Robert L. Rosen Movies

Winner of the Best Jewish Experience Documentary award at the 1998 Jerusalem Film Festival, this A&E program directed by Simcha Jacobovici was also hailed as "provocative and engaging" by John Leonard in New York Magazine and "shrewdly on target" by Caryn James in The New York Times. Essentially an adaptation of Neal Gabler's award-winning, somewhat controversial book Hollywood: An Empire of Their Own: How The Jews Invented Hollywood, this documentary chronicles the amazing success story of the half-dozen Jewish immigrants or sons of immigrants who created the movie industry studio system and became the moguls of Hollywood during its Golden Age. Highlights include archival footage, interviews, and commentary on these leaders, including Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount; Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal; Jack and Samuel Warner, founders of Warner Bros.; Louis B. Mayer, founder of MGM; William Fox, head of 20th Century-Fox; and Harry Cohn, who ran Columbia Pictures. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide

Action-adventure director Stanley Tong (Supercop, Rumble in the Bronx) did a change of pace by directing this live-action adaptation of UPA's bumbling, near-sighted Mr. Magoo the animated-series character created during the '40s by John Hubley and others for the cartoon short Ragtime Bear (1949). Millionaire Quincy Magoo (Leslie Nielsen) won't admit he needs glasses, so nephew Waldo (Matt Keeslar) removes obstacles in Magoo's path. At a museum exhibition, when Magoo steps up to cut a ceremonial ribbon but instead severs a power line, it sets in motion events making Magoo the target during an international manhunt -- while he continually escapes mishaps by inches. Greg Burson does the voice of Magoo in animated sequences at the film's beginning and end. During the '50s, the animated character (voiced by Jim Backus) led to two Oscars -- for the jazz-scored Rooty Toot Toot (1952) and the CinemaScope When Magoo Flew (1955). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Based on the graphic novel by James O'Barr, this fantasy follows Eric Draven (Brandon Lee), a rock musician who is murdered along with his fiancée Shelly (Sofia Shinas) by a group of marauding thugs who terrorize the decaying city in which they live. One year to the day after his death (which happens to be Devil's Night), a mystical crow appears at Eric's grave; Eric rises from the dead and, with the bird as his guide, goes on a mission to avenge himself against Top Dollar (Michael Wincott), the leader of the gang who killed him. Star Brandon Lee was killed while filming a scene in which he was shot with a shell from an improperly cleaned gun that was supposed to be loaded with blanks. Like his father, martial arts superstar Bruce Lee, Brandon was fated to enjoy his greatest popular success after his premature death. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, American novelist David Raybourne (Andrew McCarthy) accidentally becomes entangled in the Red Brigade's terrorist plan to kidnap Italian Premier Aldo Moro during a research trip to Rome. As the terrorists attempt to kill David, he and his photojournalist friend (Sharon Stone) must struggle to stay alive. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

A police detective (Don Johnson), whose job is the only thing he has left in his life, must investigate the murder of a fellow officer. He follows the trail and is shocked to find a white-supremacist conspiracy in the process. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In this semi-improvised look at life along the edges of L.A.'s rock scene, Chris D. (real name Chris Desjardins, leader of the L.A. punk band The Flesh Eaters) plays Jeff, a singer/songwriter who has suddenly gone missing. Two of his friends, bandmate Dean (John Doe, from the group X) and faithful roadie Chris (Chris Shearer), seem anxious to get in touch with him, and with good reason: Jeff and his band were stiffed by a club owner on payment for a recent gig, so they broke into the club's safe and took off with the loot. Now Jeff and the money have vanished, and Dean and Chris are torn between their concern for their friend's safety and their need to get their hands on the cash. Meanwhile, Jeff wanders aimlessly in Mexico, seemingly content after cutting himself off from the turmoil of his life in Los Angeles. Border Radio features members of several important California punk and roots bands in significant roles, including Dave Alvin of The Blasters and Texacala Jones of Tex and the Horseheads; Green on Red are shown playing a club date and The Lazy Cowgirls are featured on the soundtrack. Co-directors Allison Anders, Dean Lent, and Kurt Voss were UCLA film students who met while working on the crew of Wim Wenders's Paris, Texas; Anders went on to make several notable features, including Gas Food Lodging and Grace of My Heart. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Three ultra-marathoners are on a 72-mile race in the New Mexico desert when they encounter a group of weekend-warrior survivalist types who want to "play with the little runner boys." The runners are in the race of their lives when the demented trigger boys won't leave them alone in this Deliverance descendant. ~ All Movie Guide

At the beginning of this documentary on early cinematographer Edwin S. Porter (1869-1941), director Charles Musser gives some background on the "nickelodeons" or theaters that charged a nickel as an entrance fee, and their early (presumably cheaper) predecessors. The men who set up the programs at the nickelodeons -- including Porter at times -- arranged film clips and still slides to create about a half-hour's worth of entertainment -- they were the first film editors. By 1907, eager U.S. movie-goers were investing one million nickels per day for these shows. Edwin S. Porter was active between 1886-1915 and he is still well-known for his 1903 Great Train Robbery, the world's first narrative film, all of 12 minutes long. (It should be noted that Porter's filmography after he lost his position as head of production in Thomas Edison's studio in 1908 is not included in this documentary.) Porter worked first with multi-shot sequences as early as 1901 ("The Execution of Czolgosz" on the assassination of President McKinley, using documentary footage and a staged dramatization), running through one (small) spool of film for one sequence, and another for an additional sequence, usually from another angle or of another scene. Instead of an editor at a nickelodeon putting together two film sequences, Porter was doing the sequencing as the cinematographer. Taking this idea one step further, he pioneered "overlapping continuity," as in his landmark 1902 Life of an American Fireman. In this example of the technique, he put cameras inside and outside a burning building, and in his completed film, he first showed a rescue sequence from the inside, followed by the same sequence from the outside. In the 1930s when that film was recut with methods developed by Porter's most well-known immediate successor, David Wark Griffith, the "Fireman" film was shown with alternating interior-exterior views, from the start of the rescue to the end. Director Charles Musser comments on this later style, saying that in Porter's early years, audiences were not yet visually sophisticated enough to understand the technique of multiple, simultaneous perspectives. (At the same time, other critics maintain that Porter himself intercut the scenes.) Another pioneer in a visual medium, Pablo Picasso came of age artistically during the development of these cinematic techniques, and it is curious that his own style of showing multiple, simultaneous viewpoints of a figure in one image parallels the cinematic visions emerging first with Edwin Porter and then with D.W. Griffith. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This schlock horror classic from the 1970s is a product of the career ebb experienced by director John Frankenheimer. Robert Foxworth stars as Dr. Robert Verne, an inner-city physician renowned for his compassion and fairness. So he's asked by the EPA to mediate a dispute between Native American tribes and a polluting paper mill in isolated northern Maine. Accompanied by his pregnant wife Maggie (Talia Shire), a classical musician, Robert journeys to the deep woods, where he meets the tribal leader, John Hawks (Armand Assante) and a representative of the mill, Mr. Isley (Richard Dysart). It turns out that the mill is indeed poisoning the local water supply with mercury, causing illness among tribe members and some mutated local wildlife. The Native Americans and the paper mill point fingers at each other for a rash of recent disappearances in the area, but Robert believes that something more ominous is responsible when he observes a huge salmon eat a duck. He's proved right when he encounters an enormous, mutated grizzly bear with a taste for human flesh. Unfortunately for Robert and Maggie, he has taken one of the creature's cubs back to camp, leading an angry mother bear to his tent flap. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

This sequel to the Oscar-winning The French Connection picks up almost exactly where the earlier film leaves off. Still on the trail of drug kingpin Frog One (Fernando Rey), narcotics officer "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) leaves his Manhattan stomping grounds and heads for Marseilles. There, Popeye is captured by Frog One's minions, who pump him full of drugs in hopes of turning the cop into a hopeless junkie. After a grueling "cold turkey" treatment, Popeye is up and about and chasing after the villains, determined to mete out justice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This odd film was shot in 1967 but wasn't released until 1991. The reality of the production is quite amazing. The director, who up until then had only filmed documentaries, decided that he wanted to provoke his actors and crew beyond their level of tolerance so that they would in some fashion hijack his production. Ostensibly, they are filming an arty story called "Over the Cliff," which shows the same scene of a split between husband and wife as played by five different couples from a variety of different angles. Eventually the (secretly anticipated) revolt does happen, and the cast and crew film their late-night sessions in which they discuss what can be done to save the movie. Their uncensored and quite intelligent comments were then included in the completed film along with the footage of the continuing saga of the endlessly filmed marital break-up. While the set-up is nothing like that of the contemporaneous television show Candid Camera, reviewers professed discomfort in viewing the cold manipulations which led to the desired result. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide