Gino Marrocco Movies
Another of the PAX network's adaptations of the suspense novels of Mary Higgins Clark, the Toronto-filmed Lucky Day stars Amanda Donohoe as Nora Barkin, an aspiring actress who supports herself by working for a courier service. No sooner has Nora's friend and coworker Bill Reagan (Gino Marrocco) jubilantly announced that he possesses a lottery ticket worth 13 million dollars than Bill is killed by an unknown assailant. Though discouraged from doing so by investigating detective Marinello (Tony Lo Bianco), Nora insists upon trying to solve Bill's murder herself -- and in the process she follows a trail of evidence leading to her own husband Jack (Gregor Torzs). Mary Higgins Clark's Lucky Day was originally telecast on April 27, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amanda Donohoe
Saturday Night Live star Chris Farley had his first starring role in this frankly lowbrow comedy, which teamed him with fellow SNL cast member David Spade). Big Tom Callahan (Brian Dennehy) is the street-smart owner of a company that makes auto parts, and one day he'd like his son Tommy Callahan III (Chris Farley) to take over the business. Trouble is, Tommy Boy is a fat, dim-witted slob who took seven years to get a business degree and has no idea how to run a business. His father's sudden death unexpectedly puts Tommy Boy in charge, with his dad's weasely assistant Richard (David Spade) trying to guide him. However, what no one knows is Big Tom's wife, the young and beautiful Beverly (Bo Derek), married him only for his money while holding on to her lover, Paul (Rob Lowe), whose presence she explains by telling people he's her son. Beverly and Paul are waiting for Tommy Boy to run the company into the ground so they can take over, sell it off and earn a quick payoff. However, what Tommy Boy lacks in smarts (and hygiene), he makes up for in determination, and he hits the road with Richard for a long sales trip in a last ditch effort to rescue his father's legacy. Tommy Boy was a major hit that turned Chris Farley into a screen star; sadly, he was dead within two years of the release of his breakthrough film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Farley, David Spade, (more)
- 1991
- R
This lively and off-beat Canadian comedy tells the tale of a regular Joe whose life is turned topsy turvy when he teams up with a strange restaurateur who convinces the fellow to invest in his latest project: an Italian restaurant with operatic waiters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robbie Coltrane, Michael Riley, (more)
- 1989
This made-for-TV film represented the first speaking role for hearing-impaired actress Marlee Matlin. A happy wife and mother, Matlin is grief-stricken when her husband is killed in a car accident. Still not fully recovered after several weeks, Matlin must rely on her mother Lee Remick to care for her young daughter. Matlin puts her life back together by joining a theatre troupe comprised of deaf actors, one of whose members is played by Phyllis Frelich, who originated the role in the Broadway version of Children of a Lesser God that Marlee Matlin played in the film version (and won an Academy Award in the process). The film's climax is dictated by Lee Remick's efforts to gain full legal custody of Matlin's daughter. Bridge to Silence was first telecast April 9, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- PG13
In this tuneful teen drama, two disparate high school students, he a street-wise Italian rebel and she a sweet naive Jewish girl, fall in love while preparing for the annual "Sing," a competition between seniors and the other grades attending Brooklyn schools. It is the caring school music teacher who involves the street-tough, for he sees tremendous talent in the youth. With the help of the teacher and the affection of the young woman, the angry youngster, mends his self-destructive ways and makes the annual musical a smashing success. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorraine Bracco, Peter Dobson, (more)
- 1985
The self-aggrandizing world of Madison Avenue advertising is the subject of this clichéd, sexist satire that features a cynical ad executive (Loretta Swit) and her minions who choose three regular Joes to represent the Norbecker Beer company in a new ad campaign. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Swit, Rip Torn, (more)
Public safety takes a turn for the worse in this hit comedy, which spawned a long-running franchise. As a crime wave sweeps through a major city, the mayor decides that part of the problem may stem from overly restrictive qualifications for police officers, so she opens the door of the city's Police Academy to anyone who wants to join. Soon, the new class is overrun with misfits and losers, including Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg), who is given the choice of joining the force or going to jail; Karen Thompson (Kim Cattrall), a pretty cadet whom Mahoney has his eye on; Moses Hightower (Bubba Smith), a mountain of a man who likes to tend flowers; and Larvell Jones (Michael Winslow), who has an uncanny ability to imitate the sound of practically anything. Constantly befuddled Commandant Lassard (George Gaynes) and his lackey, Lt. Harris (G.W. Bailey), are none too thrilled with their new charges, but as they try to wash their hands of the cadets, Mahoney and his classmates become all the more determined to make good. The surprising success of Police Academy spawned six sequels and two TV series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Guttenberg, G.W. Bailey, (more)
- 1981
- R
Margot Kidder and Annie Potts star in this distaff buddy picture concerning two friends undergoing a series of misadventures in their love lives. Potts plays Bonnie Howard, the wife of Stanley (Robert Carradine), an immature child/man who irresponsibly spends most of his time racing cars and getting drunk. Bonnie also happens to be pregnant, but the father of her unborn child does not happen to be Stanley. Rather than hit Stanley in the face with that fact, she decides to leave him. As she heads for town to obtain an abortion, she runs into the foul-mouthed man-hunter Rita Harris (Margot Kidder in a blonde wig and tight pants). The two characters get involved in a number of vignettes, with the humor arising from the contrast between the streetwise Rita and the relatively innocent Bonnie. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margot Kidder, Annie Potts, (more)
- 1981
This pilot film for the TV detective series Cagney and Lacey stars Loretta Swit as Chris Cagney and Tyne Daly as Mary Beth Lacey. C and L are NYPD undercover officers, spending their first week on the job disguised as hookers. It's all part of a plan to flush out the person who's been going around beating up prostitutes. The storyline, which also includes the murder of a diamond merchant, shifts from Cagney and Lacey's street duty to their constant struggle against sexism at precinct headquarters and at home. Executive producer Barney Rosenzweig claimed that he'd come up with the idea of Cagney and Lacey after reading a Molly Haskell piece concerning the patronizing treatment of women in films. First telecast on October 8, 1981, the pilot film for Cagney and Lacey held its own opposite the season premiere of Taxi, leading to a weekly series which lasted from 1982 to 1988. But when the series proper went into production, Loretta Swit was replaced by Meg Foster, who in turn was replaced by Sharon Gless (later the wife of executive producer Rosenzweig). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyne Daly, Loretta Swit, (more)
