Richard Donner Movies
Working briefly as an actor in the late 1950s, American director Richard Donner first wielded the megaphone for a group of TV commercials, then graduated to the weekly western Wanted: Dead or Alive. Some of Donner's best early work was concentrated on the fantasy anthology Twilight Zone, including the imperishable 1963 episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." Donner also worked for... (read more) Hanna-Barbera, directing several episodes of "Danger Island", a component of the 1968 kid's series The Banana Splits; there was, however, very little that was "kiddie" about "Mystery Island," a hallucinatory symphony of hand-held camerawork. A film director since 1961 Donner turned to movie work full time with 1968's Salt and Pepper. The Omen (1976), a demonic-possession opus, was Donner's first major moneymaker, leading to his directing assignment on the first Superman film in 1978. Superman was popular enough to inspire three sequels, the first of which contained so much uncredited Donner-directed footage that the director was compelled to sue. Donner has struck gold at the box office several times since 1978, notably with the three action-packed Lethal Weapon films starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, and more recently with another Gibson vehicle, Maverick (1994). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
PG13 2009
The gruff, adamantium-clawed Marvel superhero Wolverine strikes out on his own in this X-Men spin-off starring series regular Hugh Jackman. The story gets under way as...
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
PG 2006
Reconstructed using archival film and sound elements long thought to be extinct, this special cut of Superman II pieces together unseen footage shot by Richard Donner in...
16 Blocks
PG13 2006
A hard-drinking, hard-living cop assigned the task of transporting a small-time criminal to the nearby courthouse finds that a simple, 16-block drive can be the longest ride of...
Timeline
PG13 2003
Directing his first film since 1998's Lethal Weapon 4, Richard Donner helmed this big-budget adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel of the same name. Featuring a script...
The Omen Legacy
2001
From the makers of The Alien Saga comes The Omen Legacy, an AMC documentary covering all four films in the thrilling series on the coming of the antichrist. The...
Ritual
R 2001
An unemployed New York doctor with a suspended license and few prospects for the future travels to Jamaica to care for the ailing brother of a wealthy landowner, only to make a...
Matthew Blackheart: Monster Smasher
R 2000
A hero finds himself fighting a new enemy in a world he hardly recognizes in this tongue-in-cheek sci-fi thriller. Matthew Blackheart (Rob Bogue) was a man-made superhero...
X-Men
PG13 2000
One of the most popular superhero teams in comic book history finally comes to the screen in this big-budget adaptation of the long-running Marvel Comics series. Psychic...
Made Men
R 1999
A man under federal protection finds himself on the run from a gang of angry mobsters and a cop gone bad after his successful execution of a multimillion dollar heist. This studio...
Any Given Sunday
R 1999
Oliver Stone takes on professional football, a sport whose grace and delicacy are a good match for his filmmaking style. Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino), the head coach of the...
Lethal Weapon 4
R 1998
Detectives Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) re-teamed for their fourth foray together in this buddy-cop action comedy series based on...
Conspiracy Theory
R 1997
Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) is a New York City cab driver who seems to have absorbed every bit of crackpot information passed along as "suppressed news" that's surfaced on talk...
Made Men
R 1997
Don Close made his feature directorial debut with this drama about a trio of working-class Italian-Americans in Queens. The tale begins with childhood misadventures and then...
Free Willy 3: The Rescue
PG 1997
In the third installment in the Free Willy series, Jesse (Jason James Richter), the once-troubled youth whose life was changed by his friendship with the killer whale Willy,...
Tales From the Crypt Presents Bordello of Blood
R 1996
In this satirical horror-comedy, a gumshoe investigates a combination TV ministry/whorehouse/vampire infestation. After bounty hunter Vincent (Phil Fondacaro) unearths...
First Works: A Revealing Look at Today's Greatest Directors, Vol. 2
1995
Everyone has to start somewhere, even if they are Martin Scorsese or John Carpenter. This documentary takes a look at their beginning works and film school clips along with...
Assassins
R 1995
Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner helms this action-adventure yarn in which Robert Rath (Sylvester Stallone), a veteran, burned-out hit man for hire who's looking to...
Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home
PG 1995
Two unlikely friends -- a boy and a killer whale -- are reunited under potentially dangerous circumstances in this sequel to the successful family adventure Free Willy. Jesse...
Maverick
PG 1994
A gunslinging con man develops a tricky scheme to make a killing at a major poker tournament in this comic Western inspired by the popular television show. Mel Gibson assumes...
Demon Knight
R 1994
This first theatrical feature spun off from the television series Tales from the Crypt (which was in turn inspired by the infamous EC horror comics of the 1950s) concerns a...