Bovie Movie

In the same year that a hit cable television series, The Sopranos, successfully mined the same premise, this comedy about a mobster seeking advice from a psychiatrist was a box office winner for director Harold Ramis. Billy Crystal stars as Dr. Ben Sobel, a New York shrink who’s becoming a little bored with his upscale but neurotic clientele. Into Sobel’s practice comes a guy with legitimate problems, Mafia kingpin Paul Viti (Robert DeNiro), a godfather who is being reduced to tears and panic attacks by stress and his guilt over his beloved father’s assassination. Intimidated but also fascinated by Viti, Dr. Sobel becomes frustrated when his mob boss patient becomes a full-time occupation, as Viti summons the psychiatrist for his professional help at all hours and in all places, even including the doctor’s Florida wedding to TV reporter Laura MacNamara (Lisa Kudrow). In the meantime, a power struggle is brewing with Viti’s long-time rival Primo Sidone (Chazz Palminteri), but Viti begins employing the feel-good self-help jargon and techniques he’s learned from Dr. Sobel to keep his enemy off balance. Just as the therapist and his powerful patient are making breakthroughs, the FBI attempts to persuade Sobel that Viti is going to have him murdered, leading to a nearly lethal misunderstanding.

Top-notch action sequences and exciting stunt work highlight this fast-moving thriller. John Kruger (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a top agent in the U.S. Marshalls’ Witness Protection Program; it’s his job to “erase” the pasts of Federal witnesses under his watch and deal with anyone who tries to hurt them. Kruger’s latest assignment is to protect Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams), who while working for a major weapons manufacturing firm discovered evidence that the company was selling new, high-tech weapons to intentional terrorists groups with the cooperation of a faction of enemy agents within the United States government. However, when Kruger discovers that the Witness Protection Program has a rat in the house — and that rat is his boss, U.S. Marshall Robert Deguerin (James Caan) — Kruger has to guard his own life while trying to protect Lee’s. The supporting cast is highlighted by James Coburn, Robert Pastorelli, and James Cromwell.

Satirist Jim Arahams returned with this comedy spoofing the Godfather trilogy, and other films and TV, including Jurassic Park, Lord of the Dance, and Barney. The opening emulates a Saul Bass sequence with Anthony Cortino (Jay Mohr) in a flight amid flames much like Robert De Niro in the Casino credits. After flashbacks go back in time to Sicily, Coppola/Scorsese references abound. Young Vincenzo (Jason Fuchs) travels to America to later become the clumsy chief of organized crime (with the late Lloyd Bridges as the aging Vincenzo) with his sons — short-fused Joey (Billy Burke) and educated Anthony. Tony’s WASP fiancee is Diane (Christina Applegate), recalling Diane Keaton in the Coppola films. During the wedding, assassins try to do away with Don Vincenzo, who’s hospitalized, so Tony sets out to gain revenge for the murder attempt. In Vegas, Tony gets involved with showgirl Pepper (Pamela Gidley). When betrayals begin, can violence be far behind? This was Lloyd Bridges’ final movie, and the film is dedicated to him.

A police dog finds himself pitted in a battle of wits against an accident-prone mailman and a gang of crooks (and it looks like the dog has the edge in the brains department) in this broad comedy. Agent 11 (Bob) is a bulldog trained by the FBI agent Murdoch (Michael Clarke Duncan) to sniff out drugs, and the dog’s keen nose ferrets out the storage facility of Mafia kingpin Sonny (Paul Sorvino); Agent 11 has also been taught to show no mercy with criminals, and he gives Sonny a serious bite in a rather personal place. Needless to say, Sonny is not amused, and wants revenge against the pooch, so Agent 11 is put into the animal equivalent of the witness protection program. However, unlikely circumstances set the dog loose, where he soon pairs up with Gordon (David Arquette), a stunningly inept letter carrier with a long history of fending off ill-tempered pets. Gordon is attempting to impress Stephanie (Leslie Bibb), an attractive single mother, by helping to look after her son James (Angus T. Jones), and when he comes across Agent 11, he adopts the dog and names him Spot, feeling certain he can smooth out the critter’s often cranky relationship with people. But Gordon doesn’t know that Sonny and his henchmen are hot on Agent 11’s trail and that his new best friend will lead a gang of ruthless gangsters into Stephanie and James’ home. See Spot Run was originally announced as a vehicle for comedy star Martin Lawrence, but when changes in Lawrence’s schedule prevented him from taking on the project, it was retooled for the talents of David Arquette.

An ex-cop trying to stay away from trouble finds it literally crashing into his backyard in this crime thriller. Dave Robicheaux (Alec Baldwin) is a former New Orleans police detective who, after kicking an addiction to alcohol and confronting some serious problems with his partners, has left law enforcement behind to run a bait shop in a small Louisiana bayou town. One day, Dave and his wife Annie (Kelly Lynch) see a small plane plummet from the sky and crash into the swamp; the pilot dies, but Dave is able to rescue a young Hispanic girl from the wreckage. Dave and Annie take the child in, but as they try to find out more about the plane crash and who the little girl might be, they discover that she’s actually an illegal alien from Salvador and that the pilot was involved with a local drug ring. Dave, constitutionally unable to let a mystery go unsolved, begins asking enough questions and making enough trouble that he finds himself on the bad side of his old High School friend Bubba Rocque (Eric Roberts). Bubba is a local crime boss who controls the area’s drug traffic, keeps a boxing ring in his front yard, and has a wife Claudette (Teri Hatcher) who enjoys greeting her guests naked. Dave’s inquiries eventually become too much for Bubba and his henchmen, and in the midst of a violent raid on their home, Annie is killed. Dave becomes obsessed with bringing Bubba and his men to justice and gets some unexpected help from Robin Gaddis (Mary Stuart Masterson), an exotic dancer with a heart of gold. While it was originally scheduled for release in 1994, Heaven’s Prisoners didn’t arrive on theater screens until two years later, by which time Teri Hatcher had risen to stardom on the TV series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.