Marcell Rosenblatt Movies
- 2002
The detectives investigate when the wife of prominent -- and extremely dislikable -- defense attorney Harold Jensen (Peter Friedman) is found murdered. The popular consensus is that Jensen himself had been the killer's target because of his habit of betraying attorney-client confidentiality in many cases. After wading through a number of unsavory incidents in the lawyer's past, the police and the D.A.'s office latch onto a surprise development to crack the case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1999
A teenager is found dead in a hospital ER. The subsequent investigation leads to a bizarre religious ritual, "dictated by a saint." Once the D.A.'s office takes over the case, they must deal with a self-styled prophet with a powerful gift for mass persuasion -- which may prove problematic once the fanatical defendant faces a jury of peers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
A man is shot down and killed while apparently trying to change a tire. In the course of the detectives' investigation, a young man named Mike Bodak (Frank John Hughes) indicates that he'd come to the victim's assistance just before the shooting. Thanks to several holes in Mike's story, the "Good Samaritan" is arrested on suspicion of murder -- leading to yet another startling revelation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Investigating the murder of a social worker, detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) unearth an expansive foster-child scam. At the same time, a young black woman kidnaps her biological son from the child's white foster parents. This episode marks the return of former series regular Richard Brooks as attorney Paul Robinette, this time working against the D.A.'s office rather than with it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
James Lapine, whose Broadway credits as a writer/director includes work with Stephen Sondheim, made his Hollywood debut with this comedy. Michael J. Fox plays Michael Chapman, who once upon a time was a wise-cracking child star on a situation comedy called "Life With Mikey." Now in his thirties and on the skids, Michael makes personal appearances at grand openings of hamburger stands, and runs an unsuccessful talent agency (specializing in kids) with his brother Ed (Nathan Lane). The agency's only successful client is Barry Corman (David Krumholtz), a fourteen-year-old with an attitude who is known as "the cereal king" for his appearances on television commercials. Ed is trying to talk Michael into closing the agency and Barry is threatening to go elsewhere when a sprightly 10-year-old reprobate named Angie (Christina Vidal) tries to pick his pocket. When Angie delivers a heart-rendering tale of questionable honesty about being an orphan from Queens, Michael realizes that Angie would be perfect for a Sunburst Cookie commercial. She clicks in the commercial, and both her career and the agency's soar. In the meantime, Angie movies in with Michael, and as they bond, Michael realizes how to act like an adult and Angie realizes how to act like a child. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael J. Fox, Christina Vidal, (more)
- 1992
- R
A rebellious woman (Patricia Wettig) has continually made life hard for her younger sister (Elizabeth McGovern) by sleeping with her husband and wrecking her marriage. The older sister returns to her New Jersey hometown to cause more trouble before beginning a prison sentence. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth McGovern, Patricia Wettig, (more)
- 1990
The then-contemporary "Preppie Murder" case was the obvious inspiration for this 1990 episode of Law & Order. A wealthy and well-connected young man is charged with the murder of his girlfriend. The efforts of Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Robinette (Richard Brooks) to prosecute the case are stymied by a huge publicity blitz, and by the Defense's strategy of putting the dead woman's character on trial. "Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die" was originally telecast October 11, 1990, as a last-minute replacement for the scheduled episode "Poison Ivy" (which was moved up to November 20). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Writer Susan Isaacs and director Frank Perry of Compromising Positions re-team for this unsuccessful resurrection fantasy comedy. Shelley Long plays Lucy Chadman, the accident-prone wife of plastic surgeon Jason Chadman (Corbin Bernsen). When she chokes to death after eating a South Korean chicken ball, a funeral is held and she is mourned, but then everyone goes on with their lives and forgets about her. Everyone, that is, except her sister Zelda (Judith Ivey). Zelda runs an occult bookstore and as she peruses one of her books of incantations, she discovers a magical chant that can raise the dead. Obeying the rules of the incantation -- it has to be performed a year after the person dies and the resurrected person must find love within 30 days or the person will die again -- she brings back Lucy to life. Lucy immediately proceeds to her husband's home and finds that he is married to her best friend Kim (Sela Ward). She now has to deal with the changed circumstances of her husband, along with a burgeoning love affair with Kevin Scanlon (Gabriel Byrne), the emergency-room doctor who had tried to save her life. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Long, Judith Ivey, (more)
The year is 1947. Aspiring southern author Stingo (Peter MacNichol) heads to New York to seek his fortune. Moving into a dingy Brooklyn boarding house, Stingo strikes up a friendship with research chemist Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) and Nathan's girlfriend, Polish refugee Sophie Zawistowska (Oscar-winner Meryl Streep). There is something unsettling about the relationship; Nathan is subject to violent mood swings, while Sophie seems to be harboring a horrible secret. Stingo soons learns that both Nathan and Sophie are strangers to truth; the audience is likewise led down several garden paths by a series of sepia-toned flashbacks, depicting Sophie's ordeal in a wartime concentration camp. The scene in which we discover the facts behind Sophie's "choice" is a gut-wrenching one; it might have been even more powerful had not the film taken so long to get there. It is betraying nothing to reveal that the character of Stingo is the alter ego of William Styron, upon whose best-selling novel the film was based. The film is rated R, due in great part to a disposable scene wherein Stingo tries to put the make on a "liberated" female intellectual. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, (more)
