Erik Jensen Movies
Filmed on location in New York and Connecticut, the ESPN miniseries The Bronx is Burning was a vivid (if not overly expensive) retelling of the New York Yankees' championship year of 1977. Heading the enormous cast of celebrity lookalikes were Oliver Platt as Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and John Turturro as team manager Billy Martin. The infamously volatile relationship between the two men was the heart of the series, with the prickly Martin curiously emerging as the hero of the piece. Setting the story in motion was the hiring of baseball superstar Reggie Jackson (Daniel Sunjata), the first of several measures taken by the Yanks to reclaim the World Series. To place the action at Yankee Stadium in proper historical context, much was made of the other events which kept the citizens of New YOrk on their collective toes in the summer of 1977, including the frantic search for the serial killer known as the "Son of Sam", the devastating power blackout, the fractious mayoral race, and the ongoing violence in the streets of the Bronx. The title of the series derived from the famous TV-news headline "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning", which was also the title of the Jonathan Mahler novel upon which the show was based. The Bronx is Burning first roared into flame on July 10, 2007. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Turturro, Oliver Platt, (more)
Adapted by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen from their own off-Broadway play, The Exonerated dramatizes the real-life stories of six innocent citizens who spent anywhere from three to 20 years on death row until DNA testing proved that they had all been falsely convicted. Each of the six stories is related in the first person, using free-flowing flashbacks to highlight selected events. Some critics felt that, by using such A-list actors as Susan Sarandon, Aidan Quinn, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, and Delroy Lindo to play the unfairly condemned protagonists, the text of the original play was thrown off balance; this may be the reason why the relatively unknown David Brown Jr., cast as the sixth main character, received some of the best reviews. In the tradition of Schindler's List, the actual people whose experiences are enacted in the film show up on camera for the final scene. Directed by veteran Broadway and Hollywood actor Bob Balaban (Seinfeld, A Mighty Wind), The Exonerated was produced for the Court TV cable channel, and was first broadcast on January 27, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Sarandon, Aidan Quinn, (more)
A young lawyer becomes trapped in an eerie alternate reality in this haunting psychological thriller from first-time filmmaker Nevil Dwek. Derek (Sam Trammell) seems to have the perfect life. A 27-year-old lawyer with an impressive career and remarkable talent in the courtroom, he's on the fast track to success when he awakens in a strange apartment next to an unknown woman who inexplicably refers to him as "Zane." Though everything in this altered reality seems familiar, nothing seems right, and Derek soon discovers that he and Zane have somehow traded identities. Forced to see life from the other side of the spectrum, Derek and Zane must now reevaluate their entire lives to find out who they truly are on the inside, and what they aspire to become in a world where nothing is certain. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Trammell
Craig Richardson directed this drama that begins with computer graphics recalling Nazi Germany. Taxidermist Kate (Rica Martens) is quizzed by documentary filmmaker Bill (Bray Poor), who then heads to upstate NY for an interview with taxidermy experts Sam (George Bartenieff) and Iris (Jacqueline Bertrand). Poking about, Bill begins to suspect Sam and Iris of past Nazi associations. How else to explain the couple's puppet theater in which their stuffed creatures re-create the era of the Third Reich? ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Bartenieff, Jacqueline Bertrand, (more)
This four-hour miniseries is a sequel to 1997's top-rated miniseries, The Last Don,based on the novel by Mario Puzo of The Godfather fame, but several critics noted that The Last Don II is unintentionally funny. After Don Clericuzio (Danny Aiello, the pivotal figure in the first series) dies from old age, Clericuzio's enemies come out of the woodwork with bullets and bombs. Clericuzio's nephew Cross De Lena (Jason Gedrick) is peacefully enjoying life in Paris with his attractive wife and his autistic stepdaughter; when the wife has a mail bomb go off in her face, it marks the unleashing of a new wave of violence. Rose Marie Clericuzio (Kirstie Alley), who still bemoans the killing of her son (during the first series), encounters romantic problems with Father Luca Tonarini (Jason Isaacs). With teacher and nanny Josie Cirolia (Patsy Kensit) caring for Cross' autistic stepdaughter, it's not long before the widower and the nanny take an interest in each other. But when will he figure out that she's an FBI agent? Cross's sister is Hollywood studio exec Claudia (Michelle Rene Thomas); she's married to muscular, Austrian-accented actor Dirk (Andrew Jackson), star of an action movie titled The Fumigator. Premiered May 3, 1998 on CBS. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Gedrick, Patsy Kensit, (more)
- 1998
The victim of a brutal assault refuses to help detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) in their investigation of the crime. This curious incident serves to stymie the efforts by the NYPD to track down the alleged rapist of two women, one of whom was comatose when she was attacked. Is it possible that one of the victims' parents is concealing a horrible secret? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Colin Fitz was a rock star, but his untimely demise put his career in the past tense a few years ago. On the anniversary of his death, Colin's widow decides to hire security guards to watch Colin's grave, in the hope of preventing a repeat of last year's ugly incident in which a group of ardent fans committed mass suicide near his final resting place. The widow approaches Mr. O'Day (William H. Macy), head of O'Day Security, who agrees to put two men on the job. Dim-witted Grady (Andy Fowle) and philosophical Paul (Matt McGrath) wind up on the case, spending most of the night drinking beer and swapping stories as they keep an eye on the various characters who come to pay their respects to Fitz, including a group of especially zealous Swedish fans. The film received awards at the Austin Film Festival and Houston's WorldFest and competed at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt McGrath, Andy Fowle, (more)
The heartwarming direct-to-video family drama A Horse for Danny stars a very young Leelee Sobieski (Joan of Arc, My First Mister) as the precocious 11-year-old title character, and Robert Urich (Spenser: For Hire) as Eddie, her horse-trainer uncle. Danny may be young, but she is also a race-track veteran -- who knows how scam-artists fix the races, and how to determine when a scam is being pulled. When Uncle Eddie espouses his dreams of riding into glory on the back of a stallion, Danny finds the perfect mare for him -- Tom Thumb. Raising her cash by careful betting, and pooling her money with a friend, Gerald, Danny purchases the horse for Eddie and it turns him into a champion racer. But a number of quick-draw racetrack con artists, including Noel Ferguson, see dollar signs and threaten to steal Eddie's thunder -- first with a botched attempt to purchase the horse, then through more shady means. Directed by Dick Lowry (Smokey and the Bandit 3), the film also stars country singer Ed Bruce. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Urich, Leelee Sobieski, (more)
- 1994
Larry Miller guest stars as Michael Dobson, an abusive comedy-club owner suspected of shooting his wife. According to the D.A.'s office, the victim was poised to get a divorce, something that Dobson could not tolerate. As the woman lies comatose, the lawyers must determine exactly what charges will be levied against the contemptible Dobson. Without revealing the outcome of the story, it can be noted that the sixth-season Law & Order episode "Encore" could be called a sequel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A maverick Pittsburgh policeman loses his job after he shares his suspicion that one of his colleagues is a serial killer. This thriller centers on his hunt to prove his point, a search that becomes more desperate when the killer begins killing the cop's female associates. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Sarah Jessica Parker, (more)
- 1992
When a district attorney starts an investigation into corruption that leads her back to her own family--rife with police officers--she finds some decisions hard to make. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valerie Bertinelli, George Dzundza, (more)
Marking the first collaboration between horror legends George A. Romero and Stephen King since 1982's Creepshow, this moody, atmospheric adaptation of King's novel was actually completed in 1991, but the highly-publicized bankruptcy of its distributor Orion Pictures in that same year nearly doomed The Dark Half to distribution limbo. King's story revolves around successful author Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton), whose popularity on the college circuit owes a great deal to the financial success of a series of violent pulp thrillers written under the pseudonym of "George Stark." When he decides to cast aside his disreputable alter-ego by "killing" Stark off in a mock ceremony, it precipitates a string of sadistic murders matching those in his pulp novels, which are discovered to be the work of Stark himself (also played by Hutton). Looking like a maniacal white-trash version of his counterpart, Stark is not so willing to quit the writing game -- even if it means coming after Thad's wife (Amy Madigan) and their baby. It's only a matter of time before suspicions turn to Thad, who is the only one who knows the real origins of his hideous twin. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Hutton, Amy Madigan, (more)
- 1990
The Faroe Islands are a Danish protectorate in the remote waters of the North Atlantic between Iceland and Scotland's Shetland Islands. The inhabitants of these rugged islands speak a variant on Old Norse which is not unlike Icelandic. In this documentary, all 16 inhabitants of Gasaladur, a remote village which is inaccessible by sea, discuss their lives there and calmly convey the strenuous nature of even the most ordinary tasks. The village was on the verge of disappearing when the Danish government decided to give it a better chance at longevity by connecting it to a larger village on the other side of a high mountain by blasting a tunnel between the two. The English-language title of this documentary The Future Lies 1,500 Yards Ahead is clearly designed for effect, as the 1700 meters in the Danish title is approximately 1859.14 yards. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
