Kevin McNulty Movies

A thirty-something single man is afraid his latest romance will be over before it starts in this independent comedy from writer and director Bruce Sweeney. Eight years after his marriage ended in divorce, Kevin (Cam Cronin) is doing well in his career as the owner of a successful golf course, but his personal life is another matter altogether. Kevin hasn't been on a date since he became single again, and his overbearing mother (Gabrielle Rose) makes no secret of her concern that she'll never become a grandmother. Kevin's slacker brother Randy (Paul Skrudland) decides to step in and help, setting Kevin up on a date with Hayaam (Laara Sadiq). To Kevin's surprise, Hayaam turns out to be attractive and fun to be with, and they quickly bond with one another. However, things become problematic when they move their relationship to the next level -- Kevin's nerves cause him to finish far too quickly in the bedroom, and though Hayaam wants to help, she's only willing to deal with his problem for so long. And as Kevin struggles to find a solution to his sexual problem, his mother makes it clear that she doesn't approve of him dating a woman of Pakistani heritage. Excited was an official selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Allie's father has disappeared on an island, and she wonders if his connection to an old crime is responsible. A woman was brutally killed by an angry crowd, and her murderous ghost haunts those responsible for her death. While Allie and her friends search for her father, people start dying in increasingly horrifying ways. Lance Henriksen stars in this horror film directed by Jesse James Miller. ~ Kimber Myers, Rovi

Three teenagers two-timed by a local lothario decide to turn the tables on him in this romantic comedy. John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe) is the big man on campus at his high school -- he's the captain and star player of the basketball team, he's got money, he's good-looking and charming, and he can have any girl he wants. However, the latter attribute is about to get him in serious trouble when three different girls at his school -- Heather (Ashanti), Beth (Sophia Bush) and Carrie (Arielle Kebbel) -- discover they've all been dating John at the same time. Determined to bring down the campus ladykiller, the girls devise a plan -- they pick a cute but socially clumsy girl who is new at school, Kate (Brittany Snow), and give her a crash course in stealing John's heart. Once Kate has John wrapped around her little finger, she's supposed to drop him like a bad habit and give him a taste of what heartbreak is really like. However, it seems that the early stages of the plan work a little too well, and John and Kate end up falling for each other for real. John Tucker Must Die also stars Jenny McCarthy, Penn Badgley, and Dan Payne. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A woman devoted to the life of the mind meets an artist who changes the way she looks at life in this offbeat independent musical drama. Lynn Magnusson (Jane Perry) is a dedicated research scientist who works with a small firm attempting to develop new cancer treatments through genetics. Lynn and her staff are attempting to crack the DNA code that makes certain people more likely to contract certain diseases, a matter that's of both professional and personal importance to her -- her mother is slowly wasting away because of Huntington's disease, and Lynn is likely to suffer the same fate, as would her offspring. Lynn has other distractions at work, most notably Benny (Jonathon Young), one of her assistants, with whom she has been having an affair. As Lynn struggles to make sense of her work and her love life, she becomes aware of her upstairs neighbor (Kevin McNulty), a composer who is as free and open to the joys of life as she's tightly wound and uncertain. As the two get to know one another, the story makes room for several musical numbers in which the characters share their feelings in song and dance. The Score was the first feature film from director Kim Collier. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A handful of heroes become superheroes under unlikely circumstances in this action drama adapted from the long-running Marvel comic-book series. Four astronauts are on a mission aboard a new experimental spacecraft when they are unexpectedly exposed to a massive dose of gamma rays. The accident causes strange and unexpected transformations in all four. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), top scientist and leader of the mission, can now stretch his body like elastic and is dubbed Mr. Fantastic. His partner and sweetheart, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), develops the ability to become invisible at will, and becomes known as The Invisible Girl. Her younger brother, Johnny Storm (Chris Evans), is renamed The Human Torch for his new talent of being able to summon up fire from his body when he chooses. And Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), pilot for the journey, mutates into a monstrous creature with superhuman strength and muscles like stone, known as The Thing. Together, the travelers become known as the Fantastic Four, and they set out to use their unusual skills to fight crime, quickly gaining a nemesis in another altered hero who uses his talents for evil, Doctor Doom (Julian McMahon). A long-gestating project that had been talked about by a number of filmmakers since the early '90s, Fantastic Four was previously the basis for a pair of animated television serials, and was made into a feature film in 1994 by producer Roger Corman, though that film was never officially released. (Fantastic Four creator Stan Lee has said the 1994 film was made only so that the producers could hold on to the rights to the characters, and that it was never intended to be distributed to the public.) ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The made-for-cable musical satire Reefer Madness is based on the award-winning play of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the notorious -- and deliciously awful -- 1936 anti-marijuana film originally titled Tell Your Children. A smarmy lecturer (Alan Cumming in the first of his three roles in the film) arrives in a typical small town of the late '30s to warn the populace of the dangers of the "evil weed," bringing along a lurid propaganda film to dramatize his message. In broad, unsubtle, and hilarious strokes, the movie-within-a-movie shows how even a squeaky-clean pair of highschoolers named Mary Lane (Kristen Bell) and Jimmy Harper (Christian Campbell) can become hopeless dope addicts by succumbing to the lure of marijuana. Reefer Madness is not only a savage skewering of the original black-and-white movie (some of the musical's campiest lines are taken directly from the earlier script!), but also a devastating attack on what playwrights Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney consider to be the real reason that the 1936 movie was made: to frighten the public out of their wits in order to keep them under the thumb of an oppressive government. Thus, the musical manages to take a number of not-so-veiled swipes at xenophobia, racism, McCarthyism, the Bush Administration's Homeland Security policy, and even the recent FCC clampdown on "offensive" TV fare (one of the film's highlights is a garish nightclub number featuring Jesus Christ). The ebulliently staged songs include "The Stuff," "Down at the Ol' Five and Dime," "Lonely Pew," "Listen to Jesus Jimmy," "Mary Jane/Mary Lane," "The Brownie Song," "Tell 'Em the Truth," and the title number. Officially titled Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, this film first aired April 16, 2005, on the Showtime cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Presented in three half-hour "acts" by the MTV cable network on January 10, 2001, the fact-based Anatomy of a Hate Crime was the opening volley of MTV's year-long campaign "Fight For Your Rights: Take a Stand Against Discrimination." In recalling the horrendous torture-murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard near Laramie, WY in 1998, the film focuses as much on the twisted logic and motivations of Matthew's killers Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney as it does on the victim and the crime. Cy Carter stars as the unfortunate Shepard, with Ian Somerhelder and Brendan Fletcher, respectively, cast as Henderson and McKinney. Filmed in Alberta, Anatomy of a Hate Crime was originally bookended by a marathon recital of recent examples of sexual and racial persecution, delivered by an impressive list of unseen celebrities. Curiously, the Shepard Foundation, formed after Matthew's murder, would not endorse the MTV film, preferring instead to put their clout behind the 2002 NBC TV movie The Matthew Shepard Story. (See also separate website entry for The Laramie Project.) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The funny side of sports fandom provides the common element for two stories in this made-for-cable anthology feature. In the first segment, based on a short story by Don Marquis, a golfer (Bob Newhart) looks like he's about to break 100 for the first time, but his partner (Kelsey Grammer) keeps insisting upon following every rule in the book, much to his friend's annoyance. The second story is based on 1968's real-life "Heidi Bowl" incident, in which NBC-TV's broadcast of a hard-fought game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders, which seemed likely to determine the AFL championship, was cut off --with 65 seconds left to play and the score at 32-29 -- in order to begin a scheduled showing of a made-for-TV movie based on the classic children's story Heidi. Eugene Levy plays a network control room supervisor, Ellie Harvie appears as a NBC switchboard operator trying to handle the sudden influx of angry calls, Gary Basaraba plays her husband, who is watching the game at home with friends, and John Kapelos is a bookie with a lot of money riding on the game. Fox-TV sports commentator James Brown hosts the two-part film, which was produced for the Showtime premium cable network. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Barry Sonnenfeld resurrects the retro hip '60s show Secret Agent Man and adapts it into a slick New World Order context. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

One of several made-for-TV movies originally seen as part of NBC's off-and-on "Moment of Truth" series, this film is adapted from Lurlene McDaniel's novel Don't Die My Love. Katie Harrod and Scott Vickaryous head the cast as Julie and Luke, brilliant students and high-school sweethearts (Luke is the school star athlete in the bargain). When Luke is diagnosed with terminal cancer, the trickle-down effect of the tragedy brings out the best and worst in the couple's friends and family members. Originally titled Champion's Fight for its January 7, 1998 TV debut, the film has been renamed Shattered Hearts for cable-TV rerun play. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The scene is Cornwell University, where college journalist Mary Stuartson (Melissa Joan Hart) shares a dorm room with Holly Sherman (Lisa Dean Ryan). Returning to the room one night in a battered state, Holly tells Mary that she has been raped by the school's star athlete, Clay Roberts (Josh Hopkins). Mary urges Holly to alert the authorities, but Holly is afraid of what the incident might do to her reputation--and besides, who'd take her word over Clay's? Galvanized into action, Mary investigates the situation and unearths several other examples of date rape that have been swept under the rug on campus. She then writes a series of articles about fictional rape victim "Molly", thereby making herself a target of persecution, recrimination and retribution by students, faculty members and "townies" alike--but Mary isn't the sort of young woman who backs down when she knows she's right! This made-for-TV drama was produced by the mother and aunt of star Melissa Joan Hart, and features Melissa's younger sister Emily Hart in a supporting role. Silencing Mary originally aired March 8, 1998 on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi