Megan Gallivan Movies
- 1996
Seth Hazlitt (William Windom arranges for Cabot Cove to stage a rock concert benefit to save a local patch of woods. The star of the concert is Tommy Vaughn (eith Coulouris), a popular singer who is anything but popular to the people who work for him. Inevitably, a murder occurs, with an electric guitar as the weapon. Jessica (Angela Lansbury) plays a few detection riffs herself to find out which of the dead man's many enemies is the guilty party. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- R
When two rival groups of surfers face off on a Southern California beach prior to a big surfing contest, things get a little tense. However, when surfer Nick Rainwood (Richard Joseph Paul) meets up with a pretty girl, Allie (Danielle Von Zerneck), the two start off a romance, in spite of the fact that they belong to opposing sides of the surfing feud. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keith Coogan, Danielle von Zerneck, (more)
Bette Midler stars as Stella Claire, a working class, fun-loving barmaid in northern New York State. A brief affair with handsome Stephen Dallas (Stephen Collins) produces a daughter, Jenny (Trini Alvarado), who Stella insists upon raising alone, despite Dallas' marriage offer. As the years pass, Stella and Jenny are a happy pair. Stella gives up bartending to sell cosmetics, supported by her friend Ed (John Goodman), a bartender developing a crush on her and a problem with alcohol. Dallas has stayed involved with his beloved daughter from afar and is now a urologist in New York City, engaged to a book editor (Marsha Mason). As Jenny reaches adulthood, Stella becomes aware that life with her father would provide her daughter with opportunities that she'd never have otherwise, so she devises a painful, self-sacrificing scheme to drive Jenny from the nest. Although functional as a tearjerker, many of the themes in Stella simply don't make as much sense in a modern age of healthy, fractured families, muting the drama of the tale's earlier versions, specifically Stella Dallas (1937). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Midler, John Goodman, (more)
Director Stan Dragoti, whose forte is plumbing the depths of the male psyche, plumbs those depths once again in She's Out of Control. Tony Danza stars as Doug Simpson, a broadcasting executive who has trouble adjusting to the fact that his fifteen-year-old daughter Katie (Ami Dolenz) is blossoming into a sexual being. This realization kicks in after his fiancee Janet (Catherine Hicks) takes Katie for a makeover; suddenly she appears before Doug looking like a sultry super model. Now Doug is unable to look at his daughter as anything other than as a sexy chick, and he spends his time fending off packs of horny suitors while dictating morality to Katie. It finally gets to the point where Doug consults with television psychiatrist Dr. Fishbinder (Wallace Shawn), who recommends that Doug read a book he has written for single fathers, advising him, "If you're a slow reader, you better put your daughter on the pill." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Danza, Catherine Hicks, (more)
An otherwise boring and unpopular Louise is enamored with Brad, the star of the high-school football team, but her feelings are not reciprocated. One week before her birthday, she visits a psychic and is told she has latent, genetically predisposed witch abilities that will blossom on her sixteenth birthday. Soon she finds the information to be true and uses her powers to gain the typical teen goals: popularity, revenge on cruel teachers and other meanies, and high-school football star Brad... ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robyn Lively, Dan Gauthier, (more)
Directed by former Starsky and Hutch TV star Paul Michael Glaser, this post-apocalyptic science fiction yarn satirized American entertainment, mocking pro wrestling, game shows, and law-and-order reality programming. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Ben Richards, a cop in the totalitarian America of 2019, framed for massacring rioting civilians during a famine. After escaping from jail, Richards tries to prove his innocence, but his efforts are thwarted at every turn by a regime in need of a scapegoat. Richards is captured along with an innocent civilian, Amber Mendez (Maria Conchita Alonso), and they are forced to participate in a violent game show called "The Running Man," hosted by the unctuous Damon Killian (Richard Dawson). The object of the game for Richards and Mendez: obtain freedom by staying alive against a gauntlet of skillful assassins like "Subzero" (Prof. Toru Tanaka) and "Captain Freedom" (Jesse Ventura), each armed with unique weapons like razor-sharp hockey sticks and chainsaws. With the help of some fellow "contestants," Richards is able to tap into government computers and prove his innocence. The Running Man was very loosely based on a short story by Stephen King, who wrote it under the name Richard Bachman. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, (more)
