Lillo Brancato Jr.

Life on the streets is never easy, and when a disparate group of homeless teens attempt to mold a hopeful future from nothing more than cardboard and food dredged out of the local dumpster a street-smart counselor does her best to ensure that their efforts aren't made in vain. Genevieve Bujold, Joey Dedio, Burt Young, and Domenica Scorsese star in a gritty urban drama set in a world where every move you make could be your last. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Eddie Murphy gets way, way out in this futuristic sci-fi comedy. In the year 2087, the Earth's natural resources have been largely depleted, and an increasingly large number of people have taken up residence on the moon, where the pioneering attitude of the new residents has created a culture not unlike the old west. Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) is one such lunar exile who formerly made his living outside the law, but has since gone straight and now runs the hippest nightclub in the moon colony known as "Little America." Pluto is approached by Mogan (Joe Pantoliano), a gangster who wants to buy the nightclub; Pluto has no interest in selling, but it seems Mogan isn't about to take no for an answer. Pluto also discovers Mogan is in cahoots with Max Crater, a crime boss whose goal is to take over the entire moon. The Adventures Of Pluto Nash also features Randy Quaid as Pluto's robot bodyguard, Rosario Dawson as a naive singer who has just arrived on the moon, Peter Boyle as Rowland the pool hustler, Jay Mohr as old-school lounge singer Tony Francis, Illeana Douglas as a cloning technician, and Pam Grier as Pluto's mother. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Cult favorite Abel Ferrara directed and co-wrote this story set in New York City in 1993, before Mayor Rudy Giuliani's much-publicized crusade against street crime put a dent in semi-public drug dealing in the city. It's a few days before Christmas, and a Latin American couple living on the city's Upper East Side (Lillo Brancato Jr. and Drea de Matteo) are watching their daughter (Lisa Valens) perform in her school's holiday pageant. Afterward, the couple drop the child off with a babysitter and set out to run some errands. They have two items on their agenda: get their daughter the doll she's been asking for (a nearly impossible task, since the toy has become the must-have item of the season), then head to their work space uptown, where they prepare and package heroin for street distribution. While the wife has her qualms about the ethics of drug dealing, both she and her husband know there's plenty of money to be made in heroin -- more than most Hispanic immigrants could make working legitimate jobs in New York -- and the business has been highly lucrative for them. The couple discovers one of their lower-level dealers may be talking to the police, but they soon have a bigger problem to deal with when the husband is lured to the Bronx by a fence who can get him the toy he's been looking for. The husband finds he's been lured into a trap, and a kidnapper (Ice-T) gives the wife less than a half hour to collect and pay a huge ransom, or her husband will be killed. As in Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, the audience never learns the names of most of the major characters in 'R Xmas; also like Bad Lieutenant (as well as King of New York and The New Rose Hotel), Ferrara invited pioneering gangster rapper Schooly-D to contribute to the film's score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In the second-season premiere of this original HBO series, Mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) adjusts to some changes in both his families in the wake of his mother's betrayal and a legal crackdown by federal law enforcement. Tony's also dealing with the sudden reappearance of his sister Janice (Aida Turturro), a free spirit going by the Hindu name "Parvati," who's really a greedy schemer in the finest Soprano tradition. Claiming she's there to care for their hospitalized mother Livia (Nancy Marchand), Janice is angling to get her mother's house (or the proceeds from its sales) when Livia dies. Tony refuses to see Livia, who's "dead" as far as he's concerned and not invited to a family barbecue. Tony's Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) is in jail and Tony orders a hit on Philly, one of Junior's men, because Philly's blabbing about Tony's therapy. But Tony's psychotherapist Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), who's been reduced to hiding out and seeing patients in a motel room, refuses to treat her star patient despite his renewed panic attacks, telling him off at a diner. Nephew Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) expands into a new business venture involving a scam stock brokerage called Webistics. Meanwhile Big Pussy (Vincent Pastore) reappears, claiming to have undergone rehab in Puerto Rico. "Guy Walks Into a Psychiatrist's Office" premiered January 16, 2000. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Series co-star Michael Imperioli, who also wrote the feature film Summer of Sam (1999), penned the script for this episode of the popular pay-television drama. Shot several times in the previous episode, Soprano family lieutenant Christopher Moltisanti (Imperioli) clings to life in a hospital and has an out-of-body experience that brings him into contact with his ghosts of his late father and a slain former associate, Mikey Palmice, in the afterlife. Shaken up by Christopher's account of his supernatural journey, Paulie Walnuts (Tony Sirico) visits a psychic, a priest, and even Palmice's widow, convinced he'll go to Hell when he dies. Mafia boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) receives a tip regarding the whereabouts of Matt Bevilaqua (Lillo Brancato Jr.), one of the gunmen who shot Christopher, and pays Matt a lethal visit with Big Pussy (Vincent Pastore), who's forced to commit murder despite being a federal informant. Hearing about the illegitimate child borne by another mobster's mistress, Carmela (Edie Falco) urges her husband Tony to get a vasectomy, as she's aware of his affair with a Russian girl, Irina (Oksana Babiy). Tony insists the affair is over, but Carmela is highly skeptical. Janice (Aida Turturro) continues to pressure her boyfriend, Richie Aprile (David Proval), to move against her brother Tony. Tony blows up at his son, Anthony Jr. (Robert Iler), and then tries to rectify the situation by spending time with him. Tony also attempts to be a good husband; he tells Carmela he'll get a vasectomy, but she tells Tony she's changed her mind and may want another child. Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) confesses during a visit with her psychiatrist Dr. Kupferberg (Peter Bogdanovich) that she has made an unholy alliance with her notorious client and that she's becoming increasingly dependent upon alcohol and pills. "From Where to Eternity" first aired on March 12, 2000. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) proves himself a cagey leader in this episode of the cable TV series. When Tony's Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) is released from jail under house arrest due to a heart condition, Tony meets with him at the office of Junior's doctor, which cannot be wire-tapped by the government due to doctor-patient confidentiality laws. Tony allows Junior to earn a token five percent of his income and retain the title of "boss." Tony's still the one in charge, however, as he proves when he negotiates an end to a labor strike in a surprising way profitable both for him and a black community activist. Although Junior is nursing a serious grudge against his nephew, it's Tony he turns to when he injures himself in a bathtub fall. Janice (Aida Turturro) continues to worm her way back into the Soprano family by befriending her niece, Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), who gets her driver's license, and buttering up her mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand). Livia and Janice's new closeness is short-lived, however, because Tony's son, Anthony Jr. (Robert Iler), innocently spills the beans about his father and Janice discussing a "DNR" order. During a trip to the doctor's office for a steroid injection to alleviate back pain, Soprano family soldier Big Pussy (Vincent Pastore) is revealed to be working with FBI agent Skip Lipari (Louis Lombardi), but not everything Big P tells the federal agent is true, so who's playing who? "Do Not Resuscitate" first aired January 23, 2000. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

The regulars at a shot-and-a-beer bar in a decaying working-class town are the focus of Nick Stagliano's drama The Florentine. Michael Madsen plays Whitey, who owns a bar called The Florentine where most of the guys he knows hang out. His sister Molly (Virginia Madsen, Michael's real life sister) is soon to be married, and Whitey has been saving up for a nice reception. But when her old boyfriend Teddy (Tom Sizemore) comes back into town, bets for the wedding would seem to be off, which may be just as well -- Whitey's buddy Frankie (Luke Perry) got hold of the wedding cash and lost it to Billy Munucci (James Belushi), a con artist with a far quicker turn of mind. Whitey has other money problems; the bar has been mortgaged to a low-level gangster named Joe (Burt Young), who has been leaning on Whitey's friend Bobbie (Chris Penn) to pay off his mounting gambling debts. Bobbie is trying to stay one step ahead of Joe, which doesn't leave him much time to patch up his ailing marriage to Vicki (Mary Stuart Masterson). The screenplay by Damien Gray and Tom Benson was adapted from the Off-Broadway drama penned by Gray. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Lenny (Lillo Brancato) supplies the rarest of imported cigars to the city's highest rollers, who pay him dearly for his illicit "sticks." His latest shipment of Fidel Castro's favorite, the Los Mariposas brand, has been stolen by Maria (Justina Machado), who is trading them for guns to give to Cuban freedom fighters. But Lenny's mobster customers, lead by Domino (Leo Rossi), want their cigars, and the Feds want Domino. Lenny ends up between the two factions -- mobsters and Federal agents -- when the Feds compel him to become bait. All Lenny wants is his life -- and his cigars. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide

Two leaders with different philosophies about battle and leadership wage war with each other in this tense military thriller. Capt. Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman) is the commanding officer of a nuclear submarine, the U.S.S. Alabama. Ramsey is a distinguished veteran near the end of his career, and he leads his men with an iron hand; as he puts it, "We're here to preserve democracy, not to practice it." Ramsey is assigned a new second-in-command, Lt. Cmmdr. Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington); Hunter is much younger than Ramsey, Harvard educated, and believes the goal of the military in the nuclear age is to prevent war, not fight it. While at sea, word reaches the Alabama that a splinter group of Russian forces have seized missile silos, and the ship is put on red alert. The Alabama has orders to fire, but as it is receiving a new incoming order the radio malfunctions. It's Ramsey's contention that an order is an order and they are to move forward with the attack, while Hunter feels if there is any question at all about their mission, they should wait until they can receive further instruction, with Hunter going so far as to threaten mutiny against Ramsey if the missile strike is carried out. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Towne both contributed to the screenplay without credit. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Robert De Niro made his directorial debut with this expanded adaptation of Chazz Palminteri's one-character play. DeNiro's role of Lorenzo Anello, an Italian-America bus driver, is secondary to the part of his son Calogero, played by young Francis Capra. The top dog in Calogero's Bronx neighborhood is flashy "wiseguy" Sonny (Chazz Palminteri). When the boy witnesses Sonny commit a murder, he honors the code of the streets and refuses to tell the cops. Sonny befriends him and introduces the impressionable youngster to the creature comforts that mob connections can bring. But though he idolizes Sonny, the boy loves and respects his decent, honest father. It takes a major tragedy for the 17-year-old boy (now played by Lillo Brancato) to decide his true course in life. Though titled A Bronx Tale and set in the Bronx of the 1960s, the film was actually shot in the somewhat safer environs of Brooklyn and Queens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide