Robert Markowitz Movies
Oscar nominated filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen executive produced this TNT/Warner Brothers co-production concerning a small-town lawyer and one-time Special Forces operative who embarks on a violent quest to avenge the brutal murder of his daughter, and soon finds his thirst for vengeance threatening world stability. Cal Dexter (screen veteran Sam Elliott) never expected to assume the role of avenging angel of death, but when his daughter suffered a horrifying death his all-consuming hunger for revenge proved too powerful to resist. Now two years have passed, and Stephen Edmonds (William Hope), a wealthy business tycoon, has enlisted Dexter's meting out a similar brand of justice to Serbian war criminal Zoran Zilic (David Hayman) - who recently murdered the high-profile industrialist's worker-aid son in Bosnia. Zilic isn't any run-of-the-mill bad guy though, because despite his sordid history he's currently being utilized by the CIA in a covert operation. Now the agent in charge of the case (Timothy Hutton) must follow his boss (James Cromwell)'s orders and prevent the determined Dexter from carrying out his treacherous mission before the decorated war hero sets of a destructive chain of events that could plunge the entire planet into war. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Elliott, Timothy Hutton, (more)
A man is called by the military to defend himself against long-ago charges of criminal misconduct in this made-for-cable drama based on a novel by Nelson DeMille. Ben Tyson (Don Johnson) has done well for himself 30 years after his tour of duty in Vietnam -- he's a successful businessman and happily married to a beautiful woman, Marcy (Sharon Lawrence). But Tyson's contented life is shattered when a book is published accusing him of being responsible for a bloody ambush in a field hospital that took the lives of a number of Vietnamese civilians. Tyson is recalled to duty by the army to answer these charges in a court martial. As his professional and personal lives begin to buckle under the strain, Tyson must defend his actions, as well as his responsibilities to his comrades and himself, to prosecutor Major Karen Harper (Jeanne Tripplehorn). Don Johnson's son, Jesse Johnson, plays the young Ben Tyson in Vietnam flashback sequences. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Johnson, Jeanne Tripplehorn, (more)
Based on the best-selling novel by Anita Shreve, the made-for-TV The Pilot's Wife also bears traces of the old Lana Turner movie Another Time, Another Place. Upon being told that her pilot husband has been killed in a crash, Kathryn Lyons (Christine Lahti) is in no mood to deal with the accusation that her late spouse carelessly caused the accident. Accompanied by another pilot named Robert (Campbell Scott), Kathryn heads to the coast of Ireland to conduct her own investigation. She soon learns to her ever-mounting horror that her "perfect" husband had apparently been carrying on a double life. Filmed on location in Ireland, The Pilot's Wife was originally slated to air a few days after September 11, 2001, but for obvious reasons CBS chose to shelve the film until April 14, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christine Lahti, Campbell Scott, (more)
- 2001
Based on a book by Ernest Volkman and John Cummings, the made-for-cable The Big Heist endeavors to put a human face on the events surrounding a real-life robbery which occurred at JFK International Airport's Lufthansa terminal in 1978. Donald Sutherland stars as Jimmy "the Gent" Burke, a low-echelon Mafia gangster who yearns to make at least one big score before he dies. To this end, he gathers together a motley group of henchmen and masterminds the theft of eight million dollars right from under the noses of the JFK authorities. Amazingly, the robbery goes off without a hitch, and Jimmy exults in the possibility that he has at last attained the Criminal Hall of Fame. But things quickly begin to unravel when one of Jimmy's cohorts is whacked by the Mafia higher-ups because of an unrelated indiscretion. Before long, Jimmy's entire gang has been decimated, and it looks as if his own son will be next on the hit list. As a result, Jimmy is actually relieved when diligent detective Richard Woods (John Heard) finally catches up with him...but the "hero" is still not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. The Big Heist was broadcast by the A&E cable network on June 10, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, often regarded as one of the greatest American novels of the 20th century, is brought to the screen in this made-for-TV feature, produced in collaboration with the A&E Cable Network in the United States, and Granada Entertainment in Great Britain. Nick Carraway (Paul Rudd) is a young bond salesman who rents a cottage near the mansion of the wealthy but reclusive Jay Gatsby (Toby Stephens). In time, Nick gets to know his neighbor, who has accumulated a vast fortune through vague, suspect means, but has carefully forged an outward image of refinement and charm. Years ago, before he left to fight in World War I, Gatsby was a poor man named Gatz and was in love with a beautiful woman from a wealthy family, Daisy (Mira Sorvino). When he returned, Gatz was determined to remake himself so that he might be seen fit to someday win her hand, even though Daisy had by this time married the socially prominent but boorish Tom Buchanan (Martin Donovan). Gatsby has yet to give up on his romantic dream and enlists Nick, who is distantly related to Daisy, in his plan. This production marked the fourth time that The Great Gatsby had been committed to film -- the best known version being Jack Clayton's 1974 adaptation, featuring Robert Redford as Gatsby and Mia Farrow as Daisy. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino, (more)
- 1999
Joe Mantegna stars as Spenser, Robert B. Parker's tough and intelligent private eye, in this made-for-cable mystery thriller. When Ellis Alves (Wood Harris) is accused of the murder of a well-to-do college student, no one seems terribly surprised; Alves has a long criminal record and has served time for two previous felony convictions. But Alves' lawyers notice that many of the facts of the case don't seem to add up, and they hire Spenser to find out if their client is being railroaded. The longer Spenser digs into the murder, the more firmly he's convinced that Alves is not the culprit. But a number of people, including the parents of the murdered co-ed and the police detectives on the case, want Spenser to keep his nose out of the matter, and when someone starts shooting at him, he decides that he may need to go underground to protect his own safety and uncover the truth. Shiek Mahmud-Bey plays Spenser's sidekick Hawk, while Marcia Gay Harden plays Susan Silverman, the detective's significant other. The characters from Parker's Spenser mysteries were also the basis for the popular TV series Spenser For Hire, in which Spenser was played by Robert Urich. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Mantegna, Marcia Gay Harden, (more)
In 1994, an American family made international headlines when, during a trip to Italy, their son was shot in the head by bandits. Left brain dead with no hope of recovery, the grieving parents made a great sacrifice and offered Italian surgeons the opportunity to harvest the boy's usable organs for transplant. At first their generous gift is met with controversy, for at that time most Italians had mixed feelings and beliefs about the use of another's organs. The donations are eventually made and thanks to the tragedy of Nicholas Green's death seven seriously ill Italians had new leases on life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Lee Curtis, Alan Bates, (more)
- 1997
- NR
- Add Into Thin Air: Death on Everest to QueueAdd Into Thin Air: Death on Everest to top of Queue
Based on Jon Krakhauer's harrowing account of folly and tragedy on the slopes of the world's highest mountain, this made-for-TV movie re-enacts that fateful excursion. Christopher McDonald and Peter Horton star. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
This made-for-tv relgious epic relates the life story of David, one of the Bible's most fascinating figures. David's life included a passionate affair with Bathsheba, an odds-defying defeat of Goliath, to a struggle with King Saul. This film, co-starring Jonathan Pryce, Leonard Nimoy, and Sheryl Lee touches upon these and many other aspects of his existence. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Based on a true story, The Tuskegee Airmen chronicles the experiences of the first African-American fighter pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Using Hannibal Lee (Laurence Fishburne) as a focal point, the movie follows the airmen from their initial training at Tuskegee, Alabama, through their combat assignments during World War II. Featuring fascinating vintage military planes and exciting air-combat footage, the film also depicts the racism encountered by the pilots. In one example, the airmen are forced to give their seats on a crowded train to German prisoners of war. Even after the airmen complete their training, the military brass is reluctant to trust them in battle. But First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt publicizes their plight by going to Tuskegee and having one of the African-American pilots take her for a plane ride, and shortly thereafter the airmen are assigned a combat role. Eventually they join with other African-American pilots in the 332nd Fighter Group where their skill in protecting bombers from enemy fighters finally earns them the respect they deserve. The screen story was co-authored by Robert Williams, one of the pilots trained at Tuskegee. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1994
The sensitive topic of the working mother is the subject of this made-for-television movie. Anne Archer stars as Abby, the working, single mother of a 6-year-old. Abby shares her son with her husband by alternating custodial weekends with him. At first, she enjoys the freedom it affords her to advance her career. When her re-married ex-husband Ted (John Heard) gets pangs for more custodial rights, he decides to take her to court for full-time parental custody, and he has a fighting chance because of Abby's demanding career. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1994
This made-for-TV movie features two previously unproduced stories written by Rod Serling for his groundbreaking anthology series The Twilight Zone, and adapted by Richard Matheson, one of Serling's frequent collaborators on the show. In "The Theater," a woman (Amy Irving) who frequents a neighborhood movie theater discovers her own life is starting to appear on the screen, and she's more than a bit concerned about how the ending is panning out. In "Where the Dead Are," Dr. Benjamin Ramsey (Patrick Bergin) loses a patient during an operation in 1868. Later, he discovers that the man suffered head injuries years before that by all rights should have killed him. While trying to learn the truth about his mysterious patient, Ramsey encounters Dr. Jeremy Wheaton (Jack Palance) who makes a most remarkable medical discovery. The Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics first aired in the United States on May 19, 1994. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Palance, Amy Irving, (more)
- 1993
The miserable life and long-overdue death of thrill killer Charles Starkweather is the basis of the two-part TV movie Murder in the Heartland. Over a bloody few months in 1958, Starkweather (Tim Roth), a 19-year-old high school dropout, embarked on a killing spree, snuffing out 11 victims. Along for the ride was Charlie's 14-year-old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate (Fairuza Balk). The debate still goes on as to whether Caril Ann was a willing accomplice or a reluctant prisoner; as played by Ms. Balk, she comes off as dumb as mud. A shorter, fictionalized account of the Starkweather killings was offered in the critically acclaimed 1973 theatrical feature Badlands, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Murder in the Heartland originally aired May 3 and 4, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Roth, Fairuza Balk, (more)
This riveting, fact-based made-for-cable drama follows the fight of Air Force widow Janet Harduvel to clear the name of her late husband, a pilot who died when his F-16 crashed. The official cause of the mishap was listed as "pilot error," but Harduvel refuses to believe this and so launches her own investigation. She soon discovers that the problem was with the plane itself and that the Air Force is trying very hard to conceal crucial facts. Despite the bureaucracy and obstacles, the determined widow continues fighting until she finds herself facing down a major military contractor, General Dynamics, in court. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laura Dern, Robert Loggia, (more)
- 1992
Overexposed starts out as a "heavy breather of the week" TV movie and develops into a truly involving suspense tale. Marcy Walker plays a wife and mother, stalked by wacko Terence Knox. This isn't just the usual hit-and-run harassment; Knox is a businessman who has an "X-rated" video of an adulterous affair, with Walker as "star." He had tricked her into sleeping with her years earlier; now he plans to destroy her marriage (her husband is his business associate) and then claim her for himself. Based on fact, Overexposed was filmed in Chicago by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
- PG13
Love, Lies and Murder is based on a true story that began its tragic unspooling on March 19, 1985 in Garden Grove, California. 23-year-old wife and mother Linda Brown is murdered. She leaves behind her computer-consultant husband Clancy Brown, her 17-year-old sister (Sheryl Lee), a 14-year-old stepdaughter (Moira Kelly) from her husband's previous marriage, and an 8-month-old infant. When police investigate, the stepdaughter confesses to the killing. This closes the case--until Mr. Brown callously marries his late wife's sister, and doubts begin to stir as to whether or not the stepdaughter was coerced into confessing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clancy Brown, John Ashton, (more)
Another "based on fact" TV movie, Too Young to Die? stars Juliette Lewis as a benighted teenaged girl. She is married at 14, is deserted, and begins walking the streets at 15. Abused by virtually every man with whom she comes in contact (including her own father), Lewis commits murder--and finds herself on Death Row before reaching her 16th birthday. Michael Tucker is the attorney who pleads that his client not be tried as an adult. Despite all the horrendous wrongs piled upon Juliette Lewis in Too Young to Die?, her character fails to elicit audience sympathy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Originally airing on the Hallmark Hall of Fame, this made-for-television adaptation of a novel by John William Corrington tells the story of a retired judge who decides to find out why his old pal is refusing to accept the Medal of Honor he should have been awarded years before. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Dangerous Life originated as a six-hour HBO miniseries about the 1986 Philippine revolution. Gary Busey stars as an American TV journalist, on the scene when the tempestuous situation in Manila boils over. He puts his own life on the line to get the inside story of the overthrow of the Marcos regime. By its very nature, most of the film had to be shot everywhere but the Philippines. Since its original 1988 HBO run, A Dangerous Life has been edited down to a 162-minute TV movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Tracey Thurman was a real-life Connecticut housewife who, throughout her marriage, suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of her husband. The beatings culminate in a single bloody night when Buck Thurman stabs his estranged wife 13 times. She survives--barely--and Buck is arrested. Having failed to get proper protection from the local police force, Tracey successfully sued the officers in 1989. The long-range result was the Thurman Law, which called for mandatory arrests in wife-beating cases in Connecticut and several other states. Nancy McKeon, who plays Tracey Thurman in A Cry for Help, starred in the film in the hope that it would prevent Buck Thurman's early release from prison. A Cry For Help: The Tracy Thurman Story first aired on October 2, 1989; Thurman was scheduled for release in 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nancy McKeon, Bruce Weitz, (more)
- 1986
Alex: The Life of a Child is based on the true story of Sports Illustrated writer Frank Deford and his dying 8-year-old daughter Alex. Craig T. Nelson plays Deford and Gennie James is Alex, both of whom come to grips in different ways with Alex's fatal cystic fibrosis. A subplot involves the torment of Deford's wife (Bonnie Bedelia), who wonders whether she should adopt a child after Alex's death in 1980. Alex: The Life of a Child is effective, but not as well made as its subject matter deserves. Better examples of this particular TV-movie genre include Death be Not Proud (75), based on author John Gunther's recollections of his son's struggle against a degenerative brain tumor, and Mary White (77) the story of a personal tragedy in the life of Kansas journalist William Allen White. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Adam: His Song Continues is a sequel to the highly regarded fact-based 1983 TV movie Adam. The first film was the heartrending story of Floridians John and Reve Walsh (Daniel J. Travanti, JoBeth Williams) whose six-year-old son Adam was kidnapped and murdered in 1981, whereupon the Walshes lobbied for creation of the Federal Missing Child Act, which allowed public access to FBI files of other lost youngsters. The sequel, also starring Travanti and Williams, doesn't have the emotional drive of the original, but is still absorbing in its chronicling of John Walsh's efforts to create a advocacy service for missing kids--and the pressures brought to bear on Reve, who is expecting another baby. Both Adam films end with a roll call of missing children, with His Song Continues listing those children who'd been found since the first movie. The real-life John Walsh later became the host of a Fox "reality" series America's Most Wanted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
After a seven-year absence from the small screen, NYPD detective Theo Kojak (Telly Savalas) made a comeback in the TV-movie The Belarus File (originally Kojak: The Belarus File). Adapted from John Loftus' best-selling spy novel The Belarus Secret, the film teams Kojak with federal agent Dana Sutton (Suzanne Pleshette). Following a labrynthine trail of evidence, the two investigators uncover a conspiracy that dates back to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in the early 1940s. Max Von Sydow and Herbert Berghof guest star. Though Kojak himself is largely superfluous to the proceedings, the producers hoped that The Belarus File (premiere date: February 16, 1985) would serve as the launching pad for a weekly Kojak revival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
This drama chronicles the good deeds of a sociology student who after doing research into feminine crimes begins taking in teen-age hookers. It is based on a true story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Seven years after the cancellation of the CBS TV series Kojak, the network attempted to revive the property with this adaptation of John Loftus' novel The Bellarus Secret. Telly Savalas returns to the role of lollipop-sucking New York police detective Lt. Theo Kojak, with George Savalas, Vince Conti, and Mark B. Russell likewise reprising their Kojak characters of Stavros, Rizzo, and Saperstein (conspicuous by his absence was Kevin Dobson as Bobby Crocker, who had by this time signed on as a regular on Knot's Landing). This time around, Kojak tried to solve the murders of three elderly Russians, who may or may not have been Nazi war criminals. The answer to the mystery lay in "The Belarus File," a top-secret document in the possession of the State Department. At first stymied by the government's lack of cooperation, Kojak receives unexpected assistance from compassionate bureaucrat Dana Sutton (Suzanne Pleshette). Originally telecast February 16, 1985, Kojak: The Belarus File (aka The Return of Kojak) did not immediately spark a wholesale Kojak revival, though the property did return to TV on an irregular basis as a component of the ABC "Mystery Movie" in 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Telly Savalas, Suzanne Pleshette, (more)
