Martyn Burke Movies
Directed by Martyn Burke, Avenging Angelo centers around the life of bodyguard Frank (Sylvester Stallone) and his client, neurotic socialite Jennifer (Madeleine Stowe). Frank must constantly fight his emotions in order to maintain a strictly professional relationship with Jennifer, who has recently broken if off with her unfaithful husband. Matters are complicated further when Frank accidentally leads the sworn enemies of Jennifer's father, Mafia bigwig Angelo (Anthony Quinn), to her doorstep. Things are looking up for Jennifer, or so she thinks, when she meets Marcello (Raoul Bova), whom she believes to be a novelist. Unfortunately, Marcello is not what he claimed to be, and she finds herself in danger once more. With Frank by her side, she takes on the mob, and eventually, her feelings. Avenging Angelo was the late Anthony Quinn's final role. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvester Stallone, Madeleine Stowe, (more)
This tech-world biopic traces the fortunes of personal-computer companies Apple and Microsoft from their obscure dorm-room and backyard origins to their very public battle for corporate supremacy. Writer/director Martyn Burke follows the parallel lives of Microsoft founder Bill Gates (Anthony Michael Hall) and Apple co-founders Steve Jobs (Noah Wyle) and Steve Wozniak (Joey Slotnick) -- the former a crafty Harvard dropout, the latter a pair of hippies with jobs at Hewlett-Packard and a yen to sell miniature versions of corporate mainframes to small businesses and at-home enthusiasts. Much like the personal-computer industry itself, the action starts with Apple then gradually shifts to Microsoft. The former plot thread recounts how Jobs and Wozniak "borrowed" key concepts from a Xerox computer lab, eked out their success as countercultural businessmen, and finally fell out with one another over the pressure of success. The latter thread focuses on the way Gates learned from, then surpassed, the brains behind Apple and turned his company into the global powerhouse that it is today. Based on Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine's Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer, the film actually focuses only on that book's final chapters. Produced for cable channel TNT, Pirates of Silicon Valley debuted June 18, 1999. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Noah Wyle, Anthony Michael Hall, (more)
George Orwell's political fable about corruption and betrayal in post-revolutionary Russia gets a new look in this version that employs a cast of real animals alongside digitally manipulated critters and lifelike beasts crafted by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. At the Manor Farm, the alcoholic master Mr. Jones (Pete Postlethwaite) is cruel to his animals and has horribly mismanaged the property. One night, the wise but elderly pig Old Major (voice of Peter Ustinov) gathers the animals and speaks of a remarkable dream, in which the animals throw off their tyrannical human masters and learn to reap the fruits of their own labors. After Old Major's death, two other pigs, Snowball (voice of Kelsey Grammer) and Napoleon (voice of Patrick Stewart) lead a revolution that drives Jones from his land and leaves the animals in charge of their own destiny. After their revolt, Snowball and Napoleon rule side by side, but Napoleon soon becomes drunk with power and squeezes Snowball out of authority, eventually turning the other animals against him. With Boxer (voice of Paul Scofield), a simple-minded but loyal and physically powerful horse, as a role model, Napoleon leads the animals on a campaign of self-denial and hard work that will bring them security and freedom; however, it soon becomes obvious that Napoleon is growing fat while the other animals are starving, and he is quickly becoming the sort of creature he once waged war against. Animal Farm received its American premiere on the TNT cable TV network in October 1999; it opened as a theatrical release in several other countries shortly afterward. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pete Postlethwaite, Kelsey Grammer, (more)
This made-for-cable black-comedy stars Beau Bridges as a governor in a future United States, with an unusual plan for his state. Bridges stars as Jim Farley, the Governor of Idaho, who decides that the only way to keep the new immigrants out of his state is to close down the borders. Defying the President (Phil Hartman), he gets some help implementing his plan from some zealots in militias. Bridges won the Emmy for his performance. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beau Bridges, James Coburn, (more)
Gross Anatomy is to medical school what Paper Chase was to law school, with perhaps a little less sobriety. Mathew Modine plays a blue-collar kid attending a posh school of medicine, where everyone--teacher and student alike--seems to be well above Modine's social strata. Perhaps as a reaction to the snobbery all around him, Modine behaves as irreverently as possible. Neither teacher Christine Lahti nor lab partner Daphne Zuniga finds Modine's what-the-hell act appealing, but both are fully aware that he is a talented young man with a brilliant future. The climax of the film lays it on pretty thick in defining Modine as an all-around good fellow despite his cheekiness (he even delivers a baby just before taking his finals!), but Gross Anatomy strives successfully to be a "feel good" movie--albeit brought ever so slightly down to earth by the death of one of the principal characters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Modine, Daphne Zuniga, (more)
- 1988
Aside from network television news coverage, very little film has been devoted to telling the Afghan side of the Afghan-Russian War of the 1980s. This documentary was filmed among anti-Soviet Afghans and clearly shows their suffering and the privations they endured as a result of the conflict. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1984
In this stock, low-budget occult horror film, a tiny 2-inch-high Aztecan idol is stolen from a professor and ends up in the experimental hands of three high-school students who use it in some creative attempts to get in touch with the spirit world. Things start to go wrong when a cemetery worker dies during one of these spirit sessions, and everything goes wrong after the Aztecan god possesses the body of a young man who steals the idol for his own purposes. Special effects create the appropriate flying objects and body bulges where needed, and makeup is grotesque enough by anyone's standards, but these pluses cannot erase the lack of interesting characters or situations or the uninspired acting. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Stokey, Warren Lincoln, (more)
The second of Zucker-Abraham-Zucker's theatrical-feature spoofs (Airplane was the first, discounting the patchwork Kentucky Fried Movie), Top Secret! lampoons practically every film genre. Specifically, however, this is a hybrid of an "Elvis" movie and a World War II "underground resistance" thriller. In his film debut, Val Kilmer plays Nick Rivers, a Presley-like American rock idol sent behind the Iron Curtain on a goodwill tour. Before long, he is involved in a complex espionage scheme thanks to beautiful Lucy Gutteridge, the daughter of a scientist (Michael Gough) held captive by the Communists. Also essential to the action is flamboyant resistance leader Christopher Villiers, who behaves like Victor Mature in Betrayed (1954) and talks like James Mason. Adhering to Z-A-Z's cheerful disregard for people, places and events, the East Germans are depicted as Nazis, while the Underground is comprised of Frenchmen. The plot is mainly an excuse for the Z-A-Z team's fondness for joke-a-minute lampoonery, skewering cinematic targets ranging from The Blue Lagoon (1980) to The Wizard of Oz (1939). As in Z-A-Z's other efforts, Top Secret! scores its biggest yocks when invoking cliches that we never realized were cliches-and falls on its face whenever attempting a too-obvious gag (the biggest clinker: that pigeon statue in the park). Everyone has his or her favorite bits in this film: our faves include the resistance fighter named Deja Vu ("Haven't we met somewhere before?"), Kilmer's horrible nightmare while being tortured (he arrives too late to take final exams), the army-booted cow, the sensitive Pinto, and the East German National Anthem, sung to the tune of the Shorewood (Wisconsin) High School marching song. But let's say no more: comedy of this nature is designed to be seen, not written or read about. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Lucy Gutteridge, (more)
- 1981
This futuristic adventure stars Lee Majors as a former racing champ who reassembles his old Porsche and drives to California in a world where cars have been outlawed by the powers that be. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Majors, Burgess Meredith, (more)
- 1978
After years of an oppressive dictatorship, a group of army officers in a tiny, vaguely delineated European country organize a coup. Colonel Narriman (David Hemmings) has bravely taken chances which could have resulted in his death, and he expects, once the coup is successful, to become the next leader of his country. Quietly biding his time, Colonel Zeller (Peter O'Toole) has played along with the revolutionaries but doesn't like their methods. In the end, he puts a monkey-wrench into their whole operation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter O'Toole, David Hemmings, (more)
In this thriller, a group of young professionals decides to play a practical joke on one of their ex-girlfriends who married a rich man who is about to close a major real estate deal. They will kidnap her and mess up the deal. Unfortunately, the joke becomes deadly serious when someone gets killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Young, Susan Keller, (more)
- 1974
This Canadian public affairs program was broadcast every other Sunday at 10:30 PM, sharing a timeslot with the longrunning CBC offering The Ombudsman. Adopting a magazine format, the series covered the international scene, with emphasis on the events of the past week. In order to maintain a maximum of topicality, each episode was recorded a mere few hours before telecast (thereby breaking a long-standing CBC tradition of preparing such programs far in advance). Utilizing the facilities of two Ontario network affiliates in Ottawa and London, In the Present Tense aired from January 13 to May 17, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Rush, Jennifer A. Davis, (more)
