Julie Lott Movies

A hybrid cross-pollination of a Martin Scorsese and Frank Capra film, this feel-good comic fantasy is loosely based on the real-life story of a New York lottery winner. Anthony LaPaglia stars as Frank Pesce Jr., a New Yorker with a good-luck streak that is unmatched in his Little Italy neighborhood. When Frank throws a pair of dice in a game of chance, he doesn't just toss a winning hand, the dice land on top of each other. When he's stabbed in the chest by a girlfriend's brother, his doctors find a pre-cancerous tumor. Although he tries again and again to get rid of a vehicle he no longer wants, it is retrieved every single time by the authorities. So when New York announces its first statewide lottery in 1976, Frank buys one ticket and immediately becomes everybody's best friend. Unfortunately, Frank's good luck is matched by the equally bad luck of his hard-working father, Frank Sr. (Danny Aiello), who has run up a gambling debt to a local mobster. The wise guy is willing to forgive the note if Frank Jr. will just hand over his sure-to-be lucky ticket, leaving the city's luckiest Italian-American in a bit of a moral quandary. The real Frank Pesce Jr. executive produces and co-stars in 29th Street as his own police officer brother, Vito. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

A new '90s expressiveness regarding homosexuality in movies is gently mined for laughs in this 1993 comedy that predates the similar but much more raw Chasing Amy and slightly more humorous Threesome. With her straight greasy hair, semi-paranoid outlook, and leather jacket she wears like a shield, Connie (Kelly Lynch) already seems a bit unhinged. Then her girlfriend, Ellen (Sherilyn Fenn), breaks up their relationship and Connie loses it. In her grief, she hits upon a bizarre plan: Why not hire male prostitute Joe (William Baldwin) to seduce Ellen, then break her heart? Wouldn't that make Ellen rush back into Connie's arms? Of course not. For one thing, Joe's life is complicated by his protective yet sinister pimp (Joe Pantoliano) and a thug who mistakenly believes Joe set him up for a prison sentence. And Joe and Ellen fall in love. Yet an odd, sibling-like friendship develops between Joe and Connie that steers them through the repercussions of Ellen's discovery of their deceit, the thug's attack on Joe, and Joe's desire to give up prostitution. By the story's end, they've lost Ellen, but they have one another, and have learned to step beyond the protective relationships they have lost. Three of Hearts solidified William Baldwin's ascent to leading-man status (along with brothers Stephen and Alec) after 1991's Backdraft. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide

Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry reprise their roles as a killer for hire and a dentist with a bad case of nerves in this sequel to the comedy hit The Whole Nine Yards. Former hitman Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski (Bruce Willis) has retired from his life of crime and is living a quiet life of cooking and housekeeping in Mexico, despite the fact his wife, Jill (Amanda Peet), a would-be hired killer, still wants to keep her hand in the business. Tudeski has been able to convince the authorities he's dead thanks to dental records falsified by his former neighbor Nicholas "Oz" Oseransky (Matthew Perry), who lives in Los Angeles. But Oseransky discovers that not everyone is fooled by Tudeski's handiwork when his wife, Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge), is kidnapped by Lazlo Gogolak (Kevin Pollak) and his goons. Gogolak is a high-ranking member of the Hungarian mafia, and Tudeski previously murdered his son, so he's abducted Cynthia in order to get Oseransky to reveal the hired killer's current whereabouts. But Tudeski has come to like the quiet life, and isn't so sure he wants to face Gogolak and his crew for the sake of a jittery dentist who once did him a favor. Most of the principle cast of The Whole Nine Yards returned for this sequel, though director Howard Deutch stepped in to replace Jonathan Lynn, who was working on The Fighting Temptations when The Whole Ten Yards went into production. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide