Robert Ellenstein Movies

Carter (Noah Wyle) is in for a surprise when he asks Del Amico (Maria Bello) out. Jeanie (Gloria Reuben) tries to help Scott Anspaugh (Trevor Morgan) decide whether or not to undergo experimental cancer treatment. Benton (Eriq La Salle) exceeds his authority by finishing an operation for an incapacitated Morganstern (William H. Macy). Carol (Julianna Margulies) may not be able to fund her free clinic. And Weaver (Laura Innes) and Greene (Anthony Edwards) clash over Ross' (George Clooney) qualifications to be Pediatrics attending physician. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) concludes the story arc begun with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and continued in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), but on a wholly new, different, and upbeat note. As the movie opens, months have elapsed since the events in Star Trek III; Admiral Kirk (William Shatner), McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Scott (James Doohan), Sulu (George Takei), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and Chekhov (Walter Koenig) are marooned in self-imposed exile on Vulcan, along with the resurrected and regenerated Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who also directed). While Spock tries to sort out the Vulcan and human halves of his resurrected psyche, the others prepare to return to Earth to face a brace of charges by the Klingon Empire and Star Fleet over events on Genesis. Taking off in their commandeered, jerry-rigged Klingon ship, they head to Earth, not knowing that a new crisis could destroy their home world -- a huge, immensely powerful alien probe has entered the galaxy and established a position near Earth, disabling every vehicle and installation in its path with its energy and communication output, and has ionized the entire atmosphere and started vaporizing the oceans, leaving the planet only hours to survive.

Spock determines that the probe is sending out signals to another intelligent terrestrial life form, humpbacked whales, which no longer exist. Using the gravity slingshot time-warp effect (established early in the original series) to travel back into Earth's 20th century, Kirk and company land in 1980s San Francisco to try and bring humpbacked whales to the 23rd century, to respond to the probe. Thus starts a surprisingly breezy, light-hearted, yet serious odyssey through the past (comparable to the best work of the original series), as the crew learns to deal with exact-change buses, angry drivers, punk-rock enthusiasts and other elements of '80s life, and Kirk tries to persuade a scientist (Catherine Hicks) of his good intentions for two whales in captivity. The screenplay, co-authored by Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Nicholas Meyer, and Harve Bennett (from a story by Nimoy and Bennett), is the cleverest and most sophisticated of all the Star Trek movie screenplays, recalling some of the elements of Meyer's earlier time-travel movie Time After Time and also anticipating the feel and tone of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation (which would be on the air not quite a year later). Nimoy's direction offers a combination of brisk pacing and a deep love of the characters and the actors, as well as a serious appreciation of the humorous aspects of the script, and Shatner gives his best performance of any of the movies. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The seventh cinema adaptation of the venerable stage farce Brewster's Millions stars Richard Pryor as Montgomery Brewster, a third-rate baseball player. Much to his amazement, Brewster discovers that he is related to deceased millionaire Rupert Horn (Hume Cronyn, who appears only in a videotaped "living will"). Even more amazing is the fact that Horn has left Brewster his entire $300 million fortune. The catch? Brewster must spend $30 million within 30 days, or he'll be left with nothing (in the earlier incarnations of Brewster's Millions, the hero was required to spend only a million, but this was, after all, the inflationary '80s). Aiding and abetting Brewster in his efforts to divest himself of his money are his catcher pal (John Candy) and an erstwhile lady friend (Lonette McKee), while his principal antagonist is a snotty attorney (Stephen Collins). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the concluding half of Moonlighting's pilot episode (originally telecast as a single 97-minute TV movie), impoverished former fashion model Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) has been talked out of liquidating her sole asset, the Blue Moon Detective Agency, by flippant private eye David Addison (Bruce Willis). She has also been plunged into a baffling mystery involving a dead man and a broken watch. As reluctant partners Maddie and David face numerous perils together, a relationship of sorts develops--namely, they can't survive without each other, and they can't live with each other! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, the son of a domineering, insane movie producer plots his escape. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Six recently divorced males gather 'round a restaurant table and talk about their past lives and their recently failed marriages while trying to piece their lives back together. This drama is somewhat interesting for presenting the topic of life after a divorce from a man's point of view. (And yes, Neil Sedaka sings the smash title song over the final credits - so don't change that dial!) Originally made for television, and broadcast on ABC in two parts - one on Wed., Sep. 5, 1979, and one on Friday, Sep. 7, 1979 -- this film was reissued on video about ten years later to capitalize on Billy Crystal's growing fame. When it arrived on home video, the picture received its first MPAA rating (R) and was edited down from its original running time of 150 minutes to 96 minutes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Quincy (Jack Klugman) positively identifies the charred remains of a motel-fire victim as being the body of Jessica Ross (Jessica Walter), the most popular and highest-paid female journalist in the country. Imagine Quincy susprise when, while appearing on a televised press conference to announce his finding, Jessica herself waltzes into the room, very much alive. Though advised to keep a low profile after this humiliating experience, Quincy intends to prove that the woman claiming to be Jessica is an impostor--and that a murder may have been committed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jolene Hyland (Shelley Fabares), the wife of prison convict Gerald Hyland (Don Eichner), hires Jim (James Garner) to locate the stolen $500,000 which her husband claims to have hidden somewhere in Caledonia County. Before long, several shady characters are pressuring Jim to be cut in on the hidden loot. The trail of clues proves to be a painful one for the detective, but he soldiers on until reaching his destination--a Caledonia chicken ranch which harbors more than its share of surprises. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ironside's associates Ed (Don Galloway) and Eve (Barbara Anderson) are dispatched to Mexico, there to interrogate onetime murder suspect Lonnie Burnett (Scott Glenn) as a part of an investigation of a strikingly similar killing. In the course of events, the two detectives are persuaded that Burnett is innocent. As a result, when Burnett escapes police custody, the hostile local authorities accuse Ed and Eve of acting as the man's accomplices! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first multipart Mission: Impossible adventure of the 1969-70 season, "The Controllers" was written by Laurence Hearth. A mind-controlling drug known as B-230 has been developed by enemy scientist Dr. Karl Turek (David Sheiner). To prevent Turek from turning the populaiton of the Free World into mindless zombies, IMF agents Phelps and Meredyth (Dina Merrill) impersonate two disloyal American scientists who had been scheduled to work on perfecting the drug. Part One of "The Controllers" first aired October 12, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The focus in this Mission: Impossible episode is on Cinnamon Carter, who has been captured behind the Iron Curtain. Chief interrogator Strom (John Vernon) discovers that Cinnamon suffers from a mortal terror of small, confined spaces, and uses this knowledge as a means of breaking her cover and exposing her fellow IMF agents. To rescue Cinnamon before she can reveal all, the IMF must arrange a prisoner exchange--which cannot take place until they kidnap a prisoner of their own. One of the best of the "character-centered" episodes, "The Exchange" was written by Laurence Heath, and first aired on January 5, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Film star Lylah Clare is dead, but her legend lives on. Movie-producer Barney Sheean (Ernest Borgnine) hires Elsa Brinkmann (Kim Novak), the living image of the late Lylah, to star in a film based on Ms. Clare's life. Barney hires director Lewis Zarkan (Peter Finch), Lylah's former husband, to transform the talentless Elsa into a facsimile of the deceased screen queen. Elsa not only learns to imitate Lylah but, at crucial junctures, becomes the dead woman. While restaging the accident that killed Lylah, the obsessed Zarkan deliberately drives Elsa to her doom -- and in so doing reveals his complicity in the death of his wife. The film ends with Lylah's onetime housekeeper (Rosella Falk), gun in hand, lying in wait for Zarkan to return home while her TV blasts forth a grotesque (and possibly symbolic) dog-food commercial. A trash masterpiece, Legend of Lylah Claire works so hard at vilifying the Old Hollywood (there's even a vicious Hedda Hopper caricature) that it's a wonder the actors could keep a straight face. The film was based on a 1962 Dupont Show of the Week TV drama co-written by Wild in the Streets creator Robert Thom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A serial killer is on the loose in San Francisco, and five victims--all women--have already been claimed. Ironside (Raymond Burr) suspects that the most recent killing was not committed by the same maniac who bumped off the previous four victims, but by a different person who was using the murder spree to cover his tracks. The episode's climax finds youthful policewoman Eve Whitfield (Barbara Anderson) donning old-age makeup to flush out the villain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide