Doris Belack Movies
Two women whose peoples are often at odds find they're more alike than anyone expects in this drama from directors Stefan C. Schaefer and Diane Crespo. Rochel (Zoe Lister-Jones) and Nasira (Francis Benhamou) are two young women who have begun teaching at a public grade school in Brooklyn, NY. Rochel is an Orthodox Jew and Nasira is a Muslim of Pakistani descent, and the students and the administrators at the school are concerned there might be friction between the two teachers. However, over the course of their first year of teaching, Rochel and Nasira discover they have far more in common than they imagined -- both sometimes find themselves culturally out of place in 21st century New York, and both are trying to live within the traditions of their faith while struggling with their own feelings. In particular, Rochel and Nasira bond over the fact both are expected to enter into arranged marriages, Nasira with a wary optimism and Rochel with a great deal of trepidation. Arranged was screened in competition at the 2007 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zoe Lister-Jones, Francis Benhamou, (more)
Two women get a new and unusual perspective on the doctor/patient relationship in this romantic comedy. Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman) is a woman in her mid-thirties who has recently gone through a messy divorce. Rafi has been seeing an analyst, Lisa Metzger (Meryl Streep), as she struggles to get back on her feet emotionally and look for new love. Rafi meets a man named David Bloomberg (Bryan Greenberg), and the two quickly hit it off, but Rafi isn't sure if she should pursue the relationship, since David is only 23 years old. After discussing the burgeoning romance during one of their weekly sessions, Lisa urges Rafi to take a plunge with David, and not be afraid to seek out the companionship she needs. However, there's something about David that Lisa doesn't know -- he's her son. Rafi doesn't know that Lisa is David's mother, either, and both psychiatrist and patient are thrown for a loop when they learn the truth. Prime was originally intended to star Sandra Bullock as Rafi, but she dropped out of the project shortly before filming began, reportedly due to disagreements with the director over the script, with Thurman taking her place. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Meryl Streep, Uma Thurman, (more)
- 2001
Former series regular Carey Lowell makes a return appearance as Jamie Ross, onetime assistant District Attorney, now counsel for the defense. The story begins with a school shooting in which four are killed and 12 are wounded. An interview with a school psychologist reveals that the suspect, a teenager with a long history of "violent episodes," had sent a threatening e-mail to the student council president just prior to the massacre. But this vital clue may never make it to court: Jamie Ross argues that the e-mail was privileged information, and as such is inadmissible. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A seemingly-minor electronic error sets the world on the verge of nuclear annihilation in this made-for-TV adaptation of the novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler (which was previously filmed in 1964). Due to the burn-out of a piece of circuitry, a computer orders a U.S. Air Force jet on a strategic bombing raid, destroying targets in Russia with nuclear weapons. As Generals Bogan (Brian Dennehy) and Black (Harvey Keitel) desperately search for a way to recall the planes once the mistake has been discovered, the bomber's commander, Col. Grady (George Clooney) sets out on his mission with grim determination, while the President (Richard Dreyfuss) and his translator (Noah Wyle) stay in contact with the Soviet premier, trying to convince him that this was all a terrible mistake. Fail Safe was first presented as a live television broadcast which aired on CBS on April 9, 2000. The supporting cast includes Hank Azaria, Don Cheadle, James Cromwell, and Sam Elliott. Star George Clooney spearheaded the unique project and served as executive producer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Clooney, Noah Wyle, (more)
- 1999
- G
Doug Funnie and his friends from Bluffington make the leap from TV to the big screen in the animated comedy Doug's 1st Movie, based on the long-running children's series. Doug (voiced by Thomas McHugh) is a good-natured 12-year-old who is chronically infatuated with his classmate Patti Mayonnaise (voiced by Constance Shulman). Doug's best friend Skeeter (voiced by Fred Newman) is convinced there's a monster in Bluffington's Lucky Duck Lake. Surprisingly enough, it turns out Skeeter is right -- pollutants dumped in the lake by cranky factory owner Bill Bluff (voiced by Doug Preis) have spawned a large but thankfully friendly beast Doug and Skeeter name Herman Melville. Doug and Skeeter both want to protect Herman -- Doug so he can look cool in front of Patti, and Skeeter so he can prove the damage Bluff is doing to the environment -- but that isn't so simple when Bluff sends his hired guns to track down the monster. Doug creator Jim Jenkins served as co-producer for this film adaptation, which like the TV series was created by the Jumbo Pictures studios. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas McHugh, Fred Newman, (more)
Todd Holland directed this Charlie Peters adaptation of Frank Parkin's novel. Respected anthropologist James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfuss) and his wife, Jennifer (Barbara Williams), bring their three children along during their failed search in New Guinea for a lost tribe. After Jennifer's death, James reaches a zero point back in the U.S., having spent all his foundation grant money raising the kids as a single parent. Scheduled to lecture at a college and fearful he could be charged with misuse of grant funds, James concocts an imaginary tribe, the Shelmikedmu, and fakes a 16 mm "documentary" film, casting his children as tribe members and editing in footage of a legit New Guinea tribe. Anthropologist Veronica Micelli (Jenna Elfman) contacts cable-TV producer Henry Spivey (David Ogden Stiers), forcing James to continue creating fraudulent footage as the rival Ruth Allen (Lily Tomlin) gets suspicious. It seems a shame this racially insensitive film was made, while the once-announced plans to film anthropologist Kenneth Good's nonfiction Into the Heart (Simon & Schuster, 1991) never led to a production. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Jenna Elfman, (more)
- 1998
Having long since renounced his Jewish faith, Jake Weiss (Bruce Davison) has degenerated into a flint-hearted slumlord. Arrested for housing-code violations and ordered to spend two weeks in one of his own squalid tenements, Jake feigns an epiphany in order to escape his sentence, claiming that he must be given time off to celebrate Passover with his mother and son. Posing as a ode-enforcement officer, Monica (Roma Downey) gives Jake a break, hoping he means what he says--but it takes a serious medical crisis to teach Jake the true meaning of Passover, and awaken him to his real purpose in life. Series regular Della Reese) (Tess) sings "Go Down, Moses". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
A "black widow killer" is at the center of this episode. First, detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt). Next, A.D.A.'s McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Carmichael (Angie Harmon) shed the spotlight of suspicion on Dennis Pollock (Matt Keeslar), a young man who is romantically involved with two considerably older women. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Howard Deutch directed this sequel to the The Odd Couple (1968), originally adapted from the 1965 Broadway comedy by Neil Simon. Thirty years later, Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) and retired sportswriter Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) meet at LAX and drive a rental car across the desert to attend the wedding of Oscar's son Brucey (Jonathan Silverman) to Felix's daughter Hannah (Lisa Waltz), but a breakdown leaves them stranded at some distance from the main highways where they are sprayed by a cropduster and hang out with two flirtatious women (Christine Baranski, Jean Smart) in a small-town bar before getting a lift from slow-driving elderly Beaumont (Barnard Hughes), eventually arriving at the wedding. Composer Alan Silvestri brings in Neal Hefti's original theme from the 1968 film, music also featured in ABC's 1970-75 TV series with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. Another Odd Couple sequel is the TV movie The Odd Couple: Together Again (CBS, 1993, repeated July 1997), starring Randall and Klugman; it also involved the wedding of Felix's daughter. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, (more)
- 1997
In another case "ripped from today's headlines," a trail of gruesome clues leads to the conclusion that a newborn infant has been killed. The main suspects are a pair of college-student lovers, who insist that the child was stillborn -- and besides, both have an airtight alibi. Once the case finally gets to court, the Defense plays mercilessly upon the heartstrings of the jury. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
The detectives launch a search for a possible campus rapist when the body of a female college student is found. The ensuing investigation suddenly goes off on another tangent when evidence points to a prostitution ring involving pretty coeds. Can it be that the dead girl was a secret hooker, and that one of her colleagues killed her to keep the secret? Whatever the case, the DA's office is stonewalled by the legal maneuvers of the suspect's well-connected father. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
This time the murder victim is a board member of an exclusive private prep school. The detectives and the D.A.'s office pursue the possibility that the murderer is transit worker Bill Harrigan (Bruce Kirkpatrick), whose son Colin (Graham Sack) was expelled from school. Or can it be that Colin himself is the killer -- or, perhaps, another student, Stewart Barclay (Matthew Thomas Carey)? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
The undernourished body of an 82-year-old woman is found in her shabby apartment. Detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Logan (Chris Noth) are determined to prove that the woman died of criminal neglect and indifference. But who was truly responsible: the old lady's housekeeper, Maria Gonzalez (Denise Hernandez), or her granddaughter, Laura Bauer (Julie Dretzin)? Veteran character actress Jan Miner, best known as "Madge the Manicurist" in a series of popular detergent commercials, wraps up the acting honors in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
- PG13
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The further misadventures of bumbling Los Angeles police Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) are chronicled in this third installment in the popular Naked Gun comedy series. This by-the-numbers entry begins with Drebin as a happily retired house-husband called back into action when an evil terrorist organization threatens Los Angeles. As in the other Naked Gun films, this plot is merely an excuse for an unhinged, rapid-fire succession of gags, ranging from satirical lampoons of cop movies to broad slapstick, all played with a perfectly straight face. Nielsen provides his familiar combination of complete witlessness and oblivious dignity as Drebin, and the film attempts to match the earlier Naked Gun films -- and the Police Squad! television series that inspired them -- in the number of jokes. However, the film proved less successful than its predecessors, as some viewers found that the freewheeling comic style of the earlier films had solidified into its own formula, now mildly entertaining but disappointingly predictable. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, (more)
- 1994
A pedestrian is struck and killed by a truck. An accident? Not so, insist the detectives and the D.A.'s office, especially when evidence reveals a link connecting the victim, a prominent baby food manufacturer, and the Russian mafia. Assistant D.A. Stone (Michael Moriarty) promises that no harm will befall an important witness -- a promise which he is tragically unable to keep. This final fourth season episode of Law & Order also represented the series swan song of co-star Michael Moriarty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
The frozen body of a baby is found, whereupon the child's mother falls under suspicion for causing the infant's death. The woman insists that the real villain is slumlord Iris Colman (Karen Lynn Gorney), who cites the "rent laws" as her excuse to deny proper heating to her tenants. But another resident of the same apartment building offers up an entirely different story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Law & Order's first two-part episode begins with an assault on the owner of a candy store. Following the trail of clues, Greevey (George Dzundza) and Logan (Chris Noth) end up at the door of prominent gangster boss Frank Masucci (Charles Cioffi). The so-called "Dandy Don" has long eluded prosecution, but attorneys Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Robinette (Richard Brooks) believe that they at last have enough evidence to put Masucci away for life. Alas, the lawyers have placed all their eggs in a single "basket" -- namely, Masucci's mercurial brother-in-law Harv Beigel (Bruce Altman). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
In 1988, Nancy Klein, the pregnant wife of Long Island accountant Marty Klein, was involved in a car accident that left her comatose. Convinced that Nancy would never recover if she went to full term with the baby, Marty asked the doctors to perform an abortion. Almost immediately, Nancy Klein became a cause celebre for pro-life and pro-choice activists alike. Made for television, Absolute Strangers recreates this traumatic event and the drawn-out courtroom litigation that followed. Henry Winkler, who produced the film, returned to acting after a long absence to play Klein; others in the cast include Jennifer Hetrick as Nancy, Richard Kiley as Dr. R. J. Cannon, Karl Malden and Audra Lindley as Nancy's parents, and Patty Duke as a lower-court judge. Though it is clear that the filmmaker's sympathies are clearly on Marty Klein's side, the script remains even-handed throughout, observing that the pro-choicers can be just as narrow-minded and contentious as the "absolute strangers" who wish to usurp Marty Klein's rights concerning his wife's wellbeing. Written by playwright Robert Anderson (Tea and Sympathy, I Never Sang For My Father), Absolute Strangers premiered April 14, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Winkler, Richard Kiley, (more)
In this comedy about a doctor-patient relationship pushed way beyond the office, Bill Murray plays Bob Wiley, a neurotic New Yorker struggling with a whirlwind of paralyzing phobias. When an exasperated colleague pawns the handful off on Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss), the psychologist has no idea his last appointment will follow him north to New Hampshire on a month's vacation. Bob takes to Dr. Marvin's latest book like no therapy before it, so the well-meaning pest tracks Marvin down at his lakeside summer home to further discuss his problems. But Marvin, preparing for an interview on Good Morning America and a few weeks of R and R, views Bob's stalking as highly inappropriate, and demands he return to New York. But Bob can't take even the strongest hint, and sets up camp with a neighbor to indulge in his own "vacation" -- from his problems. Meanwhile, Marvin's son Sigmund (Charlie Korsmo), daughter Anna (Catherine Erbe), and wife Fay (Julie Hagerty) take to Bob's loopy charm, which Marvin views as an irritating threat. Marvin's temperature rises as Bob insinuates his way into the family, helping Sigmund learn to dive and counseling the previously ignored Anna. As Bob's stock continues to rise, and his to plummet, Marvin becomes increasingly unhinged as the minutes tick down to the interview. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Murray, Richard Dreyfuss, (more)
Saturday Night Live star Dana Carvey had his first leading role on the big screen in this comedy. Eddie (Carvey) and Lou (Todd Graff) are a pair of small-time con artists deep in debt to Pinkie (Mike Bacarella), a loan shark. During a lean period, Eddie and Lou resort to breaking and entering to make some money, but as they're clearing out a house, they overhear the answering machine announce that the owner is away on business for a few weeks -- and the housesitter won't be able to stop by. Eddie and Lou settle in and enjoy their good fortune, which just gets better when Milt (Robert Loggia) pays a visit. Milt assumes that Eddie is the housesitter, who is a close friend of his son. Eddie is soon introduced to Milt's beautiful daughter, Annie (Julia Campbell), and Milt decides that Eddie is executive material at his successful manufacturing firm. Soon Eddie starts to wonder if he should go on lying to the people he's come to like -- and there's the little matter of the 60,000 dollars that Eddie and Lou swiped from Pinkie's car. Opportunity Knocks also features Milo O'Shea and James Tolkan. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Carvey, Robert Loggia, (more)
- 1990
When a millionaire is murdered and his wife is wounded in a parking garage, it appears as though both were victims of a random armed robbery. But after detectives Greevey (George Dzundza) and Logan (Chris Noth) arrest a suspect, assistant D.A.'s Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Robinette (Richard Brooks) uncover evidence that another perpetrator was involved. And worse is still to come: It may be that the killing was deliberate, and that someone very close to the victim stood to profit from his death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
The Luckiest Man in the World is a rare foray into directing by Frank D. Gilroy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright best known for The Subject Was Roses. Phillip Bosco, usually a movie supporting player (though a Tony-winning star on Broadway), is top-billed in the role of a nasty executive. After narrowly surviving a plane crash, Bosco has a complete character and goal turnover. Believing there's some mystic reason for his salvation, he sets out to making up for all the pain he's caused. The Luckiest Man in the World is not the biggest, most expensive film to come down the pike, but it sets out to accomplish what the writer/director intended, and does it right well. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Bosco, Doris Belack, (more)
Susan Seidelman directed this loose adaptation of Fay Weldon's novel The Life and Loves of a She-Devil concerning the extreme revenge exacted by a dumpy housewife on her philandering husband. Mary Fisher (Meryl Streep) is a best-selling romance novelist of the manner of Danielle Steel or Jackie Collins. One night at a glamorous dinner party, Ruth (Roseanne Barr), the frumpy housewife of Bob (Ed Begley Jr.), accidentally spills wine over Mary's pink evening gown. Bob rushes to Mary's assistance, they look into each other's eyes, and it is lust at first sight. After a few clandestine interludes, Bob abandons his wife and his two smart-aleck kids to live with Mary at her palace by the seaside. As a result, Ruth goes into high gear to seek vengeance. She deposits her kids with Bob and then, with the help of a collection of other abused women -- including Ruth's mother (Sylvia Miles), nursing home attendant Hopper (Linda Hunt), and dim-witted secretary Olivia Honey (Maria Pitillo) -- she systematically sets out to destroy Bob's life. Bob calls Ruth a she-devil, and Ruth plays the role to the hilt; first she destroys his home life, then his career, then his freedom. And when he has nothing left, she proceeds to haunt and stalk him, bringing Bob to his knees. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Meryl Streep, Roseanne, (more)
- 1987
Paul Sorvino, Royana Black, and Mary Wickes star in the 60-minute comedy Almost Partners. Fourteen-year-old Molly McCue (Black) is stymied when an urn containing her father's ashes turns up missing. Who'd want to steal something of only sentimental value. To find out, Molly engages the services of hardbitten NYC detective Jack Welder (Sorvino). This family-oriented confection was first telecast May 16, 1987, on PBS' Wonderworks series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
