Larry Silvestri Movies
Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a rookie cop who witnesses a robbery in progress on her first night on the job. With her more experienced partner using the men's room, Megan decides to take action on her own. She creeps into the supermarket where a man (Tom Sizemore in a small role) is holding the clerk at gunpoint. Megan gets close enough to shoot the gunman, and calls out for him to drop his weapon. He spins the gun toward her, and she unloads her service revolver into his chest. His gun goes flying, and a bystander, Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver), surreptitiously picks it up and takes it home. Megan's superiors, unable to confirm that the man she shot was armed, suspend her. Eugene, a wealthy commodities broker, becomes obsessed with Megan. He sets up an "accidental" meeting between them and begins dating her, romancing her with fancy restaurants and helicopter rides over Manhattan. He also carves her name into the bullets he uses to gun down strangers in the street. A tough homicide detective, Nick Mann (Clancy Brown of The Shawshank Redemption), gets Megan's gun and badge back so she can help him track down the psycho killer. Eventually, Megan realizes that Eugene is the killer, but he uses his money and influence to elude the law, and he starts coming after Megan's friends and family. Megan's determination to bring Eugene to justice quickly becomes a very personal obsession. This intense cop drama, Blue Steel, was director Kathryn Bigelow's major studio follow-up to her well-received indie vampire flick, Near Dark. Bigelow co-wrote both films with Eric Red (The Hitcher). ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver, (more)
- 1978
Famed for their supporting performances in Sylvester Stallone's Rocky, Burt Young and Talia Shire struck while the iron was hot to star in the made-for-TV Daddy, I Don't Like It Like This. Young also wrote the screenplay for this middling domestic drama. He and Shire play an endlessly bickering middle-class couple; the husband, an ex-boxer, is frustrated by his inability to fulfill his dreams, while the wife is hampered by emotional and intellectual immaturity. Both Young and Shire take out their hostilities on their son (Doug McKeon), who reacts to the ongoing strife by retreating into his own imagination. Daddy, I Don't Like It Like This was the first directorial assignment for Adell Aldrich, daughter of "cult" director Robert Aldrich. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
- R
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This feature-length spin-off of the popular television horror anthology is directed by John Harrison, who directed many episodes of the television series. The film consists of four grisly and gruesome horror teasers. "The Wraparound Story" stars Deborah Harry as Betty, a chef with a kitchen complete with Cuisinart and dungeon. She plans to cook a little boy, who delays his execution by telling Betty three tales of terror. The first tale is "Lot 249," based on the mummy story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The tale concerns Bellingham (Steve Buscemi), a bug-eyed graduate student who has raised a mummy from the dead. The second tale, "Cat from Hell," adapted by George A. Romero from a Stephen King story, deals with a broken-down millionaire (William Hickey), who has made his millions by developing habit-forming painkillers. He is convinced that, since 5,000 cats have been killed in his lab experiments in order to develop his pills, a stray cat has killed his family. He hires a hit man (David Johansen) to track down the cat and rub him out. The third tale, "Lover's Vow," is based on "Woman in the Snow," one of the episodes in Kwaidan.James Remar plays an artist who strikes a deal with the devil and is rewarded with a beautiful wife (Rae Dawn Chong) and a respectful art career. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deborah Harry, Christian Slater, (more)
Martin Scorsese explores the life of organized crime with his gritty, kinetic adaptation of Nicolas Pileggi's best-selling Wiseguy, the true-life account of mobster and FBI informant Henry Hill. Set to a true-to-period rock soundtrack, the story details the rise and fall of Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian New York kid who grows up idolizing the "wise guys" in his impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood. He begins hanging around the mobsters, running errands and doing odd jobs until he gains the notice of local chieftain Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino), who takes him in as a surrogate son. As he reaches his teens, Hill (Ray Liotta) is inducted into the world of petty crime, where he distinguishes himself as a "stand-up guy" by choosing jail time over ratting on his accomplices. From that moment on, he is a part of the family. Along with his psychotic partner Tommy (Joe Pesci), he rises through the ranks to become Paulie's lieutenant; however, he quickly learns that, like his mentor Jimmy (Robert DeNiro), his ethnicity prevents him from ever becoming a "made guy," an actual member of the crime family. Soon he finds himself the target of both the feds and the mobsters, who feel that he has become a threat to their security with his reckless dealings. Goodfellas was rewarded with six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture; Pesci would walk away with Best Supporting Actor for his work. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, (more)
Two runaway teens face life on the streets in New York City with a devil-may-care attitude and a punk-rock image. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Curry, Trini Alvarado, (more)
New York City detective Steve Burns Al Pacino receives orders from Captain Edelson Paul Sorvino to solve a series of brutal murders in the gay community. Steve scours the gay bars that caters to same-sex sadomasochism in a desperate attempt to solve the crime. As he infiltrates the scene, he slowly comes loose from the moorings of his own reality, and an innocent victim is tortured by the cops in an effort to exact a confession. The story is based on actual murders that took place between 1962 and 1979. The film gained considerable publicity because of the controversial subject matter while censor argued between an X and R rating for the feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, (more)
Walter Hill's hip, super-stylized action film unfurls in a dystopian near-future, when various gangs control New York City. Each gang sports a unique moniker ('The Warriors,' 'The Baseball Furies,' 'The Rogues'), with a costume underscoring its "theme"; each, in turn, is also responsible for one geographic area. Hill sets up the landscape as a massive, violent playground - replete with bridges, vacant subway tunnels, parks, abandoned buildings and the like, all ripe for exploration and adventure. As the tale opens, the titular Coney Island has traveled to the Bronx to attend a city-wide meeting of all gangs; at that event, however, the psychotic leader of a rival gang, The Rogues (David Patrick Kelly of Dreamscape) assassinates the head of the city's foremost gang, but The Warriors are pegged as culpable. This sends the gang fleeing through the labyrinthine city. With every thug in Manhattan in vicious, homicidal pursuit, they must also overcome all obstacles in their way. Throughout, Hill keeps the onscreen violence absurd, exaggerated and unrealistic, downplaying death to an extreme degree; despite this fact, the film sparked a massive amount of controversy and an ugly backlash for allegedly inciting violence and destruction in several theaters where it initially played. James Remar, Michael Beck and Deborah Van Valkenburgh lead the ensemble cast. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Beck, James Remar, (more)
- 1978
- R
In this touching tale, an amiable retarded delivery boy from Brooklyn works to help support his mother. Meanwhile his older brother keeps him safe from local punks; this sometimes creates turmoil for him as he must maintain a strong exterior to mask his love. While delivering his groceries, the young man often fantasizes about being Superman and marrying the young woman who works in a neighboring bakery. When he saves a child from a burning building, his fantasy becomes reality. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Proval, James Andronica, (more)
For better or worse, The Gumball Rally was the catalyst for a short-lived cycle of "illegal cross-country race" flicks. As thick-headed cop Roscoe (Norman Burton) does his best to stop the titular rally, a vast and varied contingent of contestants prepare to burn rubber from New York to California. The best-looking of the racers is played by top-billed Michael Sarrazin; Franco, a delightfully narcissistic Italian road jockey played by Raul Julia, also competes. Producer/director Chuck Bail was formerly a stunt coordinator, which helps to explain the incessant car crashes and near-misses in the film. Surprisingly, the doggedly low-budget Gumball Rally was produced by First Artists, a company formed by such major stars as Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, and Steve McQueen for the purpose of creating "prestige" film fare. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Sarrazin, Norman Burton, (more)
