Al Sapienza Movies

In the original box-office smash Under Siege, action hero Steven Seagal played Casey Ryback, a U.S. Navy SEAL who saved the world from nuclear destruction by outsmarting and killing off terrorists who had commandeered a submarine. In this sequel, Seagal's Ryback character does the same sort of thing aboard a train. Ryback now has retired from the Navy and is taking his niece Sarah (Katherine Heigl) on a vacation. They board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains. Criminal mastermind Travis Dane (Eric Bogosian) is using the train as a control center in his effort to kidnap a top-secret government outer space super-weapon. Dane built the weapon but then was fired by the government before it was deployed. He has hooked up with shadowy Middle Eastern terrorists who have offered him $1 billion to use the satellite to blow up the Eastern seaboard by targeting a secret nuclear reactor underneath the Pentagon. Dane shows the Pentagon that he's got control of the weapon by blowing up a Chinese chemical plant. Officials can't stop him because they can't locate his headquarters. As long as the train keeps moving, his location can't be fixed. Ryback learns of the plot and enlists a porter named Bobby (Morris Chestnut) to help him in his battle. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Although the corrupt Borough commander Haverell has been forcibly retired, Haverell's replacement, Clifford Bass (Larry Joshua), proves to be just as big a bureaucratic pain in the neck to Lt. Fancy (James McDaniel). Bass' interference bogs down the investigation of a woman's charges that her ex-husband murdered her daughter. On other fronts, Simone (Jimmy Smits) is distressed to learn that a childhood friend is mixed up in a mob-controlled nightclub. And Martinez (Nicholas Turturro) and Lesniak (Justine Miceli) go after a "cosmetic" con artist. Guest star Shirley Knight won an Emmy award for her performance as Agnes Cantwell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Terrence McNally's stage play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune was a two-character piece, which starred Kathy Bates and F. Murray Abraham on Broadway. Garry Marshall's film version of the McNally play streamlines the title to Frankie and Johnny, expands the dramatis personae to include at least a dozen fascinating characters, and "glamorizes" the decidedly unglamorous Frankie and Johnny in the forms of Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino (their first co-starring stint since Scarface). Purists carped at the changes, but overall the film is likeable enough to transcend these carps. While serving an 18-month sentence on a forgery charge, Johnny (Al Pacino) discovers the joys of cooking and classical literature. Upon his release, he is hired by gruff but good-hearted New York diner owner Nick (played by Garry Marshall "regular" Hector Elizondo). Also working for Nick is a waitress named Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer). When Johnny expresses interest in Frankie, she keeps him at arm's length, her mistrust of men stemming from an unmentioned but obviously traumatic experience in her past. Eventually, however, Frankie and Johnny do get together, their curious relationship setting the stage for a dramatic denouement wherein both lovers bare their souls. The bulk of the original McNally play is concentrated in the film's final 20 minutes; the rest of the picture is a kaleidoscope of comic and poignant vignettes and quick-sketch character studies. Of the newly minted characters, the standout is Nathan Lane in the traditional "gay best friend/severest critic" role: he plays the character so effectively that one forgets he's essentially a cliché. As for the stars, Al Pacino is ideally cast as Johnny, but Michelle Pfeiffer, superb though she is, seems a bit ill at ease as the emotionally tattered Frankie; she totally wins the audience's hearts, however, in the film's memorable bowling-alley sequence. Smoothing over the rough spots in Frankie and Johnny is the evocative musical score by Marvin Hamlisch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This inept, obviously low-budget, poorly-acted horror-comedy is primarily a showcase for Nai Bonet a belly-dancer turned actress in her role as Nocturna, the last descendant of Count Dracula. Nocturna has followed her love interest -- rock guitarist (Tony Hamilton) -- from Transylvania to Manhattan in spite of the wrath of her infamous grandfather, who proceeds to follow her. But his thirst for revenge is thwarted by Jugulia (Yvonne de Carlo), a vampiress with a protective bent toward Nocturna, her musician, and their friends. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide