David Paymer Movies

Rob Reiner directs Luke Wilson and Kate Hudson in Alex & Emma, a romantic comedy about an author and his secretary. Gangsters will kill Alex (Wilson) in 30 days if he doesn't pay back his gambling debts. The only way he can do that is to finish his new novel. He hires sassy court stenographer Emma (Hudson) to transcribe his dictation. The film intercuts between the two of them writing the story, and the story within the story. Hudson plays three roles in the film, and Wilson plays two. Sophie Marceau and David Paymer round out the cast. The premise is (very) loosely based on a series of events that befell Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

In this action comedy, a crook trying to go straight finds himself lured back to crime by the police, without his even knowing it. When master criminals Jasper (Robert Pastorelli) and Bristol (Doug Hutchison) pull a heist that nets $40 million in gold but leaves behind several dead policemen, detective Edgar Clenteen (David Morse) pulls out all the stops to put the thief behind bars. Jasper is jailed and ends up sharing a cell with Alvin Sanders (Jamie Foxx), a habitual small-time criminal who was brought in after a bungled robbery of a seafood wholesaler. Jasper, who has a weak heart, suffers a heart attack in jail, and as he dies, he gives Alvin a message to pass along to his wife. Eager to track down Bristol, who still has the gold, Clenteen has Alvin secretly implanted with an experimental tracking device, and then lets him go free, while spreading the word on the street that Jasper told him where the gold was stashed shortly before his death. While Alvin makes an effort to start his life over and get a straight job, Clenteen and his staff are electronically following his every move, waiting for Bristol and his associates to track him down. Bait was directed by Antoine Fuqua, whose previous credit was the stylish crime thriller The Replacement Killers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy try but fail to bring this flat comedy to life, while the story itself is hampered by intercutting between the years of 1982 in Los Angeles (Moore) and 1984 in Kuwait (Murphy), with no explanation of how these two disparate people and locations are related. Wylie (Moore) is an inept engineer trying to perfect a gyro system for his employers who contract projects with the U.S. defense department. Wylie accidentally gets some blueprints for another type of gyro -- and his company successfully manufactures the part, much to almost everyone's benefit. Unfortunately, these plans are coveted by a certain ruthless industrial spy (David Rasch), and the FBI itself is suspicious about the origins of the blueprints in Wylie's hands. Meanwhile (and in constant interspersed segments), Landry (Murphy) is trying to get his tank to stay on course, but no matter what he does the machine swerves and lunges at random -- could there be a gyro at fault here? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In 1994 -- six years after the final episode of the groundbreaking 1980s television crime drama Cagney & Lacey -- Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly reprised their iconic roles for the first of four TV-movie sequels. Cagney & Lacey: The Return finds the now-retired Lacey reuniting with the now-married Cagney for a case involving weapons smuggling, all while dealing with women's issues such as career, marriage, parenthood -- and, this time around, menopause -- in the trademark style that made the parent show such a cultural touchstone. ~ Sandra Bencic, All Movie Guide

Franklin Lazlo (Tom Arnold) is desperate. His carnival is on the skids and he hasn't got the money to make his next payroll. He tries robbery, with little result except to have the police, some professional robbers, and a meter-maid (Rhea Perlman) chasing him. On the way, he takes uptight and harried children's carpool father Daniel Miller (David Paymer) and a van full of children hostage. Franklin and the children get up to some wild hijinks all over town, and gradually the starchy Daniel begins to loosen up. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Diane (Shelley Long) is pleasantly surprised when Sam (Ted Danson), who never does anything for free, agrees to pitch in a charity softball game. But it's neither pleasant nor surprising for Diane when it turns out that the opposing team is comprised of Playboy Bunnies. Unfortunately for his love life, Sam's competitive instincts win out over his libido. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the second episode of Cheers' three-part season four finale, Diane (Shelley Long) is convinced that councilwoman Janet Eldridge (Kate Mulgrew) will dump Sam (Ted Danson) once Janet has lost the election. But not only does Janet remain attached to Sam, but she insists that he fire Diane. Convinced that he's doing Diane a favor, Sam prepares to let her go -- but Diane beats him to the punch. Meanwhile, Norm (George Wendt) braces for a visit from his rapacious sister-in-law. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this action thriller, the only things standing in the way of world destruction are two guys in an ice cream truck. On a remote island in the South Pacific, a secret weapons project (code name "Elvis") goes wrong, and a new chemical weapon, safe when frozen but deadly when thawed, is allowed to escape. Eighteen soldiers are killed, leaving behind only the scientist who created the formula and the officer in charge of the project, who is saddled with most of the blame. Ten years later, Tim Mason (Skeet Ulrich) is working at a diner in Montana when an old friend, Dr. Richard Long (David Paymer), is seriously wounded by Maj. Andrew Brynner (Peter Firth). It seems that Dr. Long helped create Elvis and Maj. Brynner was the officer who took the fall for the disaster ten years ago. Near death, Long gives Elvis to Mason and tells him that it has to be kept solidly frozen and delivered to Fort Magruder, 90 miles away. But how to keep it at zero degrees until then? A logical solution presents itself when Arlo (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who drives an ice cream truck, makes a delivery to the diner. Mason drafts Arlo into helping him transport Elvis to safety, and before long Brynner's men are hot on the trail of the icy chemical weapon. First-time director Hugh Johnson learned his craft in part through his work as a cameraman for Ridley Scott: he was the cinematographer for White Squall and G.I. Jane. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

City Slickers blends sight gags, one-liners, and sincerity, with both humor and drama arising from the characters and their situations. Mitch (Billy Crystal) is a radio station sales executive who finds himself in the throes of a mid-life crisis; accompanied by two friends, Phil (Daniel Stern) and Ed (Bruno Kirby) in the grip of similar problems, he heads to New Mexico for his birthday to participate in a two-week "vacation" cattle drive to Colorado. The three friends and the rest of their group, including an attractive, newly single young woman and two African-American dentists, are all urbanites lost when it comes to herding cattle and surviving on the prairie; it's up to authentic, almost mythic cowboy Curly (Jack Palance, who won an Oscar for the role), to whip them into shape. As various adventures occur along the way, including run-ins with outlaw cattlehands, treacherous natural mishaps, and Mitch's delivery of a newborn calf, the three "city slickers" open up to each other, learn to appreciate Curly's Old West values, and begin to resolve their midlife dilemmas. When Curly dies, it's left to Mitch, Phil, and Ed to bring in the herd. ~ Don Kaye, 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

Evil Dead director Sam Raimi takes the helm for this "spook-a-blast" shocker about an ambitious L.A. loan officer who incurs the wrath of a malevolent gypsy by refusing to grant her an extension on her home loan. Determined to impress her boss and get a much-needed promotion at work, Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) lays down the law when mysterious Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) literally comes begging for mercy at her feet. In retaliation for being publicly shamed, Mrs. Ganush places the dreaded curse of the Lamia on her unfortunate target, transforming Christine's life into a waking nightmare. Her skeptical boyfriend, Clay (Justin Long), casually brushing off her disturbing encounters as mere coincidence, Christine attempts to escape eternal damnation by seeking out the aid of seer Rham Jas (Dileep Rao ). But Christine's time is fast running out, and unless she's able to break the curse, she'll be tormented by a demon for three days before literally being dragged to hell. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Focus is based on a little-known novel by playwright Arthur Miller, written when he was a very young man, just after WWII. Produced by media mogul Michael Bloomberg, and directed by Neal Slavin, the film takes place in New York, during the war. William H. Macy of Fargo plays Lawrence Newman, a middle-aged executive who lives with his mother. One night, he sees a neighbor cavorting with a Hispanic woman in the street. The incident turns ugly, and Lawrence later hears that the woman was raped and brutally assaulted. He tells no one. Faced with anti-Semitism at work and in his neighborhood, Lawrence resists joining the bigots, but he doesn't have the courage to stand up to them. He doesn't act when Fred (Meat Loaf Aday) and his other neighbors persecute the Jewish newsvendor, Finkelstein (David Paymer), who lives on the corner. But his lack of active participation in their efforts to drive Finkelstein out makes his neighbors suspicious. One day, Gertrude Hart (Laura Dern) walks into his office looking for a job. Lawrence is immediately struck by her flashy style and good looks, but he's been warned against hiring Jews. He suspects that she's Jewish, and she gets offended at his insinuations and storms out. Things get much worse for Lawrence when he gets a new pair of glasses. Everyone says they make him look Jewish. His boss decides he doesn't make the right impression, and tries to demote him. Lawrence is outraged and quits. He has trouble finding another job, until he runs into Gertrude again. The Jewish-owned firm she works for hires him. He apologizes to her and asks her out. They fall in love, and quickly marry. His neighbors, believing Gertrude is a Jew, grow more suspicious, and Lawrence soon finds himself in physical danger. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide