Ross Malinger Movies

Gloria (Valerie Bertinelli) tries to help Nick Albright (Ross Malinger), a troubled teen whose family is going through bankruptcy and a marital breakup just before Thanksgiving. Seeking a way to escape his problems, Nick heads to a popular Rave called Heaven's Portal, and Gloria tags along. So far so good: But in her zeal to "empathize" with Nick, Gloria ends up taking the dangerous drug Ecstacy, naively taking Nick's word that the experience will bring her closer to God! Now Monica (Roma Downey) must team with Nick's mother Jessica (Stephanie Zimbalist) to rescue both the boy and the nearly-fallen angel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This TV sitcom apparently was inspired by the low concept of Martha Stewart meets Green Acres, since the central character is country-living TV host Sara Campbell (Judith Light) who feels it's deceptive to do a show about life in the country as part of the population in New York City. So she decides to relocate her life, her huge business empire, and her television show to a farm in upstate New York. As she explains to her daughter Frederica (Ashlee Levitch), "You don't need therapy in the country. If you get tense, you just go and milk something!" Accompanying Sara on this rural sojourn are her complaining mother Muriel (Florence Stanley) and her producer Greg (James Patrick Stuart). Husky farm foreman Lucas (Brett Cullen) offers a contrast to the citified types, including Fran Drescher and Rachel Chagall who guest as cameos in the first episode, re-creating their roles on The Nanny. Filmed in L.A., the series premiered June 3, 1998 on CBS. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

"Serenity now" are the control words that George's dad, Frank (Jerry Stiller), is supposed to utter every time his blood pressure rises. Conversely, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) finally learns how to lose his temper -- and it isn't pretty. In other developments George (Jason Alexander) is invited to join Frank's latest business enterprise, selling computers -- bringing him in very close contact with his old enemy Lloyd Braun (Matt McCoy). Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) discovers her "shiksappeal" when a young Jewish boy tongue-kisses her during his bar mitzvah. And Kramer (Michael Richards) takes on "Anytown, U.S.A." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Two dogs and a cat, separated from their human family, must find their way home and face the dangers of a big city for the first time in this adventure story for the whole family. Bob Seaver (Robert Hays) and his wife Laura (Kim Greist), who live in Northern California, are taking their kids on a camping vacation in Canada, and they're bringing along their pets -- spunky bulldog Chance (voice of Michael J. Fox), self-centered Himalayan cat Sassy (voice of Sally Field), and wise old Golden Retriever Shadow (voice of Ralph Waite). However, Chance doesn't like being cooped up in his travelling cage at the airport, and when he escapes, Sassy and Shadow follow him to the nearest city, San Francisco. After a scary night on their own, the trio are befriended by a gang of stray dogs and cats who have learned to live on their own after running away from their cruel masters. However, Chance, Sassy, and Shadow soon realize that life on the streets is not for them, and they set out to find the Seaver house they call home. Sports fans take note: Bob Uecker, Tommy Lasorda, and Al Michaels appear as themselves and also provide the voices of their pets. The voice of Shadow was performed by Don Ameche in the preceding film Homeward Bound; it proved to be Ameche's last film released before his death in late 1993 (his final film, Corrina, Corrina, didn't reach theaters until several months after his passing), leading the producers of this sequel to cast Ralph Waite in the role. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

With perhaps a slight nod towards Harry and the Hendersons, this family-oriented drama centers on a vacationing clan who run across a baby bigfoot and its mother. Realizing the near-mythical creatures are in great danger from the ruthless owner of a logging company who has sent hunters out to shoot them, the family does all it can to protect their furry new friends. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Pittsburgh Penguins owner Howard Baldwin was the producer of Sudden Death, and the action is set in his hockey arena, in which the Penguins are playing the Chicago Blackhawks. Pittsburgh fire inspector Darren McCord (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is attending the game with his two children. He's quit fighting fires because of a tragedy a few years earlier involving a child he couldn't save. Also at the game is the vice-president of the United States (Raymond Barry), who is the target of a terrorist plot. The terrorist leader, an insane ex-CIA agent named Joshua Foss (Powers Boothe), has masterminded a scheme to hold the vice-president hostage in his luxury suite while demanding that payments be transferred to his account electronically at the end of each period of the game. If he doesn't get his money, he will kill one member of the vice-president's party at the end of each period, and at game's end he will order ten bombs hidden in the arena to be detonated with all 17,000 fans present. McCord discovers the plot while his daughter Emily (Whittni Wright) is kidnapped by the terrorists too. McCord must dispatch the villains and find the bombs, while saving all the hostages. Luckily, he is adept at martial arts. He fights one henchman dressed in a Penguins mascot outfit in the arena's kitchen, and another terrorist on the arena's retracting dome. At one point, McCord switches identities with a player, is sent into the game, and scores a goal. Director Peter Hyams also directed Van Damme in the blockbuster Timecop. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Sleepless in Seattle, the sophomore directorial effort from Nora Ephron, is a light romantic comedy inspired by the 1957 film An Affair to Remember. Tom Hanks stars as widower and single father Sam. When Sam's son, Jonah (Ross Malinger), calls into a talk radio program looking for a new mother, Sam ends up getting on the phone and laments about his lost love. Thousands of miles away, Annie (Meg Ryan) hears the program and immediately falls in love with Sam, despite the fact that she has never met him and that she is engaged to humdrum Walter (Bill Pullman). Believing they are meant to be together, Annie sets out for Seattle to meet Sam, who, meanwhile, contends with an onslaught of letters from available women equally touched by his phone call. Rosie O'Donnell, Rita Wilson, and Rob Reiner also star. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

W.D. Richter directed this comedy-drama in the spirit of Back to the Future and Peggy Sue Got Married. The film opens in Santa Fe in 1962, where Willie (Brian Wimmer) and Joy Husband (Marcia Gay Harden) are a cute couple living in familial bliss with their five-year-old daughter. When evil land-developer Bob Freeman (Peter Gallagher) tries to turn their bliss into blight, a gun goes off and Willie flees to Los Angeles with his dim-witted brother-in-law Frank (Peter Berg), convinced he has committed murder. They run into crazed scientist Dr. Chilblains (Bo Brundin), who cryogenically freezes the fugitives. Twenty-nine years later they are defrosted, and Willie, who has only aged a day, goes back to Santa Fe with Frank to seek out his wife and daughter, discovering they have aged and gone on with their lives without him. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

In this off-beat sci-fi adventure, a female scientist creates a sexy android version of herself and equips it with both the passionate emotions she lacks and a nuclear bomb. The trouble begins when the android is taken out for a test run and it ends up in the midst of a bank robbery where its internal bomb is accidentally activated. Things get worse, when the robot comes emotionally unglued and launches into a destructive rampage while enacting out its repressed creator's darkest desires. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi