Linda Hunt Movies

Director Howard Hall takes his underwater cameras to Cocos Island, 300 miles from the coast of Costa Rica, which is home to one of the world's largest populations of sharks. Island Of The Sharks captures these undersea predators in their natural environment, with hammerheads, sea lions, manta rays, sea turtles and other aquatic beasts feeding, mating and battling for supremacy in their oceanic community. Island Of The Sharks was filmed in the high-definition IMAX format, and features narration by Linda Hunt. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Many a country built its economic development on the back of its cross-country railway system. Strong and dependable, the iron tracks tied the nation together by transporting goods and people from coast to coast. While this is prevalent throughout out the world, none is more vital than the Great Indian Railway. Dating back to British Imperialism, this network of 24,000 miles of track winds itself over a wondrous landscape and through a rich tapestry of culturally diverse people. Narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Linda Hunt, this documentary from National Geographic unites a country from the peaks of the Himalayans to the Bombay Victoria Terminus. ~ C. Dwayne Smith, Rovi

Paul Monette was a well-regarded gay novelist who (after losing two long-term companions to AIDS) wrote Becoming A Man: Half a Life Story, a memoir which won the Nation Book Award. Ironically, Monette began to receive his greatest acclaim as a writer and produced his deepest and most personal works after he was diagnosed with AIDS. Monette bravely battled the disease's debilitating effects as he struggled to continue his work as a writer and an impassioned AIDS activist before succumbing to the disease in 1995. Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End is a documentary about his life and work that combines home movies and news footage with interviews with Monette, his friends, and his peers. Linda Hunt provides narration, while Jonathan Fried reads from Monette's works. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

IMAX: Amazon features footage of rain forests and the myriad of plant and animal life that make their home in it. Narrated by actress Linda Hunt, the film contains the kind of detailed footage common to the large-screen IMAX format. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

History gets the Disney kiddie treatment and a politically correct interpretation in the studio's 33rd feature-length animated movie, the first to be based on actual events and people. Pocahontas (Irene Bedard) is the daughter of Algonquin chief Powhatan (Russell Means), who promises her in marriage to Kocoum, a brave whom she doesn't love. Pocahontas would rather be paddling in her canoe or wandering in the forest, communing with nature and her animal pals, Meeko, a raccoon, and the hummingbird Flit. When European settlers arrive, she becomes enamored of handsome John Smith (Mel Gibson). Their attraction is encouraged by Grandmother Willow (Linda Hunt), a talking tree. The situation between their peoples is tense, however, as the settlers, led by Governor Ratcliffe (David Ogden Stiers) desperately want the gold that they're sure the natives are concealing. When a dutiful sentry, Thomas (Christian Bale) follows Smith into the woods on one of his secret meetings with Pocahontas, a tragic mistake leads both groups to the brink of war. Only the love of Pocahontas and Smith can prevent bloodshed. Pocahontas (1995) was awarded two Oscars, for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score and Best Original Song for "Colors of the Wind." ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

This large, sprawling comedy directed by Robert Altman concerns a variety of romantic and personal intrigues that intersect against the backdrop of Paris's annual "Pret-a-Porter" fashion extravaganza. With 31 principal characters and a number of cameos from well known models, designers, actors and actresses, there's far too much going on to describe the film in a limited space, but Julia Roberts and Tim Robbins get stuck in a hotel room together, Danny Aiello wears a dress, Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni reignite their old passion (or at least try to), Stephen Rea humiliates a number of female journalists, Kim Basinger often looks dumbfounded, and Lyle Lovett plays a Texan (talk about imaginative casting!). Originally called Pret-a-Porter, this underwent a last-minute title change when the distributor discovered very few Americans understood what the French phrase means, with the English translation taking its place. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rain Without Thunder is a "pro-choice" tract, expertly packaged in the form of speculative fiction. In a futuristic society, abortion is a crime punishable by a harsh prison term, and all female sexual activity is electronically monitored. When young Ali Thomas chooses not to bring her unborn child to term, she is thrown into jail. And since her mother (Betty Buckley) had driven Thomas to the abortionist, she too is arrested--charged with kidnapping the fetus! The filmmakers wear their ideology on both sleeves, but one cannot deny that Rain Without Thunder drives its point home forcefully. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In 1911, an Indian wandered out of the hills of Northern California, unable to speak a word of English, and clad in the ancient manner. His discoverers, who found him hiding in a barn, didn't know what to make of him and sent him to San Francisco to be studied like some rare animal by the young anthropologist Alfred Kroeber. It turned out that he was Ishi, the last surviving member of his Yahi tribe. He was such an unusual figure in San Francisco that he became quite a celebrity. This documentary includes rare film footage of this unique survivor, along with photographs and journal and newspaper coverage from the time in an attempt to tell his story. Some of the same territory is covered in a 1978 made-for-television biographical film, bearing the very similar title of Ishi: The Last of His Tribe. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Arnold Schwarzenegger sheds his action image in Ivan Reitman's police comedy Kindergarten Cop, where he plays an undercover cop teaching a class of hyperactive six-year-olds. As the film begins, John Kimble (Schwarzenegger) and his partner Phoebe O'Hara (Pamela Reed) are in pursuit of notorious drug dealer Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson) and his scabrous mother Eleanor (Carroll Baker). John learns Cullen is searching for his ex-wife and his little boy, and Kimble plans to nail them when they find the former wife, who is believed to have $3 million of Cullen's drug profits. John and Phoebe follow the trail to Astoria, Oregon, where they believe Cullen's son is attending kindergarten. Although the child and his mother have changed names, John hopes they can pick up some clues. By coincidence, Phoebe used to be a schoolteacher and the school board permits her teach the kindergarten class, but Phoebe gets food poisoning and John is forced to teach the six-year-old whippersnappers himself. Along with lighthearted gags with the kids and the pursuit of the drug dealers, John has time for a little romance when he falls in love with one of the teachers (Penelope Ann Miller), who ends up surprising him with more than love. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

More a series of ragged comic anecdotes than a unified whole, the made-for-TV The Room Upstairs top-bills Stockard Channing as a Boston teacher of the hearing-impaired. Strapped for cash, Ms. Channing converts her family home into a boarding house. Six tenants with varying degrees of eccentricities and personal hang-ups take up residence, including soft spoken cellist Sam Waterston. Various crises involving her boarders inspire Ms. Channing to come out of her own emotional shell--she even stops her chain-smoking. Based on a novel by Norma Levinson and originally telecast as a Hallmark Hall of Fame special, The Room Upstairs was filmed on location in Boston and Vancouver. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this made for TV drama, two youthful strangers endeavor to rent the room already owned by a strange woman and her almost comatose husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Lawrence Kasdan's Silverado is a fond hark back to the all-star, big-budget westerns of the 1950s and 1960s. The various plotlines converge at the town of Silverado, held in thrall by crooked sheriff Brian Dennehy and his behemoth "deputies." The four disparate heroes--Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner, Scott Glenn and Danny Glover--prepare to do battle against Dennehy for personal reasons ranging from mercenary to altruistic. Sidelines characters include duplicitous, dandified gambler Jeff Goldblum, frontier widow Rosanna Arquette and gimlet-eyed saloon owner Linda Hunt. The film is stolen hands-down by Kevin Costner, playing an irresponsible young gunslinger who never speaks when hootin' and hollerin' will do. A classic, High Noon-style showdown caps this rousing retro western. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

David Lynch wades through dark waters in his adaptation of Frank Herbert's cult science fiction novel. In condensing Herbert's rambling and complex book by eliminating characters and compacting events, Lynch succeeds in rendering the story incomprehensible to those unfamiliar with the novel and making the film look like a sketchy greatest hits collection of the book for Herbert fans. The story takes place in the year 10,191. The universe is governed through a system of feudal rule, presided over by Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (José Ferrer), who appears to take his marching orders from something that resembles a talking vagina. In the kingdom are two rival houses -- the House of Atreides and the House of Harkonnen. Each house is trying to gain dominion over the universe, but that dominion can only be gained by the house that controls the Spice, a special substance that permits the folding of time. The Spice is only available on the desert world of Arrakis, or Dune. Shaddam, tired of the feuding between the two houses, permits the Atreides to take over the Spice production on Dune, while secretly working with the Harkonnens to launch a sneak attack on the Atreides and destroy them. The leader of the Atreides is Duke Leto (Jürgen Prochnow), who rules with the help of his concubine Jessica (Francesca Annis) and son Paul (Kyle MacLachlan). The rival Harkonnens are headed by the pus-oozing degenerate Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillan, in a thoroughly through-the-roof performance) and his two unsavory nephews, Rabban (Paul L. Smith) and Feyd (Sting). When his father is murdered by the Harkonnens, Paul escapes to Dune, where he is greeted by the Fremen (the desert dwellers on Dune who prepare the Spice) as the messiah foretold in Fremen legend. Paul assumes the mantle of messiah and leads the Fremen in a revolt that topples the balance of power in the universe. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi