while pursuing his original quarry. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide