Lionel Pina Movies
- 2002
A stolen-goods fence is fatally shot in the groin by an elusive gunman. The investigation of this killing leads to the victim's girlfriend and one of his disgruntled customers -- and, inevitably, to another murder. Elsewhere, Connie (Charlotte Ross) suspects that her sister Michelle (Katherine La Nasa) is being abused by Michelle's no-good husband Frank Colohan (Nicholas Lea, in the first of three guest appearances). The guys at the 15th precinct decide to help Connie out by "talking" to the scuzzy Frank. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Henry Simmons
- 1996
Among the stolen loot recovered from a purse snatcher is a handbag belonging to a missing model. Detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) pursue the likelihood that the woman is not only missing, but dead. Though the purse thief is quickly dismissed as a suspect, the detectives have several others to choose from, including a limo driver and a pro basketball player. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1994
Sam Waterston joins the cast as Executive Assistant D.A. Jack McCoy in Law & Order's fifth-season opener. The case at hand is a "revolutionary" breast-cancer treatment that may have caused a woman's death. The D.A.'s office pursues the woman doctor who developed the treatment -- and who may very well be the "quack" that her colleagues have claimed her to be. In his pursuit of the accused, Jack McCoy demonstrates early on that his zeal for justice does not always adhere to the letter of the law. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1993
A wealthy older woman is found murdered in her apartment. By the time the police and the D.A.'s office catch up with the likeliest suspect -- the woman's much-younger lover, Steven Gregg (Richard Cox) -- he is fully prepared to accept a plea bargain. But the case proves to be far from cut-and-dried when further investigation reveals that Gregg was lying about the last time he saw the victim alive. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Lauren Bacall more or less plays herself in The Fan. Cast as famous Broadway musical comedy star Sally Ross (with an astonishing lack of temperament!), Bacall finds herself the unwilling love object of psychotic fan Douglas Breen (Michael Biehn). As security around Ross tightens, Breen vows that if he can't have Ross, no one else can. James Garner and Maureen Stapleton are underused as, respectively, Bacall's ex-husband and mother-hen secretary. Based on a good novel by Bob Randall, The Fan comes off as a slightly more expensive "stalker of the week" TV movie. Still, the film proved grimly prescient in the light of John Lennon's assassination (which occurred after the film was completed, but before its release) and the ongoing dilemma of current Broadway stars (even the lesser lights) who are forced to hire bodyguards to protect them from worshipful wackos. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lauren Bacall, James Garner, (more)
Inspired by a true story, Prince of the City stars Treat Williams as a Manhattan detective who agrees to help the US Department of Justice weed out corruption in the NYPD. Williams agrees on the assurance that he'll never have to turn in a close friend. Wired for sound, Williams almost immediately stumbles upon a police conspiracy to smuggle narcotics to street informants in order to insure cooperation. While this might be condonable in a stretch, the fact is that the many cops are using the drugs on their own, and are also highly susceptible to bribes. Williams gets the goods on the miscreants, but in so doing he breaks the "code" and becomes a pariah to his fellow officers. As we learn in the unsettling final scene, Williams will always be considered a "fink," even by honest cops. Prince of the City is too long for its own good, but its opening expository sequences and its final twenty minutes more than compensate for the duller stretches. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, (more)
- 1980
- R
Director Paul Mazursky's follow-up to his 1978 hit An Unmarried Woman found this filmmaker creating a feature-length homage to the François Truffaut classic Jules and Jim. Willie and Phil begins with Jewish intellectual schoolteacher Willie (Michael Ontkean) meeting gregarious Italian-American fashion photographer Phil (Ray Sharkey) at a screening of Jules and Jim. The two hit it off immediately and soon find their circle of two expanding to three when they meet Jeanette (Margot Kidder), a free-spirited Southerner who has moved to New York City to figure out her life. Jeanette soon moves in Willie, but the three find themselves in a romantic triangle that constantly shifts over the next nine years as each of the three struggles to find their destiny while honoring the love they feel for each other. Mazursky would later remake another foreign classic (Boudu Saved From Drowning) into his hit Down and Out in Beverly Hills ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Ontkean, Margot Kidder, (more)
John Ritter plays an unsuccessful actor who takes a job posing as comic-book hero Captain Avenger at comics stores and conventions. While thus garbed, Ritter foils a grocery store robbery. He skedaddles from the scene when the cops show up, leading witnesses to assume that he is a genuine costumed superhero, the sort that shows up to foil the villains and then modestly retreats after his job is done. Ritter is hired by the mayor's staff, who hope that the Captain Avenger tie-in will help the mayor win an upcoming election. This plan comes acropper, and Captain Avenger finds himself on the outs with the public. Prodded by his girlfriend Anne Archer to be himself and not rely on a costume and mask to gain adulation, Ritter becomes a bonafide hero when he rescues several citizens from a fire. Thanks to the enthusiastic performance of John Ritter, Hero at Large remains amusing even when you know what's going to happen next (a common occurrence in this film). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Ritter, Anne Archer, (more)
Doc Levy (Roy Scheider) is an American secret agent who has been running interference between the U.S. government and escaped Nazi war criminal Szell (Laurence Olivier). Believing that Doc has stolen a valuable cache of gems, Szell emerges from his South American hiding place and heads for New York. He has Doc killed, then kidnaps Doc's in-the-dark brother, Babe (Dustin Hoffman). Repeating the phrase "Is it safe?" over and over, Szell, a onetime concentration camp dentist, tries to extract information from Babe by performing sadistic "oral surgery" upon him. Babe, who still doesn't know about the gems, escapes, breaking his own self-imposed rule of nonviolence to defend himself against his pursuers and gearing up for sadistic revenge. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, (more)
- 1976
David Selby is cast as police sergeant James O'Connor, who is forced to kill a Latino youth in self-defense. The people in the dad boy's neighborhood protest the killing and demands that O'Connor and his partner be fired. Kojak (Telly Savalas) must defuse the situation before wholesale violence erupts and O'Connor's career is irreparably damaged. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Based on a true 1972 story, Sidney Lumet's 1975 drama chronicles a unique bank robbery on a hot summer afternoon in New York City. Shortly before closing time, scheming loser Sonny (Al Pacino) and his slow-witted buddy, Sal (John Cazale), burst into a Brooklyn bank for what should be a run-of-the-mill robbery, but everything goes wrong, beginning with the fact that there is almost no money in the bank. The situation swiftly escalates, as Sonny and Sal take hostages; enough cops to police the tristate area surround the bank; a large Sonny-sympathetic crowd gathers to watch; the media arrive to complete the circus; and police captain Moretti (Charles Durning) tries to negotiate with Sonny while keeping the volatile spectacle under control. When Sonny's lover, Leon (Chris Sarandon), tries to talk Sonny out of the bank, we learn the robbery's motive: to finance Leon's sex-change operation. Sonny demands a plane to escape, but the end is near once menacingly cool FBI agent Sheldon (James Broderick) arrives to take over the negotiations. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- Starring:
- Al Pacino, John Cazale, (more)
- 1974
- R
Fed up with an escalating crime rate and an increasingly ineffective police force, blue-collar New Yorkers Willie and Cy (Carroll O'Connor and Ernest Borgnine) join a citizen's vigilante group. Their efforts to act as an auxiliary police force are comically inept, but director Ivan Passer lulls us into laughter only to catch us unprepared when he wants to play things in dead seriousness. After finally proving their worth as after-hours cops, Willie and Cy are euphoric; this lasts just long enough for Cy to be killed. Constantly changing its tone and point of view, Law and Disorder struck just the right nihilistic note in the 1970s. Modern viewers may not be quite as responsive, though many will cheer Willie's final act of defiance against the Big Apple. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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