Alan Blumenfeld Movies

A restored church belfry has a curious effect on the citizenry of Stars Hollow, with rapture and tears among the various and sundry reactions. In other developments, Rory (Alexis Bledel) goes after a malicious campus gossip who turns out to be Paris' latest boy-toy. Luke (Scott Patterson) fails to inform Lorelai (Lauren Graham) that he is now living with Nicole. And upon finding out that Lane (Keiko Agena) has been playing with a band -- and staying out until one a.m. to boot -- her mom Mrs. Kim (Emily Kuroda) reacts in exactly the way that you'd expect Mrs. Kim to react. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

There's no shortage of suspects when much-hated standup comic Dougie Max (Jeffrey Ross) dies during his act after drinking what appears to be tainted water. The plot thickens for CSI investigators Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) and Grissom (William L. Petersen) when a 15-year-old is poisoned to death by the same water in a convenience store. And Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) orders the re-opening of a case when the husband of Shelley Stark, who ostensibly died accidentally, is seen throwing his money around in the company of a flashy young woman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If not the best new drama series of the 2001-2002 TV season, Philly bade fair to be the loudest and most abrasive. NYPD Blue alumnus Kim Delaney stars as idealistic law school graduate Kathleen Maguire, who, after her divorce from assistant DA Daniel X. Cavanaugh (Kyle Secor), put out her shingle as a Philadelphia defense attorney. When Kathleen's partner Marion (Joanna Cassidy) suffers a nervous breakdown, she reluctantly goes into business with highly unethical lawyer Will Friedman (Tom Everett Scott), thereby launching a series-long shoutfest between the two strange bedfellows. If Will weren't headache enough, Kathleen also has to deal with slimy clients, ill-tempered judges, and a seemingly endless parade of eccentric courtroom habitué, most of whom have nothing but sex on their brains. Providing a bit of moral support and affection to the long-suffering Kathleen is her outspoken ten-year-old son Patrick (Scotty Leavenworth). It should be noted that a number of genuine Philadelphia lawyers actively disliked the series, labeling it "unrealistic" and "insulting" -- but they never said it wasn't entertaining. Executive-produced by the prolific Stephen Bochco, the weekly, 60-minute Philly was supposed to have been unveiled by ABC on September 18, 2001, but the network's coverage of the World Trade Center tragedy pushed the debut date up to September 25. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Greene (Anthony Edwards) ponders becoming the EMT medical director on a part-time basis. Benton (Eriq La Salle) worries that his son, Reese, may be hearing-impaired. Elizabeth Corday's father (Paul Freeman) arrives from England, and asks Elizabeth (Alex Kingston) to join his practice back in the old country, while Weaver (Laura Innes) offers the counter-suggestion that Elizabeth start over as an intern to learn American methods. And Carter's (Noah Wyle) first attempt to be the RA in the medical-school dorms isn't all that successful. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A 14-year-old boy is killed in a shooting. The prime suspect is the boy's classmate (Danny Gerard), who is hiding guns in his school locker. For police detective Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), there is more to the case than the standard investigation and paperwork; one of the parties involved is the son of Briscoe's old friend, former detective Ted Parker (Robert Hogan). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Don "The Dragon" Wilson from the Bloodfist series is back in another Roger Corman-produced action film. Here, he uses his martial-arts prowess to defend rock-and-roll singer Shanna (Deirdre Imershein) from a vicious serial killer (Mathias Hues). It's filled with stock characters like the "corrupt record producer" (Richard Beymer of Twin Peaks), and the killer is, naturally, a deranged Vietnam veteran. Never one to let a successful idea rest, Corman let director Charles Phillip Moore remake this in the Philippines as Angel of Destruction the same year, as well as funding a sequel, Blackbelt 2: Fatal Force. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

For most of his life, a former cop (Keith Carradine) has been tormented by his inadvertent involvement in the death of his parents. It happened during childhood. How was he to know the box he was asked to deliver contained a bomb? Now, after all these years, he learns the identity of the real perpetrators: gangsters headquartered in a Lake Tahoe resort. Armed with this invaluable knowledge, he meticulously plots his revenge. This thriller is based on a novel by Ronald T. Owen. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story, The Preppie Murder begins on August 26, 1986. This was the day that 18-year-old Jennifer Levin (Lara-Flynn Boyle) was strangled to death in Central Park. The prime suspect, Jennifer's 19-year-old boyfriend Robert Chambers (William Baldwin), confesses to the crime. The well-to-do young man insists that the killing was accidental; he claims that it occurred during a "rough sex" session that Jennifer had inaugurated. The ensuing media frenzy forces the old "she asked for it" defense to rear its ugly head. The Preppie Murder's attempts at fairness caused a great deal of critical turmoil when the film first aired on September 24, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama set in LA during the '40s, an infamous Hollywood madam is arrested and mayhem ensues as the names of her famous patrons, among them government officials and policemen, are revealed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on the true story that took place in Harlem during 1971, this made-for-TV crime drama centers on assistant district attorney Robert Tanenbaum's desperate search for a trio of cop killers. Tanenbaum (James Woods) is assisted by an equally determined detective (Yaphet Lau Kotto). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Jon Avnet's thriller Righteous Kill stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as a pair of Big Apple police officers investigating a series of murders committed by a serial killer. Carla Gugino co-stars as a crime-scene investigator who has romantic ties to De Niro. 50 Cent, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy, and John Leguizamo co-star. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

This interesting genre-jumping sci-fi/horror film plays much like a low-budget derivative of Alien and The Thing with a clever occult twist. The story takes place in lunar orbit, where a maintenance spaceship becomes marooned after a mysterious accident. Cut off from Earth contact and rapidly losing power, they encounter another derelict craft and its dead, mutilated occupant. They board the other ship to draw on its power plant, taking the corpse aboard for study, and soon discover that the ship was part of the U.S. Discovery program, reported lost after splashdown in the Bermuda Triangle -- at a point in direct line with the moon's dark side. Unfortunately for the crew, the significance of this correlation is discovered too late, as the evil force residing within the dead spaceman's body emerges to take possession of the crew's souls. This leads to a confusing game of "musical souls" as the paranoid survivors turn on each other, never sure which of them is acting under demonic influence. Although not particularly an original concept, this is still a very tense, nightmarish film, with high production values, claustrophobic atmosphere and some nail-biting moments. The filmmakers' attempts to communicate the crew's increasing confusion and paranoia are quite effective, though things go a bit overboard at the climax. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide