Bruce McGill Movies

Director John Landis put himself on the map with this low-budget, fabulously successful comedy, which made a then-astounding 62 million dollars and started a slew of careers for its cast in the process. National Lampoon's Animal House is set in 1962 on the campus of Faber College in Faber, PA. The first glimpse we get of the campus is the statue of its founder Emil Faber, on the base of which is inscribed the motto, "Knowledge Is Good." Incoming freshmen Larry "Pinto" Kroger (Tom Hulce) and Kent "Flounder" Dorfman (Stephen Furst) find themselves rejected by the pretentious Omega fraternity, and instead pledge to Delta House. The Deltas are a motley fraternity of rejects and maladjusted undergraduates (some approaching their late twenties) whose main goal -- seemingly accomplished in part by their mere presence on campus -- is disrupting the staid, peaceful, rigidly orthodox, and totally hypocritical social order of the school, as represented by the Omegas and the college's dean, Vernon Wormer (John Vernon). Dean Wormer decides that this is the year he's going to get the Deltas expelled and their chapter decertified; he places the fraternity on "double secret probation" and, with help from Omega president Greg Marmalard (James Daughton) and hard-nosed member Doug Neidermeyer (Mark Metcalf), starts looking for any pretext on which to bring the members of the Delta fraternity up on charges.

The Deltas, oblivious to the danger they're in, are having a great time, steeped in irreverence, mild debauchery, and occasional drunkenness, led by seniors Otter (Tim Matheson), Hoover (James Widdoes), D-Day (Bruce McGill), Boon (Peter Riegert), and pledge master John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi). They're given enough rope to hang themselves, but even then manage to get into comical misadventures on a road trip (where they arrange an assignation with a group of young ladies from Emily Dickinson University). Finally, they are thrown out of school, and, as a result, stripped of their student deferments (and, thus, eligible for the draft). They decide to commit one last, utterly senseless (and screamingly funny) slapstick act of rebellion, making a shambles of the university's annual homecoming parade, and, in the process, getting revenge on the dean, the Omegas, and everyone else who has ever gone against them. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Based on the book by Farley Mowat, this made-for-TV movie follows the struggle of a New York ecologist (Peter Strauss) to stop the whale killing taking place off the coast of Newfoundland. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Based on a true story, Silkwood begins and ends with Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) driving along a lonely road in 1974, heading to a meeting with a New York Times reporter to deliver evidence of negligence at the Kerr-McGee Plant in Cimarron, Oklahoma. The balance of the film flashes back to Karen's ribald private life with her lover (Kurt Russell) and her loose-living friends (Cher and Diana Scarwid). This is in contrast to her humdrum job at Kerr-McGee--or it least it was humdrum until Karen and several other employees become contaminated by radiation. The higher-ups want to sweep this incident under the rug, but Karen thinks that something's fishy, and informs the union of that fact. X-rays of the faulty fuel rods and written proof of the inadequate safety measures that caused Karen's illness are tampered with, forcing Karen to conduct her own private investigation. As she gathers evidence, Karen becomes a pariah to her boyfriend because of her obsession. She finally organizes the evidence into a briefcase, and heads off to her meeting with the Times reporter. She never makes it; the "official" report on her fatal auto accident is that Ms. Silkwood had been drinking and was under the influence of tranquilizers. Kerr-McGee was eventually forced to pay the Silkwood family an enormous settlement because of her contamination, but the full facts behind her convenient accident have never been revealed (though the filmmakers clearly indictate whom they hold responsible). Director Mike Nichols and screenwriters Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen surround this true story with a lively, improvisational atmosphere that gets the best out of Streep, Russell, and Cher, while providing perhaps the fullest on-screen realization of Nichols' theater-based techniques of realistic, character-centered, dialogue-driven filmmaking, as well as one of the first movie screenplays from future director Ephron. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The full title of this made-for-TV film is Charlotte Forten's Mission: Experiment in Freedom. But don't be put off by this 21-gun cognomen -- the film is a simple, austere tale of a pioneer African-American educator. Melba Moore plays Charlotte Forten, a northern black woman who heads to Port Royal, SC, in the midst of the Civil War. Charlotte intends to educate the newly freed slaves in this Union-held community. Her mission is complicated by a self-serving abolitionist (Bruce McGill) and the fact that the slaves mistrust her because of her lighter complexion and "fancy airs." Charlotte Forten's Mission was originally telecast February 25, 1985, on PBS' American Playhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Robin Williams' comic shtick sabotages any attempt at comic development in Harold Ramis' patchy comedy farce Club Paradise. Williams plays Jack Moniker, a Chicago fireman injured in the line of duty, who uses his disability money to open up a run-down Caribbean resort. Jack eagerly awaits the planeload of tourists who will be his first patrons. This group of low-rent jackanapes include Barry Nye (Rick Moranis) and Barry Steinberg (Eugene Levy), a couple of horny geek bachelors; Phillipa Lloyd (Twiggy) and Terry Hamlin (Joanna Cassidy) as a couple of gals on the make; and Linda White (Andrea Martin), as a bossy American tourist. While the tourists shindig around Jack's ramshackle resort, a revolution is brewing on the island headed by revolutionary Ernest Reed (Jimmy Cliff). Trying to prevent the revolutionary upheaval is the dissipated British governor-general of the island, Governor Anthony Cloyden Hayes (Peter O'Toole), and the pompous Prime Minister Solomon Gundy (Adolph Caesar). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

High-powered gangsters move this crime drama along at a fast pace. When two cops, Eddie Jillette (Richard Gere) and Joe Collins (Gary Basaraba), hear about a contract out on local crime boss Losado (Jeroen Krabbe), they go undercover posing as hitmen, and the result is murder. Collins and the man who hired them, Paul Deveneux (Terry Kinney) are killed, and Jillette goes looking for the assassin. He ends up in New Orleans where he locates Michel Duval (Kim Basinger), the girlfriend of Deveneux now virtually held a prisoner by Losado. Jillette has his work cut out for him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Released at the height of his popularity on Family Ties and in the wake of Back to the Future and Teen Wolf, Michael J. Fox stars in this "country boy in the big city" comedy, directed by Herbert Ross. After making the move from Kansas to New York City, Brantley Foster (Fox) secures a job in the mailroom at his uncle's large corporation. Doffing any plans of working his way up the corporate ladder the old fashioned way, Brantley begins impersonating an executive to impress a high-ranking female co-worker, played by Helen Slater. Once his oversexed aunt enters the mix, Brantley finds himself juggling two identities, two jobs, and two women. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Filmed in Portland, Oregon, The Last Innocent Man stars Ed Harris as an adroit criminal lawyer. Having gotten several obviously guilty clients off the hook, Harris suffers a conscience attack and takes a few months off to get his act together. He is pulled out of his sabbatical by his girl friend Roxanna Hart, who persuades Harris to take on one last case. The client is Hart's estranged husband (Darrell Larson), accused of killing an undercover policewoman. This time the client is blatantly innocent--but Harris utilizes his same old sneaky tactics to win an acquittal and even throws a few new underhanded techniques into the stew. Made for television, The Last Innocent Man premiered over the HBO cable service on April 19, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Baby M is a two-part TV movie predicated on a headline-making true event. In 1985, Mary Beth Whitehead accepted $10,000 to bear a child, which then would be adopted by William and Elizabeth Stern. But after the baby's birth in March of 1986, Whitehead reneged on the agreement. The subsequent high-profile custody trial raged on for well over nine months. The film strives for impartiality, though those pre-disposed members of the audience will not be swayed from their support of the parents or of the surrogate mother. John Shea and Robin Strasser portray the married couple, while JoBeth Williams plays Whitehead. Baby M was initially telecast on May 22 and 23, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Premiering on NBC in 1989 and continuing for five seasons, Quantum Leap gained a cult following for its ability to balance the qualities of science fiction with the hour-long television drama format. Each episode features a different adventure as Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) leaps through time, into different bodies, hoping to someday leap home. Along the way, Sam rights wrongs of the past with help from his hologram companion, Al (Dean Stockwell). In Quantum Leap: Pilot - 1956 viewers are able to see where it all began. Despite the fact that it isn't ready to be tested, Sam chooses to try out the accelerator and leaps into the body of a test pilot with little of his memory intact. After saving the pilot's family, Sam leaps, but rather than leaping back into the accelerator, he finds himself inhabiting the body of a minor league baseball player in 1968 with the task of winning the last game of the season. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Dave (John Lithgow), a meek, unassuming man who's the co-owner of a butcher shop, discovers his obnoxious business partner Ernie (Bruce McGill) dead in the meat locker. Dave thinks he might have accidentally locked Ernie in and caused his death. Much of the movie involves Dave's efforts to dispose of the corpse. He's aided in his efforts by the dead man's wife Sunny Cannald (Terry Garr), who used to be his girlfriend. Romance between the two is rekindled while Sunny tries to help Dave, meanwhile covering up a secret of her own. Complications are caused by the world's most incompetent private detective Randy Quaid), who Sunny had hired to get evidence that her husband was cheating on her. This somewhat disjointed black comedy got a "stiff" reception by most reviewers, despite the comic talents of the cast. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Based on a true events, this is the story of Charles Stuart, who claimed that a robber had shot him and killed his pregnant wife. Needless to say, the investigation started turning up some pieces that just didn't fit into this puzzle. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi