George Manasse Movies
It's Big Momma's House on the three-point line in this broad farce, which marks the leading man/woman debut of longtime character actor Miguel A. Nunez. Nunez stars as Jamal Jefferies, a hotheaded pro basketball player whose on-court antics and quick temper get him booted from the league altogether. Faster than you can say Dennis Rodman, Jamal has transformed himself into the busty Juwanna Mann in order to be a forward for a high-intensity team in the WUBA league, the Charlotte Banshees. Behind the doors of the womens' lockerroom, Jamal unexpectedly falls for Michelle Langford (Vivica A. Fox), the team's no-nonsense captain. But prosthetic breasts and false eyelashes aren't the only thing preventing Jamal from finding true love with Michelle: there's also the problem of her aggressive, two-timing boyfriend, Romeo (Ginuwine), not to mention the unwanted advances Juwanna gets from a skanky rapper named Puff Smokey Smoke (Tom Davidson). ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miguel A. Nuñez, Vivica A. Fox, (more)
- 1999
- NR
The true story of the world's first submarine and its maritime usage by the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Armand Assante, Donald Sutherland, (more)
Bruce Willis returns as misfit cop John McClane in the third film in the Die Hard series. McClane has fallen on hard times; after moving to New York City and breaking up with his wife, he's developed a drinking problem and has been suspended from the NYPD. However, his past comes back to haunt him in the form of Simon (Jeremy Irons), a terrorist bomber who has been using McClane as his contact as he plants a series of bombs in public places and gives McClane inane "clues" to their whereabouts in the form of riddles and bizarre games. McClane soon discovers he's been involved in Simon's scheme as part of a personal grudge; while associated with an international terrorist group, Simon is also the brother of the man McClane threw off the side of a skyscraper several years back (in the original Die Hard). Now McClane, with the help of a Harlem shopkeeper named Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson), has to find out where Simon has planted the bombs, guess where he'll strike next, and try to find his base of operations before more bombs go off and thousands of people die. The supporting cast features Graham Greene and Colleen Camp; singer Sam Phillips made her acting debut as a member of Simon's terrorist group (Phillips never speaks, so as to not to reveal her Texas accent). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, (more)
"The Coneheads" were a sketch on the Saturday Night Live television show of the late '70s which were expanded to feature-length proportions with this film. The story concerns Beldar (Dan Aykroyd) and Prymaat (Jane Curtin), who leave the planet Remulak to prepare for an invasion of Planet Earth. But due to a malfunction, they find themselves plunged into the Hudson River and forced to take up residence in Paramus, New Jersey where Beldar gets work as an appliance salesman and makes a deal for a phony social security card. Before long, all thoughts of invading Earth are left behind as Beldar and Prymaat quickly adapt to suburban life -- except for their coneheads and metallic-sounding voices, they become a typical middle-class suburban family. The Coneheads have a child, Connie (Michelle Burke) and Beldar becomes a New York cab driver and starts up his own driving school. Connie grows into a teenager and a neighborhood boy, Ronnie (Chris Farley), develops a crush on her because he likes to rub her conehead. But a nefarious INS agent, Gorman Seedling (Michael McKean), and his toady assistant, Turnbull (David Spade), are hot on The Coneheads' trail because of Beldar's false social security card. Not only that, but the Remulakian Highmaster (Dave Thomas) is beginning to wonder what ever happened to Beldar's invasion of the third rock from the sun. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, (more)
- 1991
This made-for-cable adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play documents the romance between a lonely Southern belle (Vanessa Redgrave) and a young drifter (Kevin Anderson). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1989
In this suspenseful drama, a bereaved bricklayer vows to avenge the brutal murder of his parents. The killer is brought in, but is not given the death penalty. The young man then decides to take matters into his own hands. He oversteps the law and eventually begins to question his actions. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1988
In a film originally made for television, a detective accidentally involves himself with a female con artist who is planning a $12 million diamond robbery. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1985
The marriage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono is fodder for this television biography, which covers the couple's relationship from Lennon's days as a Beatle in 1966 to his 1980 murder on the streets of New York City. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1981
- R
No one knows what evil lurks with the folks next door in this black comedy. Earl Keese (John Belushi) is a middle-aged suburbanite whose life is dull and uneventful, and that's just the way he likes it, though his wife, Enid (Kathryn Walker), isn't quite so happy. Earl soon learns that a new couple has just moved into the house next door, loudly leisure-suited Vic (Dan Aykroyd) and sexy Ramona (Cathy Moriarty). Earl is at once thrilled and terrified when Ramona unexpectedly attempts to seduce him, and he is quite puzzled when Vic and Ramona stop by for dinner the following evening and Ramona angrily accuses Earl of trying to take advantage of her. After an argument, Vic offers to make peace by buying dinner from a take-out restaurant. When Earl spies Vic cooking the meal in his kitchen a few minutes later, he realizes that his new neighbors are playing some sort of game with him, though he's not sure what or why. Neighbors marked the third and final screen pairing of Saturday Night Live stars John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd; Belushi died of a drug overdose three months after the film's release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Belushi, Kathryn Walker, (more)
In this fairly frightening slasher-horror film, sweet young Amy Jensen (Caitlin O'Heaney) and her friends decide to all get married together. Unfortunately, all the guys go on vacation, leaving the women at the mercy of a psychotic killer (Tom Rolfing) who goes after brides with a big knife. Amy must seek help from an obsessed cop (Lewis Arlt) and her nerdy friend (Don Scardino) who works at a morgue. The familiar supporting cast includes Tom Hanks in his big-screen debut, and '80s standbys Russell Todd, Paul Gleason, and Dana Barron. This one has some scary moments despite the clichéd plot and the obligatory severed head in a fishbowl, especially a stalking scene in a tailor's shop and the tense morgue chase at the end. The most memorable sequence, involving a murder at a movie theater, was later restaged almost shot-by-shot in Scream 2 (1997). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Scardino, Caitlin O'Heaney, (more)
- 1978
- PG
This sentimental tearjerker is also a slice-of-New York-life melodrama directed by John G. Avildsen as his follow-up to the career-high smash success of Rocky (1976). Paul Sorvino stars as Lou Friedlander, a Manhattan newspaper columnist who is instantly smitten by Sarah Gantz (Anne Ditchburn, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for her debut performance). A ballerina who's just moved into Lou's apartment building after a breakup with her boyfriend, Sarah soon gets the news that she is terminally ill and should quit her strenuous dancing career. Despite the medical advice, she continues anyway, and Lou begins writing a piece for his employer about her valiant struggle. As he assembles the article, he and Sarah begin to fall in love. At the same time, Lou is also nurturing a story about an orphaned Hispanic kid who's a junkie but is managing to rise above the harshness of life on the city's ghetto streets. The Friedlander character was reportedly inspired by and loosely modeled upon writer Jimmy Breslin. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Sorvino, Anne Ditchburn, (more)
- 1978
- R
Several former college students find their former drug experiences catching up with them in an unexpected and terrifying manner in this clever horror outing. Jerry Zipkin (Zalman King) is a bright but troubled man in his late twenties who graduated from Stanford University in 1968 but hasn't had much luck getting his life in order since then. One night Jerry attends a party with a few old college buddies, and is shocked when one of them, Frannie (Richard Crystal), suddenly loses all his hair in a single lump and goes on a bloody rampage. When circumstantial evidence makes Jerry a key suspect in the murders of three women at the party, he sets out to find out what happened, and with the help of another school friend, surgeon David Blume (Robert Walden), he discovers a link between Frannie's bizarre behavior and several similar incidents which recently occurred. In each case, the killers attended Stanford in the late '60s, and all had used Blue Sunshine, a potent but tainted variety of LSD sold by Ed Flemming (Mark Goddard), a bootleg acid chemist who is now a respected mainstream political candidate. Jerry struggles to stay one step ahead of the law as he tries to piece the story together, knowing that another victim of the drug could go insane at any moment. Blue Sunshine was directed by Jeff Lieberman, who has two other cult favorites to his credit, Squirm and Just Before Dawn. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
The success of Willard, in which a young man trained his pet rats to kill at his command, inspired a rash of horror films featuring animals run amok, including snakes (Stanley), frogs (Frogs) and even rabbits (Night Of The Lepus). Squirm was one of the more interesting films spun off this subgenre, in which a town is terrorized by bloodthirsty worms who've been angered by a downed power line during a rainstorm. Better than it sounds, and packs a few good scares (especially if worms make you squeamish). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Scardino, Patricia Pearcy, (more)
- 1972
Dependable character actor John Marley is afforded a rare starring role in Blade. Marley plays the title character, a world-weary private eye currently working on a murder case as a favor for a friend. The victim was the daughter of prominent conservative politico William Prince, whom Blade "knew when." While hunting for clues, Blade is bombarded by one disillusionment after another. The prime suspect turns out to be someone very, very close to Prince-who may have thought that, by eliminating his daughter, he was doing Prince an enormous favor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
- PG
Death of a Hooker was the spell-it-out alternate title for Ernest Pintoff's unorthodox murder mystery Who Killed Mary Whats'ername. At first, Red Buttons seems an illogical choice for a hero, especially since he plays a diabetic ex-boxer who isn't all that quick on the uptake. But Buttons gradually grows on the audience as he investigates the murder of a Greenwich Village prostitute whom he barely knew. With the help of his daughter Alice Playten, Buttons unearths a great many clues that we either overlooked or ignored by the cops. The film ends abruptly and somewhat tragically, which may have resulted in poor word of mouth when it was first released. Only after it became a Late Late Show perennial did Who Killed Mary Whats'ername? finally find its audience. The largely New York-based cast includes Sylvia Miles, Sam Waterston, Conrad Bain and, in an uncharacteristically repulsive "heavy" role, David Doyle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
- PG
Chester Jump (Tom Ligon) grew up hard, in a family as grim as the rural Southern countryside they lived in. His passion for automobiles transformed into a passion to run them, drive them, and race them. He took advantage of any chance to enter a drag race, or a demolition derby. This fierce ambition has not gone unnoticed by race promoter Babe Duggers (Logan Ramsey), who sees to it that Chester gets a few chances. However, when Chester begins to get really successful, there are plenty of people (including Duggers) who are willing to bring him down a notch or two. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Peter Boyle delivers a strong and raw performance as Joe Curran, a racist factory worker who hates "hippies and niggers." The film deals with New York City advertising executive Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick), who kills Frank (Patrick McDermott), the junkie lover of his daughter Melissa (Susan Sarandon, in her film debut), when she ends up in a mental hospital after suffering an overdose of speed. Stunned by his rage, Bill goes into a bar and comes upon Joe, who discovers the murder and holds Bill in great esteem for his killing of the long-haired drug pusher, congratulating Bill on a job well done. The two begin a class-spanning friendship. When Melissa escapes from the hospital, after finding out that her father killed her boyfriend, Bill and Joe comb Greenwich Village to find her. When they come upon a hippie pot party, the two reactionaries snap, pull out their guns, and go on a killing spree. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Patrick, Peter Boyle, (more)
