Jack McGee Movies

In this comedy, two high school seniors pretend to be foreign exchange students and suddenly find themselves among the popular kids. They soon find that such popularity is a double-edged sword. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This drama is based on a play by Mones and is set within a grim New York neighborhood where a new kid comes to the neighborhood. Unlike the street-wise and life-toughened gang members around him, the youth is a sensitive poet who teaches the kids about the meaning and beauty of life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Writer Jill Clayburgh wants to remove her coke-addicted daughter Martha Plimpton from the corruptive environs of Manhattan. When assigned to write an article about family trees, Clayburgh, with daughter in tow, heads to the bayous of Louisiana, there to seek out an elusive great-uncle--and, it is hoped, to give Plimpton a new start in life. Upon their arrival in the deep south, Clayburgh and Plimpton are confronted with the uncle's rugged, iron-willed wife Barbara Hershey and her four grown sons. The anticipated culture clash results in tragedy for all concerned. Wavering between the plausible and the outrageous, Shy People makes for fascinating, almost mesmerizing viewing. Released late in 1987 to qualify for the Academy Awards, the film was given a general release in mid-1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A cop discovers that there's something unusual about his new partner in this unusual sci-fi thriller. A seemingly well-mannered stock broker one day snaps, robbing a bank, stealing a Ferrari, and driving straight into a police barricade without any thought for his own safety, and he's mowed down by a hail of bullets. The detective assigned to the case, Tom Beck (Michael Nouri), thinks that he notices a strange look in the eye of the thief, but when FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan) informs Tom that he's also been assigned to the case, he thinks that he sees the same curious look in Lloyd's eyes as well. Lloyd also has an odd way of carrying himself, as if he's not entirely in control of his own body, and in time, Tom discovers what the two men have in common -- both are actually aliens from another planet. They are creatures from another world capable of entering a human (or animal) body at will and using it as a vessel as long as they need. When the stockbroker died, the rogue alien simply crept into another body to begin his crime spree all over again. Lloyd has been sent to Earth to bring the thief's reign of terror to a halt and has taken over the body of an FBI agent with that in mind. A major cult favorite, The Hidden also features Clu Gulager, Ed O'Ross, and Claudia Christian. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Night Court moved back from its new Friday-night berth to its original Thursday-evening slot for the series' 100th episode, in which court clerk Mac (Charles Robinson) quits his job after inheriting $2 million from his grandfather. The Night Court staff is sorely annoyed at Mac's defection, especially when his replacement, Eddie Creeger (Jack McGee), proves to be a monumental foul-up. Meanwhile, Mac has troubles of his own, thanks to a huge lawsuit slapped upon the restaurant owned by his wife Quon Le (Denice Kumagai). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of three films by co-writer/director Oliver Stone to explore the effects of the Vietnam War (Platoon and Heaven and Earth are the others), Born On The Fourth Of July tells the true story of Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise), a patriotic, All-American small town athlete who shocks his family by enlisting with the Marines to fight in the Vietnam War. Once he is overseas, however, Kovic's gung-ho enthusiasm turns to horror and confusion when he accidentally kills one of his own men in a firefight. His downfall is furthered by a bullet wound that leaves him paralyzed from the chest down. He returns home, spends an appalling, nightmarish stint in a veterans' hospital, and follows an increasingly disillusioned and fragmented path that ultimately leaves him drunk and dissolute in Mexico. However, Kovic somehow turns himself around and pulls his life together, becoming an outspoken anti-war activist in the process. The film is long but emotionally powerful; many consider it Stone's best work and Cruise's best performance. Both were nominated for Oscars, as was the film itself, but only Stone, who co-wrote the film with Kovic from the latter's book, won for Best Director. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

In this black comedy starring Randy Quaid, a dead dog, a red-hot date, and a Zen-quoting cabbie with strange connections provide the ingredients for the most frustrating night in poor Michael Latchmer's heretofore dull life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set in the year 2030, the film concerns a rebel movement led by Lathan Hooks (Ralph Waite), who is dedicated to the riddance of the conservative corporate machine which rules America. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Actress Dyan Cannon, whose 1976 directorial debut Number One was nominated for a "best short subject" Academy Award, moves on to feature-length projects with The End of Innocence. In addition to directing, Ms. Cannon wrote the screenplay and played a leading role in this story of a young girl spiritually torn apart by forces beyond her control. Rebecca Schaeffer plays Stephanie Lewis, unwanted and ignored by her eternally squabbling parents. Mom and Dad do further damage to Stephanie's battered psyche by giving her mixed messages concerning sex and religion. The girl's self-esteem dwindles to microscopic proportions thanks to a series of no-good boyfriends. Suffering a nervous breakdown, she is placed in an asylum, where for the first time she treated as a human being rather than a nuisance by compassionate psychiatrist John Heard. Completed in the late 1980s, End of Innocence was released in 1990, one year after the death of star Rebecca Schaeffer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The sons of a Chicago fireman who gave his life in the performance of his duties, firefighting brothers Kurt Russell and William Baldwin carry their lifelong sibling rivalry into their work. Russell is convinced that Baldwin hasn't got what it takes to remain in the fire department. Baldwin is transferred to a "safe" assignment, assisting arson investigator Robert DeNiro, who is trying to make sense of a series of fires involving an oxygen-induced ball of fire called a backdraft. The investigation reveals a link between corrupt alderman J. T. Walsh and imprisoned pyromaniac Donald Sutherland. The trail of evidence leads Baldwin to suspect that his brother Russell, a much-decorated hero, may be the "inside" man setting up the arsons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Val Kilmer delivers what was considered one of 1991's best performances as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's hallucinatory bio-pic of the seminal 1960s rock group The Doors. Stone cuts a jagged swath through Morrison's life, starting with a childhood memory where Morrison sees an elderly Indian dying by the roadside. It picks up with Morrison's arrival in California and his assimilation into the Venice Beach culture, followed by his film school days at UCLA; his introduction to his girlfriend Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan); his first encounters with Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan); and the origin of The Doors -- made up of Manzarek, Robby Kreiger (Frank Whaley), and John Densmore (Kevin Dillon). As the fame of The Doors grows, Morrison's obsession with death increases. The band grows weary of Morrison's missed recording sessions and no-shows at concerts. Morrison, meanwhile, sinks deeper into a drug-induced haze, having mystical sexual encounters with Patricia Kennealy (Kathleen Quinlan), an older rock journalist involved with sadomasochism and witchcraft. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This cold, stylish erotic-thriller grossed over $100 million at the box-office despite vigorous protests at its depiction of gays and women. The shocking opening sequence features a graphic sexual encounter involving a rock-star bound with a white Hermes scarf by an unidentified blond woman. Despite the fact that the scene ends with a bloody icepick murder (horrifyingly realized by makeup artist Rob Bottin), Hermes scarves quickly sold out at stores nationwide. This seeming paradox is at the heart of the film's appeal, as it mixes perverse sexuality and erotic bloodshed in a manner common to European thrillers (director Paul Verhoeven had done it himself in 1979's marvelous De Vierde Man) but mostly taboo in America. The plot concerns Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a successful bisexual mystery writer who may also be a ruthless murderer. Everyone close to Catherine dies, and troubled policeman Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) must find out why. In the process, Nick becomes sexually involved with both Catherine and police psychiatrist Beth Gardner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), while the bodies begin piling up and Catherine turns the cat-and-mouse game around on Nick. Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas -- who was paid $3 million for the script -- keep the tension ratcheted up throughout, even during the frequent sex scenes, which carry a violent edge reminiscent of the Italian thrillers of Dario Argento. The film's most notorious scene, a police interrogation in which Catherine makes drooling idiots out of her captors by revealing that she is not wearing underwear, became a cultural touchstone and was widely imitated and parodied. Sharon Stone, meanwhile, was embarrassed to the point that she claimed Verhoeven had aimed lights on strategic locations without her knowledge. George Dzundza and Dorothy Malone co-star. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide