Tom Harris Movies
Two friends wonder if there might be more between them when their lives both take a left turn in this romantic comedy. Terry (Joan Allen) is a middle-aged housewife and mother of four teenaged daughters and gets the shock of her life when her husband, without a word of warning, leaves them behind, presumably to move to Sweden with his secretary. Going through a bender of depression and alcohol, Terry finds herself commiserating with Denny (Kevin Costner), a former baseball star turned unenthusiastic radio personality who was her husband's colleague and friend and an occasional presence at the house. With both Terry and Denny feeling down in the dumps about recent events in their lives, the two find themselves drawn to one another, and while Terry fights the notion of a new romance, her daughters -- Andy (Erika Christensen), Hadley (Alicia Witt), Emily (Keri Russell), and Lavender (Evan Rachel Wood) -- each have different ideas about their futures. The Upside of Anger was written and directed by Mike Binder, who also plays a supporting role as the producer of Denny's radio show. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Allen, Kevin Costner, (more)
A confidence man discovers too late that he's on the other end of a dangerous scam in this tense thriller from England. Leo Garfield (John Hannah) is a small-time gambler and con artist who is eager to get out of the business. Bruno (Brian Conley), a brutal underworld leader, wants Leo to manage his gaming operations. While he's in no position to say no, Leo doesn't want to work for the unstable gangster. Hoping to raise enough money so that he and his wife Lily (Famke Janssen) can leave the country, Leo agrees to murder Gloria (Amanda Donohoe), the wife of a mobster named Julius (Peter Stormare). However, Bruno's brother Caspar (Ian Burfield) is convinced that Leo is up to no good, and he hopes to get some information from Lily by passing on unwelcome news -- Elmo (Fred Ward), Lily's former partner in crime, has just been released from prison, and he wants revenge for her betrayal of him after a bungled robbery. Leo goes through with his assignment to kill Gloria, only to discover that he's been set up -- the woman in question was a prostitute hired by Julius, who videotaped her death and is now demanding $500,000 in blackmail from Leo. Circus was the feature film debut for director Rob Walker, who had previously worked in British television. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucy Akhurst, Christopher Biggins, (more)
Tommy Fawkes (Oliver Platt) is a struggling stand-up comedian who has tried for years to get out from under the shadow of his father, George Fawkes (Jerry Lewis), himself a famous humorist. Tommy finally scores a showcase spot at a major resort in Las Vegas, but when opening night rolls around, Tommy's act is an unqualified disaster, with the failure made even more painful by his father's presence in the audience. In search of a fresh start, Tommy heads to Blackpool, England, where he was born and raised, to look for a new act. Hoping to buy material from local performers, Tommy auditions a large number of acts, most of whom are utterly hopeless, until he sees a hilarious vaudeville team, the Parker Brothers. Their act seems more than a bit familiar, however, and Tommy soon realizes that they're doing his father's old material. But they have every right to be doing George's schtick -- it seems George stole his act from the Parkers ages ago. What's more, the younger and more eccentric of the Parker Boys, Jack (Lee Evans), is actually Tommy's half brother, the product of a fling with a Blackpool showgirl years ago. Veering between comedy and drama, Funny Bones has more than its share of effective moments on either side of the fence, and features fine supporting performances from Oliver Reed, Leslie Caron and Harold Nicholas. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oliver Platt, Lee Evans, (more)
- 1992
- R
This slapstick romp chronicles the ups and downs of a London-based country western band made up of young Pakistani immigrants as they try to make it out of the ghetto and into the spotlight. Their major hindrance proves to be a contentious band of English punk rockers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Naveen Andrews, Sarita Choudhury, (more)
An international collection of well-known directors contributed to this compilation film, each fashioning a short film inspired by an aria from a famous opera. The approaches vary broadly, from the playful abstraction of Jean-Luc Godard's segment, which illustrates Armide with exercising body-builders, to the more literal approach of Franc Roddam, who transports Tristan und Isolde's story to modern-day Las Vegas. A particular stand-out is Julian Temple's take on Rigoletto, which recasts Verdi as the accompaniment to a contemporary Southern California sex farce. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Theresa Russell, Nicola Swain, (more)
- 1986
- PG
This film is a kind of David meets Goliath story told in martial arts terms. Young Jason Stillwell (Kurt McKinney) moves with his parents to Seattle, where local bullies harass them without mercy. Jason's father Tom (Tim Baker) does not believe in violence, so the family takes it on the chin. One day Jason enrolls in a martial arts class and quietly rises in rank to be a major contender. His mettle is tested in an international match against Ivan, a Russian champion (Jean-Claude Van Damme), expanding the "enemy" beyond Seattle's borders. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kurt McKinney, Jean-Claude Van Damme, (more)
For those with a taste for the repugnant comes this gory blood-and-guts fest that tells the horrific story of a British fellow who gets kidnapped by aliens and three years later is returned carrying infectious spores that have transformed him into a kind of crab thingy that causes all kinds of perverse sexual and violent mayhem. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Sayer, Bernice Stegers, (more)
An unusually tense and intelligent political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate was a film far ahead of its time. Its themes of thought control, political assassination, and multinational conspiracy were hardly common currency in 1962, and while its outlook is sometimes informed by Cold War paranoia, the film seemed nearly as timely when it was reissued in 1987 as it did on its original release. It opens with a group of soldiers whooping it up in a bar in Korea as their commander, Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), arrives to inform them that they're back on duty. These men obviously have no fondness for Shaw, and he feels no empathy for them. While on patrol, Shaw and his platoon are ambushed by Korean troops. Months later, Shaw is receiving a hero's welcome as he returns to the United States to accept the Congressional Medal of Honor, and several of the soldiers who served under Shaw repeatedly refer to him as "the bravest, finest, most lovable man I ever met." It soon becomes evident that after their capture by the Koreans, Shaw and his men were subjected to an intense program of brainwashing prior to their release. While several are troubled by bad dreams and inexplicable behavior, it's Capt. Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) who seems the most haunted by the experience. In time, Marco is able to piece together what happened; it seems Raymond Shaw was programmed by a shadowy cadre of Russian and Chinese agents into a killing machine who will assassinate anyone, even a close friend, when given the proper commands. On the other side of the coin, Shaw is also used for political gain by his harridan mother (Angela Lansbury), who guides the career of her second husband, John Iselin (James Gregory), a bone-headed congressman hoping to win the vice-presidential nomination through a campaign of anti-Communist hysteria.
The Manchurian Candidate features a host of remarkable performances, several from actors cast cleverly against type. Frank Sinatra's edgy, aggressive turn as Marco may be the finest dramatic work of his career; Laurence Harvey's chilly onscreen demeanor was rarely used to s better advantage than as Raymond Shaw; James Gregory is great as the oft-befuddled Senator Iselin; and Angela Lansbury's ultimate bad mom will be a shock to those who know her as the lovable mystery writer from Murder, She Wrote. George Axelrod's screenplay (based on Richard Condon's novel) is by turns compelling, witty, and horrifying in its implications, and John Frankenheimer's direction milks it for all the tension it can muster. While Frankenheimer's career has had its ups and downs, The Manchurian Candidate and Seconds (1966) suggest that he deserves to be recognized as one of the most brilliantly paranoid American filmmakers of the '60s. Entertaining yet unsettling, both films indicate that things in the '60s were not what they seemed, with a resonance that still echoes uncomfortably in the present. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
The Manchurian Candidate features a host of remarkable performances, several from actors cast cleverly against type. Frank Sinatra's edgy, aggressive turn as Marco may be the finest dramatic work of his career; Laurence Harvey's chilly onscreen demeanor was rarely used to s better advantage than as Raymond Shaw; James Gregory is great as the oft-befuddled Senator Iselin; and Angela Lansbury's ultimate bad mom will be a shock to those who know her as the lovable mystery writer from Murder, She Wrote. George Axelrod's screenplay (based on Richard Condon's novel) is by turns compelling, witty, and horrifying in its implications, and John Frankenheimer's direction milks it for all the tension it can muster. While Frankenheimer's career has had its ups and downs, The Manchurian Candidate and Seconds (1966) suggest that he deserves to be recognized as one of the most brilliantly paranoid American filmmakers of the '60s. Entertaining yet unsettling, both films indicate that things in the '60s were not what they seemed, with a resonance that still echoes uncomfortably in the present. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, (more)
- 1935
In this western, a wagon train is destroyed and all but two children, a brother and sister, are slaughtered. The sister is abducted by the Indians while the boy is raised by an Anglo family. He grows up with no memory of his sister. Now a young cowboy, he is called upon to attack an outlaw gang. When he learns that the gang leader is his renegade sister, he is most surprised. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Maynard, Lucille Browne, (more)
