Warren Berlinger Movies

Chandler (Matthew Perry) is disappointed when his roommate, Joey (Matt LeBlanc), accepts an offer from an actor friend to move into another apartment. Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) visit a tattoo parlor. And news of Dr. Richard Burke's (Tom Selleck) romance with "twinkie in the city" Monica (Courteney Cox) is met with something less than unconfined joy by Burke's best friend -- Monica's father Jack Geller (Elliott Gould). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stephen Frears' Hero is a contemporary re-working of a Frank Capra-styled fable about a two-bit criminal named Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) who saves several passengers from a plane crash and leaves the scene without being identified, leaving only a lost shoe for identification. One of the passengers happens to be news-reporter Gale (Geena Davis) who is intent on finding her savior, and offers a million dollars to the "hero" of the crashed flight. Bernie has since given his remaining shoe to a homeless man named John (Andy Garcia) who decides to cash in on the offer. A handsome, charming man, John wins the hearts of the entire city. Soon, Bernie realizes that he's been cheated out of a million dollars, and he begins an effort to get his proper recognition--and his money. Hero manages to be quite funny and satirical while sticking to a story that is essentially a Hollywood fable. That is to the credit of director Frears and the cast, who turn in uniformly excellent performances. Nevertheless, Hoffman is superb as a bitterly comic and spiteful variation on his classic Ratso Rizzo character. By the way, be on the lookout for Chevy Chase in a very funny cameo. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

This time, the spotlight is on a friend of Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury--namely, Bill Boyle (Ken Howard), a former football star turned detective. When Bill agrees to temporarily take care of a pal's valuable poodle, he ends up permanently saddled with the pooch when the owner is murdered, clutching three empty IV bags in his cold, dead fingers. It soon becomes clear that the murderers have now targeted both Bill and the poodle, plunging man and dog alike into a hotbed of international intrigue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Essentially a western, this actioner chronicles the bloody battles between a vicious band of redneck punks and a country-music-crooning Vietnam vet. The conflict begins after the punks murder his wife and rape his daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Another horny-teen epic from Galaxy International, Free Ride asks us to identify with jerky preppie Gary Hershberger. Anxious to impress a sexy but monumentally stupid young woman, Hershberger claims that a snazzy red sports car that has just pulled up to a singles bar is his. He "borrows" the car and takes the girl for a joyride, little knowing that the back seat contains a quarter of a million dollars of mob money. Connect the dots and you'll figure out the rest of the story. All Free Ride really has going for it is the campy presence of 1950s sex-bomb Mamie Van Doren and a handful of raunchy verbal gags. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Heavily disguised for a new assignment, Hannibal (George Peppard) is mistaken for a skid-row wino named Jim Beam (Elisha Cook Jr.)--and vice versa. It soon becomes obvious that someone is trying to murder Beam. . .but why? To solve this mystery, and to rescue Hannibal in the process, the A-Team sets up a skid-row mission called the Road to Hope, with Murdock (Dwight Schultz) tearing a passion to tatters as street preacher Harry Dean Hanover (when he isn't trying to pass himself off as the Invisible Man, that is!). Look for future X-Files regular Mitch Pileggi in a small role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jessica (Angela Lansbury is given a crash course in the nomenclature of football when she inherits a small percentage in a pro football team. She also stumbles upon a murder case (surprise!) when the team's much-hated owner is killed in the locker room . It's going to be tough to discern the murderer's identity this time, inasmuch as Jessica must first work her way through every member of the team--not to mention their wives and sweethearts! Former professional athletes Bruce Jenner and Dick Butkus appear in key supporting roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After being struck by lightning and foiling an armed robbery, Carmine (Eddie Mekka) becomes convinced that he is indestructable. Capitalizing upon this, Squiggy (David L. Lander) acts as agent when Carmine re-emerges in public as "Lightning Man", replete with cape and purple tights. Unfortunately, the career of "Lightning Man" nearly comes to an abrupt and painful end during a stunt performed on a high tree limb! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1982 film version of the John Irving novel The World According to Garp attempts to captures the quirky spirit while condensing the Irving original. Robin Williams plays the title character, the son of unmarried, unorthodox feminist Jenny Fields (Glenn Close, in her film debut). Every effort made by Jenny to broaden Garp's outlook on life -- she even arranges for him to spend the night with a hooker (Swoosie Kurtz) -- crams more fears and phobias into his psyche. Aspiring to become a novelist, Garp succeeds in this goal at the same time that his mother publishes her first feminist manifesto. Though successful and happily married to college sweetheart Helen Holm (Mary Beth Hurt), Garp remains envious of his fearless mother, who has taken in the radical "Ellen Jamesians," a group named after a young woman who had her tongue cut out by a rapist. Mutilation, in fact, becomes something of a leitmotif in Garp's life, climaxing (in every sense of the word) in an auto accident brought about by Helen's tryst with Michael Milton (Mark Soper). There is, of course, much more to the story than this: standing out amongst the dozens of offbeat supporting characters is John Lithgow as Roberta Muldoon, a transexual ex-football jock. John Irving appears as a referee during a college wrestling match, while director George Roy Hill plays the pilot whose low-flying plane crashes into Garp's new home. The World According to Garp didn't attract as large an audience as other, more conventional Robin Williams vehicles, though Close and Lithgow would both be nominated for Best Supporting Actor statues. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

More paranoid than usual after his safe is stolen, Mel (Vic Tayback) rents a pair of ferocious guard dogs. The huge hounds know their job, and they do it well--the result being that Mel, Alice (Linda Lavin) and the rest of the staff is trapped in the diner by the snarling "sentinels." Warren Berlinger, cast as an amorous IRS agent in the first-season episode "The Pain of No Return", appears herein as dog owner Stanley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This expensive production attempts to bring Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer's subtle philosophical novel The Magician of Lublin to the screen. In the story, Yasha Mazur (Alan Arkin) is a perfectionistic turn-of-the-century Jewish stage magician, con-man and mystic, who is touring through eastern Europe, at the same time managing to progressively sabotage his own career. In nearly every town Yasha has a girlfriend, from the youthful Zeftel (Valerie Perrine), to the feisty Elizabeta (Shelly Winters). His harassed manager/impressario Wolsky (Lou Jacobi) arranges for him to have one more chance at theatrical success, which requires that he pull off the trick of a lifetime in a Warsaw theater. Reviewers, fans of Singer's works, and ordinary filmgoers all expressed disappointment in this beautifully filmed and ambitious movie, which was a box-office failure. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The mother of young film producer Marvin Goldman (Warren Berlinger) wants to know who set fire to her darling boy's office. Investigating, the Angels discover something that Mrs. Goldman (Eda Reiss Merin) is blissfully unaware of: It seems that the "respectable" Marvin has been moonlighting as a pornographer and a two-bit blackmailer. Guess who poses as an aspiring movie actress in this episode? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide