Patrick Bergin Movies

A quaint small town that hasn't paid taxes since World War II draws the attention of an ambitious tax inspector in this comedy starring Billy Zane and Patrick Bergin. Putterton possesses all the charm of your typical small town without any of the irritations of modern city living: The crime rate is low, the cost of living is minimal, and everyone knows their neighbors by name. Everyone in Putterton is proud that their little corner of the world has retained its old world ambiance, but when beautiful tax inspector Caroline Deville comes to town the atmosphere quickly turns tense. No one in Putterton has paid a penny in taxes since 1945, and despite his best efforts there's nothing that George Putter (Zane) can do to bury this dirty little secret. Just as Deville begins auditing at will and the town teeters on the verge of bankruptcy, however, help arrives in the form of Consumer City President Vernon Fry (Bergion). Consumer City is a giant discount chain with stores all across the country, and Fry is willing to rescue Putterton from financial ruin if the residents will just allow him to open a store in their quiet little burg. The only problem with this solution is that the presence of a garish Consumer City store in town would most certainly detract from the old fashioned atmosphere that that has come to define Putterton. While George and Caroline may have their fair share of differences, the one thing they can both agree on is that Putterton shouldn't bow to Fry and his corporate Goliath. Perhaps if they could just find a way to work together, these two unlikely allies can ensure that Putterton doesn't become yet another indistinctive stretch of strip malls and fast food joints. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Money and lust make a dangerous combination in this thriller. Jack Ramsey (Patrick Bergin) is a private detective hired by wealthy businessman Richard Whitmore (Daniel Pilon) to trail his wife Isabelle (Jayne Heitmeyer). Richard is convinced Isabelle is having an affair, and Jack is able to confirm those suspicions. When Isabelle's lover is found murdered, Jack thinks Richard is the most likely suspect, but Richard wants Jack to help refocus the investigation on another suspect, Vic Mulvey (Gary Busey), a radical who has been threatening blackmail against Richard and his firm. While Jack has misgivings about this, Richard has deep pockets and Jack is the owner of an empty wallet, so he goes along. The deeper Jack digs into the case, the more he runs into Isabelle, and soon the two are having an affair. However, when several of their friends and associates turn up dead, Jack has to start asking serious questions about the killer, and who the next victim will be. Director Alain Zaloum apparently worked with two of his favorite actors on Suspicious Minds; he previously cast Gary Busey in Canvas and Night Caller, while he worked with Patrick Bergin again on his subsequent film Taxman (1999). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Part high-tech spy thriller and part psychological study, Eye of the Beholder was Ewan McGregor's first feature film following his mainstream breakthrough performance in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The Eye (Ewan McGregor) is an agent of the British Secret Service, equipped with the latest in high-tech crime fighting gadgetry and assisted by his indefatigable collegue, Hilary (k.d. lang). The Eye's latest assignment is a surveillance project; the son of a well-known politician has been spending a great deal of money on someone, and they would like to know who and why. A little sleuthing reveals that the mysterious person taking the cash is a woman named Joanna (Ashley Judd), but the trail gets much stickier when the Eye witnesses Joanna pulling a knife and killing the politician's son. Normally, he'd take the shortcut to putting her behind bars, but some time ago he lost contact with his daughter when his wife left him; Joanna reminds the Eye of his daughter, and he's too fascinated with her to bring her to justice. The Eye now follows Joanna obsessively, and discovers that she's also involved with a blind man (Patrick Bergin) and has a history of emotional instability from being abandoned by her father at a young age. Eye of the Beholder was directed by Stephan Elliott, best known for the comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Not to be confused with Steven Spielberg's sequel to Jurassic Park), this fantasy adventure (also known as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World) also centers on dinosaurs discovered in the modern world, this time in a remote part of Mongolia during the 1930s. Apparently the ancient creatures were flash-frozen millions of years ago and then thawed out. The late explorer Dr. George Challenger (Patrick Bergin) discovered them. Now his daughter, a journalist, an aging scientist, and a villain team up to prove Dr Challenger's findings. During their journey, the team encounters many fantastical things, including a tribe of Neanderthals. This feature contains a few gory scenes that may be unsuitable for young children. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A little known chapter from the Mexican-American War is brought to the screen in this historical drama based on fact. In 1846, shortly before the United States turned its aggressions against Mexico into armed conflict, John Riley (Tom Berenger) and a group of U.S. soldiers crossed the border into Mexico to attend Mass. Riley and his fellow soldiers were Irish nationals who had come to the United States to escape the economic devastation of their homeland, brought on by the Potato Famine. Like many other Irish immigrants, Riley was promised citizenship in exchange for serving a tour of duty in the Army, but the Irish Catholics soon found themselves treated like second-class citizens in the largely Protestant American military. Riley and his men are severely punished for traveling into Mexico, and Riley decides he can no longer abide the United States Army and its treatment of his fellows. Riley engineers an escape from the stockade and the Irish troops travel into Mexico, a peaceful Catholic nation where they believe they will be welcomed. However, as Riley and his men march into the mountains of Mexico, they encounter guerilla leader Cortina (Joaquim de Almeida), who is naturally suspicious of soldiers in U.S. uniforms. The Irish soldiers are taken prisoner and Riley is wounded in the skirmish, but in time Cortina and Riley come to see each other as allies rather than enemies. Riley also falls in love with Marta (Daniela Romo), a Mexican patriot and Cortina's lover. In time, Riley and his men form The Saint Patrick's Battalion and become one of Mexico's most effective fighting units. Tom Berenger served as co-producer for One Man's Hero as well as playing Riley. The film was originally slated for release in the fall of 1998, but was shelved for a year after Orion, the studio which produced the film, was purchased by MGM, who eventually released it in Ireland in August, 1999, and the United States and Mexico later in the fall. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A tale of lost-love, idealism and steadfast commitment that alternates between comedy and drama. Passionate and tragic Angela Mooney (Mia Farrow) is a woman prepared to die for her ideals and attempts suicide rather frequently, something that never fails to draw a crowd. Outwardly, her reason for killing herself centers on the local creamery, a business run by her husband, who has spent his life building it up, that is about to be taken over by the America-based Little Rooster Corporation. Angela is afraid that the American company will destroy the quaint character of the town. Unfortunately, Angela is alone in her struggle as everyone else supports the buy-out. Angela's real reasons for fighting are revealed via flashback and have to do with the handsome young Scottish soldier to whom she gave her virginity when she was an impressionable young girl. He was an idealist and transferred his sense of justice to her. Later he was run out of town and so moved to America where he became a wealthy tycoon. Years pass and now the soldier/business magnate prepares to return to the village, something that has caused a flurry of activity amongst the townsfolk. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Janet Meyers directed this TV movie about the search for Jack the Ripper in London of 1888. As Inspector Hansen (Patrick Bergin) searches for the murderer of East End prostitutes, his suspicions focus on Prince Albert Victor (Samuel West), eldest son of the Prince of Wales and Queen Victoria's grandson. Filmed in Melbourne, Australia, this drama premiered December 6, 1997 on the Starz! channel. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story, the made-for-TV Stolen Women, Captured Hearts takes place in Kansas in 1868. In retribution for the genocidal attacks of General George Armstrong Custer, a band of Lakota Sioux kidnap a pair of white women, Anna Brewster Morgan (Janine Turner) and Sarah White (Jean Louisa Kelly). At first terrified of her captors, Anna eventually falls in love with the noble, honorable Sioux warrior Tokalah (Michael Greyeyes). After a year's captivity, Sarah is returned to her own people--and now she must choose between her new life with Tokalah and her previous existence as the wife of farmer Daniel Morgan (Patrick Bergin), a man she hardly knows. Stolen Women, Captured Hearts made its CBS network bow on March 16, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV movie features two previously unproduced stories written by Rod Serling for his groundbreaking anthology series The Twilight Zone, and adapted by Richard Matheson, one of Serling's frequent collaborators on the show. In "The Theater," a woman (Amy Irving) who frequents a neighborhood movie theater discovers her own life is starting to appear on the screen, and she's more than a bit concerned about how the ending is panning out. In "Where the Dead Are," Dr. Benjamin Ramsey (Patrick Bergin) loses a patient during an operation in 1868. Later, he discovers that the man suffered head injuries years before that by all rights should have killed him. While trying to learn the truth about his mysterious patient, Ramsey encounters Dr. Jeremy Wheaton (Jack Palance) who makes a most remarkable medical discovery. The Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics first aired in the United States on May 19, 1994. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A white, Inuit boy named Avik is the focus of New Zealand director Vincent Ward's meditation on race and romance. In the opening moments of the movie, set in 1931 in the Arctic-Canadian settlement Nunataaq, Avik (portrayed initially by Robert Joamie) lives under the watchful eye of his grandmother (Jayko Pitseolak). While tagging along after British cartographer Walter Russell (Patrick Bergin), Avik falls prey to the "white man's disease,"--tuberculosis; to assuage his own guilt, Russell takes the boy to a Montreal clinic to recover. There, Avik meets Albertine, a mixed-blood Indian girl, and the two fall in love, but their relationship is quickly broken up by the Mother Superior who is in charge of the clinic. Years later, Avik again meets Russell, who this time is on a mission to recover the German U-boat lying wrecked off the coast of Nunataaq. Avik asks for Russell's help in learning the whereabouts of Albertine, and he gives the cartographer a chest X-ray of the girl which he has carried with him since their separation. More time elapses, and Avik (now played by Jason Scott Lee) has become a British bombardier fighting in World War II. He is sought out by Albertine (Anne Parillaud), who has become Russell's mistress. Still, she begins an affair with Avik; Russell soon finds out, and as revenge sends Avik and his crew on a suicide mission of which Avik is the lone survivor. Despondent over his war experiences, Avik flees to Canada, where he becomes an alcoholic; decades later, he is sought out by Rainee (Clotilde Courau), the daughter born from his affair with Albertine. On his way to the girl's wedding, Avik is killed in an accident; his body washes up on the beach at Nunataaq, a wedding gift still clutched in his arms. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Love Crimes, an erotic thriller directed by Lizzie Borden, explores the psychology of a con man posing as a photographer, who seduces women and then blackmails them using humiliating, revealing pictures he has taken of them. David Hanover (Patrick Bergin) preys on the hopes of women by offering them love and a possible career as fashion models. When some of the women complain, but refuse to aid in Hanover's prosecution, DA Dana Greenway (Sean Young) becomes obsessed with catching Hanover, to the point where she tracks him down and spys on him in his secluded home, making herself a potential victim. He catches her and holds her captive. Feminist filmmaker Borden, who also directed the remarkable, low-budget film Working Girls, raises interesting questions regarding sex, humiliation and male-female relationships, but the film is spoiled by the ambiguity of her central character, Dana. An abused child herself, she has the same self-loathing that the other woman who are preyed upon by Hanover possess, but her motivations for her actions remain murky. Despite these flaws, Borden, always an interesting filmmaker, raises important issues which perhaps can't be adequately resolved using the restrictions of the thriller genre. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

In Patriot Games, Harrison Ford plays former CIA agent Jack Ryan, taking over from Alec Baldwin, who had played author Tom Clancy's brainy protagonist in Hunt for Red October. This time around, Ryan foils an attempted assassination, thereby incurring the wrath of a maniacal Irish radical (Sean Bean). After seemingly neutralizing the villains, and deciding to celebrate the occasion with his wife (Anne Archer) and daughter (Thora Birch), everything appears to be back to normal; then all hell breaks loose. Author Tom Clancy himself bemoaned the liberties taken with his novel in the final sequences; the picture scored with audiences, however, and soon inspired a followup, A Clear and Present Danger (1994), also starring Ford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide