Michael Rispoli Movies

Brian DePalma directed this taut thriller, set in Atlantic City, where a corrupt cop investigates a political assassination. Outside an Atlantic City arena-hotel-casino, a TV news reporter stands in a pre-hurricane storm to report on the heavyweight boxing match about to begin inside. A transition to the stadium interior focuses on Atlantic City homicide Detective Rick Santoro (Nicolas Cage), a father with a wife and son, yet also a dishonest cop who maintains a mistress and cheerfully accepts bribes. DePalma's Steadicam follows Santoro on a fast-paced tour of the stadium as the laughing, yelling detective travels stairs and hallways, talks to a gal with a between-rounds placard, visits the dressing room of champ Lincoln Tyler (Stan Shaw), rides down an escalator to squeeze money from a small-time hood, enters the arena of 14,000 fight fans, talks on his phone with his girlfriend and wife, and sits ringside next to his lifelong buddy, Navy Cmdr. Kevin Dunne (Gary Sinise). Behind Dunne, the U.S. Secretary of Defense Charles Kirkland (Joel Fabiani) is seated alongside billionaire casino owner Gilbert Powell (John Heard). As the fight gets underway, Dunne abandons his position protecting the defense chief to pursue a suspicious redhead. From his ringside vantage point, Santoro has a close view of the champ, curiously conscious despite taking a kayo punch. At that moment, an assassin fires at Kirkland. Santoro immediately concocts a good cover story for his pal (to explain why Dunne left his post protecting Kirkland). Just after the shooting, Dunne kills a Palestinian extremist, the apparent killer, and Santoro orders the stadium doors locked, hoping he can locate other suspects among the fleeing crowd. One such is Julia Costello (Carla Gugino), an injured woman in a blond wig who spoke with Kirkland seconds before the gunfire. After a video replay reveals the champ took a fall, going down to the floor from a punch that never touched him, Santoro becomes more curious and suspicious, comparing witness accounts, and he attempts to locate Julia, convinced she's the key to truth behind the assassination. As it all comes to a head, Santoro peels through successive layers of corruption, ultimately confronting himself in a self-examination of his own values. Filmed at Montreal's old Forum. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

The prosecution of a Mafia murder faces a stumbling block in the form of a Mr. Dobbs (Philip Bosco), the lawyer of an elderly mob don. Dobbs argues that his client is mentally and physically unfit to stand trial -- and all evidence suggests that the attorney is telling the truth. Adding to the intrigue is the dead witness, and the all-too-eager confession of a two-bit hoodlum. The D.A.'s office arrives at the truth through the "magic" of videotape -- and a steady finger on the slow-motion button. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Disaster visits jaded L.A. in the form of an underground volcano, not the big earthquake all the citizens expect. Shot on the largest set ever constructed in the U.S., in nearby Torrance, California, Volcano is a big-budget, special-effects-laden disaster movie with a standard plot. Tommy Lee Jones plays Mike Roark, a by-the-book emergency management director who is spending the weekend with his daughter, Kelly (Gaby Hoffmann), when the previously-unknown volcano blows. Sassy, brainy scientist Dr. Amy Barnes (Ann Heche) is the first to warn of the threat, which begins by sucking one of her co-workers into a steaming fissure. As the lava starts to spurt in red-hot fireballs, Kelly is injured, and Mike sends her to the hospital in order to attend to his duties, rescue citizens, and run the city's emergency response. Eventually, Roark and Barnes team up to battle the eruption while sparks of romantic attraction fly. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

A woman serving on the jury of an anti-Mafia trial must protect herself and her young son from a psychopathic gangster in this thriller. Demi Moore stars as Annie Laird, a single mother and artist who readily agrees to do her civic duty on the jury in the trial of a major organized crime figure. She quickly comes to regret this decision when a mysterious and eccentric Mafia associate known as The Teacher (Alec Baldwin) threatens to kidnap her son and harm her friends unless she promises to vote not guilty. Fearing for their lives, she plays along, but unfortunately the Teacher shows no sign of backing away from his plans, having become personally obsessed with Annie. Unwilling to trust the authorities, Annie instead develops a plan to save her child by taking on the Teacher and the mob. Adapting a novel by George Dawes Green, the screenplay was written by Ted Tally (The Silence of the Lambs). ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

The price of fame is murder -- or at least it is in the mind of one woman in New Hampshire. Suzanne Stone (Nicole Kidman) has spent most of her life wanting to be famous; she's attractive, speaks well, and imagines herself to be intelligent ("imagines" is the key word here), so she has set her sights on becoming a TV anchorwoman. However, opportunities for female broadcasters are hard to come by in Little Hope, New Hampshire, and she's convinced that her husband, the once handsome but now flabby restaurant manager Larry Maretto (Matt Dillon), is just getting in her way. Suzanne gets herself a spot hosting a weather report on a local public access station, and is preparing a documentary called "Teens Speak Out," which puts her in touch with a trio of high school students -- Jimmy (Joaquin Phoenix), Russell (Casey Affleck), and Lydia (Alison Folland) -- who are even more desperate for attention than she is. When Suzanne hatches a plot to get Larry out of her life once and for all, she uses Jimmy, who has developed a serious crush on her, to do her dirty work, but Larry's sister Janice (Illeana Douglas), who has long believed there was something fishy about Suzanne, eventually begins to realize what happened to her brother. Nicole Kidman won a Golden Globe award for her work in this film, which represented something of a comeback for director Gus Van Sant after the commercial and critical disaster of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Screenwriter Buck Henry plays a small role as a high school teacher. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Angie is the study of a believable Italian-American woman who takes an honest look at herself and sees she's on a predictable path that will soon include an altar and a baby carriage. "There's gotta' be more!" she feels, and she's one gal with courage enough to find the answer. Geena Davis stars in this worthwhile effort. ~ All Movie Guide

Household Saints is a leisurely-paced portrait of three different generations of working-class, New York-based, Italian women. Carmela Santangelo (Judith Malina) is an elderly immigrant whose son (Vincent D'Onofrio) wins a wife, Catherine Falconetti (Tracey Ullman), during a pinochle game. The pair have a daughter, Teresa (Lili Taylor), who becomes obsessed with religion, eventually believing that she will become the bride of Christ. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide