John Capodice

A black detective becomes embroiled in a web of danger while searching for a fortune in missing drug money in this action-comedy. Writer-director Keenan Ivory Wayans also stars as Los Angeles private eye Arthur Shame, a former cop whose troubled past resurfaces when a one-time colleague asks for help in a narcotic case. During the course of his investigation, he encounters various old connections, ultimately confronting the criminal responsible for Shame's expulsion from the force. He must also deal with two women, Angela, a beautiful old flame (Salli Richardson), and Peaches (Jada Pinkett), his energetic but annoying sidekick. Unlike Wayans' blaxploitation parody I'm Gonna Get You Sucka, A Low Down Dirty Shame sticks more closely to genre conventions, lightening the action with wisecracks and standard comic interludes. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

When your dog, bird, or water-dwelling mammal disappears, who do you call? Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey) is a low-rent private eye who specializes in recovering lost animals, so when Snowflake, the Miami Dolphins' aquatic mascot, is kidnapped, team representative Melissa Robinson (Courtney Cox) puts Ace on the case. However, Snowflake isn't the only Miami Dolphin who has gone missing; several key members of the team also disappear, including quarterback Dan Marino (who plays himself), who is spirited away while filming a TV commercial. With the Super Bowl only two weeks away, will Ace be able to find Snowflake and the missing athletes in time to salvage the big game? Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was a surprise box office smash and catapulted manic comedian Jim Carrey to stardom. The supporting cast includes Sean Young as ill-tempered Lois Einhorn, Udo Kier as the sinister Ronald Camp, and rapper Tone Loc as Ace's detective pal Emilio (Loc also wrote and performed a song for the closing credits). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a rookie cop who witnesses a robbery in progress on her first night on the job. With her more experienced partner using the men's room, Megan decides to take action on her own. She creeps into the supermarket where a man (Tom Sizemore in a small role) is holding the clerk at gunpoint. Megan gets close enough to shoot the gunman, and calls out for him to drop his weapon. He spins the gun toward her, and she unloads her service revolver into his chest. His gun goes flying, and a bystander, Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver), surreptitiously picks it up and takes it home. Megan's superiors, unable to confirm that the man she shot was armed, suspend her. Eugene, a wealthy commodities broker, becomes obsessed with Megan. He sets up an "accidental" meeting between them and begins dating her, romancing her with fancy restaurants and helicopter rides over Manhattan. He also carves her name into the bullets he uses to gun down strangers in the street. A tough homicide detective, Nick Mann (Clancy Brown of The Shawshank Redemption), gets Megan's gun and badge back so she can help him track down the psycho killer. Eventually, Megan realizes that Eugene is the killer, but he uses his money and influence to elude the law, and he starts coming after Megan's friends and family. Megan's determination to bring Eugene to justice quickly becomes a very personal obsession. This intense cop drama, Blue Steel, was director Kathryn Bigelow's major studio follow-up to her well-received indie vampire flick, Near Dark. Bigelow co-wrote both films with Eric Red (The Hitcher). ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

This gentle baseball fantasy centers on a former ball player who has spent thirty years bitterly brooding over the fact that he has been overlooked by the Baseball Hall of Fame. He finally decides to take action when his long-lost best friend returns from the dead to talk to him. Just before he died, the friend was inducted into the famous museum. The rest of the story is comprised of touching and sometimes funny vignettes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

You've probably already guessed that the Family Business in this all-star melodrama is the business of crime. Adapted from a novel by Vincent Patrick, the film stars Sean Connery as Jessie McMullen, the patriarch of a family of career criminals, including his son Vito (Dustin Hoffman) and grandson Adam (Matthew Broderick). Vito has gone legit, but college-educated Adam remains loyal to his grandfather. Reluctantly, Vito joins his father and son on a big-time heist involving millions of dollars' worth of test-tube specimens. There's many a slip-up and betrayal before the three generations can find a common ground. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Where the original Gremlins was a horror film spiked with comedy, Gremlins 2: The New Batch is essentially a black comedy, with a couple of horrifying touches. As the film starts, the fantastical trinket shop in Chinatown, which sold the Mogwai in the first film, is demolished by a crazed multi-media businessman called Daniel Clamp (John Glover). The heroes from the first movie, Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates), happen to work for Clamp in his huge high-rise. They find the Mogwai within Clamp's building, but not before he has accidentally spawned legions of mischievous, lizard-like Gremlins. Soon, the Gremlins are wreaking havoc throughout the building. In the original film, their misdeeds were violent, but here they're also goofy and satirical. Director Joe Dante has filled the film with quick verbal and visual jokes, which, for many, makes Gremlins 2: The New Batch a satire and inversion of the typical horror film. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

The LAPD Internal Affairs Division takes a special interest in the murder of a mob accountant. Perusing the dead man's list of debtors, the Division finds the name "C. Devane"--which of course happens to match up with the name of Hunter's superior officer. Though Captain Devane (Charles Hallahan laughs off the implication that he might be even peripherally associated with the Mob, the ensuing investigation is no laughing matter, especially to Hunter (Fred Dryer). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A tortured man finds himself caught in a middle-ground between hallucination and reality in this supernatural thriller, scripted by Bruce Joel Rubin of Ghost (1990) and My Life (1993).
Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is a soldier stationed in Vietnam who undergoes a traumatic experience on the battlefield - the nature of which is initially unclear. The film then moves into his post-Vietnam experience in 1970s New York, where he feels consistently traumatized, but can never quite remember exactly what happened to him in Southeast Asia or to free himself from his anxieties over the recent tragic death of his young son (Macaulay Culkin). Though well educated, Jacob works as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service and has become romantically involved with one of his co-workers, Jezzie (Elizabeth Pena), after divorcing his wife. Soon, Jacob's tenuous hold on reality starts to slip as horrifying events befall him; he is nearly run over by a subway train, pursued by faceless demons in cars, and spots reptilian tails and horns protruding from the bodies of those he encounters. Jacob also suffers severe panic attacks related to the chaos that may be reality, or may exist only in his mind. He seeks counsel from Louis (Danny Aiello), a kindly chiropractor, as his ex-wife Sarah (Patricia Kalember), fellow Vietnam vet Paul (Pruitt Taylor Vince), and enigmatic stranger Michael (Matt Craven) all try to help the tortured soul. Jason Alexander, Ving Rhames and Eriq LaSalle highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Not by choice, Paul and Jamie Buchman (Paul Reiser, Helen Hunt) spend their first New Year's Eve apart. This is not the only offbeat occurrence in the course of this episode, you may be sure. Things reach a summit of strangeness during the traditional countdown in Times Square. And yes, that uncredited TV personality is exactly who you think he is. ~ All Movie Guide

This episode focuses on Blue Moon employees Bert Viola (Curtis Armstrong) and Agnes Dipesto (Allyce Beasley). Bert wants to attend a Viola family reunion, but Agnes has been sequestered with the jury for the murder trial of one John Gibson--and of course, Agnes is the sole holdout who believes in Gibson's innocence. Out of desperation, Bert decides that the only way to get Agnes out of the jury room is to solve the murder himself! In a dream sequence, the Moonlighting regulars are recast as the principals in John Gibson's alleged crime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Murphy's tough and relentless interview technique has a somewhat negative effect on a corrupt judge (John Capodice), who drops dead right in mid-telecast. Traumatized by this tragedy, Murphy is terrified to conduct any more interviews, meaning that her usefulness to "FYI" may be at an end. To overcome her fear, she begins attending a group therapy session conducted by Dr. Paula Hayes (Janet MacLachlan)--a tough cookie in her own right. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A family faces new crises while trying to resolve an old one in this drama. After the death of Cal Malby (Miles O'Keefe), a miner who died in an accident that eventually leveled the economy of a small Pennsylvania community, his sons Patrick (Jason Widener) and Cole (Tyler Christopher) have been trying to find out what caused the disaster while also caring for their mother Elizabeth (Sally Kirkland), who is now bedridden. As Patrick and Cole try to uncover the truth, they have to struggle to hold on to the family's home as Penny Hart (Dee Wallace Stone), a widow who owns the farm the family has long called home, attempts to sell the property out from under them. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director John Badham's remake of French action thriller La Femme Nikita moves the action to the U.S., where Maggie (Bridget Fonda) is a strung-out Washington, D.C. drug addict who kills a policeman in a pharmaceutical-induced haze. Sentenced to death, Maggie is rescued by a shady operative, Bob (Gabriel Byrne), who offers to save her life if she'll become a covert government assassin. Maggie agrees and trains for a life as a professional killer under a new name, Claudia. Her classes include weaponry, martial arts, explosives, and even social graces under the tutelage of Amanda (Anne Bancroft). Claudia is transformed into a classy sophisticate and is assigned to Venice, California, where she falls for J.P. (Dermot Mulroney), an attractive photographer who lives downstairs. Claudia's highly dangerous job soon interferes when she's ordered to carry out a series of clever assassinations, including a hit in a restaurant and a hotel bombing. When one particular killing goes horribly wrong, she gets some assistance from Victor the Cleaner (Harvey Keitel), a disposal artist who may have also been ordered to get rid of Claudia. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide