Jay Acovone Movies

Balden (J. August Richards) was a successful businessman whose adoring father always preferred him over family black sheep Rick (Sharif Atkins). Things for Travis went unexpectedly bad, however, when the pressures at work become too much to bear, a suspicious stock sale prompted a serious investigation, and his wife walked out on him for neglecting their marriage. As a result, Travis ended his own life in a shocking act of violence. In the wake of Travis' death, his brother Rick returns to town to check in on grieving sister Nina. When their father catches wind of Rick's visit, he makes it plain to his son that the wrong boy was buried. Infuriated that his father always favored Travis, Rick sets out to prove that his sibling wasn't the angel that everyone credited him with being. But in the course of Rick's dangerous investigation he realizes that his brother's death was much more complicated than anyone realized, and that perhaps it wasn't his father's eyes that needed to be opened, but his own instead. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Monk (Tony Shalhoub), Natalie (Traylor Howard) and Julie (Emmy Clarke) are stuck in a massive traffic jam, caused by a multicar pile-up. Leaving his car to find out how long he's going to be detained, Monk stumbles upon clues indicating that the traffic accident was the end result of a murder. As he tries to solve the crime, Monk is faced with another crisis when Julie is suddenly seized by an urgent Call of Nature--and this little inconvenience brings our hero face to face with the rock group Korn (playing themselves), who unexpectedly provide Monk with the obligatory vital clue! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clark Johnson's big-screen adaptation of the 1970s television series S.W.A.T. stars Colin Farrell as Jim Street, a young special weapons and tactics team member who, in the film's opening sequence, is demoted after his hothead partner Jeremy Renner shoots a hostage while trying to kill her captor. In need of good press, the higher-ups call in SWAT expert Hondo Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson) to put together an elite team that can bring some luster back to the badge. He chooses Street, veteran T.J. (Josh Charles), and tough single mother Chris Sanchez (Michelle Rodriguez). The new team survives a series of tests before hitting the streets. Their first big assignment involves transporting an international criminal (Olivier Martinez) to federal authorities. The criminal had offered a hundred million dollars to anyone who can bust him out. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

This action-adventure, that features a terrorist plot from The Fugitive (1993), saw its October 2001 release date moved back four months as a result of real-life terrorist attacks on the United States. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Gordon Brewer, a Los Angeles firefighter who witnesses the deaths of his wife and child, innocent victims of a terrorist attack on a motorcade carrying Colombian dignitaries. Responsibility for the deadly explosion belongs to Claudio "The Wolf" Perrini (Cliff Curtis), a terrorist and rebel in Colombia's decade-long civil war. When times passes with no suspect being brought to justice, Brewer rejects the advice of FBI agent Peter Brandt (Elias Koteas) and travels to the jungles of Colombia to find and take revenge upon his family's murderer himself. Encountering a complex web of death squads, right-wing military officials, guerrillas, terrorists and drug-lords, Brewer is aided in his dangerous quest by an unlikely ally, the beautiful Selena Perrini (Francesca Neri), his quarry's wife. Collateral Damage (2002) co-stars John Leguizamo and John Turturro. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In this feature-length follow-up to the long-running TV series Murder, She Wrote, homespun mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) leaves her Cabot Cove residence to attend a big-city writer's conference. As generally happens wherever Jessica shows up, a murder takes place; in this instance, the victim is a former KGB agent (Duncan Regehr) who was about to publish his tell-all memoirs. Teaming up with fellow author Warren Pierce (Richard Crenna), Jessica sets about to solve the murder -- much to the dismay of the local constabulary. Allegedly written as far back as 1998 (by Babylon 5 stalwart J. Michael Straczynski), Murder, She Wrote: A Story to Die For finally arrived on the CBS prime-time manifest on May 18, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Sliders find themselves on an "Old West" parallel version of the earth, where Colin (Charlie O'Connell) disappears after being shot down by a grim-visaged gunfighter known as Mr. K (Reiner Schone). As Colin is nursed back to health by homesteader Amanda Starr (Karen Austin), Maggie (Kari Wuhrer) gets a job as a saloon singer so she can afford the horses needed to launch a search for her missing friend. Meanwhile, Quinn (Jerry O'Connell) is framed for murder, thus setting the stage for the obligatory "High Noon" showdown with an old enemy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of Stargate SG-1's opening episode, Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) and his SG-1 team have located scientist Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), discoverer of the ancient Stargate technology enabling Earth to contact other solar systems. Jackson, who has proof that other Stargates exist throughout the galaxy, has for the last year been living on the planet Abydos with his alien wife, Sha're (Vaitare Bandera), and her brother, Skaara (Alexis Cruz). Sha're is kidnapped by the evil Egyptian god Apophis (Peter Williams), who hopes to use the Stargates to take over the universe with the help of the Goa'ulds, parasitic snake creatures who need humans as host bodies. Newly relocated to the planet Chulak, Apophis rules the populace with Sha're (her body taken over by Goa'ulds) as his queen. Though they cannot rescue Sha're, the SG-1 team hope to save themselves and Skaara, so that they can continue thwarting Apophis throughout the universe. In this pursuit, they find an unexpected ally in the form of Teal'c (Christopher Judge), a Jaffa soldier in Apophis' army who carries a larval Goa'uld in his own belly. Originally telecast as a two-hour episode, "Children of the Gods" has since been divided into two hour-long installments for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this suspenseful actioner, former Navy SEAL James Carter (Michael Dudikoff) is called back to duty when terrorists high-jack an American submarine armed with nuclear weapons and threaten to blow up the U.S. if their demand for $100 million in gold is not met. The deadly situation arose when the sub, USS Ulysses answered a distress call from Yugoslavian refugees stranded in the Atlantic during a terrible storm. Once aboard, the rescued sailors turn out to be highly trained Middle Eastern terrorists. Carter's mission is to somehow secretly board the sub, sabotage it and subdue the hijackers. If he should fail, the Ulysses will be destroyed by another Navy sub. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A group of intrepid humans attempts to save the Earth from vicious extraterrestrials in this extremely popular science-fiction adventure. Borrowing liberally from War of the Worlds, Aliens, and every sci-fi invasion film inbetween, director Roland Emmerich and producer and co-writer Dean Devlin present a visually slick, fast-paced adventure filled with expensive special effects and large-scale action sequences. The story begins with the approach of a series of massive spaceships, which many on Earth greet with open arms, looking forward to the first contact with alien life. Unfortunately, these extraterrestrials have not come in peace, and they unleash powerful weapons that destroy most of the world's major cities. Thrown into chaos, the survivors struggle to band together and put up a last-ditch resistance in order to save the human race. As this is a Hollywood film, this effort is led by a group of scrappy Americans, including a computer genius who had foreseen the alien's evil intent (Jeff Goldblum), a hot-shot jet pilot (Will Smith), and the President of the United States (Bill Pullman). While some critics objected to the film's lack of originality and lapses in logic, the combination of grand visual spectacle and crowd-pleasing storytelling proved irresistible to audiences, resulting in an international smash hit. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Ray DiSalvo (Jay Acovone), a friend of Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) who is currently in prison, offers Bobby new information on an unsolved cop-killing -- a case previously handled by the contentious Det. Roberts (Michael Harney). While investigating a multiple shooting within a black family, Fancy (James McDaniel) and Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) suspect that the self-confessed gunman isn't telling the whole truth. And Medavoy (Gordon Clapp) looks into an assault charge surrounding the "accidental" injury of an actor in a staged fight. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ross (David Schwimmer) plunges back into the dating scene when he takes out his gorgeous neighbor Kristen (Heather Medway) on Valentine's Day. The holiday also casts its spell on the dating habits of Ross' ex-wife, Carol (Jane Sibbett), her girlfriend Susan (Jessica Hecht), Chandler (Matthew Perry), and the irritating Janice (Maggie Wheeler). As for Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), and Monica (Courteney Cox), they cook up a hot time of their own. The DVD version of this episode includes material not seen in the syndicated version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fans of the Friends television series' co-star Matt LeBlanc may be particularly interested in this film, one of the amiable hunk's first cinematic efforts. In the story, he plays the nephew of Vinny Pallazzo (Jay Acovone), a man who has retired from the mob and changed coasts, from New York to L.A. Now his Vinny works as a clerk in a bookshop and spends a lot of time praying for his sins. When he's not doing that, he tries to give Anthony Manetti (LeBlanc) some advice which will keep him out of trouble with the gangs. Under the rubric of "you can run, but you can't hide," it becomes clear that both men will have to face Vinny's dark past before they can move ahead with their lives. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Two English criminal masterminds determined to flood the market with fake bills skirt the odds and the authorities in an explosive thriller directed by Terry Winsor and starring Jay Acovone, Clive Owen, and Jeremy Kemp. They know that the odds are stacked against them, but when the thrill of the crime kicks in there's nothing like pulling one over on the clueless authorities. The only problem is that the authorities aren't so clueless anymore, and when two keen detectives take the case, the stakes get raised to a whole new level. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide