Victor Steinbach Movies
- 1998
Angie Harmon joins the cast as A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael in the opening episode of Law & Order's ninth season. The focus is on the "ethics" of foreign adoptions, and the catalyst is the suspicious death of a baby girl. The detectives are puzzled by the secretive attitude of the infant's parents, who won't allow the authorities into their apartment. Once this matter is settled, the D.A.'s office sets its sights on Russian doctor Andre Kostov (Victor Steinbach), who for a price has been farming out unhealthy children for adoption in the U.S. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
This is the second dramatic feature to be made in Imax 3-D. The plotline, of a Russian immigrant boy who has come to New York to search for his long missing relatives only provides a thin excuse to offer an unparalleled, spectacular show case of the Big Apple, past and present. The past images were created from an enormous assortment of old stereoscopic photographs that offer the audience a rare glimpse of the city's early history and the fascinating lives of those who lived there. The present images are presented from a wide variety of viewpoints as Thomas, the 11-year-old protagonist, rides the roller coasters of Coney Island, experiences his first subway ride, and imagines that he is a bird over Manhattan. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The second film to be made from Woody Allen's successful stage comedy (following a 1969 feature starring Jackie Gleason), Don't Drink the Water is a made-for-television adaptation directed by and starring Allen himself. The fish-out-of-water premise remains the same: Allen plays Walter Hollander, a caterer from New Jersey who takes his family on vacation to a fictional Eastern European country. The trip turns sour when, thanks to a series of misunderstandings involving some inopportune snapshots, they are accused of espionage. The family goes on the run, taking refuge in the American Embassy. There, with the help of a wily young diplomat, they try to figure out a way to return to America without sparking an international incident. Though this version is set 25 years later than the original film, the changes are mostly cosmetic: the visual style is hand-held and more frantic, and the script replaces numerous references to the Cold War with a few glancing nods to present-day politics. Another notable change, the addition of an opening montage parodying newsreels, was reportedly the result of network pressure after Allen's initial cut proved too short for the planned time slot. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Another "get even with Hollywood" satire in the tradition of SOB and Movers and Shakers, The Big Picture is an elongated inside joke complete with un-billed celebrity cameos. In this first feature-film directorial effort by actor/writer Christopher Guest, Kevin Bacon plays a "boy wonder" director whose willingness to compromise his ideals allows him to keep afloat in Tinseltown. Bacon's corruption begins when his first Hollywood project, a black-and-white experimental film about an over-40 menage a trois, is distorted beyond recognition into a color, big-budget "youth trip". Bacon hasn't really sold out; he's merely waiting to accrue enough industry clout to strike back at the Philistines in charge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Bacon, Emily Longstreth, (more)
- 1987
- PG
In this African adventure, a boozy pilot and a US senator's sexy wife find themselves fleeing for their lives through the jungle after they witness a political assassination. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This belated sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is directed by Peter Hyams. Roy Scheider plays the astronaut/skipper of a U.S.-Soviet space mission, sent to find out what happened to the missing Discovery flight that carried Keir Dullea into the beyond in the original 2001. Scheider's polyglot crew includes Americans John Lithgow and Bob Balaban (the latter a computer whiz, responsible for the notorious HAL 9000) and Russians Helen Mirren, Elya Baskin and Natasha Schneider. The reason for this international mixture is that the world is on the brink of nuclear war, and it is hoped that the space mission will assure east-west solidarity (in this respect, 2010 dates far more than 2001, given the collapse of the Iron Curtain). When the astronauts catch up with Dullea, still in orbit around Jupiter, producer/director/writer Hyams attempts to demystify the enigmatic climax of 2001. Arthur C. Clarke, author of the story upon which 2001 was based, appears in 2010 as a man on a park bench. Incidentally, the voice-over credited to Olga Mallsnerd is actually Candice Bergen. (The name Mallsnerd is a play on the name of one of the characters created by her ventriloquist father Edgar.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, (more)
