Brian Delate Movies

This film adaptation of the Broadway musical based loosely on Puccini's opera La Bohème features many members of the original cast. It follows a year in the lives of seven friends living the disappearing Bohemian lifestyle in New York's East Village. AIDS and both its physical and emotional complications pervade the lives of Roger (Adam Pascal), Mimi (Rosario Dawson), Tom (Jesse L. Martin), and Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia); Maureen (Idina Menzel) deals with her chronic infidelity through performance art; her partner, Joanne (Tracie Thoms), wonders if their relationship is worth the trouble; Benjamin (Taye Diggs) has sold out his Bohemian ideals in exchange for a hefty income and is on the outs with his former friends; and Mark (Anthony Rapp), an aspiring filmmaker, feels like an outsider to life in general, always behind the camera recording the events but never playing a part. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

A college student finds herself struggling to separate fact from bizarre supposition in this offbeat independent drama. Eris (Lauren Fox) is working on a research paper concerning fear and social phobia phenomena, when, in the course of her reading, she finds the obscure phrase "Noon Blue Apples" keeps popping up -- not once, but several times. Puzzled about what it's supposed to mean, Eris begins digging a bit deeper than before, and soon encounters Zeus (Thomas Jay Ryan), who runs a bookstore specializing in conspiracy literature. Before long, Zeus is giving Eris a crash course in alternate history, shadow government theories, and forbidden knowledge research, and faster than you can order a subscription to "Flatland Magazine," Eris' head is so full of oddball facts and figures that she can't separate which are true and which are mere paranoia -- leaving her with no idea of who or what she can trust. Noon Blue Apples was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Law & Order's 11th season begins with Nora Lewin (Dianne Wiest) taking over as interim D.A. until an official replacement for Adam Schiff can be elected. Lewin's first case concerns a disabled youngster who died of smoke asphyxiation in an apartment fire. Suspects include the kid's parents and one of their neighbors, a person with a history of being in close proximity of suspicious blazes. Astonishingly, A.D.A. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), who normally goes for the jugular, believes that "the penalties are too severe" this time around. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Peter Weir directed this comedy-drama, a commentary on all-pervasive media manipulation. Scripted by Andrew M. Niccol (Gattaca), the film plays like a combination of the British TV series The Prisoner and Paul Bartel's The Secret Cinema. Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) is unaware that his entire life is a hugely popular 24-hour-a-day TV series. In this real-time documentary, every moment of Truman's existence is captured by concealed cameras and telecast to a giant global audience. His friends and family are actors who smile pleasantly at Truman's familiar catchphrase greeting, "In case I don't see you later, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!" Employed at an insurance company, Truman is married to merry Meryl (Laura Linney), and they live in the cheerful community of Seahaven, an island "paradise" where the weather is always mild and no unpleasantness intrudes. This is the basic situation of the series, which has grown over the years into a billion-dollar franchise for the TV network. As an unwanted pregnancy, Truman was adopted by the network and raised in the zoolike environment of a TV soundstage. Thus, the TV audience became hooked when Truman was very young. Now, at age 30, he still doesn't know he's a prisoner on an immense domed city-size soundstage, simulating Seahaven. Both the illusion and the ratings will collapse if Truman ever leaves Seahaven. In addition to elaborate events staged to make sure he stays put, Truman is given constant reminders of how wonderful Seahaven is compared to dangers in other parts of the world. However, his growing suspicions make him curious enough to try to leave, and the show's director and master manipulator Christof (Ed Harris) must constantly devise ways to thwart Truman's escape attempts. To enter the harbor, Truman must overcome his fear of water, intentionally instilled in him when his father "died" in a boating accident and was written out of the script. Exteriors were filmed in the Victorian-styled upscale community of Seaside, Florida. In addition to the Burkhard Dallwitz score, original music by Philip Glass and classical excerpts are also featured. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Grumpy, chain-smoking prosecuting attorney Ingrid Maynard (Stockard Channing) hasn't accepted a case since the accident that left her confined to a wheelchair. But when the husband of assistant DA Rachel Simone (Michelle Forbes) is killed in a robbery, Ingrid decides to return to the courtroom to take over the investigation and ultimate prosecution of the culprit. Forced to work together, the embittered Ingrid and the dispirited Rachel don't always see eye to eye, but this does not compromise the value of their work. However, a major "conflict of interest" crisis threatens to slow the wheels of justice to a grinding halt. Made for the NBC network by the same team responsible for the series Homicide and Prime Suspect, The Prosecutors originally aired on December 2, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pittsburgh Penguins owner Howard Baldwin was the producer of Sudden Death, and the action is set in his hockey arena, in which the Penguins are playing the Chicago Blackhawks. Pittsburgh fire inspector Darren McCord (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is attending the game with his two children. He's quit fighting fires because of a tragedy a few years earlier involving a child he couldn't save. Also at the game is the vice-president of the United States (Raymond Barry), who is the target of a terrorist plot. The terrorist leader, an insane ex-CIA agent named Joshua Foss (Powers Boothe), has masterminded a scheme to hold the vice-president hostage in his luxury suite while demanding that payments be transferred to his account electronically at the end of each period of the game. If he doesn't get his money, he will kill one member of the vice-president's party at the end of each period, and at game's end he will order ten bombs hidden in the arena to be detonated with all 17,000 fans present. McCord discovers the plot while his daughter Emily (Whittni Wright) is kidnapped by the terrorists too. McCord must dispatch the villains and find the bombs, while saving all the hostages. Luckily, he is adept at martial arts. He fights one henchman dressed in a Penguins mascot outfit in the arena's kitchen, and another terrorist on the arena's retracting dome. At one point, McCord switches identities with a player, is sent into the game, and scores a goal. Director Peter Hyams also directed Van Damme in the blockbuster Timecop. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide