Marc Strange Movies

Saturday Night Live star Chris Farley had his first starring role in this frankly lowbrow comedy, which teamed him with fellow SNL cast member David Spade). Big Tom Callahan (Brian Dennehy) is the street-smart owner of a company that makes auto parts, and one day he'd like his son Tommy Callahan III (Chris Farley) to take over the business. Trouble is, Tommy Boy is a fat, dim-witted slob who took seven years to get a business degree and has no idea how to run a business. His father's sudden death unexpectedly puts Tommy Boy in charge, with his dad's weasely assistant Richard (David Spade) trying to guide him. However, what no one knows is Big Tom's wife, the young and beautiful Beverly (Bo Derek), married him only for his money while holding on to her lover, Paul (Rob Lowe), whose presence she explains by telling people he's her son. Beverly and Paul are waiting for Tommy Boy to run the company into the ground so they can take over, sell it off and earn a quick payoff. However, what Tommy Boy lacks in smarts (and hygiene), he makes up for in determination, and he hits the road with Richard for a long sales trip in a last ditch effort to rescue his father's legacy. Tommy Boy was a major hit that turned Chris Farley into a screen star; sadly, he was dead within two years of the release of his breakthrough film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An innocent law student gets accused of murdering a mob chief's son when a casino poker game turns into a fistfight that ends with a fatality. Soon the mob and the corrupt local police are after the kid whose only respite in this film is a short romance with a new-found sweetheart. ~ All Movie Guide

A plucky seventeen-year old hockey player proves that he is good enough to play on the Canadian national team in this drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The sublimely derivative Blindside stirs up a modicum of tension. The principal character is a onetime surveillance expert, who after purchasing a motel can't resist the temptation of spying on his guests. No, there's no shower stabbing here, but there isa brutal murder. Before long, our peeping-tom protagonist is up to his chin in drug-traffic intrigue. As the voyeuristic hero, Harvey Keitel is the most recognizable performer in Blindside; with the exception of the always welcome Lolita Davidovich, the rest of the cast is unremarkable. Filmed in 1986, Blindside was released in the US in 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Big Town is Chicago, circa 1957. Matt Dillon stars as a small-town crapshooter who heads to the Windy City to seek his fortune. There he becomes the pawn of two high-rolling professional gamblers, played by Lee Grant and Bruce Dern. He later gets mixed up in a revenge scheme cooked up by Diane Lane, the embittered wife of strip-joint owner Tommy Lee Jones. Before he knows what's happened, Dillon is embroiled in two torrid romances, one with Lane and the other with "nice" girl Suzy Amis; he also nearly loses his life by ending up in the middle of a deadly feud between Dern and Jones. Based on The Arm, a novel by Clark Howard, Big Town tends towards uneveness, a result perhaps of the defection of its first director, Harold Becker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Made for Canadian television, Shell Game stars Brenda Robins as a high-profile defense attorney. Right now, Brenda is defending client Germain Houde, who's been charged with murder. Vital evidence is twisted and tainted by certain interested parties. It is soon obvious that at least one of our protagonists has been set up for a precipitous fall. This Shell Game should not be confused with the 1975 American TV movie of the same name, nor the 1987 weekly series Shell Game ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Written and directed by Paul Almont, Isabel takes place in a Canadian coastal village. Genevieve Bujold, who must hold the patent for Enigmatic Young Women, plays a girl whose flawlessly beautiful face masks the maelstrom swirling in her mind. Isabel is haunted by the images of her family members, each of whom suffered a violent death. Believing herself the product of an incestuous relationship, Isabel enters into an affair with a young man who resembles her own brother. Marc Strange, who plays Bujold's paramour, also wrote the songs heard on the soundtrack of Isabel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first CBC dramatic series to be telecast in color, Hatch's Mill was set in the Ontario of the 1830s. The emphasis was on a family of homesteaders, whose father, Noah Hatch (Robert Christie) ran a combination general story and town meeting hall called Hatch's Mill. The series chronicled in boisterous, seriocomic fashion the efforts made by Noah to bring "civilization" to the community, efforts that often as not culminated in a contest, a race, or a knock-down-drag-out brawl. An impressive supporting cast and a stellar list of guest performances kept the lively proceedings even livelier. Filmed on location in the Northern Ontario town of Kleinberg, the series was created by George Salverson. Thanks to the merciless drubbing of Canada's most prominent TV critics, the run of Hatch's Mill was short indeed, lasting only ten episodes, which aired from October 24 to December 26, 1967. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide