Gift SubscriptionsSusan Misner
- 2002
The talents of the CSI team are stretched to the limit when the unidentified and partially decomposed body of a woman is found stuffed in a shopping cart just off the Vegas freeway. It is clear that the woman's face was deliberately and methodically disfigured -- in fact, she may have been thrust into a rotating fan while still alive. Clues vital to the proceedings include a handbag, a collection of fashion magazines, and several coded messages. This is definitely one case that Grissom (William L. Petersen) and his colleagues are not going to let go unresolved. "The Hunger Artist" was the final episode of CSI's second season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A starry-eyed would-be star discovers just how far the notion that "there's no such thing as bad publicity" can go in this screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Chicago, originally directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse. In the mid-'20s, Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) is a small-time chorus dancer married to a well-meaning dunderhead named Amos (John C. Reilly). Roxie is having an affair on the side with Fred Casley (Dominic West), a smooth talker who insists he can make her a star. However, Fred strings Roxie along a bit too far for his own good, and when she realizes that his promises are empty, she becomes enraged and murders Fred in cold blood. Roxie soon finds herself behind bars alongside Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a sexy vaudeville star who used to perform with her sister until Velma discovered that her sister had been sleeping with her husband. Velma shot them both dead, and, after scheming prison matron "Mama" Morton hooks Velma up with hotshot lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), Velma becomes the new Queen of the scandal sheets. Roxie is just shrewd enough to realize that her poor fortune could also bring her fame, so she convinces Amos to also hire Flynn. Soon Flynn is splashing Roxie's story -- or, more accurately, a highly melodramatic revision of Roxie's story -- all over the gutter press, and Roxy and Velma are soon battling neck-to-neck over who can win greater fame through the headlines. A project that had been moving from studio to studio since the musical opened on Broadway in 1973, Chicago also features guest appearances by Lucy Liu and Christine Baranski. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger, (more)
- 2007
Sibling filmmakers Benjamin and Orson Cummings write, produce, and direct this Hitchcock-influenced noir thriller starring Bill Sage as Davis Meyers, a trophy husband who lives in the Hamptons and resorts to infidelity and murder as a means of producing a suitable heir. By the time local investigator Linus (Roy Scheider) catches wind of the scheme, the stage has already been set for tragedy. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Sage, Roy Scheider, (more)
The ABC sci-fi/horror/thriller series Night Stalker was not so much a remake of the cult 1974 series Kolchak: The Night Stalker as it was a "reimagining" of the earlier show -- at least according to the series' producer, X-Files alumnus Frank Spotnitz. Stuart Townsend stepped into the old Darren McGavin role as maverick journalist Carl Kolchak, whose mission in life was to alert the world of various and sundry paranormal, supernatural, and extraterrestrial activities -- only to be made the fool each week when evidence substantiating his stories of ghost, monsters, spacemen, etc. mysteriously disappeared. Instead of answering to an acerbic, disbelieving editor (the role played by Simon Oakland in the original show), Kolchak verbally sparred, "Mulder and Scully" fashion, with his erstwhile partner, doubting reporter Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union). And whereas the "old" Kolchak was merely trying to make a living and restore his journalistic reputation, the "new" Kolchak was motivated by the unsolved murder of his wife -- which he claimed was at the hands of supernatural forces, but which the authorities suspected was his own handiwork (a dash of Fugitive there). The weekly, 60-minute Night Stalker premiered September 29, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Townsend, Gabrielle Union, (more)
In keeping with the light and slick tones of her earlier film What Women Want, Nancy Meyers writes and directs the romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give. Jack Nicholson plays Harry Langer, a swinging sixtysomething entertainment executive surrounded by plenty of young girlfriends. His latest romance is young petite sophisticate Marin (Amanda Peet), who takes him to her mother's beach house in the Hamptons for a weekend fling. However, Marin's successful Broadway playwright mother Erica Barry (Diane Keaton) is already vacationing at the house with her sister Zoe (Frances McDormand). Marin and Harry stay anyway, and Harry ends up having a heart attack. He goes to the hospital and is looked after by thirtysomething doctor Julian Mercer (Keanu Reeves). Impressed by her writing, Dr. Mercer finds himself pursuing a romance with Erica. Because of his serious health condition, he orders Harry to stay near the hospital. While Marin returns to Manhattan, Erica agrees to stay on and look after Harry. Of course they are repulsed by each other at first, but they end up falling in love throughout the recovery process. Also starring Jon Favreau as Harry's assistant. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, (more)
Director Steve Stockman takes the helm for this semi-autobiographical comedy drama about an estranged family that comes together for one last goodbye, and finds their assumedly brief farewell inexorably dragged out for two excruciating weeks. Aging matriarch Anita (Sally Field) is dying, but before she goes, she has requested that her four grown children travel back home to visit their ailing mother on her deathbed. Eager to gain a better understanding of the dying process, daughter Emily purchases a variety of self-help books on the subject. Though brother Keith (Ben Chaplin) soon arrives determined to float through the process in typical L.A. Zen mode, Emily contends that the only way to be prepared for the future is to consider every detail that can go awry. When PR executive Barry arrives intent on getting some work done before death comes knocking, it appears as if he is more concerned with getting broadband Internet in the house than actually tending to his mother. Meanwhile, youngest brother Matthew sets at the sidelines biding his time as his unlikable wife, Katrina, callously speculates on which of the dying woman's luxurious jewels she will be inheriting. Now, as Anita begins to look back at her life while reflecting on the time spent with her family, the question of who will hold this family together once she is gone casts a melancholy shadow over her fond memories. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Field, Ben Chaplin, (more)
- 2004
Six people in their early thirties come to terms with their own lives as they acknowledge the passing of a friend in this independent drama. Josh (Michael Knowles) was a successful and seemingly happy art dealer who one day jumped to his death from the window of his Manhattan high-rise apartment. A few days later, a handful of his friends arrive to help clear away his belongings and plan his funeral -- Sara (Susan Misner), his distraught former fiancée; Nick (Randall Batinkoff), a one-time professional athlete whose career is on the skids; Liz (Nicole Fonarow), an emotionally cool yuppie who arrives with her husband, Jim (Chris Henry Coffey); Dylan (Carl T. Evans), a misfit who still hasn't found his place in life; and Joann (Kristen Marie Holly), a socially and environmentally conscious type. No one seems to have any idea of what led Josh to take his own life. While clearing out the apartment, someone finds his journal, and temptation gets the better of them. As they begin to read it, they discover a side of their friend's life that they never knew before. Walking on the Sky was the first film for writer and director Carl T. Evans, who also appears as Dylan. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
