Colm Feore Movies
A classically trained stage star in his adopted home of Canada, Colm Feore became an increasingly familiar presence to movie and TV audiences as a prolific supporting actor in the 1990s.Though he was born in the U.S. and spent the first years of his life in Ireland, Feore and his family moved to Ottawa when he was three and Canada became his official home. After studying acting at Canada's National Theater School, Feore built a distinguished Canadian stage career, performing in over 40 productions during 13 seasons with the prestigious Stratford Festival.
Feore began adding film and TV to his acting experience in the late '80s with such movies as Iron Eagle II (1988) and Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1989), starring Donald Sutherland. Feore himself starred as a 19th century doctor in Beautiful Dreamers (1991). He caught the attention of film critics and art house audiences as the famed reclusive pianist Glenn Gould in François Girard's biopic 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould (1994), a musically structured combination of documentary reminiscences and fancifully staged incidents from Gould's troubled life. Feore also appeared in the esteemed TV biopic Truman (1995).
Feore's non-stage career expanded further in the latter half of the 1990s and into the 2000s with numerous roles in a wide range of projects. Along with the TV movie Hostile Waters (1997), about a U.S.-Soviet submarine incident, Feore also acted in several major 1997 releases, playing an unlucky surgeon in John Woo's blockbuster Face/Off and appearing in Sidney Lumet's New York policier Night Falls on Manhattan and black comedy Critical Care. The following year, Feore played parts in both the Canadian action movie Airborne (1998) and the Canadian action movie send-up The Wrong Guy (1998). Whatever artistic credibility Feore may have sacrificed to star opposite Shannen Doherty in the thriller Striking Poses (1998) and play Meg Ryan's fiancé in City of Angels (1998) was mitigated by his appearance in François Girard's The Red Violin (1998). Feore subsequently played Marcus in Titus (1999), Julie Taymor's ambitious reworking of Shakespeare's maligned Titus Andronicus, and joined the lauded ensemble cast of Michael Mann's Oscar-nominated docudrama, The Insider (1999). Feore's sharp features also enhanced his performance as Satan's minion in Stephen King's TV miniseries Storm of the Century (1999).
Though he spent part of 2000 acting in the New York Public Theater production of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Feore was soon back in front of the cameras in an eclectic mix of works. Along with the miniseries Haven (2001), about the rescue of concentration camp refugees, Feore appeared in off-center murder mystery The Caveman's Valentine (2001) and played Admiral Kimmel in Michael Bay's overblown blockbuster Pearl Harbor (2001). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- 2002
A forward-looking woman attempts to teach a primitive child the ways of humanity as her neighbors prefer to remain in the past in this drama from Michael Mackenzie, which he adapted from his own play. In 1888, a wealthy heiress from Philadelphia (Patricia Clarkson) marries a British Baron (Colm Feore) and with him moves to Paris. Since the Baron travels often as he plies his trade as an art dealer, the Baroness finds herself alone at home, without friends or acquaintances. Hoping to attract a circle of intellectually challenging companions, the Baroness takes it upon herself to design a salon, which, along with up-to-the-minute furnishings and impressionist paintings, includes such new technology as electric lighting and a phonograph. However, the Baroness' new salon fails to earn her the respect of her neighbors, who tell the Baron they find his new bride's fascination with technology and democracy boorish and laughable. Making things worse, the Baroness comes to the realization that her husband is more interested in her money than her mind, and his sexual demands of her are brutal and violent. In time, the Baroness devotes her time to a new project -- a feral child (Caroline Dhavernas) has been found in a stable, where she lived with a heard of pigs, and the Baroness takes it upon herself to teach the child to walk, speak, and behave in a civilized manner, a task many believe is doomed to failure. The Baroness and the Pig was screened in competition at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Clarkson, Caroline Dhavernas, (more)
The successful franchise of Paramount motion pictures based on novelist Tom Clancy's techno-thrillers featuring heroic CIA intelligence analyst Jack Ryan stages a much-publicized "do-over" with this action-adventure that recasts the character of Ryan as a rookie to the complex game of geopolitical warfare. Ben Affleck takes the reins from Harrison Ford as Ryan, a greenhorn CIA historian and analyst who finds himself thrust front and center into the spy community's spotlight when Nemerov (Ciaran Hinds), a Russian politician on whom Ryan is an expert, suddenly becomes the leader of the former Soviet Union upon the current president's unexpected demise. Attached to the director of the CIA, Cabot (Morgan Freeman), Ryan insists -- contrary to the opinions of many high-ranking White House officials -- that Nemerov is not a warmonger. Meanwhile, a cadre of neo-fascists, led by Dressler (Alan Bates), plots the detonation at the Super Bowl in Baltimore, MD, of a nuclear device recovered from a long-ago Israeli fighter jet crash, a terrorist incident they intend to spark a war between the super powers, leaving them to conquer the world in the conflict's post-apocalyptic vacuum. The Sum of All Fears co-stars James Cromwell, Bridget Moynahan, and Liev Schreiber as covert operative John Clark, a character central to another series of Clancy's best-selling tomes. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, (more)
A starry-eyed would-be star discovers just how far the notion that "there's no such thing as bad publicity" can go in this screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Chicago, originally directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse. In the mid-'20s, Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) is a small-time chorus dancer married to a well-meaning dunderhead named Amos (John C. Reilly). Roxie is having an affair on the side with Fred Casley (Dominic West), a smooth talker who insists he can make her a star. However, Fred strings Roxie along a bit too far for his own good, and when she realizes that his promises are empty, she becomes enraged and murders Fred in cold blood. Roxie soon finds herself behind bars alongside Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a sexy vaudeville star who used to perform with her sister until Velma discovered that her sister had been sleeping with her husband. Velma shot them both dead, and, after scheming prison matron "Mama" Morton hooks Velma up with hotshot lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), Velma becomes the new Queen of the scandal sheets. Roxie is just shrewd enough to realize that her poor fortune could also bring her fame, so she convinces Amos to also hire Flynn. Soon Flynn is splashing Roxie's story -- or, more accurately, a highly melodramatic revision of Roxie's story -- all over the gutter press, and Roxy and Velma are soon battling neck-to-neck over who can win greater fame through the headlines. A project that had been moving from studio to studio since the musical opened on Broadway in 1973, Chicago also features guest appearances by Lucy Liu and Christine Baranski. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger, (more)
A man must decide if his greater loyalty is to his family or to justice in this made-for-TV movie based on a true story. In 1963, several members of a Southern Ku Klux Klan chapter bombed an African-American church in Birmingham, AL. Four young girls died in the blast, but the police were unable to prosecute the most case at the time because no one was willing to testify against the most likely suspects, or even say what they knew about them. Tom Cherry (Tom Sizemore) is the son of Bobby Frank Cherry (Richard Jenkins), who moved from Alabama to Texas not long after the bombing. Now a grown man in middle age, Tom has known since he was a boy about his father's involvement in the Ku Klux Klan and his participation in the Birmingham church bombing, but he's never been able to bring himself to tell the police what he know, or turn his dad over to authorities. However, when investigators reopen the case and begin asking both Tom and Bobby Frank tough questions, Tom struggles to decide what he should do, with his good friend Garrick Jones (Ving Rhames) urging him to help the authorities bring the guilty parties to justice. For a look at the facts behind the Birmingham church bombing case, viewers should also take a look at Spike Lee's acclaimed documentary 4 Little Girls. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Sizemore, Richard Jenkins, (more)
This PBS documentary demonstrates that there was more to Benjamin Franklin than most contemporary observers could imagine. The diversity of Franklin's achievements exceeded even what we know today, going far beyond the inventions, the Almanac, the statesmanship, the diplomacy...and the amorous conquests. Much of the teleplay is told in Franklin's own words, relayed in "talking head" fashion by two different actors: Dylan Baker as young Ben, and Richard Easton as the elderly Franklin. Other commentary is offered by a team of eminent historians and by narrator Colm Feore. Intended as a three-part miniseries, Benjamin Franklin ultimately aired in two segments, on November 19 and 20, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Easton, Dylan Baker, (more)
- 2001
David Weaver makes his feature debut with this omnibus film in which each tale is told during different points during the 20th century, but in the same hotel room -- room 720. The film opens during the swinging '20s when a beautiful young woman, married against her will to a brutish thug of a man, endures a tension-fraught honeymoon. During the Depression segment, a mail-order bride from China meets her husband for the first time. Following the end of WWII, a soldier returns home to meet his girlfriend and his best friend. During the paranoia of the 1950s, a professor searches for his wife. During the 1980s, a lawyer has too much sex and debt, and during the dawn of the millennium, a woman comes to a newly refurbished room 720 to meet her Internet lover. Such acclaimed Canadian actors as Tom McCamus, Sandrine Holt, and Colm Feore star in this film, which was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lindy Booth, Colm Feore, (more)
- 2001
This six-part Canadian TV anthology (actually telecast in three parts) was founded on the theme of human frailty. The stories, largely based on famous literary works, were linked together by the activities of documentary filmmaker George (Ken Finkelman, who also wrote and directed the series). Individual episode included "The Body", a saga of public embarrassment based on a story by Italo Calvino; "Disasters", based on an Orhan Pamuk story about the public's fascination with spectacular tragedies; "Evil", inspired by Maggie O'Kane's article on the war in Kosovo; "Celebrity", a fable wherein Jesus returned in the 21st century; and "Chaos and Order", in which a modern-day film crew found itself in the middle of an ancient Japanese legend. The series concluded with "The Award", a self-revelatory piece about hero George's own neuroses. Foreign Objects was originally seen from September 24 to 26, 2001. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Finkleman, Colm Feore, (more)
A man struggles back from madness to avenge the death of someone he knew in an intelligent thriller based on the acclaimed novel by George Dawes Green. Romulus Ledbetter (Samuel L. Jackson) once had a career as an acclaimed concert pianist, a position at the Juilliard School of Music, and a loving wife and children. But Ledbetter's life has been devastated by paranoid schizophrenia; now homeless, Ledbetter wanders the streets of New York City as he rails against Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant, a man whom he believes controls all the evil in the world while following his movements from a perch atop the Chrysler Building. Most nights, Ledbetter takes shelter in a cave in Central Park, earning him the nickname "the Caveman." One morning, Ledbetter discovers a frozen corpse caught in the branches of a tree near his cave; the body is that of Scotty (Sean MacMahaon), a homeless drug addict who was close friends with his pal Matthew (Rodney Eastman). Ledbetter is determined to get justice for Scotty, and he's also eager to prove himself to his daughter Lulu (Aunjanue Ellis), now a New York City police officer. While Ledbetter is at first convinced that his nemesis Stuyvesant is responsible for Scotty's death, in time he focuses on another suspect: David Leppenraub (Colm Feore), a famous photographer known for his controversial erotic images of young men, who occasionally hired Scotty as a model. As Ledbetter attempts to investigate Leppenraub's possible role in the murder, he soon gains an unexpected ally -- Moira (Ann Magnuson), a noted sculptor and Leppenraub's sister. The Caveman's Valentine marked the major-studio debut for director Kasi Lemmons, who made an impressive debut in 1997 with the independent drama Eve's Bayou. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Samuel L. Jackson, Colm Feore, (more)
Following up on his gritty Dogma-certified look at street life in Toronto in Johnny, Carl Bessai shifts gears to detail the suburb ennui in Vancouver. Lola (Sabrina Grdevich) spends much of her days on her therapist's couch, blankly wandering the malls and running the odd errand for her hard-driving husband Mike (Colm Feore). Their marriage has stagnated for so long that they can barely imagine another way of living together. One night after an ugly fight, Lola heads into the night. She runs into a hooker named Sandra (Joanna Going), who is fleeing a loan shark and who is heading home for the first time in 15 years after her father died. They strike up a fast friendship, adding a blush of real emotion to Lola's life that had been absent for years. When Sandra's loans catch up with her, Lola assumes Sandra's identity and goes to visit her mother. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
The political thriller B-movie Ignition was released straight to video in the U.S. Bull Pullman stars as Conor Gallagher, a former military helicopter pilot who was discharged due to his violent rage. He is assigned to protect Federal Judge Faith Mattis (Lena Olin) after a mail bomb goes off in her office. Meanwhile, the U.S. is about to put a man on the moon and corrupt military officials plan to assassinate the President. Colm Feore plays the corrupt bad guy, General Joel MacAteer, and Peter Kent plays his henchman Brunson. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Pullman, Lena Olin, (more)
At the time of its release, this lavish period war drama from hyperkinetic director Michael Bay became the most expensive motion picture ever green-lighted by a studio. Ben Affleck stars as Rafe McCawley, a military pilot stationed under Jimmy Doolittle (Alec Baldwin) in New Jersey, along with his best friend from childhood, Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett). Rafe is chomping at the bit to get involved in World War II, but America has not entered the conflict, so he is forced to fight on loan to the Royal Air Force in Britain, leaving behind his beautiful girlfriend Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale). After Rafe goes overseas, both Danny and Evelyn are transferred to the naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where word arrives that Rafe has been killed in action. A grief-stricken Evelyn and Danny become romantically attached, a situation that becomes a lit powder keg when Rafe suddenly reappears, having survived his ordeal in the European war. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor puts the romantic triangle on hold, as the best friends are ordered to undertake a top-secret and highly dangerous retaliatory mission to bomb Tokyo, once again under the command of Doolittle. Although the trio of leads are entirely fictional, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Sizemore, and Jon Voight (as FDR) co-star in the roles of real-life historical figures. Pearl Harbor is based on a script by Randall Wallace, writer of Braveheart (1995) and The Man in the Iron Mask (1998). Taking a page from the production history of James Cameron's Titanic (1997), many of the actors and filmmakers involved with Pearl Harbor deferred their usual salaries until the film "broke even" at the box office. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, (more)
An American journalist takes on the dangerous responsibility of rescuing nearly a thousand refugees from a Nazi concentration camp in this two-part made-for-TV movie based on a true story. In the early days of America's involvement in World War II, Ruth Gruber (Natasha Richardson) is a reporter who has been giving particular attention to a recent story: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in violation of United States policies of the day, has announced he will grant asylum in America to 982 European refugees from Nazi labor camps. But someone needs to escort the prisoners to the U.S.; Gruber, of European ancestry and Jewish faith, volunteers for the assignment over the objections of her parents (Anne Bancroft and Martin Landau). Gruber travels to Italy on behalf of Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes (Hal Holbrook), where she helps the refugees board the U.S.S. Henry Gibbins. But Gruber discovers that the American sailors manning the ship regard their passengers as little better than their Nazi jailers, and the State Department declares, upon their arrival in the United States, that all the refugees are to be housed in a camp in Oswego, NY -- even those who have families willing to sponsor them in America. Gruber realizes her work with the refugees is far from done, and she bravely battles against both bureaucracy and prejudice to win both dignity and fair treatment for the new settlers. Haven was originally broadcast on the CBS television network on February 11 and 14, 2001. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natasha Richardson, Hal Holbrook, (more)
- 2001
Based on a novel by Linda Fairstein, the made-for-TV Final Jeopardy stars Dana Delany as prosecuting attorney Alexandra Cooper. During a visit to Alexandra's Manhattan apartment, her best friend, an actress, is murdered. At first wondering why anyone would want to kill her friend, Alexandra arrives at the horrifying conclusion that she herself was the intended victim -- and that the killer is prepared to try again at any time. Billy Burke costars as Mike Chapman, who after being dragged into the murder investigation, falls in love with Alexandra, a plot complication that could very well end in tragedy for at least one of the parties involved. Final Jeopardy premiered April 9, 2001 on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Two brothers try to sort out their differences in the wake of their father's death in this drama. Theo (David Cubitt) has long been the black sheep of his family; at the age of 30, he's made no real headway in starting a career, despite periodic stabs at becoming a writer, and his problems with substance abuse have sent him through one rehab clinic after another. Theo doesn't get along with Ryan (Colm Feore), his older brother, who has become a successful lawyer and seems to have his life firmly in control. Neither Theo nor Ryan had an especially cordial relationship with their father, whose death opens old wounds between them. However, Theo soon discovers that Ryan, long the "respectable" member of the family, has also been keeping a secret; he is gay and has been less than cautious in pursuing sexual partners in the past. Ryan's promiscuity comes back to haunt him when he becomes HIV-positive, and he is eventually forced to turn to Theo for help. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colm Feore, David Cubitt, (more)
- 2000
Max Hanson (Jonathan Jackson), a popular high school student with considerable artistic and athletic talent, finds himself under pressure from everyone--especially his parents--to focus exclusively on art and to give up ice hockey. The only person who apparently harbors no judgmental attitudes towards Max is a teenage girl named Molly (Carly Pope), with whom he falls in love. Unfortunately, Molly is "into" wild parties and drugs--and before long, so is Max. As he sinks deeper and deeper into the morass of heroin addiction, Max seems to be beyond redemption . . . and far beyond the influence of his caring but domineering mother Sophie (JoBeth Williams). Posing a number of tough questions, but wisely offering no easy answers, the made-for-TV Trapped in a Purple Haze originally aired on April 17, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jonathan Jackson, JoBeth Williams, (more)
- 2000
Actor Bill Pullman made his directorial debut with this third screen adaptation of the classic Western novel by Owen Wister. The Virginian (Pullman) leaves the state of his birth to make a new life for himself on the frontier of the American West. He falls in love with Molly Stark (Diane Lane), a schoolteacher also new to Wyoming, and becomes the foreman of a successful cattle ranch, hoping to make good in her eyes. But he is forced to resort to violence when he must protect the ranch against the treacheries of a rival rancher and the betrayal of a former friend; Molly's stern opposition to eye-for-an-eye justice demands that he choose between his conscience and the woman he loves. The Virginian, which received its world premiere on the TNT cable network, co-stars John Savage, Dennis Weaver, and Colm Feore; James Drury, who played the title role in the 1960s TV series based on The Virginian, appears as Rider. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Pullman, Diane Lane, (more)
The Insider tells the true story of a man who decided to tell the world what the seven major tobacco companies knew (and concealed) about the dangers of their product. Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) was a scientist employed in research for a tobacco firm, Brown and Williamson. Not long after he was fired by Brown and Williamson, Wigand came into contact with Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), a producer for 60 Minutes who worked closely with journalist Mike Wallace (played here by Christopher Plummer). Bergman arranged for Wigand to be interviewed by Wallace for a 60 Minutes expose on the cigarette industry, though Wigand was still bound by a confidentiality agreement not to discuss his employment with the company. Despite Wigand's willingness to talk, CBS pulled his interview from at the last minute after Brown and Williamson threatened a multi-billion dollar lawsuit. The staff of 60 Minutes and CBS News were soon embroiled in an internal struggle over the killing of the story, and Wigand found himself the subject of lawsuits and a smear campaign, without his full story reaching the public. The Insider was directed by Michael Mann and also features Diane Venora, Philip Baker Hall, Debi Mazar, Colm Feore, and Rip Torn. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, (more)
One of William Shakespeare's lesser-known plays, Titus Andronicus was staged in New York by award-winning theatrical director Julie Taymor in an acclaimed 1995 production, before her widely praised Broadway version of The Lion King. Taymor revisits that production for her first motion picture, with the addition of a star-studded cast. Roman General Titus Andronicus (Anthony Hopkins) has returned from defeating the Goths in a bloody battle, but the victory has left him with mixed feelings, as the war took the lives of several of his sons. Titus is reminded by his first-born son Lucius (Angus Macfadyen) that their faith demands the sacrifice of an enemy prisoner as a gift to the gods for their victory. Titus chooses the eldest son of Tamora (Jessica Lange), the Queen of the Goths, who has since been taken hostage by Titus's troops. Tamora pleads for her son's life, but Titus goes ahead with the sacrifice. She then becomes the lover of the new emperor of Rome, Saturninus (Alan Cumming), a weak-willed and corrupt man. Tamora uses her connection to the throne for her own ends: in retaliation for the death of her son, Tamora and her surviving sons, Chiron (Jonathan Rhys Myers) and Demetrius (Matthew Rhys), brutally rape Titus's beloved daughter, Lavinia (Laura Fraser). This act sets in motion an ever-tightening spiral of revenge and retaliation that leaves few of the participants unscathed. The supporting cast includes Colm Feore as Marcus, Harry Lennix as Aaron, and James Frain as Bassianus. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, (more)
- 1999
Based on Living in the Labyrinth, the autobiography of Diana Friel McGowin, the made-for-TV Forget Me Never stars Mia Farrow as McGowin, a successful middle-aged legal secretary. Upon her realization that she is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, Diana courageously attempts to hide her affliction from her husband, Jack (Martin Sheen), and her children, but it isn't long before the truth becomes painfully obvious. Seeking to bond with others suffering from Alzheimer's, Diana forms a strong and unassailable friendship with ex-professor Dr. Albert Morelli (Colm Feore), who is in a more advanced stage of the disease. Mia Farrow earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Forget Me Never, which made its CBS network debut on October 3, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The first story Stephen King wrote specifically for a television miniseries, Storm of the Century is set in Little Tall Island, a small town off the coast of Maine. The citizens are bracing themselves for what is expected to be the worst snowstorm in 100 years when a mysterious stranger named Andre Linoge (Colm Feore) arrives with a simple command: "Give me what I want and I'll go away." Andre is, in fact, an emissary of Satan, and what he wants is one of the children of Little Tall Island, whom he will raise to take over his assignment on Earth -- it seems that Satan's lifespan, although far longer than that of a normal human, is not unlimited, and he will need a replacement for that time when he must vacate his position. Andre knows everyone's secrets and can make their lives a living hell (no pun intended); he can also destroy the city at will. And only one person in town has the strength to stand up to Andre -- the sheriff, Mike Anderson (Tim Daly). While originally written for television, Stephen King's novelization of Storm of the Century was published shortly after the series was originally broadcast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Daly, Colm Feore, (more)
An angel must decide if love is more important than eternal peace in this Americanized adaptation of Wim Wenders' modern classic Wings of Desire. Seth (Nicholas Cage) is an angel who hovers over the city of Los Angeles, listening to people's thoughts, observing their lives, and guiding them to the next world when they die. While Seth and his fellow angels try to offer comfort to people as they can, they are discouraged from direct contact with humans and are usually invisible to them. While at a hospital, Seth sees Maggie (Meg Ryan), a dedicated heart surgeon who attempts to save the life of a patient Seth was to call upon. Maggie is distraught after the patient passes, and her agony touches something inside the reserved Seth; he finds himself falling in love with her, and he decides to make himself visible so he can communicate with her. As Maggie gets to know the strange visitor in black who has suddenly appeared in her life, she finds herself torn between her new feelings for Seth and her attachment to her fiancé Jordan (Colm Feore), a fellow doctor. Seth, on the other hand, has a serious choice to make -- between immortality and giving it up in order to know both the pleasures and pains of being a human being. City of Angels also stars Dennis Franz as Messinger, a patient at the hospital who has some important advice for Seth. The film's soundtrack featured two Top Ten hits, "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls and "Uninvited" by Alanis Morissette. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan, (more)
Photographer Gage Sullivan (Doherty) is first seen driving down a dark road in a car and stopping to bury some bloody clothes. At a motel, tow FBI agents capture her and question her about the clothes. She tells her story in flashback. Gage works for a tabloid called "Celebrity Scandal" and finds herself the target of a camera-wielding stalker. On the advice of her assistant, Casey (Tamara Gorski), Gage hires a "guardian angel" Nick Angel (Joseph Griffin), of Angel Security. Of course, Nick is devastatingly handsome, and very good at his job. Nick sets Gage up with a new identity as "Julie Summerfield," but their every move is being watched by the stalker, who wears a bad wig and chews bubblegum. While Nick and Gage are out getting acquainted, Casey lets in the wrong pizza boy, who kidnaps her and sends Gage photos of the beaten assistant floating in a bathtub, apparently dead. Now Gage is mad, and hires a psycho hit man named Murray the Badger (Aidan Devine) to kill the stalker. Nick doesn't trust the Badger, with good reason -- he wears a bad wig and blows bubblegum. Badger waylays Nick but lets Gage get away, and the film comes back to the motel where it started. The flashback is over, but there's another 40 minutes of movie to go, as Gage makes some shocking revelations and learns that she's at the center of a very clever plot, then sets out to turn the tables on the bad guys. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1998
- R
David Mackay directed this drama about the secrets of four friends. Missouri lumberman Derek (Colm Feore) reunites his high school pals -- lawyer George (David Paymer), priest Ivan (Arliss Howard), and police officer Frank (Tony Goldwyn) -- who were all involved in past violent deaths and cover-ups. The film double-tracks their stories as it intercuts between past and present. Shown in 1998 at the Austin Film Festival, the Houston Film Festival and the AFI Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Francois Girard directed this drama tracing the history of a musical instrument through five countries and three centuries. In 1681, to keep the spirit of his wife alive, an Italian paints the violin with a red varnish made from her blood. It is later found in the Austrian Alps when a prodigy gives a performance in the court of Vienna in 1792. Taken by gypsies, the instrument is acquired by a Dionysian composer. After a journey by boat to China in 1966, it is hidden during the Cultural Revolution. In contemporary Canada, it is spotted at an auction house by a violin expert (Samuel L. Jackson) who becomes obsessed with it. Scripted by Girard and Don McKellar. Filmed on a $10 million budget in Montreal, China, Italy, Austria, and Oxford. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Samuel L. Jackson, Don McKellar, (more)
Airborne is a science-fiction fantasy film about the tribulations of a clandestine operation team recruited by the government to steal a deadly virus from a band of terrorists. Led by Commander Bill McNeil, the team confronts the thieves in a daring act of piracy and, after a standoff in mid-air, retrieves the deadly bottle. When two members of the team are subsequently murdered, McNeil suspects that the government might be behind the gruesome act. The team steals the virus back and becomes the subject of a deadly hunt by mysterious mercenaries. Airborne plays like a cross between Mission Impossible and The Rock; Steve Guttenberg, the star of Police Academy and Cocoon, might seem a strange choice as an action hero, but the film in general has entertainment value. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Guttenberg, Kim Coates, (more)
