Michael Maurer Movies

In this thriller, an aging cat burglar becomes a crusader embroiled in a deadly cat-and-mouse game involving murder and a government cover-up. Adapted by distinguished scenarist William Goldman from a novel by David Baldacci and featuring a powerful all-star cast, the story works at different levels, not only as a straight-forward thriller but also as an insightful look at the love between the old thief and his estranged daughter, a highly successful prosecuting attorney. The trouble begins when ex-con Luther Whitney (Clint Eastwood, who also directed) decides to pull off one last heist before retiring. Just as he finishes looting the vault of a well-fortified mansion, a drunken couple enters the adjoining bedroom apparently eager to start making love. But something goes awry and a violent tussle ensues that abruptly ends when gun-wielding men bust in and shoot down the woman. During the ensuing chaos, Luther slips out. Only later does the audience learn that the would-be lovers were U.S.-President Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) and Christy Sullivan (Melora Hardin), the young wife of the President's biggest supporter Walter Sullivan (E.G. Marshall). As the investigation and cover-up begins, Luther, who has already been contacted by hard-boiled and suspicious detective Seth Frank (Ed Harris) begins to fear that he will be blamed for the killing and prepares to leave the country. He tries to see his daughter Kate (Laura Linney) to make peace with her for having been absent in prison during most of her life, but she rejects him. Luther goes to the airport, but just before he flies, he sees a press conference in which President Richmond, without so much as a twitch, goes on a tirade concerning his stand against violence. Something inside him snaps and he abruptly decides to stay and fight for justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The Quest team heads to Northern Canada to investigate a series of attacks, allegedly perpetrated by a werewolf. They discover that the elusive lycanthrope is an attactive outback physician named Marie Metier, whom Dr. Quest hopes to cure of her family curse. A new spin on an old story, "In the Darkness of the Moon" was initially telecast on September 23, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Dedicated to his mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, Clint Eastwood's 1992 Oscar-winner examines the mythic violence of the Western, taking on the ghosts of his own star past. Disgusted by Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett's decree that several ponies make up for a cowhand's slashing a whore's face, Big Whiskey prostitutes, led by fierce Strawberry Alice (Frances Fisher), take justice into their own hands and put a $1000 bounty on the lives of the perpetrators. Notorious outlaw-turned-hog farmer William Munny (Eastwood) is sought out by neophyte gunslinger the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) to go with him to Big Whiskey and collect the bounty. While Munny insists, "I ain't like that no more," he needs the bounty money for his children, and the two men convince Munny's clean-living comrade Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) to join them in righting a wrong done to a woman. Little Bill (Oscar-winner Gene Hackman), however, has no intention of letting any bounty hunters impinge on his iron-clad authority. When pompous gunman English Bob (Richard Harris) arrives in Big Whiskey with pulp biographer W.W. Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek) in tow, Little Bill beats Bob senseless and promises to tell Beauchamp the real story about violent frontier life and justice. But when Munny, the true unwritten legend, comes to town, everyone soon learns a harsh lesson about the price of vindictive bloodshed and the malleability of ideas like "justice." "I don't deserve this," pleads Little Bill. "Deserve's got nothin' to do with it," growls Munny, simultaneously summing up the insanity of western violence and the legacy of Eastwood's Man With No Name. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Having spent much of his directorial career emulating Don Siegel and John Ford, Clint Eastwood borrows a page from the catalogue of Sam Fuller in Heartbreak Ridge. Eastwood casts himself as an old-fashioned Marine Corps sergeant who is out of step with the new-fashioned military. He returns to his old outfit as a gunnery sergeant, where he runs afoul of 1980s-style superior officers to whom the words "Gung Ho" are foolish anachronisms. But through his tough tutelage, Eastwood's lackadaisical platoon is whipped into a first-rate fighting machine, favoring teamwork over such New Age gobbledygook as "self-fulfillment." Eastwood's men prove their mettle during the invasion of Grenada. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this fourth installment of the Dirty Harry series, Harry has been banished temporarily from San Francisco because his superiors are uncomfortable about his feud with a local crime boss. He goes to an oceanside small town for a little rest and recuperation but finds the town has been traumatized by a series of brutal murders. Harry meets and falls in love with Jennifer Spencer (Sandra Locke), a young artist. Jennifer and her sister were brutally raped a few years previously by a group of men, leaving her sister catatonic and Jennifer filled with a rage that is expressed in her disturbing artworks. Harry investigates the killings and the rapes, and one by one he dispatches Jennifer's rapists, one of whom is the son of the local police chief (which explains why the police have done little investigating). Finally, Harry finds out that Jennifer also dispenses her own brand of justice because she cannot rely on the criminal justice system. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi