Fredric Lane Movies
- 1998
This 100th episode of Touched by an Angel also marks the 100th assignment of Heavenly caseworker Monica (Roma Downey). And it's a real heartbreaker, involving eight-year-old Petey Carmichael (Joseph Cross), who is dying of cystic fibrosis. Taking his fate in remarkable stride, Petey gives Monica a lengthy list of the goals he wants to meet before he enters Heaven. Foremost of his wishes is that his mother Audrey (Wynonna Judd), a too-busy writer of TV jingles, finish composing the song she had started when her son was born. Petey also wants Monica to arrange a meeting between his best friend Cornelia (Mika Boorem) and her idol Celine Dion (as herself). But there is one request that may never come to pass: Though Petey wants to leave his hospice bed and die at home, his HMO manager Eric (Fredric Lane)--who happens to be Cornelia's dad--refuses to break the rules. The episode's musical highlights include Celine Dion's rendition of "Love Can Move Mountains", and guest star Wynonna Judd's performance of the title song "Psalm 151". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
For his fifth effort as a feature-film director, one-time cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld brought his cartoonish visual style and darkly humorous sensibilities to this adaptation of, appropriately enough, a tongue-in-cheek sci-fi comic book. Will Smith stars as James Darrel Edwards, a New York City cop with an athletic physique and a flippant, anti-authoritarian attitude toward law enforcement. After chasing down a mysterious perpetrator one night who turns out to be an alien, James is recruited by "K" (Tommy Lee Jones), a veteran of a clandestine government agency secretly policing the comings and goings of aliens on planet Earth. Nicknamed the "men in black" for their nondescript uniform of black suit, shoes, tie, and sunglasses, the agents are assigned to recover a bauble that's been stolen by an intergalactic terrorist (Vincent D'Onofrio). It seems the item is none other than the galaxy itself, and its theft has plunged humanity into the center of what's shaping up to become an interstellar war, unless K and his new wisecracking partner, now renamed "J," can stop the bad guy. On their side but somewhat in the dark is a pretty, unflappable city medical examiner (Linda Fiorentino) who has been zapped one too many times by K's ingenious memory-sapping device. Men in Black was a box office smash, inspiring an animated children's television series and a hit soundtrack album that featured a performance by star (and rapper) Smith. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, (more)
The story of two average women who refused to be silenced and intimidated by the company who manufactured their silicone implants is detailed in this inspirational docudrama starring Mary McDonnell and Gail O' Grady. Sybil Goldrich (McDonnell) was a wealthy California who was devastated to be diagnosed with breast cancer, and Kathleen Anneken (O'Grady) was a typical middle-class mother from Kansas who had always been unhappy with her breast size. Despite their disparate backgrounds and social statuses, both women would soon be drawn together by the tragic circumstances surrounding their decision to receive breast implants. Ignored, mistreated, and disregarded by silicone specialists Dow Corning after they received their implants and fell gravely ill, Goldrich and Anneken became united in their efforts to take their case to the FDA. While proving Down Corning was responsible for their many ailments was a near impossible task, getting their story out to the public was simply a matter of using every opportunity they had to state their case publicly. In the end it was one lawyer who possessed the incriminating evidence needed to bring Down Corning down, and ensure that their cries weren't silenced by the stifling greenback gag of big business. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gail O'Grady, Mary McDonnell, (more)
- 1997
Mary Tyler Moore is reunited with her onetime sitcom costar Edward Asner in this anything-but-funny TV movie melodrama. While closing down her restaurant late one night, Kathryn Stanfill (Moore) notices a prowler hanging around outside. She quickly summons the police, only to stand by in horror as one of the cops, a loose cannon named Brian Kaleen (Frederick Lehne), brutally and without provocation beats the prowler within an inch of his life. Jack Patkanis (Asner), the police department's Internal Affairs investigator, has long suspected that there have been a few rotten apples like Kaleen on the force, and urges Kathryn to report the beating. Suspended from the force, the psychotic Kaleen methodically mounts a campaign of revenge, using his police-department and political connections to financially destroy Kathryn's husband (Dennis Arndt) and frame her son (Adam Scott) on a murder charge. Payback was first telecast by ABC on February 10, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Tyler Moore, Ed Asner, (more)
- 1996
The setting is a lodge in the Grand Tetons, where Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is a guest of the owner, a retired colonel. It soon develops that the colonel is being blackmailed, and that another of the guests has been involved in diamond smuggling. Somehow or other this all ends up with murder, compelling Jessica to cut her vacation short and clear the reputation of another old friend. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
