Victor Truro Movies
- 2001
The strangled body of a woman is found in the Bronx. The victim had an abundant supply of Ecstasy in her handbag, a clue which leads the detectives to a drug dealer named Paz (Peter Greene). As the investigation proceeds, a past murder case is reopened -- whereupon the D.A.'s office comes to the disturbing conclusion that an innocent man may have been convicted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
One of the men killed while holding up an armored truck bears a distinctive tattoo of an eagle. This leads the detectives to a militant militia group, who declare themselves "prisoners of war" when rounded up by the police. One of the group's members (Denis O'Hare), appointing himself counsel for his comrades, demands that the jury enter a not guilty plea on the basis that the laws broken were "unjust" -- with surprising results. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
The reinstatement of New York's death penalty is the catalyst for this emotion-charged episode. Executive Assistant D.A. McCoy (Sam Waterston) insists upon using capital punishment to deal with the murderer of an undercover cop. But McCoy's more moderate associate Kincaid (Jill Hennessy) disagrees, citing a powerful argument against execution presented by defense attorney Helen Brolin (Maria Tucci). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Director Ron Howard's drama follows a beleaguered reporter during a hectic 24 hours at a New York City tabloid. Michael Keaton stars as Henry Hackett, a metro editor for the struggling New York Sun. Hackett is being wooed by the Sentinel, a more upscale paper, but he's addicted to the adrenaline-stimulating, breakneck pace of the Sun's newsroom, much to the consternation of his pregnant wife Martha (Marisa Tomei. Hackett is currently pursuing a story of two minority youths who have been arrested for the murders of two men. He learns that the police think that the killings may be a mob hit. In the court of public opinion, however, the innocent suspects are being judged as guilty, and the police may bow to the pressure. As Hackett and his staff desperately work all the story's angles to find the truth, several other dramas unfold. Top editor Bernie (Robert Duvall) learns that he has prostate cancer, and tough publisher Alicia (Glenn Close) wonders if her lack of popularity is due to her cost-cutting, her personality, or the fact that she's a woman. In their only collaboration, screenwriter David Koepp co-wrote the script with his brother Stephen Koepp, a senior editor at Time magazine. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, (more)
- 1994
Sam Waterston joins the cast as Executive Assistant D.A. Jack McCoy in Law & Order's fifth-season opener. The case at hand is a "revolutionary" breast-cancer treatment that may have caused a woman's death. The D.A.'s office pursues the woman doctor who developed the treatment -- and who may very well be the "quack" that her colleagues have claimed her to be. In his pursuit of the accused, Jack McCoy demonstrates early on that his zeal for justice does not always adhere to the letter of the law. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Logan (Chris Noth) and Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) run up against a "wall of brass" when they investigate the death of a female Navy officer, who was last seen alive at a wild party. The detectives' only witness is Ensign Evan Walters (Michael Dolan), who claims that he can remember nothing of the events leading up to the woman's death. Resistance to the successful prosecution of the case reaches to the highest levels of Navy bureaucracy -- but assistant D.A. Stone (Michael Moriarty) is determined to break through the official coverup. Future E.R. regular Julianna Margulies is seen as Lt. Ruth Mendoza. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
One of Woody Allen's most seemingly biographical films, Husbands and Wives opens with upper-middle class Manhattan couple Sally (Judy Davis) and Jack (Sydney Pollack) announcing to their best friends, the Roths, that they are splitting up. Gabe Roth (Allen) and his wife Judy (Mia Farrow) are taken aback by their casual revelation. Jack begins dating his dim, but sexy, aerobics instructor and Sally starts up a tentative romance with Michael (Liam Neeson). Gabe and Judy begin analyzing their marriage, discovering that they might not be meant to stay together. English professor Gabe begins a serious flirtation with a student of his named Rain (Juliette Lewis) and Judy begins to have feelings for Michael. Eventually, Sally and Jack reconcile, but have not improved their relationship. Gabe and Judy end up going their separate ways. Husbands and Wives was seemingly influenced by Ingmar Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Judy Davis, (more)
- 1992
A prominent African-American political leader is assassinated at a Harlem rally. Witnesses to the killing point their fingers at Mitchell Kobin (Jeff Gendelman), a white teacher. Contrary to first impressions, Kobin may not have been motivated by racism; the dead man was allegedly having an affair with the teacher's wife. This episode of Law & Order was the winner of the Edgar Allan Poe award, an honor bestowed by the Mystery Writers of America. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Shock to the System is a black comedy about a middle-aged advertising executive (Michael Caine) who loses his long-awaited promotion to a younger man (Peter Reigret). In frustration, Caine accidentally pushes a panhandler in front of a subway train--and he gets away with the death. Realizing that committing murder might be a little easier than he previously had thought, he begins plotting the murder of several of his corporate enemies. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, Elizabeth McGovern, (more)
Rusty Sabich (Harrison Ford) is a bland, oppressed man who burns with a quiet, corrosive intensity that can flare uncontrollably. A Philadelphia prosecutor, Sabich's fire seems to have one outlet: his job. He loves prosecuting people. Otherwise, his life is dead-ended. He has a loveless marriage to a neurotic woman (Bonnie Bedelia) and an overbearing boss (Brian Dennehy) in a labyrinthine law enforcement world of corruption and twisted relationships. Then Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi) comes into his life. Lovely and seductive, Polhemus easily entices him to break his marital vows, but she schemes to get him to try for his boss' job. When he refuses, she leaves him. When she turns up dead, the victim of an apparent rape-murder, clues begin to point to Sabich. His blood type almost perfectly matches that in the semen found in the victim, carpet fibers at the crime scene match those found in his house, and most damning, his fingerprints are found on a beer glass in Polhemus' apartment. His protestations of innocence ignored, Sabich is put on trial for the murder and hires his biggest adversary (Raul Julia) to defend him. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy, (more)
If you know the Clement Clark Moore poem, you'll know that Prancer is one of Santa Claus' "eight tiny reindeer." When 9-year-old Rebecca Harrell, who still believes in Santa despite the remonstrations of her parents and the taunts of her peers, stumbles across the selfsame Prancer in a remote part of the forest, no one will believe the girl. Later on, Harrell's no-nonsense father Sam Elliot comes across a wounded reindeer, he feels it his duty to put the suffering animal out of his misery. The deer, of course, is Prancer, and it magically vanishes before Elliot's startled eyes. Harrell nurses the deer back to health in secret, with the help of kindly doctor Abe Vigoda and her troublesome older brother John Joseph Duda. Harrell is determined to contact Santa and let him know where Prancer is, but her efforts only result in public humiliation for her father. But this is a Christmas film, and the spirit of goodwill is contagious by fadeout time, even transforming town-recluse Cloris Leachman into a warm-hearted social animal. Filmed in Indiana, Prancer isn't quite a classic, but it's perfect midwinter videocassette entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Elliott, Rebecca Harrell, (more)
- 1983
- R
This amateur, poorly interpreted psychological drama features Pat Stuart (Pat Russell, also the director) a young Midwestern woman with acting ambitions who travels to New York City in the hopes of turning around her current misfortune. Her parents have died, and her marriage to a businessman is ending. With nothing left for her at home but a depression she cannot handle, New York at least offers the possibility of a different life. When she meets John Stevens (Tony Craig), an actor and sculptor, he seems to give her the encouragement she needs. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat Russell, Tony Craig, (more)
- 1982
- R
When a young, single, neurotic New Yorker finds the perfect woman, he tries desperately to get her to fall for him. Young director Jonathan Kaufer has been compared to Woody Allen with this, his first feature. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Saul Rubinek, Marcia Strassman, (more)
Woody Allen's tenth film as writer/director, Stardust Memories opens with a scene reminiscent of the opening of 8 1/2 and continues to use that film for inspiration. Sandy Bates (Allen) sits in a train at a train station, the car filled with very unhappy looking people. In a train on another set of tracks, Bates sees a wonderful party going on. A beautiful woman blows him a kiss as the happy train pulls out of the station. Bates is a famous film director who has been invited to attend a festival of his work being held at the Stardust hotel. He attends the event, but is ceaselessly harassed by fans who accost him and repel him in equal measure. While consistently hearing the complaints from fans, critics, and even space aliens that his earlier comedies are superior to his dramatic work, Bates juggles a trio of women in his private life. His encounters during the course of the retrospective force Bates to take a long look at himself. Sharon Stone makes one of her first film appearances as the woman who blows Sandy a kiss. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Charlotte Rampling, (more)
On the heels of Annie Hall, the Oscar-winning romantic comedy that rocketed Woody Allen to the front ranks of American filmmakers, Manhattan continued Allen's romantic obsessions in a slightly darker, more pessimistic vein. Allen stars as Isaac Davis, a TV comedy writer sick of the pap he is forced to churn out and harboring dreams of being the great American novelist. His love life is in barbed-wire territory: he is tormented by his second ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep), a lesbian who has written a tell-all book about their marriage, and he is dating teenager Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), to whom he refuses to commit, and keeps hinting that a breakup may be imminent. Isaac's disillusioned (and married) best friend Yale (Michael Murphy) has begun an affair with the cerebral writer Mary Wilke (Diane Keaton). While Isaac makes a last minute, sink-or-swim decision to quit his job and devote all of his time to book writing, and neurotically moans about what the lack of a full time job will do to him ("My parents won't have as good of a seat in the synagogue," he moans. "They'll be far away from God... away from the action") Yale is crippled by his lack of resolve, as indicated by his inability to leave his wife Emily (Anne Byrne). Meanwhile, Isaac and {%Mary) begin to fall for one another. Tracy then tells Isaac the basic truth that none of his hung-up friends and past lovers fully realizes: "You have to have a little more faith in people." Manhattan is both a seriocomic dissection of perpetually dissatisfied New Yorkers and an ode to the city itself, filmed in glorious black-and-white by ace cinematographer Gordon Willis, and set to a score of rhapsodic George Gershwin music. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, (more)
