James Gammon

Upon drifting into a troubled Western outpost and discovering that the helpless locals are being terrorized by a ruthless rancher and his brutish hired hands, two rugged, straight-shooting peacemakers decide to stick around and put things right in this Western adapted from the novel by Robert B. Parker, and directed by Ed Harris. Bragg (Jeremy Irons) is a rancher who believes himself to be above the law, a stance that's forever cemented when he guns down the town sheriff and his deputy in cold blood. Horrified, the defenseless townspeople pray for the day a savior will arrive in town to free them from Bragg's suffocating grasp. Soon thereafter, Virgil (Harris) and Everett (Viggo Mortensen) stride into town atop two mighty steeds, their confident presence signaling the beginning of a new era if the locals will only grant Virgil the complete power he needs to bring Bragg to justice. After pinning on his new sheriff's badge, Virgil appoints Everett his deputy and ushers in an era of uneasy peace. Later, when the local stagecoach arrives in town, a woman named Allison (Renée Zellweger) catches Virgil's eye, prompting a die-hard renegade to consider a calm life of domestication. As Virgil's feelings for Allison grow, both begin to wonder if a life together is truly in the cards. Meanwhile, a temporarily subdued Bragg begins to display signs that he may not be finished with this town just yet. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The fourth installment of the Jesse Stone series finds restless New England police chief Stone (Tom Selleck) fighting boredom by attempting to solve a twelve year-old cold case involving a murdered bank teller. Jesse Stone is a transplanted L.A. cop who thrived on big city adrenaline, but ultimately buckled under the pressure. Exiled to Paradise after suffering though a nasty divorce and being busted for drinking on the job, Stone now leads a quiet life of writing parking tickets and trying to suppress the urge to cut loose with the booze and babes. When one of his officers out on maternity leave and the other recovering from a recent gunshot wound, Stone turns to some old cold cases to keep himself occupied. Twelve years ago, a local bank teller was killed in broad daylight. Though the gunman responsible for the crime was never brought to justice, Stone soon uncovers a crucial piece of evidence that went overlooked during the original investigation. Now, as this once-cold case gradually begins to heat up again, Stone continues his investigation into an alleged rape that tool place aboard a yacht during Race Week. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A place where baseball is more than just a game fights to hold on to the national pastime in this drama inspired by a true story. Norway, Iowa is a little town where folks take baseball seriously -- so much so that even though Norway's high school boasts less than a hundred students, their baseball team has brought home the state championship nineteen times. Jim Van Scoyoc (Powers Boothe), Norway High's baseball coach, has received national attention for his skill with players, and when passionate baseball fan Kent Stock (Sean Astin) lands a teaching position nearby, he volunteers to work as an assistant for Van Scoyoc. While Stock cherishes his time with Van Scoyoc, he takes a job working in Saint Louis, where he plans to move with his fiancée. However, he changes his plans when he gets some unexpected news -- due to shrinking enrollment and budget cuts, Norway's high school is soon to close, and their upcoming baseball season is likely to be their last. Over the fierce objections of his girlfriend, Stock passes on the job in St. Louis to spend one last spring in Norway and help Van Scoyoc as he takes one last shot at taking his team to the state championship. Meanwhile, the citizens of Norway wage a legal battle to keep the school open, and the state sends a lawyer, Polly Hudson (Rachael Leigh Cook), to Norway to represent them. While Stock and Hudson are bitter enemies at the start of the season, with time she begins to understand the sense of tradition and love of the game that fuels Stock and the people of Norway. Also featuring Larry Miller, Tom Arnold and Michael Angarano, The Final Season received its world premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Recovering from her near-death experience, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) is convinced that her outlook on life has completely changed. More and more candidates are vying for the chief-of-surgery position soon to be vacated by Webber (James Pickens Jr.), among them handsome doctor Colin Marlow (Roger Rees), whose arrival has a strange effect on Cristina (Sandra Oh). Derek (Patrick Dempsey) finds himself treating an old friend (Shohreh Aghashloo) whose tumor may well be inoperable. Still trying to cope with the loss of Denny Duquette, Izzie (Katherine Heigl) is profoundly moved by WW2 vet Scofield (James Gammon),who has come to Seattle Grace to remove a bullet that has been lodged in his body for over sixty years. And Alex (Justin Chambers) prepares the first of several operations on the severely injured "Jane Doe" (Elizabeth Reaser). This is the episode in which George (T.R. Knight) begins questioning the wisdom of his marriage to Callie--culminating in a drunken misadventure with another female staffer! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Blair Witch Project co-creator Eduardo Sanchez returns to direct his first feature film since that 1999 forest-bound frightener that took the world of horror by storm with this shocker concerning a group of former alien abductees who seek vengeance against the malevolent extraterrestrials who kidnapped them fifteen years prior. It's been more than a decade since five hunters were swept out of the forest and into the night skies by a powerful otherworldly force, but only four of the lifelong friends ever found their way back to terra firma. In the wake of that inexplicable tragedy the remaining friends found their bond growing stronger than ever before. None of the men have ever forgotten about their long lost friend, or the trauma that they endured on that fateful night. Years later, upon capturing one of the very same creatures that caused all of their suffering, the four friends retreat into a remote forest compound to execute their long awaited revenge. To set the creature free would be to sign their own death warrants, and to kill it would almost certainly spell their doom as well. As the long night wears on and an impenetrable blackness once again washes over the darkened woods, the hunters realize that they only have a few hours left to decide the fate of the strange and menacing creature. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Celebrated writer and director John Sayles turns his eye to politics in America in this drama. The son of respected Colorado politician Senator Jud Pilager (Michael Murphy), Dicky Pilager (Chris Cooper) is a charming but half-bright man with a bad habit of mangling the English language and a decided lack of political correctness. Dicky is also in the midst of a hard-fought campaign to become governor of Colorado. Dicky's campaign manager, Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss), is a ruthless sort who will leave no stone unturned to see that his candidate wins, so when Dicky snags a dead body while fishing during the shooting of a campaign commercial, Raven is determined to find out if his man has been set up. Raven hires Danny O'Brien (Danny Huston), a former journalist turned private investigator, to find out who the dead man is and if he might be connected to Pilager's enemies. But the deeper O'Brien digs into the matter, the more he finds out about the candidate and his family -- and very little of it is flattering. John Sayles assembled a typically impressive cast for Silver City, with the supporting cast highlighted by Tim Roth, Kris Kristofferson, Maria Bello, Thora Birch, Daryl Hannah, Billy Zane, and Mary Kay Place. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Charles Frazier, Anthony Minghella's star-studded Cold Mountain is a sweeping tale set in the final days of the American Civil War. Jude Law stars as Inman, a young soldier who, despite an injury, is struggling to make his way home to Cold Mountain, NC, where his beloved Ada (Nicole Kidman) awaits. In Inman's absence, Ada befriends Ruby (Renée Zellweger), who helps her keep up her late father's farm. Meanwhile, in his travels, Inman encounters a menagerie of interesting folks. Also starring Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Donald Sutherland, and Philip Seymore Hoffman, Cold Mountain features original music by Jack White of the White Stripes. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

An egotistical TV reporter learns to appreciate the good things in life thanks to an eccentric, homeless clairvoyant in this old-fashioned romantic comedy from director Stephen Herek (Mr. Holland's Opus). Seattle native Lanie Kerrigan (Angelina Jolie) has spent most of her adult existence trying to live down her gawky, geeky adolescence: She toils for hours at the gym to keep cellulite at bay; she's managed to snag an engagement to a star baseball player (Christian Kane); and through her chipper puff pieces on the nightly news, she's cultivated a loyal following of couch potatoes who pester her for autographs. She's ready to take the next step to national news when her boss suggests she further hone her skills with ace cameraman Pete Scanlon (Edward Burns), who also happens to be an old flame of Lanie's. Her comfortable but shallow existence begins to change the moment she and Pete do a story on Prophet Jack (Tony Shaloub), a sage soothsayer who spouts unusually accurate predictions to passers-by in exchange for spare change. Jack offers up the theory that Lanie will not get her cushy promotion; in fact, he says she'll die within a week. When Jack's other prophecies start coming true, Lanie starts living each day as if it were her last -- much to the dismay of her co-workers and her fiancé. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

In this science fiction thriller, child psychiatrist Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) has developed a technique that allows her to travel through the minds of her patients. When Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio), a multiple murderer who methodically drowns his victims and performs bizarre rituals with their bodies, falls into a coma, FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) asks Deane to enter the killer's psyche, in the hope of finding a missing girl whom Stargher has kidnapped; if she's not soon found, in all likelihood she'll die in his torture cell. However, once Deane enters the bizarre world of Stargher's mind, she finds getting out to be a very difficult matter. The Cell was the first feature from director Tarsem, who previously made award-winning commercials and music videos, including the video for R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion." The supporting cast includes Catherine Sutherland, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Dylan Baker, and Pruitt Taylor Vince. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A boy's best friend is his robot in this animated adventure from Brad Bird, best known for his TV work on such series as The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and The Critic. Set in 1957, The Iron Giant focuses on Hogarth (voice of Eli Marienthal), an imaginative nine-year-old boy who daydreams of alien invasions and doing battle with Communist agents. One day, Hogarth hears a local fisherman talk about something that surpasses anything he could dream up: a fifty-foot robot that fell from the sky into a nearby lake. Needless to say, Hogarth's mom, Annie (voice of Jennifer Aniston) finds this a little hard to swallow, but when Hogarth finds the robot (voice of Vin Diesel) and fishes him out of the water, his pal Dean (voice of Harry Connick Jr.), a beatnik sculptor who also runs a junkyard, offers to help by hiding the robot with his salvage. A government agent named Kent Mansley (voice of Christopher McDonald) soon gets wind that there's a mechanical invader of unknown origins in the neighborhood and wants to wipe out the potential threat. However, the robot (which loves to eat metal and is learning to talk) turns out to be friendly, and the boy in turn tries to teach his new pal the ways of humans. The Iron Giant is loosely based on the book The Iron Man by late British poet Ted Hughes, previously adapted for the stage by rock musician Pete Townshend, who executive produced the film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Actor-director William Richert (Winter Kills), who directed the late River Phoenix in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988), originally planned this low-budget adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' 1848-50 classic adventure, as a vehicle for River Phoenix. Casting his son, Nick Richert, in the dual role of Philippe and King Louis XIV, he continued on with the project, despite the competition of the heavily promoted, more lavish MGM production scheduled for release almost the same month. The future King of France is kidnapped as a boy, put inside an iron mask, and imprisoned in the Bastille. Court intrigue then places his younger twin on the throne as Louis XIV. A decade later, the queen confesses on her deathbed, revealing the truth to Count Aramis (William Richert), who recruits the three Musketeers (Edward Albert, Dennis Hayden, Rex Ryon) in order to bring truth and justice to the situation. Filmed at the historic Mission Inn in Riverside, California. Previous film versions: the 1939 James Whale version with Louis Hayward, the 1976 TV movie with Richard Chamberlain, and Ken Annakin's The Fifth Musketeer (1978, aka Behind the Iron Mask) with Beau Bridges, Lloyd Bridges, Ursula Andress, Cornel Wilde, Jose Ferrer, Rex Harrison, and Olivia de Havilland. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

A little known chapter from the Mexican-American War is brought to the screen in this historical drama based on fact. In 1846, shortly before the United States turned its aggressions against Mexico into armed conflict, John Riley (Tom Berenger) and a group of U.S. soldiers crossed the border into Mexico to attend Mass. Riley and his fellow soldiers were Irish nationals who had come to the United States to escape the economic devastation of their homeland, brought on by the Potato Famine. Like many other Irish immigrants, Riley was promised citizenship in exchange for serving a tour of duty in the Army, but the Irish Catholics soon found themselves treated like second-class citizens in the largely Protestant American military. Riley and his men are severely punished for traveling into Mexico, and Riley decides he can no longer abide the United States Army and its treatment of his fellows. Riley engineers an escape from the stockade and the Irish troops travel into Mexico, a peaceful Catholic nation where they believe they will be welcomed. However, as Riley and his men march into the mountains of Mexico, they encounter guerilla leader Cortina (Joaquim de Almeida), who is naturally suspicious of soldiers in U.S. uniforms. The Irish soldiers are taken prisoner and Riley is wounded in the skirmish, but in time Cortina and Riley come to see each other as allies rather than enemies. Riley also falls in love with Marta (Daniela Romo), a Mexican patriot and Cortina's lover. In time, Riley and his men form The Saint Patrick's Battalion and become one of Mexico's most effective fighting units. Tom Berenger served as co-producer for One Man's Hero as well as playing Riley. The film was originally slated for release in the fall of 1998, but was shelved for a year after Orion, the studio which produced the film, was purchased by MGM, who eventually released it in Ireland in August, 1999, and the United States and Mexico later in the fall. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This fact-based TV movie takes place in Richmond, Virginia, the home of single mother Jody Shaffell (Valerie Bertinelli). Appalled by the fact that Jody has come out of the closet and is living in an openly gay relationship with her female lover, Jody's mother Nancy (Vanessa Redgrave) sues to gain custody of her grandson Zachary (Adam Rehman). A homophobic judge arranges for Zachary to be taken out of Jody's home, whereupon Nancy sets about to thoroughly wipe her grandson's memory clean of his previous "immoral" lifestyle--even unto demanding that the boy refer to her as Momma. The film's script is careful to weigh both sides of the argument equally, demonstrating that for most of her life, Jody was hardly a paragon of responsible motherhood, having supped full of booze and promiscuity before realizing she was gay and promptly cleaning herself up; nor is Nancy depicted as a cold-hearted villain, merely a concerned grandmother who wants what she thinks is best for Zachary. Indeed, if there are truly any "heavies" in the piece, they are the best friend and brother of the beleagured Jody, who callously testify against her in court. Originally seen over the ABC network, Two Mothers for Zachary debuted September 22, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide