Sean McCann Movies

Gavin O'Connor directs the sports drama Miracle, based on the true story of the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid. Kurt Russell stars as hockey coach Herb Brooks, who assembles a U.S. team of underdogs. No one thinks they can make it, as they are up against the previously undefeated Soviet hockey team. Despite the odds, Brooks leads the U.S. team to victory. As the 1980 Winter Olympics happen to coincide with the Cold War, the event is interpreted as patriotic. Also starring Eddie Cahill and Patricia Clarkson, Miracle was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Between 1979 and 1981, 29 African-American children were murdered in Atlanta, GA, leading to a statewide manhunt to find the killer and a considerable outcry from a frightened public. Authorities eventually pinned the child killings on one Wayne Williams, who had been charged with two related murders of adult males. However, several years after Williams had been convicted of the killings of the two men and the case on the child murders had been closed, a pair of investigative reporters began looking into the matter, and discovered clear evidence that the investigation of the Atlanta child killings had been grossly mismanaged, and that in all likelihood Williams had nothing to do with the crimes. Who Killed Atlanta's Children? is a made-for-cable dramatization of the investigation by Pat Laughlin (James Belushi) and Ron Larson (Gregory Hines) as they attempt to find out how Williams (Cle Bennett) came to be railroaded for the child slayings and who the real killer might be. Produced for the Showtime premium cable network, Who Killed Atlanta's Children? also stars Bill Duke, Lynda Gravatt, and Sean McCann. Rudy Langlais, who as editor of Spin Magazine helped to publish Laughlin and Larson's findings, served as producer on this project. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Two young people struggling to find happiness in the midst of adversity exist side by side with their alter egos, an older and very unhappy married couple, in this offbeat drama. Beatrice (Sarah Polley) is a supermarket checkout girl fascinated by Henry (Brendan Fletcher), an angry and withdrawn young man whose bitterness stems largely from having been diagnosed with a rare, often fatal form of cancer. Beatrice and Henry fall in love, their passion intensified by the possibility of Henry's imminent death, but Henry's life is saved by surgery and they soon marry. In contrast, Bea (Diane Ladd) and Hank (Sean McCann) are a sixtysomething couple whose love burned out long ago. Bea and Hank have first grown bored, and then bitter, their rancor coming to a head when Hank buys a retirement home without consulting Bea, and she gets back at him by incurring financially ruinous construction and decorating expenses. Living near Bea is her old friend Myra (Shirley Douglas), whose husband Stan (Victor Cowie) is dying of cancer, while Beatrice's best friend Myrah (Kristin Thompson) has fallen deeply in love with Stanley (Rob Stefaniuk), a soldier soon to leave for the Gulf War. The Law of Enclosures was based on the well-regarded novel by Dale Peck and was the first non-gay-themed project from director John Greyson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Ken Russell's Dogboys is set at a southern prison. The title of the film comes from the prisoners who are used to train the attack dogs employed to stop escapes. DA Jennifer Dern (Tia Carrere) is investigating the prison's warden (Bryan Brown). She puts one of her men inside the prison, but he ends up dead from one of the dogs. Inmate Julian Taylor (Dean Cain) finds a partial picture of a man in with the blood from the mole's death. While keeping himself free of attack and harm in the prison, Taylor and Dern team up to reveal the truth about the warden, and stop his sadistic practices. Dogboys was made-for-television. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Nick Nolte and James Coburn deliver some of the finest work of their respective careers in this powerful but troubling adaptation of Russell Banks's novel. Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte) is the sheriff in a small New England town; it's a part-time job with few taxing responsibilities, and Wade fills his many free hours by swilling booze, smoking pot, and thinking back on his nightmarish childhood. Wade's father Glen (James Coburn) was by turns callous, distant, and abusive, and Wade has inherited his addiction to alcohol and inability to deal with others. Consequently, Wade's ex-wife (Mary Beth Hurt) despises him, his daughter is uncomfortable and frightened in his presence, and the only person who can reach him is his loving but long-suffering girlfriend Margie (Sissy Spacek). When a wealthy businessman is killed in a hunting accident, Wade suspects foul play and pursues the case with an obsession that puzzles all around him; meanwhile, Wade's mother dies and his brother Rolfe (Willem Dafoe), the only one in the family to escape Glen's abuse without crippling emotional scars, returns to pay his respects and is caught up once again in the damaged lives of his father and brother. James Coburn) won an Academy award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Affliction, while Nick Nolte was nominated for Best Actor (he lost to Roberto Benigni). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The fourth entry in the Iron Eagle series follows the return of General Charles "Chappy" Sinclair (Louis Gosset Jr., who deserves better) as he trains a Dirty Dozen-style team of juvenile delinquents to improve their quality of life by flying planes and combatting evil. This time the Air Force itself is the enemy, as the intrepid teens uncover a conspiracy involving biological weaponry. When Chappy contacts his old friend, General Kettle (Al Waxman), he learns the General is in on the action. Along the way, the group manages to combat some ill-prepared drug dealers as well. This installment is better than the second or third, but that's not the highest of praise; Iron Eagle IV is a dumb-dumb fantasy for fourteen-year-old boys who don't yet have their learner's permits, much less their pilot's licenses. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

Mary Swann, an Ontario farmer's wife, lead a fairly dull existence until she demonstrated a remarkable talent for poetry and became the darling of the literati. Tragically, she was ruthlessly slain by her own husband who then committed suicide. Mary's closest friend Rose is devastated by the death and so runs a small museum to keep Mary's memory alive. Sarah Maloney is a writer who wants to write a biography about Swann. Learning that a competitor has similar plans, Sarah hastily leaves Chicago and heads northward where she meets Rose. The ensuing friendship between the disparate women provides the film with some interesting comparison/contrasts. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A young man's girl friend has an affair with his best friend and he goes off the deep end in this drama. All of the characters are in their 20s and live in New York. The angry young man is the macho Nick Adams who has spent one month out of town. Upon his return he notices that Mary, his girlfriend is acting oddly. She finally confesses that Sid, Nick's good buddy, made a pass at her. At first, Mary swears that nothing else happened, but Nick is suspicious and begins interrogating all of his neighbors about Mary's behavior. Eventually Mary confesses that she did indeed sleep with Sid. Nick cannot believe that she would willingly cheat on him and so goes to Sid to beat him up for raping Mary. Unfortunately, Sid is accompanied by a thuggish friend who beats Nick up. Nick retaliates by hiring his own thugs, but they mess up and mistakenly brutalize Nick's roommate instead. Nick's rage seems boundless and eventually he causes Mary to leave him and his friends to avoid him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Lindsay Wagner stars in this TV movie as Molly McKinley, a former nun now employed (and grossly underfunded!) as a rape counselor. A teenager named Sophia (Holly Marie Combs) seeks out Molly's help after she is raped by the scion of a wealthy family. Refusing to release a confidential file that would reveal Molly's past promiscuity--and thus seriously compromise her case against her assailant--Molly is sent to jail. The problem now becomes two-pronged: If Molly wants to be released, she must hand over information that may allow the rapist to go free; and if Sophia doesn't speak up, Molly's future career will be destroyed. Although the film would seem to be inspired by the 1988 theatrical feature The Accused, it was based on a true story. Sins of Silence originally aired February 20, 1996 on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first episode of the comic book-inspired animated series WildC.A.T.S is "Dark Blade Falling," in which the young, leonine WarBlade is recruited into the super-powered Covert Action Team (C.A.T.) to help them in their ages-old war against the alien Daemonites. In subsequent episodes, we learn more about WarBlade and his fellow do-gooders on a "need to know" basis: for example, "Heart of Steel" finds team leader Spartan confronting a past love; the seeds of tension between female barbarian Zealot and taciturn weapons expert Grifter are first sown in "Cry of the Coda"; Grifter is forced into a showdown with his renegade brother Max in "MVP"; and the inner demons of the towering Maul burst forth in "Soul of a Giant." The saga of TV's WildC.A.T.S. comes to a climax with the two-part finale "End Game"; however the Jim Lee comic book on which the series was based was far from finished when this series finale originally aired in late 1994. ~ All Movie Guide

It's off to Africa for a former B-ball player who'd like to find a top-notch basketball recruit to help him become a successful coach. Kevin Bacon has the lead in this Paul Glaser-directed film. ~ All Movie Guide

Tim Matheson plays a zealous prosecutor named Peter Hudson in the made-for-cable thriller Trial and Error. After sending a petty criminal to death row, Hudson pursues a political career, eventually becoming attorney general. Just before he is to be nominated for Lieutenant Governor, the criminal is about to be executed, and due to his wife's beliefs Hudson starts to suspect that the man was innocent. Hudson doesn't want to pursue his suspicions, since his political career is at stake. However, he is forced into action when the real killer begins stalking his wife. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

An innocent law student gets accused of murdering a mob chief's son when a casino poker game turns into a fistfight that ends with a fatality. Soon the mob and the corrupt local police are after the kid whose only respite in this film is a short romance with a new-found sweetheart. ~ All Movie Guide