Ralf Bode Movies
Born in Germany and educated in New England, cinematographer Ralf Bode attended the film and drama departments of Yale University. While in the American army, Bode received the practical camera training that would serve him well in the movie industry. After working as a lighting designer for director John Avildsen, Bode received his first film credit on the minor feature Foreplay, followed by a 2nd unit photography assignment on Avildsen's Rocky (1976). His next assignment, Saturday Night Fever (1977), secured Bode's reputation as a master of evocative lighting and color schemes. Bode has since brought to cinematic life the Southeastern coal fields of Coal Miner's Daughter (1981), the bleakness of wintertime Moscow in Gorky Park (1983), the sleaziness of the blue-collar barhopping scene in The Accused (1988), and the melting-pot ambience of Chicago and its suburbs in Uncle Buck (1989). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this romantic comedy, good friends change their feelings about each other over the course of their four years in college. Ryan (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and Jennifer (Claire Forlani) have known each other since grade school, though their oil-and-water personalities don't always mesh. Engineering student Ryan focuses on his studies and future career, while Jennifer likes loud music, partying, and not doing her homework. As they suffer their share of disastrous relationships, these two opposites begin to wonder if they were meant to be more than friends. The supporting cast includes Jason Biggs as Ryan's loudmouth roommate Hunter, Amanda Detmer as Jennifer's neurotic pal Amy, Alyson Hannigan as Ryan's sometime girlfriend Betty, and Heather Donahue, who is no worse for wear after her experiences in the Maryland woods in The Blair Witch Project. Director Robert Iscove also worked with Prinze on She's All That (1999). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Freddie Prinze, Jr., Claire Forlani, (more)
- 1999
This follow-up to the acclaimed made-for-TV movies Sarah, Plain and Tall and Skylark finds Sarah (Glenn Close) and her husband Jacob (Christopher Walken) dealing with the trials of life on their Kansas farm in 1918. Jacob must contend with the unexpected arrival of John (Jack Palance), his father, who left him and his mother behind many years ago, while Sarah is worried about her eldest daughter Anna (Lexi Randall), who has left home to help treat the victims of the influenza epidemic. Anna, meanwhile, has worries of her own, as her boyfriend has just shipped out to fight in WWI. Based on the novel by Patricia MacLachlan, Sarah, Plain & Tall: Winter's End was produced as part of the award-winning anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, (more)
- 1999
Based on a true story, The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer concerns the notorious Ira Einhorn, a political activist turned murder suspect who eluded Philadelphia police for nearly 20 years. In 1968, Texas-born Holly Maddux (Naomi Watts) left home to attend Bryn Mawr College, and two years later she made the acquaintance of Einhorn (Kevin Anderson), a community organizer and activist well known for leading peaceful crusades and as the key figure in Philadelphia's radical community. Holly and Ira became romantically involved, but, despite his public image, behind closed doors Einhorn was often abusive and manipulative, though Holly, for her own reasons, accepted his poor treatment and infidelity. In 1977, Holly had reached the end of her rope and told friends she was leaving Ira, intending to return to their apartment only to collect her belongings. She was not seen again for several months, until her corpse was found stuffed in a trunk in Ira's apartment. Einhorn was arrested in connection with the crime, but was released on bail, only to flee the country, surfacing in France four years later. Convicted 'in absentia' for Holly's murder in 1993, Einhorn was extradited to the United States in 1997 under the condition he receive a new trial. The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer was produced for NBC Television, and was first aired as a two-part miniseries in May 1999. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Anderson, Tom Skerritt, (more)
- 1999
Yet another teenager discovers how difficult growing up can be in this comedy-drama. It's 1973, and 15-year-old Natalie (Majandra Delfino), shy and bookish, is caught in the emotional crossfire at home when her hippie-ish mom, Ruby (Linda Hamilton), discovers that dad, Hugh (Eugene Levy), a psychology professor at a local college, has been having an affair with one of his students. Natalie is having problems of her own, of the "boys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses" variety, which is not helped very much by her friend Kay (Megan Good), who is pretty enough to have already caught the attention of several good-looking boys. However, much to Natalie's surprise, one of Kay's new flames starts giving her the eye, and appears to like what he sees. The Secret Life Of Girls was the directorial debut for screenwriter Holly Goldberg Sloan, whose previous credits include the remakes of Angels In The Outfield and Mighty Joe Young. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Hamilton, Eugene Levy, (more)
- 1998
This two-hour TV entertainment special takes a surface skim (95 minutes minus commercials and promos) over the history of CBS, quickly skipping past decades of CBS radio to concentrate on CBS television from the late '40s to the present. It features more than a dozen hosts (Adam Arkin, Ed Bradley, Carol Burnett, David Copperfield, Roma Downey, Fran Drescher, Don Johnson, Angela Lansbury, David Letterman, Cheech Marin, Mary Tyler Moore, Dan Rather, Della Reese, Ray Romano, Jane Seymour) introducing a parade of primetime clips covering a variety of shows, events, and people -- Ed Sullivan, The Carol Burnette Show, 60 Minutes (Mike Wallace interviewing Barbra Streisand), Gunsmoke, The Honeymooners, Edward R. Murrow (his oft-seen editorial on Joe McCarthy), I Love Lucy, The Twilight Zone, The Waltons, Dan Rather reporting from Vietnam, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Green Acres, Dallas, Petticoat Junction, The Beverly Hillbillies, M*A*S*H, The Andy Griffith Show, Murphy Brown, the JFK assassination, and more -- with reminiscences from Tom and Dick Smothers, David Letterman (on Ed Sullivan), Larry Hagman (on "Who shot J.R.?"), Alan Alda, Ron Howard, Walter Cronkite, and others. At 95 minutes, these nostalgic nods, truncated tributes, and familiar faces might leave many viewers yearning for an archeological dig through the little-seen rarities and antiquities buried in the Museum of Television & Radio collection while waiting for the major networks to cover broadcasting history in depth. Premiered May 20, 1998 on CBS. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adam Arkin, Ed Bradley, (more)
- 1997
- Add Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella to QueueAdd Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella to top of Queue
Seen on ABC's Wonderful World of Disney, this $12-million production is the only musical Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote for television. The CBS-TV original, with 21-year-old Julie Andrews in the title role and Edie Adams as the Fairy Godmother, played on live television March 31, 1957 to TV's largest audience ever to that date (107-million viewers). That historic production, captured on kinescope, can still be seen today on library monitors at the Museum of Television & Radio in New York and Los Angeles. Hammerstein died in 1960 and did not get to see 18-year-old Lesley Ann Warren as Cinderella in the February 22, 1965 restaged production, repeated annually on CBS until 1977 and later made available on videotape from CBS/Fox Video and Facets Multimedia. Added to the 1965 show was "Loneliness of Evening", a song actually written for South Pacific but cut before the Broadway opening.
Running a half-hour longer, this third interpretation premiered November 2, 1997. Filmed over a 28-day period, it stars Brandy Norwood as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother, with Bernadette Peters as the Stepmother, Whoopi Goldberg as the Queen (wearing $60 million worth of borrowed Harry Winston jewelry), Paolo Montalban as the Prince, and Jason Alexander as the Prince's steward, Lionel. Scripter Robert L. Freedman provided a rewrite of the original Oscar Hammerstein book, and three other Richard Rodgers songs were added to the existing score: "There's Music in You" (from the 1953 movie musical Main Street to Broadway), "The Sweetest Sounds" (a Brandy/Montalban duet), and "Falling in Love with Love". Originally set in motion as a follow-up to the highly successful TV Gypsy (1993) with Bette Midler, this 1997 multicultural version (sometimes referred to as the "rainbow Cinderella") was years in the making, since it was initiated in 1994 when Houston joined executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (the team responsible for the TV Gypsy). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Running a half-hour longer, this third interpretation premiered November 2, 1997. Filmed over a 28-day period, it stars Brandy Norwood as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother, with Bernadette Peters as the Stepmother, Whoopi Goldberg as the Queen (wearing $60 million worth of borrowed Harry Winston jewelry), Paolo Montalban as the Prince, and Jason Alexander as the Prince's steward, Lionel. Scripter Robert L. Freedman provided a rewrite of the original Oscar Hammerstein book, and three other Richard Rodgers songs were added to the existing score: "There's Music in You" (from the 1953 movie musical Main Street to Broadway), "The Sweetest Sounds" (a Brandy/Montalban duet), and "Falling in Love with Love". Originally set in motion as a follow-up to the highly successful TV Gypsy (1993) with Bette Midler, this 1997 multicultural version (sometimes referred to as the "rainbow Cinderella") was years in the making, since it was initiated in 1994 when Houston joined executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (the team responsible for the TV Gypsy). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whitney Houston, Brandy, (more)
In this satirical "inside" look at the world of TV scripters, agent Danny (Tom Arnold) gives a 22-episode assignment to depressed, self-destructive writer-producer Brian (Stephen Rea), creatively spent and bereft of ideas. At his weekly poker game, Brian sees a romantic couple on a hotel balcony. When he tells the other writers about this, it triggers an impromptu story session. All four retreat across the street to the bar where Brian sees Georgia Feckler (Illeana Douglas) and decides she was the woman on the balcony. Desperate for ideas, he offers to buy the story of her life. After Brian vanishes with Georgia, his fellow scripters become concerned as to his whereabouts and decide to break into his living quarters. Shown at the AFI/Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Illeana Douglas, (more)
- 1997
- PG
This comic children's fantasy from director Michael Ritchie stars Mara Wilson as eight-year-old New Yorker Anabel, who wishes that her father Oliver (Robert Pastorelli), a hansom cab driver in Central Park, would see his dream come true. In a thinly veiled jab at the overblown stage productions of Andrew Lloyd Weber, Oliver aspires to be cast in the lead role in a new big-budget musical based on A Tale of Two Cities. Anabel's wish is received by Murray (Martin Short), the very first male fairy godmother, a bumbler who predictably botches the spell fulfilling Anabel's wish, turning Oliver into a statue instead. In order to reverse the mistake, Murray needs help from his union, the North American Fairy Godmothers Association (NAFGA), which is holding a convention in Manhattan. Enter Claudia (Kathleen Turner), a scheming former fairy godmother turned witch, who steals the attendees' magic wands, intending to use their magic in a bid for power. A Simple Wish (1997) was one of four films representing the initial slate of The Bubble Factory, a movie production house assembled by the theater world's Sheinberg family. Their other films were The Pest (1997), McHale's Navy (1997), and For Richer or Poorer (1997). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Short, Mara Wilson, (more)
- 1995
This production presents the complete text of A Streetcar Named Desire, the 1947 Tennessee Williams masterpiece. The story centers on the destruction of a lonely Mississippi widow, Blanche DuBois (Jessica Lange), by her brutally outspoken brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski (Alec Baldwin). The play begins when Blanche arrives in New Orleans from Laurel, Mississippi, at the squalid apartment of her pregnant sister, Stella, and Stella's husband, Kowalski. After announcing that she is on leave from a teaching position, Blanche discloses that creditors have expropriated the family estate, Belle Reve. Consequently, sister Stella will never receive a penny of her share in the property. Skeptical, Stanley angrily demands documented proof of the property loss. Blanche provides it. The lingering animosity from this incident then builds relentlessly over several months. To protect herself from Stanley and his crude working-class world, Blanche cocoons herself in a delusional world of Old South ideals. She is ever the aristocratic belle. Truculent Stanley, however, seizes every opportunity to bullyrag dainty Blanche. He despises her elegant ways, her put-on airs. In turn, she shudders at his rudeness and vulgarity. But deep in her lonely soul--deep in the instinctual id that drove her to promiscuity in Laurel--she harbors a perverse attraction for Stanley. Her mental state, meanwhile, verges on insanity; one day her prince will come, an Old South cavalier with a gleaming sword. When Stanley's friend Mitch woos her, Stanley sabotages the romance after digging into Blanche's past and tattling to Mitch about her affairs. Stella goes into labor and gives birth. When proud papa Stanley returns from the hospital, Blanche is swilling liquor. Stanley gulps a few and rapes Blanche. She then steps across the border between the real and the unreal as the play draws to a conclusion. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessica Lange, Alec Baldwin, (more)
A psychiatrist treats a most unusual patient, only to find that the doctor is the one who gains the most from their sessions in this philosophical romantic comedy. A young man in a mask and cape (played by Johnny Depp) is standing atop a billboard, threatening to jump. When the potential suicide is finally talked down, he's brought to a psychiatric facility where after one doctor washes his hands of the case, he's placed under the supervision of Dr. Jack Mickler (Marlon Brando), an aging psychiatrist soon to retire. The patient informs Mickler that he is actually the great lover Don Juan, who has seduced over 1,500 women, but has fallen into a deep depression after being unable to win the hand of the woman of his dreams. Mickler has ten days to work with "Don Juan," after which he will either be released on medication or committed to a long-term stay in a mental hospital. As Mickler talks with the young man, who speaks rapturously of the art of love, the doctor finds that his philosophies are helping to kick start his failing relationship with his wife (Faye Dunaway), and he slowly becomes convinced that his patient might really be Don Juan after all. Don Juan DeMarco's theme song, "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman," became a major hit for singer and songwriter Bryan Adams; after working with Marlon Brando on this film, Johnny Depp cast the legendary actor in a key supporting role in his directorial debut, The Brave. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp, (more)
In this Disney comedy that bears a suspicious resemblance to The Mighty Ducks, the down-trodden cynical young misfits of a run-down Texas town, devastated by the closing of its one major industry, find renewed hope and spirit at the hands of a plucky British foreign-exchange teacher who introduces them to soccer. When British elementary school teacher Anna Montgomery arrives in the dusty town and first meets the depressed and frequently angry youths, she immediately knows she must do something to somehow make them feel better about themselves and so decides to enroll them into a soccer league. Naturally the kids are at first awful and are soundly pummeled during their first game. Fortunately, former high school football champ, Deputy Sheriff Tom Palmer decides to give the pretty and single Anna a helping hand, and between the two of them manage to whip the kids into shape so they can beat the arrogant state champion team, helmed by Palmer's old rival Jay Huffer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A large, dysfunctional family awaits word on a loved one's fate in this domestic drama starring Susan Sarandon as Mag Singer, mother of seven sons. One, Percival (Matt Keeslar) is serving in the Marine Corps, and when news comes that his barracks in the Middle East has been bombed by terrorists, Mag's family assembles at her home, anxious for more information. In the meantime, a series of old wounds are reopened and healed. The prodigious Singers include the father, Patrick (Sam Shepard), unhappily estranged from Mag and prone to bouts of hysterical blindness, and Alfred (Robert Sean Leonard), the responsible, sober eldest, who is engaged to divorced mother Cynthia (Marcia Gay Harden). There's also Simon (Nick Stahl), the intellectual Izzy (Sean Astin), two twins, and guilt-wracked Gideon (Jason London), a track star who outshone Percival athletically, inspiring the latter to join the military. While the Singers deal with minor crises like a neighbor's dog that repeatedly attacks Simon, Percival's fate looms, and Mag deals with her fear by cleaning out the ramshackle garage and drinking Tequila with her daughter-in-law to be, Cynthia, with whom she's surprised to find much in common. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Sarandon, Sam Shepard, (more)
Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell, and Drew Barrymore are the stars of this Western whose main gimmick is making heroes into heroines. They all start out as prostitutes, as Cody (Stowe) shoots a drunken colonel who attempts to molest Anita (Masterson). She is about to be lynched for defending her friend when the other "bad girls" ride in and rescue her, pursued by detectives. The rest of the film follows their adventures as they get caught up in hostage situations, bank robberies, shootouts, and romantic interludes with handsome young cowboys with never a hair out of place or an unsightly smudge of Western dust. Amazingly, all four former prostitutes are able to ride, shoot, rope, and fight as well. Bad Girls is not likely to be thought of as a realistic view of how women lived in the Old West. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, (more)
Based on a Broadway play and featuring the Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim score, this is a remake of the 1962 movie which was based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, a stripper, depicting her life growing up in "show biz." ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Midler, Cynthia Gibb, (more)
Richard Benjamin directed this farce that plays like "Guess Who's Coming for Insemination?" Whoopi Goldberg stars as Sarah Matthews, who runs an African-American oriented bookstore in Oakland. She is raising her daughter, a beautiful high school student named Zora (Nia Long), on her own after her husband's death many years earlier. As a result of a science class blood test, Zora discovers that the man she thought was her father actually wasn't. Instead Zora finds she was the result of artificial insemination. After researching the sperm bank's records, Zora discovers, much to the surprise of Sarah and herself, that the anonymous sperm donor is in fact, Hal Jackson (Ted Danson), a loud, crude obnoxious (and white) used-car dealer who advertises on late-night television. Zora visits Hal while he is filming a commercial and Hal brushes her off. Enraged, Sarah tells Hal off, but after meeting Zora he now feels a paternal itch. Not only that, but he is beginning to feel an attraction to Sarah. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whoopi Goldberg, Ted Danson, (more)
- 1993
- G
- Add George Balanchine's The Nutcracker to QueueAdd George Balanchine's The Nutcracker to top of Queue
Director Emile Ardolino's final film brings to the screen George Balanchine's famed ballet of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. Balanchine's choreography has been restaged by the New York City Ballet under the direction of Peter Martins and features dancers Darci Kistler and Damian Woetzel as the Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier. Unfortunately, it also features a smirking and incongruous Macauley Culkin as The Nutcracker. The familiar tale concerns Marie (Jessica Lynn Cohen), a young girl who, at Christmas time, is given a gift of a nutcracker by her godfather, a magician. She also meets his nephew (played by Culkin). When she falls asleep, in her peaceful Christmas Eve dreams, the Nutcracker is transformed into a prince who rescues Marie from a multi-headed Mouse King and takes her on a trip to the Land of Sweets. The film is narrated in hushed tones by Kevin Kline. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Darci Kistler, Damian Woetzel, (more)
- 1992
- R
Meg Tilly and Christine Lahti star in this female buddy story that recalls the earlier Thelma and Louise. Marianne (Meg Tilly) is a quiet waif who has just walked out on her abusive husband. Darly (Christine Lahti) is a brassy waitress who was a ballsy stripper using the stage name Pillow Talk. Darly is on her way to Alaska to claim a home being built for her and return to the family she abandoned eighteen years earlier. The two women run into each other and Darly allows Marianne to tag along as they journey to Alaska. On the way, they met a collection of colorful characters, including a strange-talking waitress named 66 (Patrika Darbo), and Walt (James Gammon), a road guy who recognizes Darly as the former Pillow Talk and wants to pay her big money for sex. The women finally make it to Alaska, where Darly finds that the house she was expecting to find has never been built. The two set up in a house trailer and, with the Alaskian wilderness as a backdrop, they begin to reevaluate their lives. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christine Lahti, Meg Tilly, (more)
Jonathan Kaplan directs this drama which grafts a nostalgic mood piece with a race-to-the-finish road movie. Lurene Hallett (Michelle Pfeiffer) is an insulated middle-class wife living in Texas in the early 1960s who adores the Kennedys, particularly Jackie, whom she feels is a kindred soul. When she finds out the President and First Lady will be in Dallas on November 22, 1963, she races to the airport to greet the couple. Just missing them, she drives through the Dallas streets and notices a quiet chaos developing. When she finds out John Kennedy has been assassinated, Lureen is determined to get to Washington to be with Jackie for the funeral. When her redneck husband Ray (Brian Kerwin) refuses to give her the car, she gets on a bus, where she meets a black man named Johnson (Dennis Haysbert), with his five-year-old daughter Jonell (Stephanie McFadden). Lureen speaks continually about Kennedy and the rest of the black occupants of the bus roll their eyes. But after an accident with the bus, Lureen uncovers the fact that Mr. Johnson's real name is Cater, and he has kidnapped his daughter from an orphanage and is heading to Philadelphia. With the cops on their tail, the trio steals a car and race northward with the police in pursuit, Lureen hoping to make to Washington in time for Kennedy's funeral. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis Haysbert, (more)
An honest man struggles to do the right thing, even if it means breaking the law, in this drama. Artie Lewis (Michael Keaton) is a scrupulously ethical cop who believes in his work, loves his wife Rita (Rene Russo), and stands by his partner Stevie Diroma (Anthony LaPaglia). Stevie is a single parent, and when he's shot and killed on duty, his three daughters (Grace Johnston, Rhea Silver-Smith, and Blair Swanson) are left with nowhere to go. Artie and Rita want to adopt Stevie's girls, but Child Welfare Services decides that their apartment is too small for three children. Artie needs to buy a house, which would require a $25,000 down payment that he doesn't have. Desperate, Artie grabs his gun and robs Beniamino (Tony Plana), a particularly scummy drug dealer who was peripherally involved in Stevie's death. Artie uses most of the take to buy the house, and he gives the rest to Father Wills (Vondie Curtis-Hall), who runs a local orphanage. However, what Artie doesn't know is that Beniamino's girlfriend Grace (Rachel Ticotin) is actually an undercover cop who won't stand by as Artie plays Robin Hood. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Keaton, Rene Russo, (more)
In this romantic comedy, two people brought together by marriage are brought even closer by their mates. Maria Hardy (Isabella Rossellini) and Larry Konzinski (Ted Danson) first meet at a wedding, where Maria's mother and Larry's uncle are tying the knot. However, the new cousins also have something else in common: Maria's husband Tom (William L. Petersen) is having an affair with Larry's wife, Tish (Sean Young). Maria and Larry get to talking at the wedding reception after their spouses go missing for a while, and they develop a rapport. A friendship grows between them, and they start seeing each other on a regular basis. When Maria confronts Tom about his infidelity, he responds by asking her if she's sleeping with Larry. As Maria and Larry become aware of what's happening between their not-so-better halves, they decide to get revenge by pretending to have an affair as well. However, the longer they pretend to be in love, the more they realize that they aren't pretending after all. Cousins was based on the popular French film Cousin Cousine. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ted Danson, Isabella Rossellini, (more)
In this cheerful, lightweight comedy, excruciatingly clumsy, disorganized, and messy Uncle Buck Russell (John Candy) becomes the screens most unlikely babysitter since Clifton Webb in Sitting Pretty. While their parents are away, eight-year old Miles (Macaulay Culkin), six-year old Maizy (Gaby Hoffman) and their teen-aged sister, Tia (Jean Kelly) are left in the care of Buck. Surprisingly, the very inept Uncle Buck entertains the younger children who come to love him and earns the respect of Tia when he rescues her from her worthless boyfriend. However, in doing so, Buck nearly loses his long-time girlfriend Chanice (Amy Madigan). John Candy is delightful in the leading role giving a touching and notable comic performance. Directed by John Hughes in his typical broad style, this youth-oriented comedy is perhaps the best role of John Candy's regrettably brief career. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Candy, Amy Madigan, (more)
Discharged from Vietnam, John Lithgow and his army buddies have trouble fitting into a hostile home-front society. Rather than endure dirty looks and taunts of "baby killer," Lithgow and his friends wander aimlessly all through the Pacific Northwest. Several years pass, during which time Lithgow's estranged son Ralph Maccio grows to manhood. Finally emerging from his self-imposed exile, Lithgow begins searching for the son he's never known. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lithgow, Ralph Macchio, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Kelly McGillis, Jodie Foster, (more)
The Big Town is Chicago, circa 1957. Matt Dillon stars as a small-town crapshooter who heads to the Windy City to seek his fortune. There he becomes the pawn of two high-rolling professional gamblers, played by Lee Grant and Bruce Dern. He later gets mixed up in a revenge scheme cooked up by Diane Lane, the embittered wife of strip-joint owner Tommy Lee Jones. Before he knows what's happened, Dillon is embroiled in two torrid romances, one with Lane and the other with "nice" girl Suzy Amis; he also nearly loses his life by ending up in the middle of a deadly feud between Dern and Jones. Based on The Arm, a novel by Clark Howard, Big Town tends towards uneveness, a result perhaps of the defection of its first director, Harold Becker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, (more)
- 1986
- PG13
This small-town romance may be trying to ride the coattails of the Big Chill that also featured Kevin Kline. Kline plays Henry here, and when the film opens he and his love Gussie Sawyer (Sissy Spacek, wife of director Jack Fisk), are sitting together planning the future they will have. She will be a flight attendant and he will get a college degree. Yet when they part, so does their destiny. By a quirk of fate, Gussie starts taking photos for an in-flight magazine and ends up an ace photographer while Henry has stayed in their small town to run the newspaper after his dad died. When Gussie comes back for a vacation 15 years later the two old sweethearts find that the embers that burned so low over the last many years are heating up again. No one in the town is unaware of what is going on, and Gussie is in for a lecture from her dad while Henry hears it like it is from his wife. But will that change the course of their relationship? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sissy Spacek, Kevin Kline, (more)
