Richard Portnow Movies

An ex-con who once traded his soul for his freedom is forced to carry out a kidnapping in order to summon the cleansing winds of redemption in director Adam Golomb's fact-based look at the criminal underworld in the Windy City. Nate Maycott (Dean Rabaiov) has just finished serving a four-year prison sentence, and now he's determined to start life anew with his young daughter. Had he paid off the police like most others, Nate may have been able to avoid his stint behind bars altogether, but sometimes the "tax" is too steep even for those who can afford to pay. Now that Nate is back on the outside, the police step up their plans to ensure that he never forgets the past. Instructed to keep tabs on the prostitution practices at the Chicago Uptown Hotel, Nate gradually finds himself backed into a dangerous corner. The streets of Chicago can be an unforgiving place even for the innocent, but for a man with a murder to hide and daughter to protect, they can be downright infernal. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Playwright Neil Simon got his first big break in the early '50s as a staff writer on Sid Caesar's fabled television series Your Show of Shows, and this comedy (adapted by Simon from his play) takes a fictionalized look at the backstage chaos that went into producing one of the landmarks of television's golden age. Max Prince (Nathan Lane) is the star of The Max Prince Show, a popular comedy-variety series with ratings that have begun to slip; Prince's show is still a major hit on the East Coast, but network executive Cal Weebs (Colin Fox) insists that it's too sophisticated for the Midwest, and urges Prince to dumb down his act. Prince has also become the whipping boy of newspaper columnist Walter Winchell (Frank Proctor), and between the tensions of producing a hour of top-quality comedy each week and being pestered about his ratings, Prince is beginning to unravel. His relationship with his wife Faye (Sherry Miller) and their children is falling apart, and stress is eating him alive. Prince's brother Harry (Richard Portnow) is Max's assistant, and his last line of defense against both the network and his writing staff, which spend its days coming up with business for the show while hurling humorous invective at each other and anyone else within earshot. (The actors playing Max's writers include Mark Linn-Baker, Victor Garber, Dan Castellaneta, Saul Rubinek, Peri Gilpin, and Zach Grenier.) Laughter on the 23rd Floor received its world premiere at the 2001 Palm Springs Film Festival and was scheduled for showings several months later on the Showtime premium cable network (who co-produced the feature). The film was directed by Richard Benjamin, who previously teamed with Mark Linn-Baker for another comedy inspired by the career of Sid Caesar, My Favorite Year. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A film student discovers the action movie project of his dreams is happening around him in real life in this offbeat independent drama. Alex (Erik Palladino) is a nerdy student studying film production and not doing especially well with it. One day, Erik and his roommate Lars (Billy Jayne) discover they have a new neighbor, an attractive and self-confident woman named Blue (Jennifer Rubin). After they share a few beers and discover a mutual fondness for the films of Sam Peckinpah, Alex makes a startling discovery about Blue -- she's a hired killer, who has a hit scheduled the following week in Miami. After that, Blue plans to get out of the business and leave the United States for good. Alex has a brainstorm: he'll tag along for Blue's last "project" with a camera and make a documentary about her. Blue agrees to cooperate, but en route Alex finds out more about Blue than he was planning on, and when the killing doesn't go smoothly, he finds himself suddenly aiding Blue and not just recording her actions. Jennifer Rubin gives a standout performance in this film, which also features Brian Vander Ark from the rock band The Verve Pipe in a supporting role. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this black comedy, a group of small-town mail carriers start living up to all the worst cliches about themselves; they start coming unhinged, making their appointed rounds armed to the teeth. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Lynda La Plante (Prime Suspect) scripted this TV miniseries about the family life surrounding a Mafia don. Sicilian magnate Don Luciano (Dennis Farina) and his wife Graziella (Vanessa Redgrave) live comfortably at Villa Rosa in Palermo, Italy. Their son Michael (Michael Hayden) has an affair with Sophia (Nastassja Kinski), leaving her pregnant but unmarried. After Luciano refuses to traffic drugs, angry U.S. mob boss Carolla (Tony Lo Bianco) retaliates by having Michael killed. When Sophia secretly gives birth to Luka, her child by Michael, she then marries another Luciano brother and bears twins. Later, Carolla unwittingly adopts the teenage Luka (James Marsden), who is unaware of his own past. Carolla's vengeance continues through the years, and he passes the hatred on to Luka -- who sees that all males in the Luciano family are eliminated. Despite the slaughter, Luca charms the unsuspecting Luciano widows when he arrives at Villa Rosa, claiming to be the son of a wealthy, concerned American. How long before they learn the truth? Film director Peter Bogdanovich is seen in the role of Luciano's American contact, Giancamo. Bella Mafia first aired 11/16/97 and 11/18/97 on CBS. The feature-length video version was edited down to 117 min. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Seventy one year old Tony Curtis headlines this comedy drama as Jack Curtis, who played the title former superhero twenty five years before with his loyal sidekick Tadpole (Arye Gross) fought crimes in syndicated television series. Though the show is dead, Reptile Man remains popular on the promo circuit and so every day, Jack dons the foam rubbery costume as does Lewis, who plays Tadpole. Poor Lewis has been typecast and though, with Jack's help, constantly auditions with little success. It doesn't help that spot-light hogging Jack is verbally abusing Lewis. One day, Jack takes his role a little too seriously and in costume attempts to stop a convenience store robbery. While recovering in the hospital, Lewis, at the urging of Ellie his wife, steps up his attempts. Again he fails. Then one day he learns the reason why: apparently, jealous Jack has not been as helpful as he seemed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama a transplant recipient learns the deeply disturbing truth about his donor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

To escape his persistent--and dishonest--corporate sponsors, a Nobel Prize-winning microbiologist fakes his own death. It's a clever ruse, but not a particularly healthy one: soon afterward, the missing scientist turns up murdered for real. Typically, the wrong man is accused of the crime, obliging Jessica (Angela Lansbury) to take over investigation of the case herself...while her old friend Lt. Artie Gelber (Herb Edelman) fusses and fumes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Elizabeth Pena and Christina Applegate play Carmen and Kathy, two women from Los Angeles with practically nothing in common. Carmen is a working-class Latina and single mother from the East Side barrio, while Kathy comes from a wealthy family in Beverly Hills. However, both of their boyfriends, Richie (Tony Dean Fields) and Lyle (Peter Berg), have ended up in a jail in the Mojave Desert as part of a confidence scheme. Carmen and Kathy want to be near the men they love to show their support, so they head out to the desert in Kathy's convertible to wait out their stay in jail as they share living quarters in an old trailer home. Across the Moon was the second feature film for director Lisa Gottlieb, who previously helmed the cult favorite Just One of the Guys and episodes of the TV series Dream On. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the long-running mystery series, Perry Mason must reevaluate his legal principles when an old buddy asks him to represent the gangster suspected of murdering his wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Peter Gunn was a one-shot TV movie revival of the classic detective series (1958-61) created by Blake Edwards. Edwards wrote and directed this pilot for a potential Gunn revival, with Peter Strauss stepping into Craig Stevens' gumshoes as private eye Peter Gunn. Peter Jurasik assumes Herschel Bernardi's old role as Lt. Jacobi, while Barbara Williams takes over for Lola Albright as saloon singer Edie ("Mother's", the night spot where Edie vocalizes, is operated by "special guest star" Pearl Bailey). The film is not updated to the present time, but is set in 1964. Gunn finds himself between gangsters and rogue cops when he agrees to get to the bottom of a mob hit. A lot more verbose than the old, visually dynamic TV series, Peter Gunn (1989) has the saving grace of Henry Mancini's original progressive-jazz theme song and musical score. Blake Edwards' daughter Jennifer is featured as Gunn's ditsy secretary, a character (thankfully) missing from the earlier series. This actually represented Edwards's second attempt to revive the Peter Gunn character in a movie format; he first did so with the 1967 big-screen feature Gunn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide