Mick McGovern Movies
In this comedy, a basketball fan figures she could be a better coach than the guy getting paid millions to do the job -- and then gets the chance to prove it. Edwina "Eddie" Franklin (Whoopi Goldberg) is a limousine dispatcher and sometime driver who is a passionate New York Knicks fan; she loyally follows their every move, attending as many home games as possible from the cheap seats and radioing game updates to her drivers when they play during her working hours. The Knicks are purchased by eccentric Southern millionaire Wild Bill Burgess (Frank Langella) in the middle of a long losing streak; when Wild Bill calls for a limo, Eddie arranges to drive him herself, and gives him a piece of her mind about the sad state of the team. Impressed, Wild Bill makes Eddie an honorary coach for the night, and her spitfire attitude and encouragement of the players impresses her. However, Wild Bill thinks putting on a show to boost attendance is more important than having a winning team, and eventually Knicks coach Bailey (Dennis Farina) quits in disgust. Wild Bill gets the bright idea of hiring Eddie as the team's new head coach; she considers it an honor, and at only $50,000 a year, he considers it a bargain. While Eddie is hardly an experienced leader, she soon learns how to motivate her team, and against all odds she helps pull the Knicks out of their losing streak -- but now has to face Wild Bill, who is losing interest in the team and wants to sell. Several real-life NBA stars make cameo appearances, including Dennis Rodman, John Salley, Rick Fox, and Mark Jackson, while prominent New Yorkers David Letterman and Donald Trump play themselves. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whoopi Goldberg, Frank Langella, (more)
In director Dennis Hopper's comedy reminiscent of The Last Detail, Rock Reilly (Tom Berenger), a gruff naval veteran who plays by the rules, arrives at a Marine base, in tow with his wheeler-dealer companion Eddie Devane (William McNamara), and finds himself assigned to escort the voluptuous Toni Johnson (Erika Eleniak) to military prison, Toni being sentenced from seven to ten years for assault and going AWOL. As in The Last Detail, the three service-persons get to know each other (in the case of Toni and Rock, they get to know each other intimately) as they make their way across the Southeastern seaboard to deliver Toni to prison. As they travel on, Toni repeatedly tries to escape from the two men as the trio encounters an array of guest-star cameos (Gary Busey, Seymour Cassel, Crispin Glover, Dean Stockwell, Frederic Forrest, and Marilu Henner -- among others). Even Hopper himself makes an appearance -- as a dirty old man with an inflatable date. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Erika Eleniak, (more)
- 1992
- R
Howard Franklin wrote and directed this film noir character study based on the famed New York Daily News photographer Weegee. Joe Pesci plays a character named Bernstein, a freelance photographer for the New York City tabloids of the 1940s. His life is dedicated to his work; with a police radio under the dashboard of his car and a darkroom in his trunk, he quickly and efficiently races to the scene of crimes, accidents and murders to snap photographs of gangsters, politicians, cops, and prostitutes, which he promptly delivers to the newspapers. His knack for arriving at a crime scene before the police earns him the nickname the Great Bernzini. The trouble begins for Bernstein when he agrees to look up a gangster for Kay (Barbara Hershey), the sexy owner of a fancy Manhattan nightclub. After making inquiries, Bernstein traces the man Kay is looking for, but he turns up dead. When he informs the police, he becomes a suspect in the murder; it also turns out that the FBI is interested the case. Bernstein then uncovers an elaborate conspiracy concerning gas rationing, the mob, and the government. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Pesci, Barbara Hershey, (more)
- 1992
- PG
Alan (Lukas Haas) is a typically streetwise Brooklyn teenager of the 1940s. Naomi (Vanessa Zaoui) is a French-Jewish refugee of Nazi oppression, recently moved into the apartment above Alan's. Ever since witnessing the murder of her father, Naomi has remained in a catatonic state. Alan's well-meaning efforts to help the girl at first seem to do more harm than good. But eventually the boy's sincerity and hitherto untapped compassion win out, and the two young people form a strong, unbreakable bond. Alan & Naomi is based on a novel by Myron Levoy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lukas Haas, Vanessa Zaoui, (more)
- 1990
In this made-for-TV gangster docudrama, Al Capone (Eric Roberts) wages war against his younger brother (Adrian Pasdar), a Midwestern sheriff. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Dudley Moore stars as Emory Lesson, an advertising genius whose finds himself committed to an insane asylum in Tony Bill's Crazy People. Emory becomes tired with creating phony ad campaigns and decides to create his own campaigns that tell the brutal truth. Since sex sells, Emory designs an explicit ad campaign consisting of unadorned sexuality. The campaign is so offensive that his colleagues have Emory put in a mental institution. At first Emory resists, but under the tutelage of a concerned psychiatrist, Dr. Liz Baylor (Mercedes Ruehl) and the tender love of Kathy (Daryl Hannah) a beautiful patient, Emory begins to like it in the mental home. Befriending the cute and lovable patients in the mental ward, Emory discovers that the crazy people are natural-born advertising geniuses and Emory utilizes their genius for a new ad campaign. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dudley Moore, Daryl Hannah, (more)
