Mark Joy Movies

The thriller 21 Eyes concerns a paranoid wealthy man who has set himself up in a secluded home that has twenty-one security cameras filming every area of the dwelling at all times. One day a very bad event happens at his property, forcing detectives to piece together what happened from the miles of videotape. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an adolescent awakens from a coma to discover herself in the bosom of her family. This troubles her deeply because before she became comatose, she had run away from them. Matters become worse as she slowly starts remembering the events that led to her current condition. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The full title of this made-for-TV film was In the Best of Families: Pride and Madness. Based on a true story, the film details the bitter divorce between overly idealistic Keith Carradine and emotionally disturbed Kelly McGillis. Caught in the middle are the couple's sons, played by Erik Von Detten and Ira David Wood Jr. The crisis erupts into violence, resulting in a triple homicide. Roundly criticized for its lurid and sensationalistic aspects, In the Best of Families was originally telecast in two parts on January 16 and 18, 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this complexly-plotted action-packed police drama, Pittsburgh policewoman Keri Finnegan (Linda Kozlowski) returns to her home turf to clean up crime and clear the ruined name of her father, a cop who was wrongfully disgraced and fired from the force. McKees Rocks is one Steeltown's roughest ethnic neighborhoods, and though many residents are impoverished, they have yet to surrender their pride. Keri's father's reputation, plus her gender, make it very difficult for her to do her job. When a serial killer begins slaughtering owners of local property, Keri masquerades as an old woman and is attacked by what appears to be a policeman. He is eventually arrested for killing his wife, but for some reason the cops ignore the other killings. Keri, however, doesn't and thus launches her own investigation. She finds herself opposed at every turn, not only by her lover and fellow-detective Nick Donovan (John Shea), but also by the police chief, Nick's father, and a powerful gangster. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When a district attorney starts an investigation into corruption that leads her back to her own family--rife with police officers--she finds some decisions hard to make. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Guilty Until Proven Innocent is a TV-movie dramatization of a an actual miscarriage of justice. Young Bobby McLaughlin (Brendan Fraser) is accused of murder when a teenager is killed during a Brooklyn drug deal. The arresting cop knows that Bobby didn't do it, but is so eager for a conviction in this otherwise unsolvable crime that he strongarms an eyewitness into fingering Bobby. The boy's foster father Martin Sheen is assured by the defense attorney that the truth will out in court. When Bobby is convicted, Sheen continues through legal channels to secure the boy's release, confident that someone will be willing to open their eyes to the facts. But despite common knowledge that he is innocent, Bobby languishes for years in prison. Featured in the cast of Guilty Until Proven Innocent is Martin Sheen's daughter Renee Estevez. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unspeakable Acts is the all-too-true story of a 1984 Dade County (Florida) sexual abuse case. Frank and Ilana Fuster (Gregory Sierra and Bess Meyer), who operate an upper-class day care center in a Florida suburb, are accused of committing appalling acts upon their young charges. The prosecution's case hinges on the testimony of one emotionally scarred child. Jill Clayburgh and Brad Davis play Lauri and Joseph Braga, the husband-and-wife child development specialists who must convince the abused youngster to testify without causing additional damage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

British director Mike Hodges brought an extra measure of integrity to this made-for-TV thriller. Rosanna Arquette stars as Martha Travis, a psychic who travels the rural American South with her alcoholic father, Walter (Jason Robards), plying her mystical trade for credulous yokels. In reality, Martha is a con woman whose only gift is the ability to defraud those who seek messages from dead loved ones. However, one night the bogus medium intercepts mental images of a murdered man whose wife is in the audience -- and indignantly proclaims that her husband is still very much alive. Within hours, however, Martha's vision becomes reality. Martha has suddenly developed the ability to see murders before they happen, but her newfound ability to prognosticate puts a professional contract killer on her trail. In the meantime, Martha becomes lovers with Gary Wallace (Tom Hulce), a small-town reporter who's intrigued enough by Martha to write a story about her, although he's skeptical about her supernatural talents. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

This is the true story of Los Gatos (California) high school football coach Charlie Wedemeyer (Michael Nouri). At 31, onetime football pro Wedemeyer is living the American dream; a winning team, a happy marriage and public adulation. Then in 1977, Charlie is diagnosed as suffering from ALS, a degenerative neurological ailment better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Given only one year to live, Charlie determines to continue leading his Los Gatos Wildcats to a state championship -- which he eventually does, despite losing all powers of speech and movement. Several notches above the usual "disease of the week" TV movie, Quiet Victory: The Charlie Wedemeyer Story was directed by Roy Campanella II -- himself the son of a physically disabled pro athlete, baseball star Roy Campanella. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ryan White was the teenaged hemophiliac who contacted AIDS through a blood transfusion, then was barred from attending school in Kokomo, Indiana. All but ostracized by the community, Ryan's mother (Judith Light) engages the services of a high-powered attorney (George C. Scott) to win back her son's basic rights. While the film ends with Ryan triumphing over his human adversaries, no effort is made to sugarcoat the situation. Even after he has been welcomed by another school, we see how the boy is shunned by certain students and their parents; nor is there any glossing over the fact that Ryan's days are numbered, despite the boy's enthusiastic plans for the time he has left (young White died shortly after this TV movie was first telecast in 1989). Despite its inherent sadness, The Ryan White Story is a celebration of an exceptional young human being whose short life touched so many others in a positive, uplifting manner. While Lukas Haas portrays the title character, the real Ryan White appears in the small role of Chad, another hemophiliac AIDS victim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Iconoclastic satirist John Waters bites the hand that (periodically) feeds him in this humorous look at the underside of the film industry. Self-styled guerrilla filmmaker Cecil (Stephen Dorff) leads a Baltimore movie-making collective/street gang called the Sprocket Holes, which includes Cecil's girlfriend and frequent leading lady, a low-rent porn actress named Cherish Oh Lordy (Alicia Witt). Desperate for attention, they kidnap famous Hollywood actress Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) during a Baltimore publicity stop and force her at gunpoint to star in their latest production, Raving Beauty. Before long, Honey comes down with a severe case of Stockholm syndrome and joins the Sprocket Holes in their bid to destroy the mainstream film industry. Waters regulars Ricki Lake, Patty Hearst, and Mink Stole highlight the supporting cast, and techno star Moby contributes to the soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director Michael Mann based this lushly romantic version of the James Fenimore Cooper novel more on his memory of the 1936 film version (starring Randolph Scott) than on Cooper's novel (in fact, Philip Dunne's 1936 screenplay is cited as source material for this film). Set in the 1750s during the French and Indian War, the story concerns Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), the European-born adopted son of Mohican scout Chingachgook (Russell Means). Hawkeye and his party, which also includes the Mohican Uncas (Eric Schweig), joins up with a group of Britons who have recently arrived in the Colonies. The group consists of Cora Munro (Madeleine Stowe) and her younger sister, Alice (Jodhi May), who are rescued from a Huron war party by Hawkeye. Hawkeye's band accompanies them to the British Fort William Henry, which is being besieged by a French and Huron force. The fort falls to the French, and Colonel Munro (Maurice Roeves) surrenders to French General Montcalm (Patrice Chéreau). The terms of the surrender are that the British merely abandon the fort and return to their homes. However, the French's bloodthirsty ally, the Huron warrior Magua (Wes Studi), has made no such agreement, and, as the British retreat from the fort, he plans to massacre them in a terrible Huron attack. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

An FBI agent finds himself crossing the gender line again in the name of national security in this sequel to the comedy hit Big Momma's House. Tom Fuller (Mark Moses) is a computer whiz who is under investigation by the FBI, who suspect he may be the man behind a dangerous piece of underground software that would allow terrorists and criminals to access secured intelligence files online. The Bureau is looking for a way to get inside Fuller's home to find out what he's doing when a golden opportunity presents itself -- Fuller and his wife, Leah (Emily Procter), are in the market for a nanny to help look after their three children. The FBI sends in Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence), who will once again impersonate feisty septuagenarian Hattie Mae Pierce, better known as "Big Momma." "Big Momma" gets the job, but while trying to dig up the truth about Fuller's possible criminal connections, Malcolm also finds himself developing a close relationship with the suspect's wife and kids. Malcolm also finds himself offering unlikely romantic advice to his new partner, Kevin (Zachary Levi), and developing a new appreciation of the day-to-day travails of his wife, Sherrie (Nia Long). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide