Paul Jarrett Movies

A successful psychiatrist and doting grandfather resurrects his dormant dream of becoming a professional singer while experiencing a personal crisis that mirrors that of his increasingly neurotic daughter in this endearing comedy drama from Flannel Pajamas director Jeff Lipsky. Frank Gregorio (Chazz Palminteri) lives a charmed life; he has a unique gift for helping his patients work through their problems, a beautiful wife, and two gorgeous grandchildren thanks to his eldest daughter Lana (Drea de Matteo). Introduced to karaoke through a patient with parent issues, and then again at his granddaughter's birthday party, Frank finds himself drifting back to the days when all he wanted in life was to become a professional singer. Instead of following his dream back then, Frank chose the practical route in life. When Frank starts exercising his rusty vocal chords, his wife Angela (Maria Tucci) assumes that he's just practicing to sing at their younger daughter's upcoming wedding. Lately, the wannabe crooner is spending more and more time with femme fatale karaoke aficionado Lydia (Linda Fiorentino), who hasn't been entirely forthright about her true intentions towards Frank. Meanwhile, Lana is becoming increasingly neurotic about her post-pregnancy weight, considering plastic surgery and an affair with a strapping police officer in hopes of boosting her self-esteem. As the rash decisions made by Frank and Lana yield unexpectedly dire consequences, the family comes together in a sincere attempt to ensure that the insecure father and daughter realize they will always be loved despite their insecurities. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Japanese horror specialist Takashi Shimizu returns to the mythology that terrified audiences the world over with this terror-inducing sequel to the hit 2004 frightener. When a cursed Tokyo home is burned to the ground, the baneful spirit once confined within its walls is suddenly unleased to terrorize anyone and everyone who crosses its dark path. Original producers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, and Taka Ichise return to help Shimizu realize his hair-raising vision with this tale that finds Karen's (Sarah Michelle Gellar) sister, Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn), teaming with spellbound journalist Eason (Edison Chen) to investigate the spectral mystery. Meanwhile, the ghostly grip of Toshio (Oga Tanaka) and Kayako (Takako Fuji) tightens on a Chicago housewife (Jennifer Beals) halfway across the globe. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Michael Bafaro's Sleeping Dogs features a thief named Harry Maxwell (Scott McNeil) breaking into a gem factory apparently staffed by underwear-clad supermodels and thuggish guards with really bad aim. He kills some of them while gay bad-guy Sanchez Boon (a woefully miscast C. Thomas Howell) shakes down someone from "The Agency." Boon rips a microphone out of the man's jaw with a pair of pliers and shoots him, going way overboard in the tooth-gnashing evil department, evidently so the audience will forget that he was Ponyboy from The Outsiders. Then there's a lot more shooting and Maxwell slides down the supermodels' table on his stomach with both guns blazing. He grabs one of the women, throws some explosives, punches out the woman, and rappels them from the roof to safety as more people shoot at them. Then someone blows up a helicopter with a rocket-launcher. This is all before they even get sent to the main location (a remote outer-space prison colony) with a topless cyborg (Ciara Hunter) and the mayhem really begins. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Rural Wyoming is the setting for this made-for-cable romantic drama with ribald comic overtones. It has been two years since the husband of young Dr. Garnet Hadley (Penelope Ann Miller) was killed by a wild bull, but Garnet is still in love with her deceased soulmate and has no intention of remarrying. This doesn't stop Garnet's overbearing father-in-law Mike (Barry Corbin) from trying to match her up with every eligible bachelor in the county--most of whom are textbook examples of the word "loser." Finally, Mike resorts to extortion, using financial pressure to force Garnet to attend an upcoming country centennial fair with a male escort. Aided and abetted by her best friend Jill (Barbara Gates), Garnet tries to pull the wool over Mike's eyes by hiring Jill's brother, aspiring composer Bryan (Brett Cullen), to pose as her lover--even going so far as to stage a bedroom scene to convince Mike to mind his own business (nothing really happens, of course, but it sure looks convincing!) The fun really begins when Jenny (Allison Hossack), the long-distance girlfriend of Brett, shows up at the fair, just as Brett has begun to fall in love with his cardboard sweetie. Originally pitched as a theatrical feature (undoubtedly with bigger "names" in the cast), The Hired Heart made its Lifetime network bow on October 13, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Members of Canada's groundbreaking improvisational comedy troupe CODCO helped create this broad black comedy about a small Canadian community's unique bid to become a world power. Solomon Gundy is a small island off the Atlantic Coast of Canada whose economy is built around fishing. A government researcher determines that Canada's fish production needs to be cut by four percent -- and since Solomon Gundy produces four percent of the nation's catch, the government simply decides to suspend all fishing licenses for the Island. Needless to say, this decision is wildly unpopular with the locals, and Dexter (Maury Chaykin), the Federal official who has to break the bad news to the town, nearly gets lynched for his troubles. Augustus (Paul Gross), who acts as Solomon Gundy's mayor when he isn't busy officiating at the local church or running the miniature golf course, decides to take the bull by the horns and rallies the townspeople to declare their independence from Canada. As fate would have it, a group of Russian sailors gone AWOL happen by the Island, and Augustus is able to buy their submarine from the sole crewman left on board (Tommy Sexton). Augustus soon discovers the sub still has a cache of tactical missiles on board, making the newly independent Solomon Gundy a nuclear superpower. Also released as Northern Extremes, Burried on Sunday proved to be the final film role for founding CODCO member Tommy Sexton, who died of AIDS-related illnesses in 1993. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Partially filmed in Hawaii and Tahiti, And the Sea Will Tell was a two-part TV movie based on a real murder case. A wealthy couple (James Brolin and Deidre Hall) are killed on their yacht off the coast of a secluded South American island called Palmyra. The suspects are a hippyish pair (Hart Bochner and Rachel Ward) whom the rich folks had befriended. It's fairly clear that the hippies were involved in the crime: The question is, did the man do it while the girl looked on helplessly, or was she a willing accomplice? Richard Crenna plays real-life defense attorney Vincent Bugliosi, upon whose book And the Sea Will Tell was based. The first part of this teledrama premiered on February 24, 1991; part two, in which the girl's testimony consumes most of the screen time, was shown on February 26. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The can't-miss teaming of Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn is squandered on a clumsy, illogical romantic melodrama. Running across her old boyfriend Gibson at a Wisconsin gas station, Hawn is astounded that he seems not to recognize her. How could she have known that Gibson was put into the Witness Relocation Program after testifying against a homicidal mob boss (say, don't they usually alter your appearance when they put you in that program?) Curious over Gibson's furtive behavior, Hawn unknowingly sets herself up as a target for the bad guys. The whole affairs culminates in an after-hours showdown at a zoo (a plot device vastly improved upon in the 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Eraser). While Bird on a Wire admittedly has its moments of enjoyment, most of the film is on a par with Gibson's embarrassing, homophobic scene with a pair of epicine hairdressers. And whoever heard of the Chinatown section of Racine, Wisconsin? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide