Peter Murnik Movies

This irreverent comedy by producer-director team Richard Waterhouse and Cheri Waterhouse follows 35 year old Taylor, a single woman wading through the shallow end of the dating pool in L.A. with her team of fearless if frustrated friends. With none of the Sex and the City style glamour, this biting satire finds Taylor wading through phone sex lines and cheesy bars in the hope of finding that special someone, hammering home the message that real life relationships are no fairy tale. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

A would-be filmmaker comes up with an exciting new way to finance his first feature film -- kidnapping -- in The Party Crashers, an independent black comedy. The writer (Phil Leirness, who wrote and directed this film) keeps getting rejection slips for his latest screenplay, but rather than compromise his creative vision, he and two of his friends -- his bisexual lover, who is an aspiring actor (Burt Bulos), and a mutual friend (Josh Randall) -- hatch a scheme to crash a party being thrown by some upscale Hollywood types and stage a robbery. By the time the three get to the bash, the plan has gotten more ambitious; they grab Carolyn (Shawnee Smith), knowing her parents are wealthy, and tell them they're holding her hostage, demanding $5 million for her safe return. However, most of the guests at the party hardly pay any attention to the uninvited guests, the ones that do are too ineffectual to do much about them, and Carolyn seems more amused than upset at the prospect of being kidnapped -- not to mention that she doesn't get along well with her family, so they're in no hurry to pay up. The supporting cast includes B-movie stalwart (and one-time U.S. Ambassador to Mexico) John Saxon as Carolyn's father. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A natural disaster breeds man-made treachery in this suspense thriller. Severe flooding threatens an Indiana town after a massive rainstorm taxes dams to the breaking point. As part of an emergency evacuation effort, armored car driver Tom (Christian Slater) and his uncle Charlie (Edward Asner) are recruited to collect cash from the town's banks and drive it to safety. However, a gang of thieves led by Jim (Morgan Freeman) plan to lay siege to the truck and steal the $3 million on board. After Jim attempts to ambush the truck, Tom hides the cash and reports the attempted theft to the local sheriff (Randy Quaid). However, the sheriff's lack of honesty soon becomes apparent; he puts Tom in a lockup and sets out to take the money for himself. As the flood waters rise, Tom has to escape from jail if he is to save both the townspeople's savings and his own life. Meanwhile, Jim and the sheriff are locked in a race to see who can find the $3 million first. Minnie Driver, Richard A. Dysart, and Betty White highlight Hard Rain's supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this bittersweet comedy drama, a man nearing the end of his life seeks closure with his family and friends, and he confronts the issues of the right to die. Nick Stark (Eric Roberts) is a successful architect who is openly gay. He was involved in a committed relationship with Brandon Theis (Gregory Harrison), a television director, until Nick discovered that he's HIV-positive. Nick's first question to Brandon is "You won't leave me, will you? I don't want to die alone." Brandon, however, doesn't have the emotional strength to deal with Nick's condition and soon moves on. Several years later, even though Nick has been mindful of his health, he begins to display symptoms of full-blown AIDS, most notably the brain lesions that indicate Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy, an AIDS-related illness that has already claimed several of his friends. Wanting to go out with his dignity intact, Nick decides to throw one last party, which will give him the opportunity to say goodbye to his friends and family while he's still lucid -- shortly after which he intends to take his own life with painkillers. Nick attempts to make peace with his mother and father (Lee Grant and George Segal), who had difficulty accepting their son's lifestyle, and he enjoys a last laugh with his close friends, until Brandon -- who is hardly welcomed by the group -- shows up. Appearing as Nick's friends and family are Margaret Cho, Bronson Pinchot, Bruce Davison, Sally Kellerman, Marlee Matlin, Roddy McDowall, and Dennis Christopher. Writer and director Randal Kleiser loosely based It's My Party on his own personal experiences when his longtime companion was diagnosed with AIDS and opted to take his own life before his symptoms became too severe. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) wrote this ambitious epic that attempts to examine the communist witch hunts of the 1950s, racial prejudice, abuse of governmental powers, guilt, and suicide. The film begins in 1952 as an eager young FBI recruit, Kevin Walker (Matt Dillon), finds himself assigned to root out communist subversives in San Francisco's Chinese community. Unable to find evidence of communist influence anywhere, Kevin is pressured by the FBI office to get indictments anyway. As a result, Kevin drags innocent Chinese laundry man and labor organizer Chen Jung Song (Tzi Ma) into court on trumped up charges and Song is sent to prison. The film then shifts to 1962, and in the intervening years, Kevin's guilt at what he has done has grown into an obsession. But when Song is newly released from prison, he finds himself once again tracked by Kevin. Song, emotionally unable to deal with his new freedom, kills himself by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. Kevin, shattered, now decides to look after and protect Song's daughter, Marilyn (Joan Chen). Gradually, from his role as Marilyn's protector, Kevin's feelings of concern turn into love. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Steve Martin stars in this remake of the 1950 Vincente Minnelli classic as shoe executive George Banks, whose happily married existence hits a bump when he greets his daughter Annie (Kimberly Williams), home from a semester studying in Europe. She tells her father that she is engaged to be married. When the shocked George asks to whom, she says his name is Bryan (George Newbern) and that he is an "independent communications consultant." George is even more shocked when he finds out what the wedding will cost (when George goes through the card file for invited wedding guests and is told someone is deceased, George chirps, "He died? That's great!"). As George is ignored during the mad preparations for the wedding, he wistfully looks back to all the good times he has had with Annie and sadly looks forward to the time when he loses his little girl. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The terror in this erotic horror thriller begins in the past when Dr. Russell, the director of a mental hospital, rapes a patient who afterward kills herself. Many years pass and the main story begins when a lovely model checks into the asylum. Dr. Russell feels those old lustful, violent stirrings upon seeing her, but during the drug-induced "seduction" something goes terribly wrong and the model seems to have died. With the aid of his weird staff, the doctor tries to get rid of the body, which mysteriously vanishes by the next day. Later, the shrink begins to seriously question his own sanity when he keeps seeing the form of the model surreptitiously sneaking around the grounds. Things only get stranger from there. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi