Beata Pozniak Movies

Mother Nature's fury clashes with Hollywood has-been determination as a group of down and out filmmakers attempt to resurrect a dying sci-fi franchise by keeping their production afloat long enough to shoot their big climax with the "Big One" as the backdrop. In just seventy-two hours, Los Angeles will finally get the earthquake that folks have been anticipating for decades. The Generic News Network is capitalizing on public panic in typically tacky fashion, and the cast of the hopelessly irrelevant Cyxork sci-fi film franchise is ready to risk their lives for some free special effects. But while square-jawed star Rex Anderson (Ray Wise) just wants to keep his film career afloat and earn enough money so that he and his wife can move out of the public appearance bus they call a home, director Angela LaSalle (Sonya Smith) is seeking to transform schlock cinema into celluloid art. When Rex goes over Angela's head in an attempt to get her fired, the plan backfires and they both end up out of work. The production effectively shut down, Rex and Angela decide that their only hope is to put aside their differences, pretend they are still in production, and work under the radar to finish the film. But who would be foolish enough to try and shoot a film during what promises to be the biggest earthquake in recorded history? As the crew races to get the film finished before the studio finds out, the entire state of California braces for the big rumble and hopes for the best. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

President Clark is dead, and the civil war on Earth is over. Delenn triumphantly stage-manages the convergence of the Earth, the Minbari and the Narn into a new alliance. Captain Sheridan's role in the Alliance must, however, wait until the Earthgov decides his ultimate fate. Elsewhere, Ivanova grieves over the apparent death of Marcus --- and what has become of Lise? First seen in America during the week of October 20, 1997, "Rising Star" was written by J. Michael Straczynski. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Beata Pozniak guest stars as Masha, the Buchmans' new once-a-week maid. Masha is quite fond of "Mr. Paul" Buchman (Paul Reiser), who reminds her of Wayne Rogers. Alas, the feeling is apparently not reciprocated, resulting in devastation and despair. This episode marks the final series appearance of Tommy Hinkley as Paul's sloppy bachelor bud Jay Selby. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The November 22, 1963, assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy shocked the nation and the world. The brisk investigation of that murder conducted under the guidance of Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren distressed many observers, even though subsequent careful investigations have been unable to find much fault with the conclusions his commission drew, the central one of which was that the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, acted alone. Instead of satisfying the public, one result of the Warren Commission Report was that an unimaginable number of plausible conspiracy theories were bruited about, and these have supported a sizeable publishing mini-industry ever since. In making this movie, director Oliver Stone had his pick of supposed or real investigative flaws to draw from and has constructed what some reviewers felt was one of the most compelling (and controversial) political detective thrillers ever to emerge from American cinema. Long before filming was completed, Stone was fending off heated accusations of artistic and historical irresponsibility, and these only intensified after the film was released. In the story, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) is convinced that there are some big flaws in the investigation of Oswald (Gary Oldman), and he sets out to recreate the events leading up to the assassination. Along the way, he stumbles across evidence that a great many people had reason to want to see the president killed, and he is convinced that some of them worked in concert to frame Oswald as the killer. Among the suspects are Lyndon Baines Johnson (the next president), the CIA, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Mafia. Over the course of gathering what he believes to be evidence of a conspiracy, Garrison unveils some of the grittier aspects of New Orleans society, focusing on the shady activities of local businessman Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones). Garrison's investigations culminate in his conducting a show trial that he knows he will lose and which he is sure will ruin his career in order to get his evidence into the public record where it can't be buried again. This movie won two of the many Academy Awards for which it was nominated: one for Best Photography (Robert Richardson) and the other for Editing (Joe Hutshing). ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi