Paul Reiser Movies
One of the salutary byproducts of the TV series Seinfeld is that it created a market in the '90s for sitcoms built around the comedy routines of young, hip New York comics. One of the best of these programs was Mad About You, created by and starring Manhattan-born Paul Reiser. Reiser and Seinfeld share more than a similarity of sitcoms; together with comedians Larry Miller and Mark Schiff, they comprise what has been unofficially dubbed the Four Funniest Men in the World Club, which has met for lunch each New Year's Day for the past several years. Reiser's credentials include a degree from S.U.N.Y.-Binghamton, a short stint as a health food distributor, and a 1982 film debut in Diner. Most of his film roles have been in comedies, though he was effectively cast as a greedy space traveler (who comes to a well-deserved bad end) in 1986's Aliens. Reiser has noted that his weekly series Mad About You, in which he co-starred with Helen Hunt, was based on his relationship with his wife, Paula. In 1995, Paul Reiser took a brief respite from Mad About You to star in the "single dad" comedy Bye Bye Love, which despite a strong promotional tie-in with McDonald's restaurants, was not popular enough to encourage Reiser to give up his day job. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Detroit cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) has seemingly smoothed out his differences with his Beverly Hills superior Bogomil (Ronny Cox), but there's trouble ahead for both men, not to mention two other holdovers from the first Cop film, officers Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (John Ashton). The "untouchable" heavy this time out is masterminding a series of violent robberies, committed by leather-freak hoods Dean Stockwell and Brigitte Nielsen. Unaccumstomed to this nastiness, Bogomil entreats street-smart Foley to help find the miscreants. But mean-spirited chief of police Lutz (Allen Garfield) will brook no interference from outsiders-especially the profanely insouciant Mr. Foley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, (more)
Big-budget special effects, swiftly paced action, and a distinct feminist subtext from writer/director James Cameron turned what should have been a by-the-numbers sci-fi sequel into both a blockbuster and a seven-time Oscar nominee. Sigourney Weaver returns as Ellen Ripley, the last surviving crew member of a corporate spaceship destroyed after an attack by a vicious, virtually unbeatable alien life form. Adrift in space for half a century, Ripley grapples with depression until she's informed by her company's representative, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) that the planet where her crew discovered the alien has since been settled by colonists. Contact with the colony has suddenly been lost, and a detachment of colonial marines is being sent to investigate. Invited along as an advisor, Ripley predicts disaster, and sure enough, the aliens have infested the colony, leaving a sole survivor, the young girl Newt (Carrie Henn). With the soldiers picked off one by one, a final all-female showdown brews between the alien queen and Ripley, who's become a surrogate mother to Newt. Several future stars made early career appearances in Aliens (1986), including Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Reiser. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, (more)
When a quintet of college classmates take summer jobs, their adventures lead to comic consequences. Max (Paul Reiser) gets a job working for the Cabrizzi Brothers moving company. Dwight (Robert Townsend) and Byron (Paul Provenza) become caddies, while Woody (Scott McGinnis) waits tables and Roy (Rick Overton) sells vacuum cleaners door-to-door. When all five get fired from their jobs, they combine forces to form a moving company in direct competition with the Cabrizzi Brothers. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Reiser, Robert Townsend, (more)
- 1985
Made for television, From Here to Maternity is an hour-long satire on 1980s self-involvement. The three ladies who are "with child" in the story have mixed feeling about their pregnant state. Part of the problem lies in their husbands and/or boyfriends, who aren't prepared for the responsibilities of fatherhood. Carrie Fisher, Arleen Sorkin and Lauren Hutton are the women in question. Among the clueless male characters are the ever-reliable Griffin Dunne and TV-star-to-be Paul Reiser. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
What's that wisecracking young black guy (Eddie Murphy) in that beat-up Chevy Nova doing in lily-white Beverly Hills? He's Axel Foley, a Detroit detective who's been sent on involuntary vacation because he refuses to drop his intention of avenging his friend's murder. Warned by Beverly Hills police chief Ronny Cox to stay out of trouble, Foley nonetheless dogs the trail of above-the-law Steven Berkoff, the British crime czar who was responsible for the murder of Foley's friend. With the help of sympathetic local cops Judge Reinhold and John Ashton and lady friend Lisa Eilbacher, Foley attempts to corner Berkoff in his mansion, which leads to a wild slapsticky shootout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, (more)
In this made-for-TV comedy an unemployed stand-up comedian is tossed out by his girl friend and so gets a job driving a limo. He is still determined to win her back, and nothing, not even his inadvertent involvement with two hit men, will stop him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Writer-director Barry Levinson's autobiographical first feature fondly remembers his Baltimore youth. It's late 1959, and six guys in their early twenties are stumbling into adulthood, alternating responsibility with carefree time at their local diner. The story centers on the return from college of Billy (Tim Daly) to serve as best man at the wedding of his pal Eddie (Steve Guttenberg). Billy is consumed by a confusing relationship with a close female friend, while Eddie still lives at home, preparing a football trivia test for his fiancée and vowing to cancel the wedding if she fails. Other characters woven into the narrative include Boogie (Mickey Rourke), a womanizer with a gambling problem, and Shrevie (Daniel Stern), a music addict with a troubled marriage. Diner became known for its bittersweet comic screenplay and its remarkable cast, which also included Paul Reiser, Kevin Bacon, and Ellen Barkin. In order to capture the loose, laid-back dialogue of the diner scenes, Levinson directed them last, so that the actors would be more comfortable with each other. Diner was the first part of Levinson's "Baltimore Trilogy," followed by Tin Men (1987) and Avalon (1990). ~ Norm Schrager, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Daly, Steve Guttenberg, (more)
