David Marshall Grant Movies

This routine drama-comedy about the trials of walking out of the closet has some notable performances such as that of Madeleine Kahn as a salty, warm-hearted, and terribly promiscuous neighbor, and Robert Viharo as an outgoing father. Francis Geminiani (Alan Rosenberg) has a romance going with Judith (Sarah Holcomb) until he drops her after a few nights of intimacy. Besieged by guilt and misgivings, Francis is eventually forced to admit that he is really in love with her brother Randy (David Marshall Grant), who does not really live up (or down) to his name. Randy is a wealthy, conservative Harvard student and Francis is a poor and liberal Harvard student. The story is based on the play Gemini by Albert Innaurato. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This teen comedy/drama, set in a Canadian boarding school, is about growing up while being thrown together in school rooms and residences. Conflicts and passions arise as the teens try to handle issues like a mother dying of cancer, prejudice, the agony of physical "defects," and other more or less debilitating problems. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Legs is a made-for-television backstage saga of the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. As in musical films of old, the plot concentrates on three young hopefuls who aspire to fill one vacancy in the famous 36-member precision dancing troupe. The heroines are played by Shanna Reed, Deborah Geffner and Maureen Teefy, none of them star names but all of them excellent dancers. Gwen Verdon is right in element as the Rockettes' choreographer (and so far as we're concerned, it's her fabulous legs that are alluded to in the title). Filmed on location in and around the Music Hall, Legs first tapped its way into our hearts on May 2, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Tucson Police Department are astounded by a criminal psychiatrist who captures crooks by using her training. ~ All Movie Guide

Inspired by guess what television series, this made-for-TV movie traces the follies and fortunes of the Ewings and the Barneses all the way back to the 1930s. The familiar Dallas characters are played by unfamiliar (albeit very able) younger players: Miss Ellie, for example, isn't Barbara Bel Geddes (nor even Donna Reed) but the unknown Molly Hagan, while Jock Ewing is the slightly more recognizable Dale Midkiff. Larry Hagman, aka J.R. Ewing, appears long enough to introduce the film. As for J.R. himself, he shows up as an ominously nasty teenager, played by Kevin Wixted. Playing to fabulous ratings, Dallas: The Early Years debuted March 23, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story, Bat 21 follows the harrowing adventures of Lt. Colonel Iceal Hambleton (Gene Hackman), whose plane is shot down over enemy territory while on reconnaissance behind enemy lines in Vietnam. Because Hambleton used to call the shots from behind a desk, he lacks combat survival experience and is forced to adapt while the enemy surrounds him on all sides. As the Air Force plans a risky rescue mission, he is befriended by pilot Bartholomew Clark (Danny Glover), who can't land to pick up Hambleton due to the enemy activity but keeps him company by radio. Hambleton's plight takes a turn for the worse once the brass decide to execute an intensive bombing mission in the area, whether or not they can rescue Hambleton. The colonel, meanwhile, confronted for the first time by the horrors of war, begins to reassess his role in the bloodshed. An overlooked film at the time of its release, Bat 21 is a smaller war picture that focuses on an ordinary man in an excruciating situation, and how it ultimately changes his life. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. play a couple of what-the-hell flyboys flying contraband to Laos during the Vietnam War. Gibson doesn't seem to care about anything but the "guts and glory" aspects of the job, but Downey has serious questions about the moral implications of their mission. When a Laotian general expresses more concern over the wellbeing of an opium shipment than the men who are risking life and limb to fly it in, Gibson comes around to Downey's way of thinking. By film's end, Gibson is stuck in one of those character-building dilemmas so common to films of this nature: should he deliver his cache of weaponry, or should he dump it all to rescue a bunch of refugees? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A woman is terrorized by her former lover in her apartment, which he remodeled to his own specifications. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

A man undergoes a scientific experiment that causes him to wake up after 50 years without aging a day in this romantic science-fiction tale. In 1939, Daniel (Mel Gibson) is a test pilot who is brave in the air but lacks the nerve to ask his girlfriend Helen (Isabel Glasser) to marry him, even though he loves her deeply. When Helen is hit by a truck and is taken to the hospital in a coma, Daniel is despondent, and he approaches his best friend Harry (George Wendt). Harry is a scientific researcher working with the military who has been experimenting with cryogenic suspension; Daniel asks Harry to have him frozen for a year rather than go through the hell of waiting to see if Helen lives or dies. Harry reluctantly agrees, but after the pilot is put on ice, Harry's experiments are shut down, and Daniel is forgotten. In 1992, two young boys, Nat (Elijah Wood) and Felix (Robert Hy Gorman) are playing in an abandoned military warehouse and find a freezing unit. They open it and find Daniel, who before long is all thawed out and physically not much worse for wear. However, the world is a very different place than it was in 1939; the boys bring their discovery home, where their single mother Claire (Jamie Lee Curtis) looks after Daniel and helps him adjust to his new world. A friendship between them begins to grow into something deeper, until Daniel discovers that his beloved Helen is still alive. Forever Young also features Joe Morton, Rob Morrow, and Vanessa Williams. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The late journalist Randy Shilts' best-selling book on the burgeoning AIDS crisis was adapted for cable TV by Arnold Schulman. In 1981, researchers begin discerning a mysterious new disease that apparently affects only homosexual males (or so they thought at that time). Working independently, and with marked hostility toward one another, an American and a French research team manage to identify and name the dreaded HIV virus. The long-range effects of AIDS is experienced through the first- and secondhand experiences of several unfortunates, including a choreographer (Richard Gere) whose character is said to be based on Michael Bennett. The all-star cast (most of whom eschewed their usual high salaries) includes Lily Tomlin as San Francisco health official Selma Dritz, Matthew Modine as Centers for Disease Control researcher Don Francis, Alan Alda as NIH official Robert Gallo (who emerges as the villain of the piece), Ian McKellan as gay activist Bill Kraus, and Glenne Headley, Steve Martin and Anjelica Huston in cameo roles. And the Band Played On debuted September 11, 1993, on HBO. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this offbeat comedy set in the 1950s, Patrick Swayze plays Jack McCloud, a drifter and beatnik who enters the conservative suburban life of the Holman family after Jeanne Holman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) accidentally hits him with her car. Jeanne takes Jack into her home while he recovers from his injuries. McCloud offends the neighbors and friends of the Holmans with his unorthodox behavior, including nude sunbathing and Buddhism. He tells the children, Tom (Joseph Mazzello) and Gunny (Seth Mumy), stories of a genie who has taken the form of a dog. Jeanne and her kids come under his sway as Jack's mystical powers help the kids' Little League team win a big game. Martha Coolidge directed the film from a script by Elizabeth Anderson, based on a short story by Ellen Green. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

In 1966, University of Texas student Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the highest tower on campus armed with a high-powered rifle and proceeded to randomly shoot passerby below. A dozen innocent people died and twice that many were injured. As a black, scathing and at times hilarious political satire, The Delicate Art of the Rifle takes this event and twists it into something fresh and experimental, a narrative that criticizes the current notion of narrative by stripping facts of their historical context and placing them into an absurd realm punctuated by paranoia and arbitrary violence. Hailed by the filmmakers, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based film production company/ artist group the Cambrai Liberation Collection, as a "brazen art-house action-adventure," The Delicate Art of the Rifle is not an easy film, nor is it a perfect film, but those who stick with it will be rewarded with the rare opportunity to see a refreshingly intelligent bit of modern American cinema. The tale unfolds from the viewpoint of Jay, roommate of the sniper Walt Whitman. Jay is first seen after having spent a night on the catwalk of the campus theater. Below him, a group rehearses a "a post modernist fashion show version of Hamlet. Later that day, Jay and one of his professors, Dr. Boaz head out for coffee at Foucault Tower, a 27-story super dorm that contains everything a student might ever need or want. Unfortunately, before they arrive shots ring out and Boaz is killed along with many others. For some reason Jay remains unscathed. Suddenly he hears a disembodied voice from above. It is his best friend Walt. Not realizing that he is the killer, and thinking his friend is endangering himself, Jay rushes up the tower to save him. En route he meets a number of strange characters including a girl with a thing for frosting cup cakes, a psych major in dire need of sleep, and a band of computer dweebs lead by a demented hacker. Once atop Foucault, Jay listens while Walt spins an incredible tale of delusion, paranoia and despair involving a metaphysical virus that erases people from history. Believing it has already taken his girl friend, and realizing that he too has it, Walt makes one final request of Jay before the student swat team moves in for the final confrontation. The story itself ends on a mysterious, even cosmic note. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide