Fil Formicola Movies
Actor Carmine Famiglietti and director Matthew Bonifacio team up to write the script for the comedy drama Lbs. Famiglietti stars as Neil Perota, an Italian man with a food addiction who weighs more than 300 pounds. Following a heart attack, he realizes that he needs to do something soon or his health will deteriorate. But since he still lives at home in Brooklyn, he can't seem to make the lifestyle changes required to lose weight. After his sister's wedding, he leaves the city and stays in a trailer in the woods. Living by himself, he tries to reclaim his life. Meanwhile, his friend is also suffering from a different kind of addiction. Carmine Famiglietti is also a songwriter, comedian, and member of the Queens-based rap group the Ha Ya Doin' Boys. Lbs. premiered at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the American Spectrum competition. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carmine Famiglietti, Michael Aronov, (more)
Lindsay Crouse guest stars as Denise Grobman, a civil court judge who is shot in her building's parking garage. The detectives haul in an extremely likely suspect, only to discover that Grobman refuses to prosecute -- nor even to believe that the suspect had anything to do with the attack. Clearly, someone is hiding something, but what and why? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Huey Tate (Chris McKinney) is arrested for the double murder of a black-activist congressman and his bodyguard. Subsequent investigation reveals that one of the victims may have been responsible for an innocent person's death. Crucial to the D.A.'s prosecution is the eyewitness testimony of a woman who is an informant for the FBI -- and as such, cannot be allowed to testify. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Ron Leibman and Jessica Walter, husband and wife in real life, play a married couple in this episode. A man who served as a juror in a mob trial is found murdered. When the chief suspect is brought to trial, Assistant D.A. Sam McCoy finds himself locked in a volatile courtroom battle with a longtime friend, defense attorney Mark Paul Kopell (Leibman). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Originally made for television, the story focuses on a reporter trying to track down a killer while he wins his wife back. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
"I'm in love with a mermaid!" read the opening line of Leonard Maltin's original review for Splash. And with the delightful Darryl Hannah in the lead, who could fault Maltin for his public declaration of ardor? The story begins in 1959, when a young boy is rescued from a watery grave by an adolescent mermaid. Twenty-five years later, the boy has grown up--and lo and behold, it's Tom Hanks. Meanwhile, the mermaid, likewise grown up, has surfaced in search of Hanks, her long-lost love. On dry land, the mermaid is able to walk about on legs; any contact with salt water, and she reverts to her half-fish form. Adopting the name of Madison from a New York street sign, the girl manages to win Hanks' heart. Alas, a secret government lab, populated by such smarmy types as Richard B. Shull and Eugene Levy, captures Madison for research purposes--and possible vivisection. Egged on by his brother John Candy, Hanks rescues his beloved, joining her in the ocean depths as a mer-man (mer-fellow? mer-guy?) A captivating confection from the peerless creative team of director Ron Howard and screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, Splash was a winner all the way--especially at the box office, where the $11 million film racked up a huge profit. Historical sidebar: Splash was the first release from Disney's Touchstone Pictures division. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, (more)
The A-Team surfaces in Los Angeles to take on a corrupt police S.W.A.T. unit which hires itself out for private assassinations. Though Hannibal (George Peppard) and company are as usual resourceful, they find themselves up against a crack squad of well-trained villains armed with powerful magnums--who always manage to be one step ahead of the "good guys." Adding to the dilemma is the plight of Ed Maloney (Norman Alden), the clean cop who has blown the whistle on the S.W.A.T. men, thereby placing his family in direst peril. Jack Ging, who later became an A-Team regular in the role of General Harlan Fulbright, is here cast as sadistic S.W.A.T. leader Captain Stark. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Sitcom stalwart Valerie Harper trades jokes for the judiciary in Farrell: For the People. Valerie stars as New York attorney Elizabeth Farrell ("All she wants to be is a DA", declared the TV Guide ad copy, "but her toughest case is being a woman!"), whose case load runs the gamut from rapists to killers. This TV movie borrows a page from current events by fictionalizing the notorious Norman Mailer/Jack Henry Abbott contretemps. Farrell takes on an ex-convict who has become a best-selling author thanks to the intervention of the Manhattan intellectual elite--and whose latest creative achievement is murder. Farrell: for the People was the pilot for a projected TV series, but the central character was too bland and confining for Valerie Harper's talents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
As if in some way Billy Wilder sensed that Buddy Buddy would ultimately turn out to be his final feature film, Wilder lets loose scatter-shot stingers at a wide range of pop-culture targets -- from sex clinics, to 60 Minutes, to movie references, to disco, to Betamax video recorders. Based on Francis Veber and Edouard Molinaro's L'emmerdeur (known in the United States as A Pain in the A. . .), Buddy Buddy concerns the unlikely pairing of a gruff hitman and a suicidal klutz. Walter Matthau plays a professional killer going by the name of Trabucco, who is on his way to rub out gangster Rudy "Disco" Gambola (Fil Formicola), set to testify against the mob. As Trabucco heads off to a hotel across the street from the courthouse where he plans to set his hit, he runs into the depressed Victor Clooney (Jack Lemmon), who laments the fact that his wife has left him for the head of a weird Californian sex clinic. Trabucco keeps walking and sets up his rifle in a hotel room. He is disturbed by Victor trying to hang himself in the adjoining hotel room and tries to prevent him from killing himself by restraining him, but Victor breaks loose and climbs onto the ledge of the hotel window. To get Victor to come back in, he agrees to drive him to the clinic to see his wife. The two go to the clinic where Victor's wife Celia (Paula Prentiss) informs Victor that she is in love in the head of the clinic, quack Dr. Zuckerbrot (Klaus Kinski). When Victor finds out that Celia is filing for divorce, he heads back to the hotel to kill himself, with Celia and Dr. Zuckerbrot in pursuit. Arriving at the hotel, they plan to inject Victor with a sedative but stick Trabucco with the needle instead. Trabucco reveals to Victor his assignment to kill Rudy, and Victor tries to help him with the killing. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, (more)
Quincy's assistant Sam (Robert Ito) has come up with a revolutionary new process to determine the identity of sex criminals by using dental comparisons. Trouble is, the medical establishment refuses to accept Sam's methods, even after he clears an ex-con of a rape charge. When that same man ends up as the chief suspect in a subsequent rape-murder, it looks as if Sam's theories are worthless--but Quincy (Jack Klugman) has faith in his colleague, and he intends to use his own forensic expertise to prove that Sam was right all along. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Apparently weary of playing victim-of-the-week, Elizabeth Montgomery goes the Joan Crawford route playing a fabulously wealthy and stupendously bored matron who is about to be divorced by her wealthy husband. Hubby conveniently expires while dallying with his mistress. The upshot is that Ms. Montgomery is made executive vice president of the boat-building business that she'd helped her husband establish. Moral: Marry well, ladies, and you too can become a CEO. Basically a very slight TV movie, Jennifer: A Woman's Story is bloated way beyond its worth into a Ross Hunter-type sudser; the British TV series upon which it was based, The Foundation, was more austere, and frankly more enjoyable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
At the request of his friend Harry Collier (Allan Miller), Quincy investigates the death of a young Marine, who was killed in a training accident while under the command of hard-drinking drill sergeant Alistair Adams (Harry Collier). Quincy's efforts, and those of the official military investigators, are compromised by rumors of a cover-up which may have been engineered by some very powerful people. This episode was originally slated to air on March 9, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This lively musical comedy pays tribute to the birth of rock & roll in the late 1950s and the instrumental role played by disc jockey Alan Freed who helped bring the new sound into vogue. Much of the story centers on the daring deejay's attempts to put on the very first live rock & roll stage show at the Paramount Theatre in Brooklyn. To do this he must overcome the protests of concerned and angry parents, conservatives, and local police. Several performers of the era appear in the film including Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McIntire, Fran Drescher, (more)
Ingredients essential to this made-for-TV movie are a famous former pro football player, an interracial romance, and a brutal murder. Yes, the football player is O.J. Simpson, but the film was made a full 17 years before the death of Nicole Brown Simpson. In A Killing Affair, Simpson is cast as police detective Woody York, who is partnered with white female cop Viki Eaton (Elizabeth Montgomery) to solve a mysterious killing. In the course of the assignment, Woody and Viki fall in love. Also known as Behind the Badge, A Killing Affair premiered September 21, 1977, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Stockwell, Elizabeth Montgomery, (more)
Written by David Lloyd, this episode finds Bob, Jerry, and Howard volunteering to lead a brace of orphans on a rugged camping trip. Their long journey ends with but a single step, as the heroes set up camp in a Chicago parking lot. Also appearing are Sorrell Booke as Perlmutter, Michael Le Clair as Phil Dorigo, Tierre Turner as Wally Carson, and Fil Formicola as the Man at the Elevator. The first Bob Newhart Show to air in the series' earlier 8:30 p.m. Saturday time slot, "Send This Boy to Camp" was originally broadcast on November 6, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Newhart, Suzanne Pleshette, (more)














