Chris Brancato Movies
Two buddies find themselves doing some very wrong things for perfectly right reasons in this broad comedy. John (Jason Lee) is a nice guy who is responsible and hardworking; his best friend Duff (Tom Green), however, is his polar opposite, a layabout who is constantly getting in some sort of trouble. John is very much in love with his longtime girlfriend Elaine (Leslie Mann), and wants to marry her, but true to form, he has pledged not to make the walk down the aisle until he has saved up to 30,000 dollars so they'll be able to afford a down payment on the house they've always wanted. After years of saving, John has finally put 30 grand in the bank, and has set the date with Elaine. However, as John's big day approaches, he gets word from his sister Patty (Megan Mullally) that her daughter Noreen (Tammy Blanchard) has been accepted into Harvard University -- and years ago, John promised her if she got into the prestigious college, he'd pay the tuition. Making good on John's pledge to his niece would leave him with a mere 121 dollars in the bank, but he doesn't have the heart to say no to Noreen, or tell Elaine of his dilemma. John does tell Duff about his problem, who comes up with a typically hare-brained solution -- turning to a life of crime for the next two weeks in order to steal another 30,000 dollars. Stealing Harvard costars Dennis Farina and Chris Penn; Bruce McCulloch, a member of the comedy series The Kids in the Hall, served as director. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2002
The NBC "ensemble" drama series Boomtown was set in contemporary Los Angeles, where crime and punishment was practically a way of life. Each episode featured a different criminal case which, in Rashomon fashion, was related from virtually everybody's point-of-view: the city detectives, the beat cops, the politicians, the ER staff, the media -- and of course, the criminals. Naturally, not everyone saw things in the same way, and this divergence of opinion (and the scriptwriters' avoidance of taking sides) was the heart of the series. The enormous cast of regulars included Neal McDonough as deputy D.A. David McNorris, Gary Basaraba and Jason Gedrick as uniformed officers Ray Heckler and Tom Turcotte, Donnie Wahlberg and Mykelti Williamson as detectives Joel Sears and "Fearless" Bobby Smith, Nina Garbiras as investigative reporter Andrea Little, and Lana Parrilla as paramedic Theresa Ortiz. Bathed in a hauntingly atmospheric Raymond Chandler-esque ambience, Boomtown made its first TV appearance on September 29, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donnie Wahlberg, Mykelti Williamson, (more)
In the science-fiction thriller Species (1995), Natasha Hentsridge appeared as the beautiful but deadly Sil, a human-alien DNA combo. In this sequel, Hentsridge portrays Eve, a government experiment concocted to gain an understanding of how to combat future aliens, while Michael Madsen and Marg Helgenberger repeat their roles from the earlier film. When astronaut Patrick Ross (Justin Lazard) returns from the first manned Mars expedition, he's infected with the same DNA that spawned Sil and Eve. Hailed as a hero, Ross is pressed into politics by his father (James Cromwell), a senator. Any woman who beds the sexually active Ross is immediately impregnated, with embryos quickly developing and killing the mother. Ross hides the offspring on a family estate, as LA cops begin to detect a pattern in the female deaths. At the lab where scientists are monitoring Eve, Dr. Laura Baker (Helgenberger) realizes that Eve has a telepathic link with Ross, and that these two hybrids hope to couple. Press Lennox (Madsen) and Colonel Burgess (George Dzundza) figure Eve can be used to lead them to Ross. Cleared as a murder suspect, Mars mission astronaut Dennis Gamble (Mykelti Williamson), joins Lennox and Baker and gets in on the action as everyone involved closes in on Ross. Richard Belzer does a cameo as the President of the U.S., while Peter Boyle makes an uncredited appearance as a scientist. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Madsen, Natasha Henstridge, (more)
- 1998
Depressed and suicidal, Mason Stark (Mitchell Lawrence) is stopped short of taking drastic action when he is whisked into a strange new dimension where everybody looks and sounds exactly like him -- albeit each with an entirely different personality. The leader of this alternate universe is also named Stark, and also closely resembles Mason (as well he should, since he is played by Mitchell Lawrence's brother, Matthew Lawrence). Stark offers Mason the opportunity to improve his "real" life, but only if he commits murder -- and the intended victim is his "other" self. Originally filmed for The Outer Limits' third season, "In Another Life" was not telecast until season four on February 16, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The white-run Mafia and the black-run numbers game meet head on with explosive impact in this period crime thriller. Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) is an African-American ex-con who, after a stay in prison, returns to Harlem at the height of its renaissance before World War II. Looking for work, Bumpy becomes a lieutenant for Stephanie St. Clair (Cicely Tyson), the queen of Harlem's numbers racket. Bumpy's old friend Illinois Gordon (Chi McBride) gently expresses his concern about Bumpy's life of crime, and social worker Francine Hughes (Vanessa L. Williams), who is attracted to Bumpy (and vice versa), suggests he should be doing something more positive with his life. But Bumpy contends that the numbers game is the only business in the community that blacks are able to control themselves. The numbers game is very profitable -- enough so that mob boss "Lucky" Luciano (Andy Garcia) wants in on the action. He assigns one of his key men, "Dutch" Schultz (Tim Roth), to try to strike a deal with Stephanie, but negotiation isn't Dutch's strong suit -- he finds that murder is a far more effective tactic in taking control of a business, and Dutch is not the sort of person who's bothered by violence. Hoodlum was director Bill Duke's second film set in the milieu of the Gangster days of the 1920s and 1930s, after his breakthrough picture A Rage in Harlem. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Fishburne, Tim Roth, (more)
- 1996
This Outer Limits episode has quite a bit in common with the Steven Spielberg feature film A.I. -- and never mind that the episode was made five years before the movie. In a post-apocalyptic future, two androids (played by Nick Mancuso and Heather Graham) hope to replenish the human population of the earth. To do this, they must clone the "new" mankind from a single strand of hair. Their mission is threatened by military android Moloch (Ken Kirzinger), who is determined never to allow the human race to flourish again. "Resurrection" was originally telecast on January 14, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
It's an old story: A suicidal man, convinced that he is being pursued by extraterrestrials, is locked up in a mental institution specializing in such "paranoid" cases. But as a series of flashbacks reveal, mental patient Eddie Wexler (Michael O'Keefe), may have every reason on earth to be afraid. Film buffs familiar with the plot of the 1919 silent classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari will derive special enjoyment from this episode. "Beyond the Veil" originally aired on February 9, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Two murders, committed in an identical fashion, occur simultaneously on opposite sides of the American continent. At the same time, the young daughters of the two murder victims inexplicably vanish. Assigned to investigate, Mulder and Scully stumble upon evidence of an ill-fated eugenics experiment. The key to the mystery is the word "exsanguinate" -- spoken by an eight-year-old child. Originally telecast December 10, 1993, "Eve" was written by Kenneth Biller and Chris Brancato. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
