Peter van Norden Movies

Larry Gigli (Ben Affleck) is a low-level Los Angeles mob enforcer. His volatile boss, Louis (Lenny Venito), hires Gigli to kidnap Brian (newcomer Justin Bartha), the mentally handicapped younger brother of a federal prosecutor who's about to bring Louis' boss to trial in New York. Gigli gets the kid home without a hitch. Then a beautiful woman (Jennifer Lopez) shows up at his door. She says her name is Ricki, and Gigli soon learns that the nervous Louis has hired her to keep an eye on him. "In every relationship," Gigli soon finds himself expounding to his unwanted partner, "there's a bull and a cow." His efforts to maintain control of the situation are further hampered by the brief appearance of the insane Detective Stanley Jacobellis (Christopher Walken) and a forced visit to his overbearing mother's (Lainie Kazan) house. To make matters worse, when Gigli expresses his attraction to Ricki, he learns that she's a lesbian. She, meanwhile, proves herself considerably more capable than the lunkheaded Gigli, winning their war of words and even scaring off a rowdy group of high school kids. As Gigli and Ricki continue to look after the young, innocent Brian, they find themselves increasingly attracted to one another. But their potential budding romance is put on hold when Starkman (Al Pacino) arrives from New York, angry about how his affairs are being handled. Director Martin Brest, in his first film since 1998's Meet Joe Black, returns to the crime comedy genre that made his reputation. Brest also wrote the script for Gigli, his first since 1979's Going in Style. Stars Affleck and Lopez began a well-publicized romantic relationship on the set of the film. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Atlanta is the setting for a deadly scenario, triggered when a lethal virus is stolen from the local Biological Resarch Institute. The theft involves an illicit arms deal, not to mention a collection of rogue government agents--and the anticipated murder Fortunately, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is on hand to connect the dots and solve the case...but she'd better hurry before the virus is unleashed upon the unsuspecting populace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a true event, this is the account of the Buttafuoco couple, whose names were splattered all over the media in the early '90s after the alleged teen-aged playmate of Mr. B., Amy Fischer (who claimed it was Mr. B's will), shot Mrs. B in the head (though the latter miraculously lived). This particular perspective claims that Amy acted of her own free will and Mr. B never had an affair with her (only vaguely flirted) nor did he in any way encourage her to make an attack on his wife. CBS paid the Buttafuocos $300,000 for their story. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

Leslie Nielsen returns as the intrepid (and accident-prone) Lt. Frank Drebin in Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, "un film de David Zucker." This second feature film from the "Police Squad!" series finds Drebin as a guest at a White House dinner, receiving an award for shooting his 1,000th drug dealer, although he admits to shooting only 998 -- he ran over the last two in his car. ("Luckily, they turned out to be drug dealers"). Also at the White House dinner is energy czar Dr. Albert S. Meinheimer (Richard Griffiths), whom President George Bush (John Roarke) has chosen to start a new national energy policy. Since Meinheimer believes in promoting alternative energy resources, the evil leaders of the polluting energy industries (coal, oil, and nuclear power--or the lobby groups SMOKE, SPILL and KABOOM) are horrified at Bush's choice. Joining together with arch-villain Quentin Hapsburg (Robert Goulet), they plan to kidnap the real Meinheimer and substitute a fake Meinheimer in his place who will enact energy policy according to the dictates of the energy lobby. Drebin becomes deeply involved in the conspiracy when he runs into his ex-girl friend Jane (Priscilla Presley), who is not only Meinheimer's public relations director but also Hapsburg's current paramour. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The sixth-season opener of Murder She Wrote takes place in Athens, where mystery writer Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is reunited with suave but inherently untrustworthy British secret agent Michael Haggerty (Len Cariou). In order to help Haggerty rescue a kidnapped fellow spy, Jessica reluctantly agrees to pose as Haggerty's wife. Before long, our heroine finds herself up to her neck in peril, especially after the authorities find a dead body in her hotel room. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 100th episode of Murder She Wrote gets under way when a derelict is found dead in a New York alley. At first glance, it appears that the dead man succumbed to alcoholism, but the other clues--including several conspicuously missing items--don't add up. Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) teams with ulcerated NYPD lieutenant Hanratty (Barney Martin) to make sense of the case, leading both sleuths to a group of disreputable doctors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a real-life 1983 incident, The Accused tells the story of Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster), a working-class party girl who likes to live it up with her friends and flirt hard with the guys. After a fight with her boyfriend, she heads to a local bar to cool down -- and after a few drinks, plus some dancing and flirting, she finds herself thrown on top of a pinball machine and gang-raped by a bunch of locals, while others watch and cheer the proceedings. District attorney Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) takes Sarah's case but quickly negotiates a plea bargain in which the attackers' charges are reduced to reckless endangerment. Her reason: defense attorneys could use Sarah's not-so-pretty past to paint her as "asking for it," getting their clients off completely. But a stunned Sarah accuses Murphy of selling her out, and when the lawyer sees how the incident continues to destroy Sarah's life, she decides she must seek true justice. This time, she goes after the crowd of onlookers for "criminal solicitation" -- those who were egging the rapists on. Foster won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Small-town banker Robin Williams has never been able to live down the fact that he dropped an important pass during a crucial high-school football game. Likewise tainted for life is the team's star quarterback Kurt Russell, now a garage owner. Fed up with living his life under a cloud, Williams hits upon a brilliant idea: he will stage a rematch-13 years after the fact--with the members of the rival team. Trouble beckons when Williams' father-in-law announces that he's rooting for the opposition. Williams is determined to win, and in pursuit of that goal he pushes his former teammates to hitherto untapped brilliance. Directed by Roger Spottiswood, The Best of Times was written by Ron Shelton, future writer/director of such delightful sports films as Bull Durham, White Men Can't Jump and Tin Cup; it was Shelton, in fact, who directed most of Best of Times' climactic football game. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In Hard to Hold, pop singer Rick Springfield is cast as an immensely successful recording artist named James Roberts. As a result of a fender-bender accident, Roberts meets and falls in love with child psychologist Diana Lawson (Janet Eilber), who is not the least bit impressed with James' wealth or fame. He spends the rest of the picture following Diana all over San Francisco, much to the discomfort of his lovelorn writing partner Nicky Nides (Patti Hanson). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Blood Feud was a two-part TV drama, originally presented as an "Operation Prime Time" special. Robert Blake is disturbingly convincing as labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, engaged in a decade-long war of words with attorney (and later attorney general) Robert F. Kennedy. Cotter Smith makes his TV debut as Kennedy, a role he'd repeat on future occasions. Thoroughly compelling when sticking to the facts, the drama falls apart whenever indulging in flight of fanciful speculation (Sample: two of Hoffa's lieutenants watch the live telecast of Lee Harvey Oswald's murder, then celebrate the fact that Oswald will never be able to reveal their complicity in the JFK assassination!) Blood Feud was syndicated to local TV stations beginning April 24, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The estimable New Jersey-based Troma Films, the same firm that brought you such imperishable classics as Toxic Avenger and Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, was responsible for the raunchy baseball farce Squeeze Play. Rather than offer a litany of its highlights (such as they are), we feel that the tenor of the film is implicit in its bare-bones plotline. In the small town of Springborn (its principal industry is a mattress factory), the local all-male baseball team, The Beavers, celebrates each victory by bedding their wives, sweethearts and casual dates. Tired of this chauvinistic treatment, rebellious Samantha (Jenni Hetrick) organizes an all-girl team, the Beaverettes. She forces a battle of the sexes on the baseball diamond, pitting her buxom teammates against the dirty-playing Beavers. Rather enjoyable in its own sleazy way, Squeeze Play occasionally interrupts its R-rated sniggering to offer a parade of shameless product-placement plugs, and halfway through stops dead in its tracks for an interminable wet T-shirt contest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide