Helen Hunt Movies

Taking note of Larry's (Garry Shandling) increasing depression in the face of slipping ratings, the lack of an Emmy nomination, and an impending divorce from wife Jeannie (Megan Gallagher), Artie (Rip Torn) and Hank (Jeffrey Tambor) decide to fix their down-in-the-dumps friend on a series of dates. Despite a bevy of attractive prospects, the only one Larry can truly find a connection with happens to be the same one he parted ways with in the past...his ex-wife, Francine (Kathryn Harrold). Special guest stars in this two-part opening of The Larry Sanders Show's second season include John Riggi, Karen Lynn Scott, Eric Briant Wells, Kristin Davis, Victor Raider-Wexler, Dana Delany, Helen Hunt, Teri Garr, and Susan Anton. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The feature film directing debut of actress Betty Thomas, this romantic farce attempts to mimic the screwball comedies of the 1930s. Andrew McCarthy stars as Cliff Godfrey, a doll house designer and perpetual loser in love who is dumped by his fiancee on the eve of their pre-nuptial vacation to Mexico. Informed by pretty travel agent Claire Enfield (Helen Hunt) that his tickets are non-refundable, the depressed Cliff goes to a bar, where he picks up a drunk party girl, Amanda Hughes (Kelly Preston), who agrees to accompany him on the trip south of the border. Once she sobers up, however, Amanda proceeds to make Cliff's vacation a nightmare, alternately flirting with and teasing him, then rejecting him for more studly prospects. But Cliff runs into Claire, who's staying at the same hotel while photographing a travel brochure, and the two begin spending time together, as Cliff helps her on the project by modeling for her pictures. Though Cliff and Claire are discovering that they are each other's soul mate, the flighty Amanda threatens to destroy their nascent romance. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In the tradition of This Is Spinal Tap, producer/ director/ star Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts is a satire disguised as a documentary. Robbins plays the titular Roberts, a wealthy, well-connected young man running for a senatorial seat in Pennsylvania. On the surface, Roberts is an ingratiating glad-hander, a sincere believer in the restoration of such intangibles as national pride, family values, etc. But the longer Roberts is followed about by documentary filmmaker Brian Murray, the more we become aware that the candidate is a textbook case of cynicism and contempt. Only Giancarlo Esposito, a reporter for an underground newspaper, is willing to dig beneath Roberts' veneer--a habit that leads to the film's ironic conclusion. Several well-known actors make cameo appearances as TV commentators, notably Tim Robbins' longtime partner Susan Sarandon. Bob Roberts started out as a Tim Robbins-directed short subject for the TV series Saturday Night Live, then was expanded into a $4 million feature. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Comedian Paul Reiser has always insisted that his long-running NBC sitcom Mad About You (co-created by Reiser and Danny Jacobson) was inspired by events in his own life. Naturally, a bit of dramatic license was practiced: Reiser's TV character Paul Buchman was not a comic, but instead a New York-based documentary filmmaker. Nonetheless, the character's personality was virtually "all Reiser," just as Paul Buchman's TV wife, public relations executive Jamie Buchman (played by Helen Hunt), was basically a carbon copy of the real-life Mrs. Reiser.

Debuting Wednesday, September 23, 1992, Mad About You set up its premise, setting, and characters with admirable speed and efficiency. Married five months at the beginning of the series, Paul and Jamie are already safely ensconced in their Manhattan high-rise apartment, already conversing in a naturalistic, non-jokey (but hilarious) manner about the little, apparently inconsequential events that made them who they were and shaped their outlook on the world. (Reiser's oft-quoted assessment of the series was, "The feeling of the show should be like a couple's ride home after a party, when you can finally say what you've been thinking all night.") Also already in place is the series' colorful array of supporting characters, including Jamie's unlucky-in-love sister, Lisa Stemple (Anne Ramsay), gynecologist Mark Devanow (Richard Kind) and his dissatisfied wife, Fran (Leila Kenzle) -- still married at the start of season one, but headed for divorce by the 22nd episode -- and, for the first half of the season at least, Paul's disheveled bachelor pal Jay Selby (Tommy Hinkley), with whom Lisa has a brief fling. The exit of Jay after the 12th episode permitted the producers to bring in a new character, Paul's ever-competitive cousin Ira Buchman (John Pankow).

Recurring characters making their first appearances during Mad About You's shakedown season include the Devanow's precocious son, Ryan (Spencer Klein); the Buchman's insufferable upper-crust British neighbors, Maggie and Hal Conway (played by Judy Geeson and, initially, Paxton Whitehead); Paul's father, Burt Buchman (Louis Zorich); Jamie's parents, Theresa and Gus Stemple (originally played by Nancy Dussault and Paul Dooley); apartment doorman Eddie (Lou Cutell); and various members of Paul's production staff, among them film editor Ike (Art Evans), phlegmatic photographer Warren (Stephen Wright), and production assistants Stacey (Kerri Green) and Connie (Meagen Fay). And oh, yes, the series' obligatory non-human character, the Buchman's blasé pet dog, Murray (played by Maui), was conspicuous by his presence. The series' celebrated habit of featuring pop-icon "guest stars," which would manifest itself in such notables as John Astin, Carl Reiner, Yoko Ono, and the cast of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In in later years, was tantalizingly previewed with the first-season appearances of Barbara Feldon (spoofing her Get Smart persona) and Regis Philbin. Although Mad About You did not crack the Top 25 series during its inaugural season, the program managed to accumulate a following that would remain loyal and steadfast for the next seven years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The bizarre career of New Zealand filmmaker Sam Pillsbury had veered from the sci-fi weirdness of The Quiet Earth to the Cajun spice of Zandalee to the mawkish Free Willy 3 without ever really demonstrating a consistent vision. This made-for-cable horror-western anthology is the most confused work Pillsbury has ever done, starring Bruce Dern as a bounty hunter who gets frostbitten, cuts off his own toe, and talks to an outlaw's corpse. His attempt to track down the outlaw is the rough link behind this senseless mess adapted from some fairly good short stories. It still might have some allure for a surprising cast including Andrew Robinson (the killer from Dirty Harry), Helen Hunt, and Dylan McDermott. The most annoying segment has Mariel Hemingway as an eccentric woman who may or may not be under siege by wolves in her isolated home on the prairie. It's sometimes reminiscent of Mad at the Moon, an even more annoying prairie-set wolf tale. For genre completists, Lisa Pelikan from Ghoulies shows up, and co-writer Dick Beebe went on to pen the superior remake of House on Haunted Hill and the uneven Book of Shadows: The Blair Witch Project 2. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Helen Hunt stars as Pamela Smart, the schoolteacher who seduced one of her students into murdering her husband, in this torn-from-the-headlines made-for-TV effort. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Ray (Ken Olin) is a young adult and has a girlfriend whom he lives with quite happily. However, the agreed-upon date of their marriage is coming up, and he's not quite sure he wants to make that kind of commitment. His buddies Dennis, Elliot, and Vinny have their own commitment problems. Dennis (Kevin Bacon) isn't sure he wants to stay away from his buddies long enough to get his music career going in Hollywood; Elliot (John Malkovich) knows that he's homosexual but thinks that being gay means fitting all sorts of ugly stereotypes -- stereotypes he is determined to avoid at all costs; and Vinny (Tony Spiridakis) commits himself all too frequently and often to the nearest desirable female. Meanwhile, cousin Al (Joe Mantegna) is in trouble with his wife, and only the intervention of a well-intentioned psychotic (Jamie Lee Curtis) can put him back on the right track. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

When his brother is murdered, a policeman is caught between his devotion to the law and his family's desire for revenge in this action drama. Patrick Swayze plays Truman Gates, who left his backwoods Appalachian home for life as a Chicago police officer. When his brother is killed by a gangster, Truman is determined to seek legal retribution. His older brother Briar (Liam Neeson) has different ideas, however, and travels to the city to seek old-fashioned vigilante justice. Truman must now choose between his family's belief in mountain justice and the duties of his job. Though the film is not particularly action-packed, director John Irvin does provide the expected gunplay and macho confrontations. However, despite a surprisingly distinguished cast (also including Helen Hunt and Michael J. Pollard), little distinguishes the film from numerous other revenge stories with a similar outline. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

In this drama set during the Vietnam War, a group of men working as wire-service photographers begin seeing their world in a whole new light. The film was originally made as a pilot for a television series that never aired. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Two brothers (Richard Gere, Kevin Anderson) have inherited a large farm (once voted "Farm of the Year") from their father, but cannot keep it afloat. When the farm goes bankrupt, the pair decide to torch the place and take off across the Midwest, fleeing the law to become folk heroes for many rural farmers in the area. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

During her 25th high school class reunion, middle-aged Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) tries to forget her marital problems with husband Charlie (Nicolas Cage) by renewing old friendships. Wondering if she made the right decisions in her life, Peggy Sue gets a chance to try again when, zapped into a time warp, she finds herself a teenager back in 1960. Armed with foreknowledge (the scene in which she tells off her algebra teacher is a particular treat), Peggy Sue gets to retrace the steps leading up to her unhappy marriage to high-school sweetheart Charlie. Will nerdish Richard Norvik (Barry Miller), who always carried a torch for Peggy Sue and whom she knows will become a millionaire computer mogul by 1985, win out over the unreliable Charlie this time? A "small" film from the otherwise profligate Francis Ford Coppola, Peggy Sue Got Married possesses an irresistible charm that makes up for its glaring plot deficiencies. The youthful cast is matched in its appeal by such veterans as Leon Ames, Maureen O'Sullivan and John Carradine. And yes, that is Jim Carrey as Walter Getz. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On her first day at an all-girls Catholic High School in Chicago, shy and reserved Janey Glenn (Sarah Jessica Parker) meets the wild and wacky Lynne Sands (Helen Hunt). Even though her oppressive dad, Col. Glenn (Ed Lauter), won't let her go, Lynne talks her into sneaking out to try out for a spot on the beloved show Dance TV. Janey wows the judges with her gymnastic ability and makes first cuts, conveniently assigned to a cute dance partner: blue-collar bad boy Jeff Malene (Lee H. Montgomery). They compete against the bratty rich girl Natalie Sands (Holly Gagnier), who sabotages them because she wants Jeff and the contest for herself. Janey and Lynne get revenge by inviting punks and street kids to crash her debutante ball. Natalie then resorts to making her wealthy industrialist dad, J.P. Sands (Morgan Woodward), threaten Jeff; If he doesn't let Natalie win, his dad (Biff Yeager) could lose his job at the factory. It all leads up to the live television broadcast of the Dance TV contest, right when Janey's dad races to the studio to stop her. Also starring Shannen Doherty as Jeff's little sister, Maggie. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide