Frank Pesce Movies

The workers at a posh Central Park condominium plot to steal back their pensions from the thieving Wall Street billionaire who's about to get away with the ultimate white-collar crime in this heist comedy starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy. Financial giant Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) has just been placed under house arrest in his luxury New York City penthouse for cleaning out his investors to the tune of two billion dollars. Meanwhile, on the complete opposite end of the financial spectrum, Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) earns a modest living as the manager of The Tower -- the luxurious building where Shaw resides. Upon learning that the building staffers who entrusted Shaw with their retirement funds are about to lose their life savings, and that the thief will likely get off scot-free, Josh convinces a small group of Tower employees and a downtrodden former resident that Shaw has stashed a million-dollar safety net somewhere in his opulent penthouse, and that it's theirs for the taking if they can just slip past security. With dim-witted concierge Charlie (Casey Affleck), under-educated electrical engineer Enrique (Michael Peña), safecracking maid Odessa (Gabourey Sidibe) and downtrodden former resident Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick) to back him, Josh recruits crafty swindler Slide (Eddie Murphy) to help get their money back. Although the security in Arthur's condo is unusually tight, between Josh's knowledge of the building and Slide's sleight of hand, this ragtag gang of thieves just might have what it takes to get the job done. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A man trying to run away from trouble finds it follows him in unexpected ways in this action-packed vehicle for comic actors Eddie Griffin and Orlando Jones. Daryl Chase (Jones) is a successful investment banker who handles international accounts for a major New York firm. Chase discovers to his surprise that one of his biggest clients, a company from Mexico, is actually a front for a cartel of drug smugglers; Chase realizes too late that he's been framed for money laundering, and is now wanted by the FBI. Chase is soon approached by a CIA agent, who thinks Chase's relationship with the Mexican drug kingpins might prove useful, but when his local contact disappears, Chase has to make his way to Mexico in order to save his skin and hopefully clear his name. Needing a new identity to get out of town and across the border, Chase obtains a stolen passport -- and soon learns the man whose name he's using is in even deeper trouble with the law than himself. With nowhere else to turn, Chase asks streetwise hustler Freddie Tiffany (Griffin) to help him get out of town; Chase will pretend to be Freddie, while Tiffany will pose as a businessman like Chase. However, Chase finds out Tiffany isn't the man he thought he was, and that his sticky situation is even more perilous and fraught with secrets than he imagined. Double Take was inspired by the 1957 drama Across The Bridge, which was in turn based on a novel by Graham Greene; the supporting cast includes Edward Herrmann, Gary Grubbs, Garcelle Beauvais, and Daniel Roebuck. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this comedy drama, a winning lottery ticket gives four aspiring actors the chance of a lifetime. The quartet is first seen commiserating over the failure of their latest off-Broadway production in the Cottonwood Diner in Greenwich Village. To ease the sting of a scathing review, the four buy a lottery ticket and promise that they will use the wealth to make a film. Sure enough, they win $3 million. After viewing many popular hit movies including The Godfather, Rocky and When Harry Met Sally, they set to penning a highly derivative script. Trouble comes when one of them, a compulsive gambler, backs out and uses his share to bet the ponies. The remaining trio then bring in a new partner, the daughter of famed vaudevillian Danny Rose. After that they convince a relative to manage them and head off to solicit a hot young director. More trouble comes when the Screenwriter's Guild tries to sue them for plagiarism. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Don't worry: former porn queen Traci Lords was "of age" when she starred in Ice. Lords and Phillip Troy play a husband-and-wife team of thieves who steal a fortune in diamonds. Problem is, they've stolen it from a mob kingpin. Before the film's halfway point, Lords is going it alone, running helter-skelter across the country from the mob boss' gunmen with the "ice" in tow. Inasmuch as this is a chase film, it's altogether appropriate that the screenwriter of Ice is one Sean Dash. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Soft-core erotica genre director Gregory Hippolyte created this adult thriller that repeats the good twin versus bad twin plot mechanics of its predecessor. Shannon Whirry stars as Carrie and Terrie, a pair of twins who were separated in youth when their father murdered their mother and was in turn killed by his own bad twin daughter. Now the sweet-natured "good" sister has grown up to marry an abusive louse. Trapped in a sexless relationship, she seeks solace with a therapist (Kristine Kelly), but her problems are about to be compounded when her wicked sister arrives in town, intent on avenging herself on her double for past wrongs. Even the help of a private detective on her side may not be enough when her sister becomes allied with her own husband. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

A hybrid cross-pollination of a Martin Scorsese and Frank Capra film, this feel-good comic fantasy is loosely based on the real-life story of a New York lottery winner. Anthony LaPaglia stars as Frank Pesce Jr., a New Yorker with a good-luck streak that is unmatched in his Little Italy neighborhood. When Frank throws a pair of dice in a game of chance, he doesn't just toss a winning hand, the dice land on top of each other. When he's stabbed in the chest by a girlfriend's brother, his doctors find a pre-cancerous tumor. Although he tries again and again to get rid of a vehicle he no longer wants, it is retrieved every single time by the authorities. So when New York announces its first statewide lottery in 1976, Frank buys one ticket and immediately becomes everybody's best friend. Unfortunately, Frank's good luck is matched by the equally bad luck of his hard-working father, Frank Sr. (Danny Aiello), who has run up a gambling debt to a local mobster. The wise guy is willing to forgive the note if Frank Jr. will just hand over his sure-to-be lucky ticket, leaving the city's luckiest Italian-American in a bit of a moral quandary. The real Frank Pesce Jr. executive produces and co-stars in 29th Street as his own police officer brother, Vito. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

"You have the right to remain silent . . . Forever!" This sequel to Maniac Cop pits Matt Cordell (Robert Z'dar), the crazed, murderous "Maniac Cop" of the first film (now horribly disfigured after a particularly brutal stay in prison), and Turkel (Leo Rossi), a serial killer who likes to murder strippers, against a frenzied NYPD detective, Sean McKinney (Robert Davi), who is just one step ahead of a nervous breakdown. His nerves don't get much relief when officers Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell) and Teresa Mallory (Laurene Landon) insist that Cordell is still alive -- not only alive, but unkillable. Then Jack is murdered and the silent Maniac Cop breaks Turkel out of jail. With a group of rancid prisoners, they take police department psychologist Susan Riley (Claudia Christian) hostage. When the prisoners attempt a massive prison break, McKinney musters his forces to hunt down Cordell and Turkel and save Susan. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

A man who fails to make the grade as a Los Angeles cop goes on a killing spree as the dangerous "Sunset Killer," to show the dupes who wouldn't hire him. He uses all his cop smarts to try to elude all who dare try capture him. ~ Rovi

Julia Duffy is the cover girl and Dinah Manoff the cop in this made-for-TV contrivance. When dim-witted model Duffy witnesses a murder, short-fused officer Manhoff is assigned to protect her. Would you be shocked if we informed you that the ladies drive each other crazy? But never fear: they forget their differences long enough to jointly nab the killer at the end. Filmed on location in Washington DC, Cover Girl and the Cop trounced in the ratings by the vastly superior The Ryan White Story when it first aired on January 16, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A maniacal murderer is stalking New York City cops in this urban crime thriller. Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell) is suspected of being the killer until Lieutenant McCrae (Tom Atkins) is found dead. Jack takes over the case after McCrae's death with help from undercover cop and sweetheart Theresa (Laurene Landon). Commissioner Pike (Richard Roundtree) is under fire to solve the case as more men in blue meet their maker much too soon. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Director Martin Brest, of Going in Style and Beverly Hills Cop fame, was in charge of Midnight Run. Robert De Niro stars as Jack Walsh, a hard-bitten bounty hunter offered $100,000 to bring in embezzler Jonathan Mardukas (Charles Grodin). Handcuffed to the wimpy Mardukas, Walsh assumes that the extradition trip from New York to Los Angeles will be an uneventful one. But the prisoner hasn't told Walsh the whole story: the embezzler owes $15 million to a mobster (Dennis Farina), and he's been targeted for assassination. It's a toss-up as to what is the most entertaining aspect of Midnight Run: the slam-bang action and chase sequences or the verbal byplay between DeNiro and Grodin. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Devil-may-care navy pilot Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is sent to Miramar Naval Air Station for advanced training. Here he vies with Tom Kasansky (Val Kilmer) for the coveted "Top Gun" award. When not so occupied, Mitchell carries on a romance with civilian consultant Charlotte Blackwood (Kelly McGillis). Shaken up by the death of a friend, Mitchell loses the Top Gun honor to Kasansky. Worried that he may have lost his nerve, Mitchell is given a chance to redeem himself during a tense international crisis involving a crippled US vessel and a flock of predatory enemy planes. The story wasn't new in 1986, but Top Gun scored with audiences on the strength of its visuals, especially the vertigo-inducing aerial sequences. The film made more money than any other film in 1986 and even spawned a 1989 takeoff, Hot Shots. An Academy Award went to the Giogio Moroder-Tom Whitlock song "Take My Breath Away." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi