Joseph Bologna Movies

This drama is based on the true story of a housewife who becomes a helicopter pilot for the US Army after her husband suffers a massive coronary. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

An Inconvenient Woman, an excellent television mini-series based on the novel by Dominick Dunne, which is loosely based on the Alfred Bloomingdale scandal, tells the story of the mistress of a famous man who he has murdered when she threatens his security. Jules Mendelson (Jason Robards) and his socialite wife Pauline (Jill Eikenberry) have a marriage of convenience that is threatened by the existence of Jules cast-off mistress Flo (Rebecca De Mornay) who knows too much and can cause them all too much trouble. So, Jules plans to have her eliminated. The fine cast all give good performances in their roles, and the subject matter, while potentially lurid and tasteless, is treated with sophistication and tact in this excellent adaptation of the best-selling novel. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

In Part One of the TV-movie adaptation of Dominick Dunne's An Inconvenient Woman, we saw how billionaire businessman Jason Robards compromised his marriage and reputation by falling for poverty-stricken waitress Rebecca DeMornay. In Part Two, Ms. DeMornay is confronted by Robards' outwardly understanding wife Jill Eikenberry. Distressed that her handpicked husband would choose so common a bedmate, Ms. Eikenberry quietly plots revenge. What follows is murder on the part of Robards, and blackmail on the part of one of the ladies. After its initial two-part network debut, An Inconvenient Woman was boiled down to one single 126-minute movie for syndication and videocassette. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Prospective parents everywhere, meet the world's least likely paternal role model: Adam Sandler! In Big Daddy, Sandler plays 30-year-old bachelor Sonny Koufax, a carefree slob who has never much taken to adult responsibilities; he works one day a week as a tollbooth collector, and spends the remainder of his time living off of a $200,000 reward he collected from an auto accident. All told, the life suits him just fine. However, as his old buddies start getting married and drifting away, Sonny realizes that if he doesn't do something soon, he could end up all alone for the rest of his life. When his most recent girlfriend, Vanessa (Kristy Swanson), indicates that she needs some time off because she's sick of being with a man who can't act like a grown-up, he decides that it's time to take drastic action to win her back. Conveniently enough, a little boy named Julian (Cole Sprouse and Dylan Sprouse) turns up on his doorstep, claiming that he's the biological son of Sonny's roommate and friend from law school, Kevin (Jon Stewart). The kid tells Sonny that he's from Buffalo, New York; Kevin has never been to Buffalo, New York, but no matter - Sonny foresees, in Julian, an opportunity to convince Vanessa that he can face adult responsibilities. He thus takes charge of the little boy over a long Columbus Day weekend, pretending to be Kevin. However, the plan doesn't work as expected, and the authorities hone in on a discovery of Sonny's real identity. Meanwhile, Sonny finds himself genuinely drawn to the tyke. Also supporting Sandler in Big Daddy are Joey Lauren Adams, Josh Mostel and Rob Schneider. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A handful of men and women "of a certain age" pick up the pieces of their lives and look for new love after the loss of their mates in this comedy drama from writer-director Susan Seidelman. Jack (Len Cariou) married his high school sweetheart when they were still in their teens, and when she dies in her early sixties, he is emotionally devastated. Jack's friends and family insist he needs to start living again, and he begins attending a support group for bereaved senior citizens. Jack strikes up a friendship with fellow widower Harry (Joseph Bologna), who offers advice on making time with the ladies, something he's developed a strong interest in since his wife's passing. At their meetings, Jack makes the acquaintance of Sandy (Sally Kellerman), an attractive and intelligent woman who - via a number of obvious sexual advances - makes no secret of her attraction to Jack, though he isn't sure he's ready for a new relationship. Jack and Harry also cross paths with Sandy's friends Marilyn (Brenda Vaccaro), who recently lost her husband to an absent-minded driver with a cellular phone, and Lois (Dyan Cannon), who still flaunts her considerable sex appeal and is dating a younger man, Donald (Michael Nouri). Also screened as The Boynton Beach Bereavement Club, The Boynton Beach Club also stars Renee Taylor, Bologna's wife and frequent acting partner. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Frank Pierson's made-for-cable adaptation of Nicholas VonHoffman's biography, Citizen Cohn stars James Woods as the controversial lawyer Roy Cohn. The film is structured as a series of flashbacks while Cohn lies in a New York hospital dying of AIDS. In the 1940s and early '50s, Cohn became one of the most powerful men in the country after becoming an important associate of Senator Joseph McCarthy (Joe Don Baker) and his Communist witch hunts. The film recounts those turbulent times and features portrayals of such real-life figures as J. Edgar Hoover (Pat Hingle), Dashiell Hammett (Frederic Forrest), Cardinal Spellman (Daniel Benzali), and Walter Winchell (Joseph Bologna). ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Two lawmen decide to find out if a life of crime pays better in this gritty action comedy. Joe (Joseph Bologna) and Tom (Cliff Gorman) are two friends who work for the New York Police Department, Joe as a beat cop and Tom as a detective. Both of them put their lives on the line every day for low wages in a city that seems to get crazier and more dangerous by the minute. One evening, Joe is on patrol when he stops into a liquor store, draws his gun and demands that the clerk hand over all the cash in the register. Joe walks out with more money than he usually makes in a week, and when he tells Tom what he's done, they agree that as policemen they can go anywhere and do anything, making it a cinch for them to become thieves. After striking a deal with a tough but vain gangster (John P. Ryan), Joe and Tom plan a robbery of a Wall Street securities firm that will net them a million dollars each, enough to get out of the suburbs and live as they please with their families for the rest of their lives. But the big heist takes a turn for the worse when some other criminals happen to hit the same building at the same time the cops are pulling off their robbery. Cops and Robbers was written for the screen by noted crime novelist ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this drama, based on a true story, a New York educator has an affair with a manipulative peer and subsequently finds himself implicated in his wife's murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this eccentric comedy, Jacob (Andy Velasquez) is a young man from Israel whose father has long regarded him as a test presented to him by God. Jacob's mind runs on a path all his own, and he has a mild handicap -- his feet stick out at right angles from his legs, giving him a very curious walk. Having little luck finding his place in the world at home, and depressed after his girlfriend leaves him, Jacob learns of a land of wonder and opportunity called Canada, and he soon relocates to Toronto. Jacob isn't in town long before he is befriended by a thief (Giancarlo Giannini) who shows him the ropes of life in the big city, when he's not busy knocking over ATMs. Jacob spends his days wondering the streets of Toronto and meets a woman named Selma (Joanna Pacula), who not only becomes his new girlfriend, but finds him work impersonating Charlie Chaplin in a street-theater act with a pig and a rock band. Omar Sharif makes a brief appearance as the author and philosopher Khalil Gibran, and Leonard Cohen plays a man who impersonates Leonard Cohen. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Actress Theda Blau is well on the wrong side of forty, but she's gamely pretending to be thirty. Though it's hard to believe, she nonetheless manages enough of the ancient siren's song to get a middle-aged producer of TV commercials to come back to her apartment with her. She gets him to stay by "accidentally" spilling water on him - but she's not trying to get him into bed. Her game is to get him to stick around long enough to read the screenplay she's written, and maybe (just maybe) decide that he's good for more than just making commercials. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A pre-Twister Jami Gertz heads the cast in the independently produced Jersey Girl. Born and bred in the Garden State, Gertz is overwhelmed by a desire to taste life in the Big City across the river. Once she lands in New York City, Gertz instantly meets Dylan McDermott, the man of her dreams-nearly totalling his Mercedes in the process. Likewise a refugee from New Jersey, the well-heeled McDermott feels both gratified and uncomfortable by Gertz's attentions; after all, she represents everything that he's fought long and hard to forget. Your enjoyment of Jersey Girl is utterly dependent upon your feelings towards Jami Gertz, since she's pretty much the whole show in this unpretentious PG-rated romance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lovers and Other Strangers became a "sleeper" hit, based on a play by Renée Taylor and Joseph Bologna. The story is essentially a series of vignettes and anecdotes, unified by an impending marriage. Father of the bride Hal (Gig Young) has problems with his long-suffering mistress, Cathy (Anne Jackson), who spends much of the film sitting on the toilet, crying her eyes out; Wilma (Anne Meara), the bride's sex-starved sister, can't wrest her husband, Johnny (Harry Guardino), away from the TV; and Frank (Richard S. Castellano), as the groom's father, slips comfortably into Bartlett's Familiar Quotations with his oft-repeated query "So what's the story?" Twelfth-billed Diane Keaton makes her film debut as a garrulous wedding guest. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi