Kevin Scannell Movies

In the first part of Murphy Brown's series finale (originally telecast as a single 60-minute episode along with Part Two), Murphy's plans to retire from "FYI" are sidetracked when another mammogram shows a possible malignancy. Wishing that the late tavernkeeper Phil (Pat Corley) were around to provide comfort and support, Murphy is astonished when he shows up in ghostly form--and even more astonished by the ghost's advice. Meanwhile, the rest of the "FYIers" decide to follow Murphy's example by moving on with her lives. Among those making cameo appearances are Bette Midler as Murphy's 93rd and final secretary, Candice Bergen's real-life mother Frances Bergen, an actress who goes by the name of Julia Roberts, and even a computer-generated Edward R. Murrow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comedy chronicles the romantic exploits of a rather stodgy young man with a traffic fetish. Even as a child Charlie Dunlap was totally fixated by freeway traffic. Charlie's biggest idol is Alan Davenport, a radio traffic reporter. As a young man, Charlie falls in love with the lively, free-spirited Amy and they become lovers the night before she leaves for college. Their relationship disintegrates during her absence and Charlie ends up moving to LA to be near the great freeways. Even his rundown apartment overlooks the freeway. Single-minded Charlie is determined to get a job working for Alan Davenport, but his efforts to get hired at Metro Traffic are thwarted by an officious employee. He goes to a neighboring cafe and there discovers Amy working as a waitress. When not working, she performs with an experimental dance troupe that stages its productions at toxic-waste dump sites. Though he wants to start up their relationship again, she tells him she has found another. Charlie ends up having a passionate affair with his landlady. Later he meets Davenport and manages to achieve his dream and become his assistant. Through it all he still longs for Amy and in the end the two do indeed come together. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A young girl secretly adopts a runaway monkey only to have to deal with the simian's mischief-making tendencies in this family comedy. Young Eva (Thora Birch)'s dreams of having a pet are frustrated by the objections of her mother (Mimi Rogers) and allergic stepfather (Christopher McDonald). When she finds a stray capuchin monkey, she cannot resist it, and she keeps the animal -- which she names Dodger -- hidden in her room. Eva doesn't know that Dodger has just escaped from an evil organ grinder named Azro (Harvey Keitel, playing a regrettable Gypsy stereotype), who had trained the monkey to become an accomplished pickpocket. Old habits prove hard to break, and Dodger begins stealing everything in sight, landing Eva in plenty of trouble. Her problems are only compounded by the actions of the unscrupulous Azro, who wants to find Dodger and use him as part of an important robbery. The standard misunderstandings and slapstick comedy ensue, with the spunky Eva struggling to protect her new pet and herself. While probably too predictable to appeal to many adults, Monkey Trouble's skillful animal antics and resourceful young heroine may prove entertaining to youngsters. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Robert Altman takes a scalpel to Hollywood ethics in the 1990s (or the lack thereof) in his acidic satire The Player, adapted from Michael Tolkin's novel. (Tolkin also wrote the screenplay.) The film concerns a sleek and smooth Hollywood studio executive who starts receiving death threats from a disgruntled writer because he has committed the ultimate Hollywood sin -- he promised the writer he would call him back and he never did. This is particularly ironic because the studio executive, Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins), is considered "writer-friendly," spending his days listening to pitches from such noted screenwriters as Buck Henry, who is pushing "The Graduate, Part II" and Alan Rudolph, who is hawking a Bruce Willis action film described as "Ghost meets The Manchurian Candidate." But The Player finds Griffin's comfortable life style in danger of collapse. He is trying to find a way to unload his girlfriend (Cynthia Stevenson) whose independence and intelligence make her a poor candidate for a trophy wife. More importantly, it seems that Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher), a slippery executive from Twentieth Century Fox, is angling for his job. And then there are those nasty postcards and faxes from a screenwriter threatening to kill him. Altman cast over 65 stars in cameo roles as texture for his scabrous tale. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, recovering chemotherapy patient and cartoonist Gus Kubicek (Steve Guttenberg) is made over into every woman's fantasy man by his romance-novelist sister, Lizzie (Shelley Long). As Gus succeeds in sweeping the attractive reporter Emily Pear (Jami Gertz) off her feet, he must struggle with his desire to tell her the truth about who he really is and his fear of rejection. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Sidney Poitier makes his long-overdue return to films in the 1988 thriller Shoot to Kill. Poitier plays an FBI agent, on the trail of an elusive killer. Reluctantly teamed with tracker Tom Berenger, the citified Poitier braves the wilds of the Pacific Northwest in search of his quarry. For Berenger, the pursuit is personal; the killer, whose identity is not immediately revealed, has joined a hunting party being guided through the country by the tracker's girlfriend Kirstie Alley. Though only bearing the slightest resemblance to Real Life (you'll love the scene between lifelong city-dweller Poitier and a huge grizzly bear), Shoot to Kill delivers the goods in the suspense department. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Blood Feud was a two-part TV drama, originally presented as an "Operation Prime Time" special. Robert Blake is disturbingly convincing as labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, engaged in a decade-long war of words with attorney (and later attorney general) Robert F. Kennedy. Cotter Smith makes his TV debut as Kennedy, a role he'd repeat on future occasions. Thoroughly compelling when sticking to the facts, the drama falls apart whenever indulging in flight of fanciful speculation (Sample: two of Hoffa's lieutenants watch the live telecast of Lee Harvey Oswald's murder, then celebrate the fact that Oswald will never be able to reveal their complicity in the JFK assassination!) Blood Feud was syndicated to local TV stations beginning April 24, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A routine dry-cleaning delivery becomes a nightmare for George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley). Stopping over at a mental institution, George is mistaken for one of the inmates and is promptly locked up. Meanwhile, the real inmate goes over the wall -- and it looks as if there'll be a "new" George Jefferson unleashed upon the unwary world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide