Max Gail
- 2007
Billy submits "Medellin" to the Cannes Film Festival; Vince gets in over his head in Malibu; Drama rekindles an old romance. ~ Joe Friedrich, All Movie Guide
- 2006
Debuting with two back-to-back episodes on March 8, 2006, the half-hour ABC sitcom Sons & Daughters was clearly influenced by Fox's Arrested Development in its depiction of a large, extended, and extremely dysfunctional American family. Series co-creator Fred Goss headed the cast as human-resources rep Cameron Walker, who lived with his second wife, Liz (Gillian Vigman), and their two children, eight-year-old Ezra (Noah Matthews) and four-year-old Marni (Lexi Gold Jourden). The "spoiler" in the Walker household was Henry Walker (Trevor Einhorn), Cameron's profoundly embittered 14-year-old son from his previous marriage to the bipolar Paige (Melinda Allen). Elsewhere, Cameron's sister, Sharon (Alison Quinn), was mired in a sexless marriage with Don Fenton (Jerry Lambert), an auto-parts salesman and frustrated actor. Sharon's stepsister, Jenna (Amanda Walsh), a single mom struggling to make ends meet as a waitress, seemed to have a gift for invariably choosing the proverbial wrong guy. Rounding out this family group were Cameron and Sharon's high-strung and highly judgmental parents, Colleen (Dee Wallace Stone) and Wendal (Max Gail), and their outspokenly anti-Semitic aunt Rae (Lois Hall). To maintain a semblance of spontaneity, each episode was only partially scripted, allowing the actors to ad-lib and improvise within the framework of the story (Fred Goss had previously employed this technique on his Bravo network series Significant Others). Sons & Daughters was executive produced by Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Goss, Gillian Vigman, (more)
- 2006
A walk by the seashore takes a girl on the first step of an amazing journey in this family-friendly drama. When her father loses his job and money gets tight, 14-year-old Julie Kimbell (Suzanne Marie Doyon) leaves her California home and moves with her family to Manzanita, a small town on the coast of Oregon. Julie, her parents, Robert (Brian McNamara) and Kathryn (Julia Campbell), and her bother, Jimmy (Brian Thompson), settle in with her grandpa Kimbell (Max Gail), who knows more than a little about local legends and history. When Julie has an unexpected encounter with an elk while taking a walk on the beach, she discovers an ancient gold coin. After telling her grandpa and his friend Standing Elk (Floyd Red Crow Westerman) about her experience, they tell Julie about the fabled Tillamook Treasure, a fortune in gold supposedly hidden in Manzanita in the 16th century by Spanish sailors who used nefarious means to protect their treasure from the natives. As Julie learns more of the lore of Manzanita's Native American tribes, she begins experiencing some of the magic of their people, and sees the friendly elk as a spirit link to the fabled events of four centuries before. The Tillamook Treasure took the prize as the Best Family Feature at the 2006 Newport Beach Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian McNamara, Brian Thompson, (more)
- 2001
To compensate for a huge pay cut, Drew (Drew Carey) rents his spare room to a gay couple named Mitch and Les--played, believe it or don't, by Adam West (Batman) and Max Gail (Barney Miller)! The couple proves to be quite handy helping Lewis (Ryan Stiles) and Oswald (Diedrich Bader) decorate their house in the park, and in helping Drew find a better job at a better store. Alas, Drew's new responsibilities as efficiency expert succeed primarily in cutting himself out of a job! When this episode was rebroadcast by ABC on May 1, 2002, viewers were treated to the "flub version", with blown lines and breakups intact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
Connecticut's Mashantucket tribe financed this Native American drama about three sisters who enter the business world by selling Naturally Native, a homegrown line of cosmetics based on traditional tribal remedies. Married to a Native American, Vickie (Valerie Red-Horse) believes strongly in Indian traditions. She needs backers for her cosmetics line, and her two younger sisters, Tanya (Irene Bedard of Pocahontas) and accountant-in-training Karen (Kimberly Norris Guerrero) join her enterprise, but when they team to manufacture and market Naturally Native cosmetics, they encounter racist, patronizing attitudes. Numerous Native American issues are raised in this film, shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valerie Red-Horse, Irene Bedard, (more)
- 1997
Los Angeles district attorney Jess Kostner (Lori Laughlin) inaugurates her own personal descent into hell when she agrees to prosecute an accused rapist named Sean Ferguson (Tracey Walter). Having just recovered from a nervous breakdown brought about by the mysterious death of her mother, Jess is in no mood to discover that Sean's defense attorney is her own ex-husband Don Shaw (Bruce Greenwood). Things get really dicey when Ferguson's victim Connie (Lauren Tom) refuses to appear in court. Jess manages to persuade Connie to testify, only to be plunged into the abyss of guilt and self-loathing when Connie is "mysteriously" killed just before her testimony. The only positive aspect of this sordid affair is Jess' growing relationship with amiable courtroom spectator Adam Stiles (Joe Flanigan). Ultimately, the trial--and acquittal--of Sean Ferguson is revealed to be an elaborate charade, designed as a prelude to a uniquely perverse form of vigilante justice! Boasting so many plot twists that one virtually needs a scorecard to keep abreast of new developments, Tell Me No Secrets debuted January 20, 1997 on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lori Loughlin, Bruce Greenwood, (more)
- 1997
A wife and mother from Billings, Montana takes a stand against a white supremacist hate group in Not In This Town. Tammy Schnitzer (Kathy Baker) and her husband Brian (Adam Arkin) hope to raise two young children in the quiet town. Henry Whitcomb (Ed Begley Jr.) leads the hate group into distributing their ant-Semitic and racially intolerant ideology through handbills. She becomes a target of the sinister group when she forms the Montana Coalition for Human Rights. Brian, a respected dentist, fears for his wife's safety but backs away from involvement until a brick goes through the window of the children's bedroom. Newly appointed police chief Wayne Inman (Max Gail) is the white man married to a black woman who moved to Montana to escape the big-city problems of racism. Inman helps Tammy in her cause as both families become the target of the hate mongers. The film is based on actual incidents that occurred in Billings, Montana in 1993. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathy Baker, Adam Arkin, (more)
- 1996
When avaricious land developers threaten the pristine forest playground of local children, a mythical spirit appears to help them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chuck Norris, Terry Kiser, (more)
Aside from the fact of his disability and the possession of a nickname, what does Tony "Ole" Olezniak (Vincent D'Onofrio), a bitter, blinded, football player have in common with wheelchair-bound Bernard "Bern" Lemley (Gregory Hines)? Absolutely nothing until Bern enthusiastically convinces Ole to join him in a whitewater rafting adventure as part of the first step in Bern's plan to offer this and other extreme sporting adventures to other disabled people. During their arduous journey, the disparate duo learn more about themselves and each other, and in so doing, become real friends. This film features appearances by sports-greats Joe Theismann and Roy Firestone as themselves. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent D'Onofrio, Gregory Hines, (more)
- 1994
In this tender made-for-television drama, a motorcycle racer changes his outlook on life after becoming close to a young mother and her dying son. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig T. Nelson, Helen Shaver, (more)
Larry Shaw's adaptation of Robin Cook's Mortal Fear stars Joanna Kerns as a doctor working at a prestigious big city hospital. When patients start dying at an alarming rate, she must use all of her wits to defeat the personal at the hospital she begins to suspect are behind the mystery. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
When a hard-boiled Hong Kong cop arrives in Los Angeles to extradite a nefarious Chinese crime boss back to Hong Kong for trial only to discover that his elusive charge has once again gone missing, he quickly enlists the aid of a renegade cop and a beautiful Pai Gow dealer in bringing the gangster to justice in director Charla Driver's globe-trotting action entry. Charles Prince (Gary Daniels) is a cop with a mission, and he's not going home without his suspect in tow. It's not going to be as easy as he thought, though, and as a heated triad war in the heart of Chinatown threatens to blow the whole city sky high, Prince is going to need all the help he can get to find his man and get out of the city alive. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Daniels, Ken McLeod, (more)
A dysfunctional family reunites during the Apollo XI moon landing in this drama starring real-life couple Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. In 1969, eccentric teacher Washington Bellamy (Danson) turns the arrival of men on the moon into a science project for his son Andy (Ryan Todd). They drive across the country to Idaho's Spires of the Moon National Park, where the odometer of Washington's classic Pontiac Chief will read 238,857, the exact mileage traveled by Apollo XI. Left behind is wife and mother Katherine (Steenburgen), an agoraphobic who never recovered emotionally from a miscarriage seven years earlier. On the road, Washington and Andy encounter a Native American soldier (Eric Schweig), a flirty barfly (Cathy Moriarty) and Washington's long-lost brother (Max Gail). Back home, Katherine nervously ventures outside to follow her family. When Washington's car breaks down, he steals a new engine, bringing the authorities after him and leading to a rendezvous at the park between father, son, mother, and cops, as the astronauts simultaneously land on the moon. Pontiac Moon (1994) was a critical lemon for director Peter Medak, who enjoyed more success with his British crime dramas such as The Krays (1990) and Let Him Have It (1991). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, (more)
- 1993
Radio sex therapist Kate Vernon could use a slice of her own advice in the R-rated Dangerous Touch. Against her better judgement, she falls hard for charismatic Lou Diamond Phillips. As the relationship intensifies (and we see plenty of that intensification), Phillips inveigles Vernon in a hellish world of crime, double-cross and death. Why is it that we would know enough not to get in so deep, but the characters on the screen don't seem to have any sort of built-in early warning system? Why? Because someone has to watch movies like Dangerous Touch, and yell such things as "Look Out!" "Don't Trust Him!" and "What the heck were you thinking of?" at the screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Based on a true story, this is the saga of the survivor of an automobile crash who is left wheelchair bound and bitter. Ignoring friends and family, it becomes his sole quest to end his life with dignity. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cole, Craig T. Nelson, (more)
- 1992
Nicollette Sheridan plays a stripper in the made-for-TV Somebody's Daughter. Together with her bodyguard/lover Nick Mancusco, Sheridan becomes involved in a murder. The subsequent official cover-up and the attendant police corruption places Nicollette's future seriously in doubt. In fact, she escapes death so often before the climax that we feel as though we've stumbled into a full-color, streetwise remake of a Pearl White serial. Somebody's Daughter was first telecast September 20, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this police drama, a cop opens up a youth center and endeavors to teach kids the fine art of boxing to help get them off the street. Things work out well until a powerful local drug dealer tries to ruin things. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Based on a true story, the made-for-TV Child Lost Forever was advertised as a "docudrama." A unwed teenage mother is forced to give up her baby for adoption. 16 years later, the girl (played as an adult by Beverly D'Angelo), now married and the mother of two, decides to look for the son she lost. She finds that the boy died at age three under mysterious circumstances. The more she investigates, the more she realizes that she's stumbled upon a long-hushed-up case of child abuse. Child Lost Forever debuted November 16, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beverly D'Angelo, Michael McGrady, (more)
- 1989
William Blinn's teleplay for The Outside Woman smacks of the most exaggerated of contrivances--but it's all based on truth. Sharon Gless, who tries really hard to look dowdy, stars as a Southern mill worker. Highly susceptible to the possibility of romance, Gless falls for the smooth line of Scott Glenn--a convict at Los Angeles state prison. Her common sense clouded by love, Gless agrees to help hijack a helicopter in order to bust Glenn and a fellow convict out of the slammer. Made for television, The Outside Woman was perhaps deliberately slated for its premiere just before Valentine's Day of 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Purchasing an antique bureau at a furniture store rummage sale, Jessica finds an old, undelivered letter in one of the drawers. For reasons made clear in the episode, she turns the letter over to a local volunteer fireman (Jonathan Goldsmith)--who later perishes in a blaze that was deliberately set at the very same furniture store. Want to bet that the letter and the murder are somehow linked, and that Jessica will find that link before episode's end? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Man Against the Mob is a variation on the 1981 theatrical feature True Confessions. This made-for-TV effort stars George Peppard as a tough LA cop in the late 1940s. Investigating a brutal homicide, Peppard discovers that the killing is more than the sex crime it seems to be at first glance. The trail of evidence leads Peppard to a group of visiting Chicago mobsters, and ultimately to several of Los Angeles' more "respectable" citizens. Man Against the Mob is ordinary at best, but thanks to George Peppard's performance the film scored excellent ratings when first telecast in 1988. A 1989 TV-movie followup, Man Against the Mob: The Chinatown Murders failed to match the ratings of the first effort. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In 1978, an East German waiter used a toy gun to hijack a Polish airliner heading for East Berlin and forced the pilot to land at an American Air Force base in West Germany. The best-selling book about the ensuing trial of the hijacker -- written by the presiding judge, Herbert J. Stern -- is given film treatment by director Leo Penn. The back story involves a West German contractor working both sides of Germany, who has fallen in love with a woman from East Berlin. The contractor arranges for the woman, her daughter and another man (Heinz Hoenig), who has children living in West Germany, to meet him in Gdansk, Poland, where he will give them false documents allowing them to get into West Germany. When the contractor is arrested, they must make other plans. Sneaking a toy gun on an airplane bound for East Germany, the man compels the pilot to steer the plane to West Germany, where he hopes to seek asylum and see his children. But this is the first time a hijacker has sought asylum in the west and it sets off a political firestorm. The American and West Germany governments have signed an international accord to prevent skyjackings and the Soviet government is pressuring them to prosecute the hijackers to the fullest extent of the law. The United States Justice Department wants a quick trial and hires a tough judge (Martin Sheen), who, they think, will prosecute the case swiftly and be done with it. However, the judge is more than the authorities have bargained for -- he wants the defendants to be given a fair trial and all of the rights guaranteed to them under the Constitution. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Sheen, Sam Wanamaker, (more)
- 1987
- AddHoxsey: When Healing Becomes a Crimeto QueueAddHoxsey: When Healing Becomes a Crimeto top of Queue
This documentary concerns Harry M. Hoxsey, the former coal miner whose family's herbal recipe has brought about claims of a cancer cure. Starting in 1924 with his first clinic, he expanded to 17 states by the mid 1950s, along the way constantly battling organized medicine that labeled him a charlatan. Hoxsey's supporters point out he was the victim of arrests, or "quackdowns" spearheaded by the proponents of established medical practices. Interviews of patients satisfied with the results of the controversial treatment are balanced with physicians from the FDA and the AMA. A clinic in Tijuana, Mexico claims an 80% success rate, while opponents are naturally skeptical. What is apparent is that cancer continues to be one of humankind's more dreaded diseases, and that political and economic forces dominate research and development. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1987
It's a slow night at the local single's bar, so three guys end up sitting around sharing their widely-differing viewpoints on finding romance. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
