Noelle Parker Movies
Lead actress, onscreen from the '80s. ~ All Movie Guide- 2000
Robert Loggia guest stars as 102-year-old movie director Chandler Crowne, a specialist in dark, pessimistic films. Though due for a final rendezvous with Angel of Death Andrew (John Dye), Chandler will not be able to die in peace unless he takes care of some unfinished business in his distant past. At the same time, Chandler is being hounded by hero-worshipping film student Stevie Noonan (Noelle Parker), who demands to know why the director switched from making optimistic comedy films to turning out defeatist dramas. The inevitable flashback whisks us to Hollywood's Golden Era, as the young Crowne puts the finishing touches on his classic film "Redemption"--in which Monica (Roma Downey) is appearing as the ingenue! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this thriller, John McNamara (Michael Rooker) is an investigative reporter whose desire to root out a juicy story has not endeared him to many of the people he's written about, and he's lost a few jobs in the process. John wants to hold on to his latest job, but when he's assigned to write about a nuclear power plant that has recently opened, he discovers the plant's manager, Jake McCallum (Judge Reinhold), is the center of a web of corruption that has ensnarled the city's government -- including John's father (Robert Culp). Now John is determined to bring the story to the people, but McCallum's forces are just as determined to stop him. Newsbreak also stars Kelly Miller, Kim Darby, Greg Mullavey, and David Proval.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Rooker, Judge Reinhold, (more)
In this suspenseful thriller the murder of a college co-ed's roommate puts her in danger too because the killer may be someone closer to her than she knows. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- DeDee Pfeiffer, Charles Shaughnessy, (more)
- 1995
The sixth and final season of Sisters opens with the series' 100th episode, in which longtime regular Julianne Phillips is conspicuous by her absence. To compensate for Phillips' departure, the writers explain that her character, Frankie Reed, has left her hometown of Winnetka to pursue new business opportunities in Japan. However, Frankie's siblings, Alex (Swoosie Kurtz), Georgie (Patricia Kalember), and Teddy (Sela Ward), are still very much in evidence -- as is the ladies' half-sister, Dr. Charlotte "Charley" Bennett, played in previous seasons by Jo Anderson and now portrayed by Sheila Kelley. This season marks the first appearance of Noelle Parker as Alex's daughter, Reed, a role previously filled by Kathy Wagner and Ashley Judd. Returning to Winnetka minus her husband and her baby, the restless Reed adds to the already heavy emotional burdens of her family by setting up a local prostitution business! Elsewhere, Alex, who has held down a popular TV show for the last few seasons, endeavors to help her lesbian producer, Norma (Nora Dunn), regain custody of her daughter; she also endures a lengthy menopause, and survives an involuntary on-the-air teaming with compative newspaperman Pug Finnegan (Bruce Weitz).
Meanwhile, the newly divorced Georgie has an affair with Brian Cordovas (Joe Flanigan) and finds time to get a graduate college degree, writing her master's thesis on the lives of herself and her sisters (though she prudently agrees not to publish it). Georgie's son Trevor (Ryan Francis), back home from the army, has a lot of trouble adjusting himself to Brian. Having recovered from her brutal rape two seasons earlier, Teddy's daughter, Cat (Heather McAdam), has decided to become a police officer, ending up as the only woman in her cadet class. Growing close to fellow cadet Billy Griffin (Eric Close), Cat tries to help him with his problems vis-à-vis his ex-convict father. Later, Cat's cousin Reed is arrested and her prostitution business broken up, and Reed bitterly holds Cat responsible for ratting her out -- but changes her mind, and her outlook on life, when she is sentenced to community service. And in another development, Cat personally hunts down the carjacker who attacked and nearly killed her mother, Teddy. It is during her recovery from this attack that Teddy falls in love with Dr. Gabriel Sorenson (Stephen Collins), who saved her life. Although she worries about making a full-term commitment to Sorenson upon learning that his daughter, Melissa (Anne Tremko), has a drinking problem, Teddy marries Sorenson, and later saves his career when he is unfairly accused of malpractice -- and, almost as an afterthought, Teddy becomes pregnant again. In the series' final episode, the sisters' mother, Bea (Elizabeth Hoffman), dies of heart failure -- and is everyone in for a surprise when they find out who has been named executor of Bea's will! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Meanwhile, the newly divorced Georgie has an affair with Brian Cordovas (Joe Flanigan) and finds time to get a graduate college degree, writing her master's thesis on the lives of herself and her sisters (though she prudently agrees not to publish it). Georgie's son Trevor (Ryan Francis), back home from the army, has a lot of trouble adjusting himself to Brian. Having recovered from her brutal rape two seasons earlier, Teddy's daughter, Cat (Heather McAdam), has decided to become a police officer, ending up as the only woman in her cadet class. Growing close to fellow cadet Billy Griffin (Eric Close), Cat tries to help him with his problems vis-à-vis his ex-convict father. Later, Cat's cousin Reed is arrested and her prostitution business broken up, and Reed bitterly holds Cat responsible for ratting her out -- but changes her mind, and her outlook on life, when she is sentenced to community service. And in another development, Cat personally hunts down the carjacker who attacked and nearly killed her mother, Teddy. It is during her recovery from this attack that Teddy falls in love with Dr. Gabriel Sorenson (Stephen Collins), who saved her life. Although she worries about making a full-term commitment to Sorenson upon learning that his daughter, Melissa (Anne Tremko), has a drinking problem, Teddy marries Sorenson, and later saves his career when he is unfairly accused of malpractice -- and, almost as an afterthought, Teddy becomes pregnant again. In the series' final episode, the sisters' mother, Bea (Elizabeth Hoffman), dies of heart failure -- and is everyone in for a surprise when they find out who has been named executor of Bea's will! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Swoosie Kurtz, Sela Ward, (more)
- 1994
It's an evening of togetherness as Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) and Sylvia Costas (Sharon Lawrence) move in together, and Donna Abandando's sister Dana (future Will & Grace star Debra Messing) moves in with Donna (Gail O'Grady) and Greg Medavoy (Gordon Clapp) -- whereupon Dana starts putting her on moves on Greg. In other developments, Simone (Jimmy Smits) has trouble believing the confession of his friend's son (Adam Hann-Byrd) regarding a school shooting. And while Martinez (Nicholas Turturro) and Lesniak (Justine Miceli) prepare to file charges against a man who knowingly transmitted HIV to his girlfriends, one of the man's victims grimly prepares her own brand of justice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
One of three made-for-television films recounting the notorious Amy Fisher story, this drama recounts the torrid affair between teen-age Amy and middle-aged married man Joey Buttafuoco, and Amy's notorious shooting of Mrs. Buttafuoco. This was the most successful and the most sexually explicit of the three Amy Fisher films. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Noelle Parker, Ed Marinaro, (more)
- 1991
College sophomore Andrea Fermi (Noelle Parker) claims she was gang-raped after attending a Halloween party at a boys' fraternity house. Anxious to bring those responsible to justice, Assistant D.A. Robinette (Richard Brooks) utilizes questionable tactics to nail a confession. This may prove to be the Prosecution's undoing -- and the rapacious college boys may well escape scot-free. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Tyne Daly ages and ages (courtesy of a sympathetic makeup staff) as the matriarch of an upper-class Connecticut family. This TV movie traces the progress of that family--mother, father, three kids--from 1962 through 1984. We watch the children go through all the joys and heartache of maturity, and we see Ms. Daly's husband (Terry O'Quinn) stray from the fold in the company of another woman. The one unifying factor throughout the years is the family's well-appointed suburban house. The title The Last to Go refers to Tyne Daly, who is the final person out of the house when it is finally put up for sale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Winnetka, IL, was the unlikely setting for the semi-serialized 60-minute drama series Sisters, which made its NBC debut on May 11, 1991. The stories revolved around the endless trials and tribulations of the Reed sisters, four highly individualized women who were brought back together in adulthood by the death of their father. Swoosie Kurtz played Alex Reed, the oldest sister, who in the earliest episodes was the wife of philandering plastic surgeon Dr. Wade Halsey (David Dukes). In the course of the series, Alex would divorce Halsey, survive breast cancer, become a popular local TV talk show host, and wed a second time to her show's main sponsor, store owner (and future mayor of Winnetka!) Big Al Barker (Robert Klein). Alex's troubled daughter, Reed Halsey, was played by three different actresses: Kathy Wagner in season one, Ashley Judd in seasons two, three, and four, and Noelle Parker in the sixth and final season. Patricia Kalember was seen as Georgie Reed, a part-time real-estate agent wed to chronically unemployed nightclub singer John Whitsig (Garrett M. Brown); the couple had two sons, Trevor (Ryan Francis) and Evan (Dustin Berkovitz), the latter a leukemia survivor. Sela Ward co-starred as Teddy Reid, initially the most irresponsible of the sisters and a chronic alcoholic, who pulled herself together long enough to establish a successful career as a fashion designer. Her husbands included Mitch Margolis (Ed Marinaro), the father of Teddy's daughter, Cat (Heather McAdam); police detective James Falconer (George Clooney), who was killed only a few hours after the wedding; and Dr. Gabriel Sorenson (Stephen Collins), who had saved Teddy's life after she was beaten by a carjacker. Julianne Phillips was cast as Frankie Reed, the youngest sister, who began the series as a market analyst and eventually became the owner of the sisters' favorite hangout, the Sweet Sixteen Maltshop.
Early in the series, Frankie married Teddy's ex-husband, Mitch, and when the couple was unable to conceive, Georgie offered to be surrogate mother -- thereby setting up one of several outrageously improbable plot twists that would become a Sisters trademark. After breaking up with Mitch, Frankie had a brief fling with a young boxer named Lucky (John Wesley Shipp), then left Illinois to pursue new career vistas in Japan at the end of season five. Also in the cast was Elizabeth Hoffman as the sisters' widowed mother, Beatrice, who like Teddy suffered occasional bouts with the bottle. Beatrice's second husband was Judge Truman Ventnor (Philip Sterling), who after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's opted to commit suicide -- with the assistance of his stepdaughter, Alex. Later in the series, it was established that the Reed girls had a hitherto unknown half-sister, the product of a lengthy affair between their late father and his loyal nurse. In season five, Jo Anderson joined the cast as the girls' "mystery" sibling Dr. Charlotte "Charley" Bennett, a role taken over in season six by Sheila Kelley. Every so often, the series' main characters would indulge in a "thinkback" sequence, in which they would interact with their younger selves. This was but one of the many quirky dramatic touches that set Sisters apart from the standard "sibling angst" series of the period; other examples included the series' occasional forays into such hot-potato topical issues as racism, homosexuality, the AIDs crisis, and repressed-memory syndrome. After six seasons, Sisters ended with a heavily plotted, surprise-studded final episode on May 4, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Early in the series, Frankie married Teddy's ex-husband, Mitch, and when the couple was unable to conceive, Georgie offered to be surrogate mother -- thereby setting up one of several outrageously improbable plot twists that would become a Sisters trademark. After breaking up with Mitch, Frankie had a brief fling with a young boxer named Lucky (John Wesley Shipp), then left Illinois to pursue new career vistas in Japan at the end of season five. Also in the cast was Elizabeth Hoffman as the sisters' widowed mother, Beatrice, who like Teddy suffered occasional bouts with the bottle. Beatrice's second husband was Judge Truman Ventnor (Philip Sterling), who after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's opted to commit suicide -- with the assistance of his stepdaughter, Alex. Later in the series, it was established that the Reed girls had a hitherto unknown half-sister, the product of a lengthy affair between their late father and his loyal nurse. In season five, Jo Anderson joined the cast as the girls' "mystery" sibling Dr. Charlotte "Charley" Bennett, a role taken over in season six by Sheila Kelley. Every so often, the series' main characters would indulge in a "thinkback" sequence, in which they would interact with their younger selves. This was but one of the many quirky dramatic touches that set Sisters apart from the standard "sibling angst" series of the period; other examples included the series' occasional forays into such hot-potato topical issues as racism, homosexuality, the AIDs crisis, and repressed-memory syndrome. After six seasons, Sisters ended with a heavily plotted, surprise-studded final episode on May 4, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Amy Heckerling repeats the successful formula of Look Who's Talking in this sequel, with the addition of John Travolta singing "All Shook Up" to a group of nursery schoolers and Mel Brooks cast as the voice of a toilet. The film begins with James struggling to support his family. He stills wants to become an airline pilot, but in the meantime is driving a cab. His wife Molly (Kirstie Alley) is struggling too, as a busy accountant. The strain is showing on their marriage, but then Molly becomes pregnant again, giving birth to a daughter named Julie (voice of Roseanne Barr). When the new baby arrives back home, their son Mikey (voice of Bruce Willis) has to contend not only with the new intrusion but also with Mr. Potty (voice of Mel Brooks). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, (more)
- 1989
Based on a true story, The Preppie Murder begins on August 26, 1986. This was the day that 18-year-old Jennifer Levin (Lara-Flynn Boyle) was strangled to death in Central Park. The prime suspect, Jennifer's 19-year-old boyfriend Robert Chambers (William Baldwin), confesses to the crime. The well-to-do young man insists that the killing was accidental; he claims that it occurred during a "rough sex" session that Jennifer had inaugurated. The ensuing media frenzy forces the old "she asked for it" defense to rear its ugly head. The Preppie Murder's attempts at fairness caused a great deal of critical turmoil when the film first aired on September 24, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
When Santa Claus decides to retire, he appoints a washed-up kiddie show host (Douglas Seale) to take his place. Along the way, the real Santa ends up in the slammer on Christmas Eve, and it's up to goonish, glad-handing Ernest P. Worrall (Jim Varney) to bust him out. Varney plays a handful of supporting characters, including a slick-talking attorney. This film was followed by Ernest Goes to Jail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Varney, Douglas Seale, (more)
"Daddy" is Dermot Mulroney--a high-school-age kid who has no clue of what he's in for. Mulroney has gotten his girlfriend Patricia Arquette pregnant, less out of callousness than naivete. Arquette drops out of school, thinking she can drop back in anytime, while Mulroney puts his music lessons on hold for the "duration," also treating the situation as temporary. The film is remarkable in conveying the principles' utter lack of preparedness for their upcoming parental responsibilities. Some critics felt that the film should have been required viewing for teens who think themselves wise beyond their years simply because they've discovered sex. Made for TV, Daddy was first telecast April 5, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
- PG13
This modest teen comedy has the usual themes revolving around sex: how to handle it, how to relate to it, and how to do just about everything except engage in it. The focus is on two teenagers, one is the serious Natalie (Jennifer Connelly). She has her eyes set on becoming President of the U.S. and one day heads off to Washington D.C. on a special visit for "Future Leaders." A certain presidential aide brings a romantic touch to her idealized vision. The other teen is Polly Franklin (Maddie Corman) whose infatuation with a baseball player takes her to New York -- where a photographer steps in as a pinch-hitter. A few other subplots move circumstances around in the two teens' lives, though their romantic exploits take center stage. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Connelly, Maddie Corman, (more)
Amazingly, At Close Range was based on a true story. Bored teenager Sean Penn meets his prodigal father (Christopher Walken) for the first time in years. Though Penn is vaguely aware that his father is a criminal, he is nonetheless impressed by his dad's high life style and creature comforts. But Walken's veneer of charm is fragile indeed, and it becomes clear that he is willing to kill anyone--even his family--if they get in his way. When Walken rapes Penn's girl friend (Mary Stuart Masterson) to keep the boy from cooperating with the DA, it is only a warm-up for the horrors to come. The screenplay for At Close Range was written by Nicholas Kazan, the son of prominent film director Elia Kazan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Penn, Christopher Walken, (more)
