Dennis Boutsikaris Movies
Character actor Dennis Boutsikaris is a frequent television guest star and leading man in made-for-TV movies. After a few fairly small roles in the feature films Crocodile Dundee II and The Dream Team, Boutsikaris was launched into star status on many sentimental Lifetime original movies, including And Then There Was One and Chasing the Dragon. Although he has had regular roles on Stat, The Jackie Thomas Show, and Misery Loves Company, he may be more recognizable for his recurring guest appearances on Law & Order and ER. He's also appeared in straight-to-video releases (The Three Lives of Karen) and TV miniseries (The Last Don). In addition, he seems to have made a lucrative living on the side as a voice actor recording books on tape. Boutsikaris has been known to specialize in ripped-from-the-headlines style of TV docudramas such as Victim of Love: The Shannon Mohr Story, Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story (in the role of Woody Allen, no less), and Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, a dramatization about the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie GuideIn this moving drama, a mentally retarded woman is aided by a diligent attorney in her battle to keep her children from being placed in foster care. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Smart, Robert Pastorelli, (more)
Dennis Boutsikaris, a past master at portraying unlovable louts, appears in this episode as radio "shock jock" Marty Crane. Upset over the nasty jokes made at her expense by the irrespressible Crane, Murphy (Candice Bergen) is even more offended when Marty wins a date with her by pledging $10,000 at a charity auction. In the course of the evening, Marty changes his opinion of "ice princess" Murphy, and promises to say only nice things about her on the air--but alas, Mr. Crane has a curious notion of the definition of "nice". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A 17-year-old suffers a fatal heart attack which results in a major traffic accident. This tragedy leads to a morass of legal complications involving the sale of faulty pacemakers. Assistant D.A.'s Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Robinette (Richard Brooks) must determine who, at the end of the day, is truly to blame: the dead youth's doctor, the pacemaker salesman, or the manufacturer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Love, Lies and Murder is based on a true story that began its tragic unspooling on March 19, 1985 in Garden Grove, California. 23-year-old wife and mother Linda Brown is murdered. She leaves behind her computer-consultant husband Clancy Brown, her 17-year-old sister (Sheryl Lee), a 14-year-old stepdaughter (Moira Kelly) from her husband's previous marriage, and an 8-month-old infant. When police investigate, the stepdaughter confesses to the killing. This closes the case--until Mr. Brown callously marries his late wife's sister, and doubts begin to stir as to whether or not the stepdaughter was coerced into confessing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clancy Brown, John Ashton, (more)
Contrary to expectations, The Hit Man is not about a mob torpedo but instead deals with a Spielberg-style moviemaker, played by Dennis Boutsikaris. The villain is a loan shark (Nick Pryor) who's been reducing honest folks to penury. Utilizing the special-effects trickery at his disposal, Boutsikaris arranges a major sting to thwart the bad guy (F/X, anyone?) The Hit Man's crew is a lovable polyglot of misfits, the sort that would make excellent "regulars" were this TV movie a weekly series. Could this have been what the producers of Hit Man had in mind? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Sammy Bodean is the newest, most promising recruit according to the advertisement of the California Angels--and has to prove it come game time. Following the team's sale to young business whiz Gil Lawrence (Terry Kinney), ex-player Virgil Sweet (Edward James Olmos) has to prove himself as the team's talent scout to keep his job. Via a car break-down near a small farm-town in Idaho, Virgil stumbles across young Sammy Bodean (Jeff Corbett) who performs mean pitching skills in a rural sandlot. After bringing Sammy to LA where he pitches out the team's best, owner Gil begins a massive media campaign in which he appears in a press conference and not only brags of the boy's talent but of his intention to feature him--without warm-up or orientation--in the big game the following week. Virgil, though promoted to assistant manager, is upset at Gil's exploitative measures to save the slagging Angels at the expense of Sammy. Game day arrives and the pressure is on to keep the other team swinging, which causes young Sammy to choke. Or not. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward James Olmos, Lorraine Bracco, (more)
The then-contemporary "Preppie Murder" case was the obvious inspiration for this 1990 episode of Law & Order. A wealthy and well-connected young man is charged with the murder of his girlfriend. The efforts of Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Robinette (Richard Brooks) to prosecute the case are stymied by a huge publicity blitz, and by the Defense's strategy of putting the dead woman's character on trial. "Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die" was originally telecast October 11, 1990, as a last-minute replacement for the scheduled episode "Poison Ivy" (which was moved up to November 20). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Directed by Jan Egleson, Big Time follows a frustrated model (Mia Sara) through the ups and downs of the hectic and drug-addled late '80s fashion scene. The made-for-television feature also stars Ron Silver, Dennis Boutsikaris, and Adrian Pasdar, and is based on a play written by Keith Reddin. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mia Sara, Dennis Boutsikaris, (more)
In this drama, two brave policemen use their powerful, highly-specialized boat to take on drug smugglers in the Gulf of Mexico. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The eponymous team consists of four residents of a New Jersey psychiatric hospital: ex-postal worker Henry Sikorsky (Christopher Lloyd), who fancies himself a doctor; one-time ad agency exec Jack McDermott (Peter Boyle), suffering from a Messiah/martyr complex; writer Billy Caulfield (Michael Keaton), who cannot abide the "idiots" in the world (namely, everyone but himself); and TV-obsessed Albert Ianuzzi (Stephen Furst). Permitted a field trip to a baseball game, the four unfortunates wander off when psychiatrist Dr. Weitzman (Dennis Boutsikaris) is waylaid by two corrupt police officers after he witnesses them killing a third cop. The innocent inmates are accused of attacking Dr. Weitzman, but it is they who team up to bring the actual culprits to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd, (more)
Internal Affairs is the second TV-movie based on the works of detective novelist William Bayer. Richard Crenna, who first played NYPD detective Richard Janek in 1985's Doubletake, is back, now as a functionary of Internal Affairs. He has been assigned to solve the murder of a woman who may have been the victim of a kinky serial killer who'd flourished in Saigon 12 years earlier. Meanwhile, Janek's ex-boss (Lee Richardson), now a jailbird, gives the Janek the tip that several cops may be illegally selling guns. Internal Affairs was originally telecast in two parts in November of 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
An evil drug baron rears his ugly head in this sequel to the blockbuster Crocodile Dundee, kidnapping Sue so that Dundee will butt out of the Baron's affairs. Using outback strategy, Dundee attempts to rescue his girlfriend. Reversing the procedure of the first film, the story later takes the hero and heroine from America back to Australia, making Sue the fish out of water. In the interim between the two films, stars Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski became husband and wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, (more)
Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy are among the impoverished residents of a slum tenement threatened with demolition by evil land developers. Only a miracle can save Cronyn, Tandy, and their friends -- and that miracle manifests itself in the form of a "family" of extraterrestrial flying saucers, who need the electricity provided by the tenement to survive. The grateful humanized spaceships repay their earthbound hosts by doing battle with the villains' henchmen. When the building is engulfed in flames, all seems lost, but the aliens have a few more tricks up their metallic sleeves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, (more)
Never released theatrically, this sex comedy is set in an apartment in Moscow with one bathroom, one kitchen and 31 inhabitants. While this may make the rent affordable for everyone, it's no help when filming inside such a set. A few of the major characters are Vera (Lee Taylor Allen), whose mother Galina (Shelley Winters) is trying to match her up with her alcoholic boss Kiril (Paul Sorvino). Meanwhile, Vera is pretending to carry on a lesbian affair with a neighbor for no reason other than to drive their local gossips up the wall. The lack of privacy and overwrought slapstick make this a hard pill to swallow. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Winters, Paul Sorvino, (more)
Based on an autobiographical novel by Jack Eisner, this wartime drama of survival covers almost too much territory within its short telling, often giving the impression that something has been left out. Jacek, who is Jewish, miraculously manages to survive World War II in Nazi-occupied Poland. Director Moshe Mizrahi brings forward the reality of the Warsaw ghetto, the deportation of Jews to death camps, and the terror that reigned for the war years in Poland by placing Jacek at crucial points in the narration as the observer of key historical events. As a subplot to Jacek's story, which also involves a love affair with Haling (Kyra Sedgwick) and German soldiers' repeated attempts to kill him, is a tale of how young kids in the Warsaw ghetto devise their own method of fighting oppression. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sebastian Keneas, Kyra Sedgwick, (more)
Based on a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, this made-for-television drama tells the tale of a college student, a mysterious young woman and a strangely beautiful garden. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A Vietnam veteran declares a one-man war on crime in this vigilante revenge thriller. Michael Jefferson (Steve James) saved the life of his best friend John Eastland (Robert Ginty) while the two were serving in Vietnam, so when Jefferson is left permanently paralyzed after a vicious attack by muggers, Eastland is determined to get revenge. Declaring war not only on the thugs who injured Jefferson but the entire lawless underclass, Eastland becomes known as "The Exterminator" for his swift and deadly retaliation against muggers and other street criminals. While Eastland's actions may be making for safer streets, they're also illegal, and just as the mob have put a price on Eastland's head, Detective James Dalton (Christopher George) has set his sights on putting "The Exterminator" out of business. Jazz great Stan Getz makes a cameo appearance as himself. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher George, Samantha Eggar, (more)



















