Jennie Lew Tugend Movies

Premonition writer/director Norio Tsuruta directs iconic Japanese author Kôji Suzuki's tale of open-water terror for the small screen as Showtime's Masters of Horror series winds to a waterlogged close. Jack (Daniel Gillies) is an American lawyer working in Tokyo who is terrified of the sea. But a few small waves become the least of Jack's worries when he and the wife of his powerful client Eiji enter into a dangerous affair. Later, when Eiji personally invites Jack to join the couple for an afternoon boating excursion into Tokyo Bay, the shaken lawyer reluctantly accepts. Little do Jack and Eiji's wife realize that their greatest fears are about to become reality when a presumed pleasure cruise turns deadly personal. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a man loses the love of his life, only to find her heart beating in the body of someone new. Architect Bob Rueland (David Duchovny) is happily married until his wife Elizabeth (Joely Richardson), a zoologist, dies in an auto accident. A year later, Bob is still dealing with his loss when he meets Grace Briggs (Minnie Driver), a shy woman who waits tables in an Irish/Italian restaurant run by her grandfather Marty (Carroll O'Connor). Bob falls for Grace at first sight, and she's attracted to him as well, but what he doesn't know is that a year ago Grace was the recipient of a heart transplant -- and that Elizabeth was the donor. Return to Me was directed and co-written by actress Bonnie Hunt, who also appears in a supporting role as Grace's best friend Megan; the cast also includes Robert Loggia, James Belushi, and David Alan Grier. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In the third installment in the Free Willy series, Jesse (Jason James Richter), the once-troubled youth whose life was changed by his friendship with the killer whale Willy, is spending the summer on board a ship assisting a group a whale researchers, including his old friend Randolph (August Schellenberg), and Drew (Annie Corley), an oceanographer. Jesse once used a harmonica to communicate with Willy, and when he plays his mouth harp through the ship's underwater sound system, he is able to find his old friend, who is now raising a family of his own. As Jesse, Randolph, and Drew are out to study and assist the whales, a ten-year-old boy named Max (Vincent Berry) is accompanying his father John Wesley (Patrick Kilpatrick) on the fishing boat that John helps to run. Max soon discovers that John and the crew are not fishing for salmon, as he believed, but killer whales, which is illegal, but very profitable, as whale meat fetches $200 a pound on the black market. Jesse meets Max on shore, and when Jesse learns what John and his crew are up to, he tries to teach Max that while his father may not be a bad man, he's doing a very bad thing in killing the whales, who are intelligent, compassionate, and deserve the right to live; Jesse also acts to save Willy and his family from John and his fellow poachers. As in Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Free Willy 3: The Rescue used mechanical and animated whales rather than flesh-and-blood aquatic mammals. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The touching story of a boy and his killer whale made this family drama a surprise box office hit. Jesse (Jason James Richter) is a kid without parents who has bounced from one foster home to another and is living on the streets. One night, he's caught spraying graffiti with his friend Perry (Michael Bacall) in a theme park. Jesse and Perry are caught red handed by Dwight (Mykel T. Williamson), a policeman who thinks that Jesse needs a more stable and disciplined environment. Dwight arranges for Jesse to stay with a new foster family, Glen and Annie Greenwood (Michael Madsen and Jayne Atkinson), with whom Jesse has an initially stormy relationship. Part of Jesse's punishment involves cleaning up the damage he caused at the park, where the new attraction is Willy, a killer whale who is being trained to do tricks. However, Willy was traumatized when he was stolen from his family by mercenary fisherman and does not respond well to the genuine concern of his trainers, Rae (Lori Petty) and Randolph (August Schellenberg). Jesse and Willy, both stranded without families in a place where they don't fit in, develop a close emotional bond, and with Jesse's help, Willy begins to display aptitude as a performer. Thanks to his friendship with Willy, Jesse develops a new sense of responsibility and a healthier relationship with the Greenwoods. However, Dial (Michael Ironside), the owner of the park, doesn't much care for animals and isn't happy with the slower-than-expected progress of Willy's training; having insured the whale for $1 million dollars, he figures that Willy is worth more dead than alive, and Jesse, Rae, and Randolph have to rescue their aquatic friend and return him to the ocean when Dial seems ready to live up to his threats. Free Willy, which featured a star performance by a killer whale named Keiko (who is doubled in some scenes by animatronic models) included the theme song "Will You Be There," a top-ten hit for Michael Jackson, and spawned two sequels. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Superstars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover return with director Richard Donner for Lethal Weapon 3, the third in the phenomenally successful action series. In this film, Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is only eight days away from retirement and his partner Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) once again manages to get them both into hot water with the both LAPD and the bad guys, who this time are Jack Travis (Stuart Wilson) and a gang of hoodlums selling armor-piercing bullets. Joe Pesci returns as the fast-talking schmuck Leo Getz. A new addition to the cast is Rene Russo as Lorna Cole, a sergeant from internal affairs sent to investigate Riggs and Murtaugh, but who ultimately ends up falling in love with the caffienated Riggs. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A darkly comic and surreal contemporization of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, this effects-heavy Bill Murray holiday vehicle from 1988 sees the former SNL funnyman assuming the role of television executive Frank Cross, the meanest and most depraved man on earth. Cross will stoop to unheard of levels to increase his network's ratings -- even if it means mounting outrageous programs to retain an audience, such as "Robert Goulet's Cajun Christmas" and Lee Majors in "The Night the Reindeer Died," with an AK-47-toting Santa. Cross plots his foulest move, however, for the Christmas holiday, when he will force his office staff to mount a live production of A Christmas Carol on national television -- and thus work through Christmas Eve. Cross's life is turned upside down with visits from three ghosts: a craggy-faced cabbie known as The Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen); the sugar-plum fairy Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) (who gets her jollies by bonking Frank across the face with a toaster oven); and, eventually, the caped, headless Ghost of Christmas Future, who will send Frank sliding into a crematory oven -- just before he gives the sleazoid one last chance to redeem himself. Along the way, the spirits carry Frank to scenes from his past, present, and future (per Scrooge) and impart a glimpse of how he became so thoroughly rotten. The radiant Karen Allen co-stars as Frank's girlfriend, Claire Phillips, and the film packs in cameos from countless celebrities -- among them, Mary Lou Retton, John Houseman, Jamie Farr, and, in a truly grisly and tasteless bit, John Forsythe. Richard Donner directs, from a script credited to the late Michael O'Donoghue and Mitch Glazer. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide