Paul Perri Movies
In the second episode of a three-part story arc, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) has fallen in the water at the scene of a horrendous ferryboat disaster, and is still among the missing. Izzie (Katherine Heigl) takes medical instructions by phone as she performs emergency cranial surgery on a victim trapped between two cars. George (T.R Knight) tells a mother that her son has been found safe so she would agree to undergo surgery--and now must conduct a frantic search for the boy. And while trying to mollify the victims' families, Alex forms an unusual bond with an unidentified pregnant woman (Elizabeth Reaser) who has sustained mulitple injuries. With all this going on, Cristina and Burke still find time to announce their upcoming wedding--only to start quarrelling the moment the words are out of their mouths. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In the first episode of a three-part story arc, the staff at Seattle Grace swings into action when disaster strikes on Coleman Dock. A cargo ship has plowed into a ferryboat, killing several people and seriously injuring many more. Some of the survivors are in such bad shape that Dr. Webber (James Pickens Jr.) must literary play God, deciding on the spot who can be saved and who can't. Cristina (Sandra Oh) takes special interest in a grotesquely disfigured and very pregnant "Jane Doe" (Elizabeth Reaser), while Alex (Justin Chambers) must keep his arrogance in check as he deals with the victims' anguished relatives. The situations worsens when, while providing aid and comfort to an eerily calm child victim (Madison Leisle), Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) loses her footing and falls in the water--and she can't swim! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Frequent television director Brad Silberling directs the romantic drama Moonlight Mile. Set in a Massachusetts town in the early '70s, Joe Nast (Jake Gyllenhaal) is distraught after the death of his fiancée. He moves in with her parents, Ben (Dustin Hoffman) and JoJo (Susan Sarandon), while trying to sort out all of the legal troubles and painful details of the wedding cancellations. While trying to locate the wedding invitations in the mail, Joe meets Bertie (Ellen Pompeo), whose boyfriend has been MIA in Vietnam. Despite his growing relationship with his late fiancée's parents, Joe begins to foster a romance with Bertie. Also starring Dabney Coleman and Holly Hunter. Moonlight Mile is based on Brad Silberling's real-life situation following the murder of his TV-star girlfriend Rebecca Schaeffer. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jake Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, (more)
Leading the transgen resistance, Max (Jessica Alba) finds an unexpected ally in C.J. (Henri Lubatti), who claims to have broken ranks with White's anti-transgen Familiars. Alas, it turns out that C.J. cannot be trusted -- and is far too close to White (Martin Cummins) for anyone's comfort. It might just be that the key to the many confusing plot points raised in this penultimate Dark Angel episode may rest with the curious runic "tattoos" that have begun appearing all over Max's body. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Max (Jessica Alba) is being hunted down by her Manticore-generated clone, a character introduced at the end of Dark Angel's first season. Not surprisingly, this puts an added strain on the already shaky relationship between Max and Logan (Michael Weatherly). Elsewhere, Logan's effort to convince the public that the transgens are not wholly evil results in violence; and the fervently anti-transgen White (Martin Cummins) enters into a dark conspiracy with the "crusading" Senator McKinley (Paul Perri). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Calista Flockhart, Courtney Thorne-Smith, (more)
"Little Jerry Seinfeld" is the name Kramer (Michael Richards) has bestowed on his new pet rooster -- and though Kramer had really wanted a hen, Little Jerry proves to be a dynamite cockfighter. This may prove to be advantageous for Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), who has become a pariah for giving a bad check to vengeful store owner Marcelino (Miguel Sandoval). Meanwhile, on behalf of the Susan Ross Foundation, George visits a woman's prison and falls for an inmate named Celia (Andrea Bendewald). And as for Elaine, her current boyfriend, Kurt (John Michael Higgins), has this problem with his hair.... ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Clive Barker's horrific creation Pinhead (Doug Bradley) returns to the screen for the fourth (and purportedly final) time in this time-juggling horror opus. In 18th century France, Phillip Lemarchand (Bruce Ramsay) constructs a black puzzle box for the wizard Duc de L'Isle (Mickey Cottrell); however, the box has potentially deadly consequences when it's discovered that it can be used to open the gates of hell, freeing the demonic Pinhead. Two hundred years later, the box finds its way into the hands of John (also played by Bruce Ramsay), a New Yorker and distant descendant of Lemarchand who is being pursued by Pinhead and his minions, while another 200 years hence, Dr. Paul Merchant (Ramsay again) is trying to make his way aboard a space station in hopes of reclaiming the puzzle box, hoping to destroy it before it can be used to once again release the demons upon the world; Merchant is also attempting to build a second box that can close the gates that the first box opens. While makeup artist Kevin Yagher made his directorial debut with this film, the final cut was taken away from him and considerably shortened, which in his mind severely compromised the film's complex, time-traveling narrative. He opted to instead credit his work to Alan Smithee, which was the Directors Guild's official pseudonym for directors who feel their work has been tampered with. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Ramsay, Valentina Vargas, (more)
In 1989, Oregon Department of Corrections director Michael Francke was murdered near an office building. The case remains unsolved and in the opening and closing credits, the filmmakers offer viewers $1million for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the killers. This taut crime/courtroom thriller has a two-fold purpose. The first is to chronicle a brother's search for the truth and the second is to call the fairness of the American justice system into question. Either way, it's a scary tale. Shortly before Francke was killed he visited his brother Kevin in Florida. There he confided that he had accidentally discovered a drug smuggling ring that linked his colleagues with prison inmate. Later when the Salem police contact Kevin about the death, they assure him that Michael died during a routine robbery, but Kevin doesn't buy it and so heads to the northwest to investigate. It doesn't take long for him to get knee-deep into a complex conspiracy plot that leaves him wonder whom, if anyone in town he can trust. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Delenn is kidnapped by renegade mebers of the Nightwatch. Her captors threaten to kill Delenn unless the Minbari forces leave immediately. It is up to Sheridan and Garibaldi to devise a ruse that will enable them to rescue their comrade without depleting their defenses. This episode is highlighted by a B5 ceremony honoring the recent war dead, and by a surprise "cosmetic change" at the end of the story. First seen in America during the week of April 8, 1996, "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" was written by J. Michael Straczynski. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, (more)
In this postmodern exploitation flick loosely based on "Little Red Riding Hood," the uneducated daughter of a drug-addicted prostitute flees the foster-care system in search of her long-lost grandmother but meets up instead with a serial killer. Vanessa (Reese Witherspoon), a nearly illiterate firebug and serial shoplifter, desperately clings to normalcy even though her mother turns tricks, does drugs, and manages to ignore the fact that the girl's stepfather Michael T. Weiss has been abusing her for years. When both of her parents get arrested, Vanessa steals the car of her family-services caseworker (Conchata Ferrell) and heads up Interstate 5 in search of her paternal grandmother, who's never met her. Car problems force her to accept a ride from Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland), a youth counselor who uses charm and sympathy to get the girl to open up. Confessing the sordid details of her childhood to Bob, Vanessa is shocked when he suddenly declares that she's one of the "garbage people" and that he plans to murder her and have sex with her corpse. Bob, it turns out, is the "I-5 Murderer," who's been slaughtering young prostitutes in the Los Angeles area. Thanks to a gun borrowed from her fiancé, Vanessa manages to turn the tables on Bob, shooting him repeatedly and leaving him for dead. He survives, Vanessa is arrested, and the two meet up again in court -- with her unrepentant, even though the police disbelieve her story, him flanked by his prim wife (Brooke Shields) and the righteous indignation of the American legal system. Locked up in the juvie for psychological evaluation, Vanessa gets in touch with her wild side and eventually escapes, heading off to her fateful meeting with grandma. Although Freeway was originally filmed for HBO, vigorously positive critical response eventually earned it a theatrical release. Alanna Ubach, who portrays Vanessa's nemesis/accomplice Mesquita, would go on to appear with Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. Freeway also features two Clueless alumni: Dan Hedaya, as a police detective, and Brittany Murphy, as the disfigured lesbian who befriends Vanessa in lock-up. Michael T. Weiss, who previously appeared in gay indie Jeffrey, appears in both Freeway and its sequel, Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trickbaby. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
The IAB wants Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) to keep an eye on a possibly "dirty" cop, Detective Drucker (Michael MacRae). This causes some discomfort for Bobby as he and Drucker investigate the case of an alleged flasher. In another development, a young woman claims to have witnessed the murder of a pimp in a laundromat. And while cutting Sipowicz's (Dennis Franz) hair, gay cop John Irvin (Bill Brochtrup) asks for advice as to how to approach the equally "uncloseted" Adrianne Lesniak (Justine Miceli). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A malfunctioning air conditioner and an overload of patients bedevils the ER during a stifling heat wave. In other developments, Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) is thrown off balance by a visit from her young, irresponsible sister, Chloe (Kathleen Wilhoite). Carol (Julianna Margulies) is upset by Doug's (George Clooney) girl friend du jour. And when Greene (Anthony Edwards) brings his daughter, Rachel (Yvonne Zima), to work, she realizes with startling suddenness that her dad is far from omnipotent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The sneaky underworld of baby selling is the subject of this made-for-television movie. Cybill Shepard stars as a doctor who is trying to adopt a baby. She turns to a couple who claims to be willing to sell their child, only to be swindled out of her money and the child. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cybill Shepherd, Anna Maria Horsford, (more)

- 1993
- R
- Add A Bronx Tale to Queue
Robert De Niro made his directorial debut with this expanded adaptation of Chazz Palminteri's one-character play. DeNiro's role of Lorenzo Anello, an Italian-America bus driver, is secondary to the part of his son Calogero, played by young Francis Capra. The top dog in Calogero's Bronx neighborhood is flashy "wiseguy" Sonny (Chazz Palminteri). When the boy witnesses Sonny commit a murder, he honors the code of the streets and refuses to tell the cops. Sonny befriends him and introduces the impressionable youngster to the creature comforts that mob connections can bring. But though he idolizes Sonny, the boy loves and respects his decent, honest father. It takes a major tragedy for the 17-year-old boy (now played by Lillo Brancato) to decide his true course in life. Though titled A Bronx Tale and set in the Bronx of the 1960s, the film was actually shot in the somewhat safer environs of Brooklyn and Queens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri, (more)
Patient confidentiality rules may stymie John (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and Andy (Dennis Franz) in their investigation of an abortion-clinic firebombing in which a security guard was killed. This same crime yields evidence that Valerie (Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon) lied to Baldwin (Henry Simmons) about her miscarriage. In other developments, a gun found in a car leads to reopening of a Jane Doe investigation; and Rita Ortiz (Jacqueline Obradors) realizes that a homicide victim is the woman with whom her husband, Don (Stan Cahill), was having an affair. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Simmons
Frasier's conniving agent, Bebe Frazer (Harriet Sansom Harris, in her first series appearance), arranges a big-bucks deal for her favorite client. All Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) has to do is "subtly" endorse a few commercial products as part of his call-in radio show. Trouble is, Frasier wants nothing to do with at least one of these products -- nor is he keen on delivering advertising copy that will make him sound like a buffoon. Fearful of his reputation as a psychiatrist, yet eager to fatten his bank account, our hero finds himself mired in yet another of his many ethical dilemmas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The plot of this action film begins in 1996, with Los Angeles in a violence-crazed conflagration. One of the LAPD's most notorious cops, John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), known as "the demolition man," is in hot pursuit of blonde-haired psychopath Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), who is so nasty he even kills sometimes just because he feels cranky. John captures Simon, but not before Simon kills innocent hostages. John is blamed for the deaths of the hostages, and both he and Simon are cryogenically frozen to remove their brand of ultra-violence from a society that is simply just too violent. The film shifts to the future world of 2032, where Los Angeles has become a megalopolis called San Angeles. There is no poverty, Arnold Schwarzenegger was (at one time) president of the United States, and Taco Bell is the sole survivor of the Franchise Wars. Into this peaceful and bland society, Simon is summarily defrosted by reigning benevolent dictator Dr. Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne) to have Simon murder Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary), the leader of a group of underground rebels. But Cocteau bites off more than he can chew when the melted-down Simon proceeds to go on a murder-and-looting spree. Reluctantly, Cocteau defrosts John to hunt down his old adversary. As John adjusts to self-driving cars and having sex wearing helmets, he pairs up with Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock), a bored cop with a nostalgic fascination for 20th-century culture. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, (more)
Christina (Susan Dey) is a cocaine addict in a tumultuous relationship with an equally drug-addicted boyfriend. When she becomes pregnant, the baby is born not only prematurely but with the chemical dependency of its mother. Now Christina is in a fight to make her life clean and stable so that social services will allow her to have custody of her daughter. But first, she'll have to convince not only her jaded case worker, but herself, that she can. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Dey
Surprisingly good soap opera in which the suspense and thrills are genuinely good revolves around a wealthy woman who awakens from a fourteen-month coma after an attempt is made on her life and now must remember who tried to kill her in order to prevent it from happening again. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lindsay Wagner, David Dukes, (more)
Chevy Chase stars, though not always visibly, as Nick Halloway, a low-level businessman with an acerbic approach to life and work, whose humdrum existence utterly bores him. Nick gets an unexpected jolt of excitement when, nursing a hangover, he's the only one not to evacuate an office building that becomes a disaster area after a mishap involving nuclear testing equipment. An unexpected by-product of the accident is that it turns the molecules of the building, as well as Nick and the clothes he's wearing, transparent. When a team of shady government agents, led by David Jenkins (Sam Neill), notices that a human has been turned invisible, they try to take him into custody, planning to use him as the most dangerous secret intelligence agent the world has ever known. Distrusting their motives, the frantic and confused Nick escapes, and quickly begins learning new information about his unusual condition, such pragmatic details as trying to sleep when he can see through his eyelids and any unprocessed food he eats will give him away. Soon, however, he discovers that the scientist in charge of the experiments (Jim Norton) has no idea how to return him to normal, and begins plotting how best to live a semblance of a normal life while steering clear of his pursuers. Nick involves a beautiful woman he met the night before the accident (Daryl Hannah) in his dilemma, and soon she too becomes a target. Memoirs of an Invisible Man was adapted from a book by H.F. Saint. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Daryl Hannah, (more)
Like its theatrical-feature precursor Not Without My Daughter, the made-for-TV Desperate Rescue is based on a true story, though it would appear that several liberties have been taken. Mariel Hemingway plays a young mother whose daughter Lindsay Haun is abducted by Andrew Masset, Mariel's Jordanian ex-husband. Masset takes the girl back to his native Jordan, beyond the reach of the US authorities. Denied aid and comfort by the American government, Mariel takes matters into her own hands, hiring ex-Delta Force commandos Clancy Brown, Jeff Kober and James Russo to muscle their way into Jordan and rescue Lindsay. Based on an article by David Halevy and Neil C. Livingstone, Desperate Rescue premiered January 18, 1993: its title at that time was Desperate Rescue: The Cathy Mahone Story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mariel Hemingway, Clancy Brown, (more)
A young career woman is thrust into the bright light when police question her about the identity of a serial killer. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1992
- Add Murder Without Motive: The Edmund Perry Story to QueueAdd Murder Without Motive: The Edmund Perry Story to top of Queue
Adapted from Robert Sam Anson's fact-based book Best Intentions, Murder without Motive stars Curtis McClarin as Harlem teenager Edmund Perry. A brilliant student, Perry is transferred from the inner city to an exclusive prep school principally attended by whites. Ten days after graduating with honors, the 17-year-old Perry is killed by a white undercover policeman, who claims he was attacked by Perry and his younger brother Jonah (Guy Killum). Though unsparing in its indictment of racism and police brutality, the Murder without Motive attempts to be fair to both sides, showing the many external pressures which led both killer and victim to their fatal meeting in the spring of 1985. This made-for-TV film was first shown January 6, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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)























