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Hollywood icon and action movie superstar Bruce Willis has been a fixture of the genre for decades, delivering some of his best action fare during the late 80s and 90s. One of his lesser, but no less entertaining, if only because of the silver screen magnetism of the Die Hard star, is now all set to land on free streaming.Directed by Rowdy Herrington and written by Herrington and Marty Kaplan, Striking Distance is an action thriller like no other. No, wait, sorry, that should read “is an action thriller like every other.” Following Willis as, funnily enough, Sergeant Tom Hardy, Striking Distance stars Sarah Jessica Parker alongside Willis, and tells a familiar tale of a former detective who, now part of the city’s River Rescue Squad, is stalked and tormented by a serial killer...who might just be a ghost from his past. Striking Distance is due to...

George R.R. Martin is best known as the author of the series of epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire, which were adapted into the popular Emmy-Award-winning HBO television series Game of Thrones and its prequel series House of the Dragon. Martin is also a co-executive producer of the two shows, and for the former, he had an additional role as a member of the writing team, crafting the plots and dialogue for the episodes, "The Pointy End," "The Bear,” "Blackwater," “The Maiden Fair," and "The Lion and the Rose."

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Beauty and the Beast DramaCrimeFantasy

Release Date September 25, 1987Cast Dean Norris, Ignatius Wolfington, Linda Hamilton, Piper Laurie, Ron Perlman, Benjamin Agosto, Bernie Pock, Roy Dotrice, Jay Acovone, Ren Woods, Ellen Geer, Ritch Brinkley, Stephen McHattie, Edward Albert, Jo Anderson, Alex Datcher, Robert Pastorelli, Rutanya Alda,...

When was Bruce Willis at the peak of his popularity? It’s hard to say because, truth be told, the man has been a superstar for almost as long as I’ve been alive. When I was in Kindergarten, he was rockin’ the airwaves on Moonlighting and cutting an album, peddling Seagram’s Wine Coolers and starring in hit movies like Blind Date, and this was Before Die Hard. Yet, that 1988 movie took him to another level, with Die Hard 2 and The Last Boy Scout solidifying him as a major, major action star. Yet, one movie almost always overlooked in his filmography is a thriller he did for Sony Pictures that was sandwiched between two against-type turns, one being in Death Becomes Her, the other being in Pulp Fiction. The movie is Striking Distance, and it’s the subject of this month’s The Best Movie You Never Saw!

The '90s were truly a golden age for animated films. Disney ruled the box office with an iron fist, leading to a veritable avalanche of 90s animated movies created in hopes of usurping the throne. The rise of VHS allowed '90s kids everywhere to enjoy their favorite animated films over and over again, sometimes much to the displeasure of their parents.

Still, as fans grew older, they held onto most of our memories of these films, but there were a few that they managed to forget along the way. However, despite relative obscurity, there is nothing to say that these films aren't of the same caliber as the more famous fare they share VHS stacks with.

Updated on May 2nd, 2024 by Fawzia Khan: 90s cartoon movies remain some of the most comforting and nostalgic movie night picks. They were funny, evocative, and full of heart, but some underrated...

Charles Kimbrough, the actor who portrayed Jim Dial in all 10 seasons of Murphy Brown and its 2018 revival, died on Jan. 11. He was 86.

His son, John Kimbrough, confirmed the news to the New York Times on Sunday.

More from TVLineWWE Hall of Famer Terry Funk Dead at 79 - Ric Flair and Mick Foley Pay TributeAnother World's Nancy Frangione Dead at 70Ahsoka Pays Tribute to Ray Stevenson in Series Premiere: 'For Our Friend, Ray'

Kimbrough’s performance as Dial earned him an Emmy Award nomination in 1990. The CBS sitcom ran between 1988-1998 and followed the misadventures of Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen), a famous investigative TV journalist.

“It’s cookies, he smells like cookies, and the smell gets stronger when he’s in heat.“

John Travolta in Michael is available on Blu-ray From Warner Archive. Ordering info can be found Here

Would-be ghosts. UFO voyagers. A chicken that pecks out the “Moonlight Sonata” on the piano — blindfolded! They’re the kinds of stories that keep the National Mirror in the nation’s shopping carts. And they’re the kinds of stories that make the tabloid’s reporters think they’ve heard and seen it all. But that’s before they meet Michael. He may be a grubby party animal who knows his way around a dance floor, but Michael is very much an angel. And with John Travolta in the title role, Michael is very much a divine romantic comedy. William Hurt, Andie MacDowell and Robert Pastorelli are writers sent by boss Bob Hoskins to get an exclusive on the heavenly visitor.

Network: CBS.

Episodes: 260 (half-hour).

Seasons: 11.

TV show dates:

November 14, 1988 -- May 18, 1998;

September 27. 2018 -- December 20, 2018.

Series status: Cancelled; Revived; Cancelled.

Performers include: Candice Bergen, Grant Shaud, Faith Ford, Joe Regalbuto, Charles Kimbrough, Robert Pastorelli, Pat Corley, Ritch Brinkley, Lily Tomlin, John Hostetter, Garry Marshall, Nik Dodani, Jake McDorman, Adan Rocha. and Tyne Daly.

TV show description:

In the original series, recovering alcoholic Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen) is a tough investigative reporter and news anchor for a national TV newsmagazine named Fyi.

She works alongside stuffy and old-style newsman Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough), and her best friend, insecure undercover reporter Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto). Young and neurotic Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud) becomes the show's producer...

Spoiler Alert: This review contains details of the revival of Murphy Brown, debuting tomorrow on CBS. This review originally ran on September 26

Shined up with tweets about dating Donald Trump, fourth-wall-cracking quips and Roseanne implosion asides, the revival of Murphy Brown is very meta. Yet despite those lofty lunges, the CBS sitcom still led by Candice Bergen just can’t grasp the big-picture reality of 2018.

To put it another way, Fyi, if you really don’t want to “tarnish” your legacy, to quote Bergen’s now-unretired TV journalist Brown in the first episode of this de facto 11th season, then hit the reset button on this revival Asap before irrelevance comes knocking.

Even with a sideswipe of Charlie Rose that would have never shown up on a network show just a year ago, the revival of the Diane English-created series (returning more than two decades after its last season...

After 20 years, Candice Bergen’s irascible news journalist Murphy Brown will return to CBS for its “11th season” on Thursday.

The revival of “Murphy Brown” reunites Bergen, also an executive producer, with series creator and executive producer Diane English and original series co-stars Faith Ford, Joe Regalbuto and Grant Shaud.

It picks up as Murphy, following a brief retirement, is back hosting a cable news morning show, “Murphy in the Morning.” She is joined by her “Fyi” team, including lifestyle reporter Corky Sherwood (Ford), investigative journalist Frank Fontana (Regalbuto), and her former news producer Miles Silverberg (Shaud). Shaud left “Murphy Brown” after eight seasons and his character left town for a new job.

Also Read: 'Murphy Brown': Candice Bergen's TV Son Works at the Wolf Network, Which Is Definitely Fox News

Helping the “Fyi” gang learn how to use social media is social media director Nik Dodani (Pat Patel). Murhpy’s now-adult son,...

As with so many recent revivals and remakes, some things are best left in the past. However, if any show is suited for these times, it’s “Murphy Brown.” It was always an idiosyncratic, politically engaged sitcom and, given the state of current events, it is thus a genuine delight to have Candice Bergen back as the uncompromising yet flawed reporter, angry as hell and ready for a fight.

Creator Diane English brings the show about the making of a television news show into 2018 by having Murphy, accompanied by longtime colleagues Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto) and Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford), anchor a cable news morning show — one that happens to be in direct competition with a show hosted by Murphy’s adult son Avery (Jake McDorman) on the “Wolf” Network.

It may be a sitcom shot weeks in advance, Murphy and her team very much live in our world. Episode 2 of the revival,...

This doesn’t qualify as breaking news, but the current glut of TV revivals we’re experiencing isn’t exactly fueled by creative necessity. As fun as it is to see some of these old casts yukking it up together again, let’s be real: Most of these revivals are solely designed to provide a short-term ratings fix for desperate broadcast networks — and quality is beside the point. CBS’ revival of Murphy Brown, which debuts this Thursday (9:30/8:30c), at least has a compelling hook to hang itself on: the election of President Trump and the war on the press he’s currently waging.

Moments before the start of Murphy Brown’s return to the world of TV news — which comes late in Murphy Brown‘s return to the world of TV sitcoms (it premieres September 27th on CBS) — Candice Bergen’s eponymous heroine has a rare moment of self-doubt.

“What if nobody watches?” she asks. “What if it tarnishes our legacy?”

Murphy’s first concern proves unnecessary, as show-within-a-show Murphy in the Morning — which reunites Murphy with most of the old Fyi team from the Nineties(*), including cocky Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto), peppy...

The classic CBS series “Murphy Brown” made the front page of the New York Times in 1992 when it found itself the target of an elected official. And you’d better believe that creator Diane English is betting on the same thing happening again, when the Candice Bergen-starring sitcom returns to CBS this fall.

“We’re hoping,” she told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour about the possibility of Donald Trump responding to the workplace comedy. “Murphy Brown” revisits the sharp-edged television journalist who, in 2018, is now involved with the current climate surrounding the world of cable news. “It’s a great tool for us — we are definitely hoping that he will engage with us,” she said.

In fact, English admitted that the first episode of the revival, which Bergen described as “so ambitious and so fearless,” deliberately attempts to draw Trump’s attention. While English didn’t...

When “Murphy Brown” returns with its revival season on CBS this fall, it will be focused “through the prism of the press,” says creator Diane English.

“We’ve always been a political show with something to say,” she said at the Television Critics Assn. press tour panel for the show Sunday. “The first amendment and free press is under attack like I’ve never seen before…and these guys are the press, so we deal with that a lot.”

The idea to return to the show was first floated in 2012, English shared, “when Sarah Palin was running for president.” “We thought we only had six episodes, and it wasn’t a serious idea at all,” she said. But then after the presidential election in 2016, Warner Bros. Television president Peter Roth called her to ask if she’d bring it back. While she admitted the idea was “daunting,” once she said yes,...

He wasn’t one of our nine picks, but we’re on board with this: Jake McDorman (Limitless, Greek) has snagged the coveted role of Candice Bergen’s titular, now-adult son in CBS’ Murphy Brown revival, TVLine has learned. Per the network’s official character description, Avery is a “millennial journalist who is following in his mother’s footsteps, perhaps too closely, and has his mother’s competitive spirit and quick wit.”

Additionally, CBS confirms that Atypical‘s Nik Dodani (pictured, below) has been tapped for the series-regular role of Pat, the director of social media for the news show...

The gang is getting back together.

One month after CBS announced its plans for a Murphy Brown revival again starring five-time Emmy winner Candice Bergen, three more original cast members are on board.

Faith Ford is set to reprise her role as perky Corky Sherwood, while Joe Regalbuto and Grant Shaud will be back as Frank Fontana and Miles Silverberg.

Since Murphy Brown’s 1998 finale, Ford has co-starred opposite Kelly Ripa on the sitcom Hope & Faith and guest-starred on assorted series; Regalbuto most recently appeared on episodes of Castle and Curb Your Enthusiasm; and Shaud costarred on Madigan Men and Oliver Beene,...

CBS is ready to make you feel like a natural woman all over again.*

The network has ordered a 13-episode revival of the classic sitcom Murphy Brown with star Candice Bergen and series creator Diane English returning to their respective roles.

Murphy Brown, which ran on the Eye Network from 1988 to 1998, starred Bergen as an investigative journalist working at the newsmagazine Fyi — a role that earned her five Emmys. Per CBS, “Murphy Brown returns [30 years later!] to a world of cable news, social media, fake news and a very different political and cultural climate.”

After Murphy Brown’s final sign-off, Bergen went...

“I want to be in the Army.” That statement prompted a frantic phone call from my ex-wife, and an entire series of conversations. It also inspired a very particular screening of a very particular film, one in a series of recent screenings that have spoken to Toshi’s developing interests in both history and Hollywood. While movies are very important to Toshi, they are less important than Allen, and I suspect there will come a time where I lose Allen to other interests. That’s fine with me. Whatever he’s interested in and excited by, I’ll encourage him. Right now, his interests are more in games and puzzles and building things. Minecraft is pretty much the perfect intersection of all of Allen’s energies. As a result, when I am picking things that we’re all going to watch together, I find myself going mainstream and populist and easy.

For a recent feature in Entertainment Weekly, we spoke to showrunners who’ve had the pleasure – and pressure — of wrapping up some of TV’s most beloved series. Murphy Brown creator Diane English had left the CBS comedy after season 4 but returned for its tenth and final season and penned its hour-long 1998 series finale. In the two-part “Never Can Say Goodbye,” Murphy (five-time Emmy winner Candice Bergen) — who’d battled breast cancer that year – contemplated retirement as she dealt with a second scare. While under anesthesia for a surgery that ultimately confirmed she was cancer-free, Murphy scored her biggest interview,...

News

Andrea Martin‘s upcoming NBC comedy Working the Engels, booked an Sctv reunion with Martin Short and Eugene Levy.

Patrick J. Adams will be doing his adorable blinking routine on Orphan Black, according to Deadline. At least, I hope his guest role will include that thing he does on Suits where he blinks and looks just adorable. Even better, Adams previously tweeted that he was a fan of the show. I hope he enjoys his chance to get to play someone drawn into the Orphans’ orbit.

Which clone do you want to see him encounter? I can’t decide.

For better or for worse, Comedy Central has ordered 3 more seasons of Tosh.0.

Raising Hope is ramping up the faboo. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Judith Light is set to appear as Virginia (Martha Plimpton)’s boss.

Today seems to be the day for amazing guest-role casting announcements. TVLine reports...

Kevin Costner’s moment at the top of his arc was undoubtedly Dances with Wolves – everything since has been part of his decline. He had box office hits/classics with such films as The Untouchables, Field of Dreams, No Way Out, and Bull Durham. He was a sex symbol, a guy’s guy, the next Gary Cooper – down to Earth, and sexy in a way that suggested distinct heterosexuality. Then came Dances with Wolves, and it was there the stage for Costner-backlash was set: Wolves trumped Goodfellas and Martin Scorsese for best picture and director. The film had been loved, but there were dissenters (including Pauline Kael), and by the time Costner got around to directing again (1997’s The Postman), he had already made Waterworld and a number of films that won him no fans. Twenty years on it’s interesting to revisit his Dances with Wolves, as the film...

Here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time this week as well.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray version of The Last Starfighter, Dexter Seasons 1-3 on Blu-ray and the debut of season one of Sons of Anarchy on DVD.

Check them out.

Movies

The 5 Deadly Venoms ~ Five Deadly Venoms (DVD)

Hannah Montana The Movie (3-Disc Combo Pack Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy) ~ Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lucas Till, and Emily Osment (Blu-ray)

Husbands (Extended Cut) ~ Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, and Jenny Runacre (DVD)

Julia ~ Tilda Swinton (DVD)

Kagemusha – Criterion Collection ~ Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara, and Jinpachi Nezu (Blu-ray)

Last House on the Left (2009) ~ Garret Dillahunt, Monica Potter, Tony Goldwyn...

American viewers might get another, perhaps saltier, bite of the '90s Brit hit Cracker thanks to a second attempt at turning the quirky cop show into a series stateside.

Granada America, whose parent in the U.K. was the original producer-distributor of the Robbie Coltrane vehicle, has sold the format rights to TNT and will co-produce the series with the cabler. Robert Duvall and Robert Carliner's Butchers Run will executive produce. Granada retains all rights outside North America.

The original starred the irrepressible Coltrane as Eddie Fitz Fitzgerald, who despite being a drinking, gambling, adulterous chain-smoker, managed to be both a sympathetic character and a savvy sleuth. Jimmy McGovern, a hard-charging British scripter, was the writer of the original; Jason Horwitch, who wrote Medical Investigation for NBC, is penning and co-executive producing the TNT version.

An Americanized Cracker starring Robert Pastorelli aired on ABC in fall 1997, but it lacked the punch of the original and was canceled after one season.

Why try again?

"It was such a success in the U.K. and around the world -- such a great character and also a great procedural," Granada America senior vp Julie Meldal-Johnsen said.

Be Cool is a sequel to Get Shorty, 1995's rich, dark comedic satire of Hollywood and criminals, but perhaps it's best not to dwell too much on that. For Be Cool has a different comic agenda, a different vibe and different rhythms. It's more of a cartoon, divorced from the usual fictional world of Elmore Leonard crime fiction -- more Hollywood than Detroit, you might say, where dark comedy turns gray and characters get exaggerated to the point of caricature. Be Cool is not really cool as Get Shorty was, but it's entertaining, a frivolous cocktail rather than a vintage wine.

John Travolta returns as Chili Palmer and Uma Thurman, his Pulp Fiction co-star, plays his inamorata, and there's Danny DeVito, actor and producer of this film, whose company also produced Get Shorty, and the whole thing becomes one boisterous class reunion. The new film -- with a new writing-directing team in Peter Steinfeld and F. Gary Gray, who adapt the Leonard novel -- might not approach Get Shorty's boxoffice, but the numbers will not be insubstantial. MGM might be moribund, but the grand old studio has a winner in its last few months.

Nearly a decade after Chili discovered his loansharking talents applied to Hollywood deal-making, Be Cool finds him tiring of the film racket and casting envious eyes at the music business. In a slam-bang opening, Chili and music producer Tommy Athens (James Woods) drive along the Sunset Strip as Chili complains about the movie industry. At a sidewalk cafe, Tommy pitches Chili a movie about his life and drops the name of a hot new singer. A decrepit car pulls up, and a Russian Mafia guy in a bad toupee blasts away at Tommy until he is dead -- the guy doesn't shoot too straight, understand. Within hours, Chili hears the new singer, Linda Moon (Christina Milian), steals her away from her managers and sweet-talks Tommy's widow, Edie (Thurman), into teaming up with him to produce Linda's album.

Soon half the town is arrayed against Chili for poaching this untested talent: There's her former managers, Nick (Harvey Keitel), an acquaintance from Chili's loansharking days; his partner, Raji (Vince Vaughn), a white guy who believes he's black; Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer) -- a parody of a Suge Knight-like gangsta rap label impresario -- who tools around L.A. with a posse that includes trigger-happy bodyguard Dabu (Andre Benjamin); and a motley crew of Russians, who don't seem to know what they want.

The basic premise here is there is no difference between the music and crime businesses. We're all wiseguys, Nick says. So Raji, pissed off at having his singer stolen from him, doesn't call in a lawyer. He calls in a hit man, Joe Loop (Robert Pastorelli), who has the bad habits of eating with his mouth open and whacking the wrong guy. Raji has poor luck, too, with his gay bodyguard, Elliot (Dwayne The Rock Johnson), who really wants to be an actor and music video performer.

Gray encourages his cast to treat the material as a jumping-off point for major clowning. Top dogs are Vaughn, never better at physical comedy than here, and Benjamin (aka Andre 3000 of the Grammy-winning OutKast), amusing as a dysfunctional gangsta. Travolta, all in black, and Thurman, often all in red, again make a great couple, even getting up for a brief turn on the dance floor though they should have sat the number out.

Cedric the Entertainer is good, but his character is overboard even for this parody. The Rock has a ball spoofing his own image. Milian's talent and beauty radiate throughout the movie, though she is stuck with the only normal character in the movie.

The sequel opens with Travolta's character dissing the whole notion of sequels, and later Aerosmith's Steven Tyler turns up to explain why at this stage in his career he doesn't need to turn up in a movie. Be Cool has that sense of humor.

The movie cruises all the hot Southland spots, slipping past doormen into the Viper Room, drifting into Staples Center for a Lakers game and relaxing poolside in a Hollywood Hills play pad. Cinematographer Jeffrey L. Kimball lights and shoots the film in the bright colors of a TV talk show, songs are surprisingly -- given the subject matter -- retro, and costumes wonderfully awful. Much effort went into creating the impression of casualness.

BE COOL

MGM

Jersey Films/Double Feature Films

Credits:

Director: F. Gary Gray

Screenwriter: Peter Steinfeld

Based on the novel by: Elmore Leonard

Producers: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, David Nicksay

Executive producers: F. Gary Gray, Elmore Leonard, Michael Siegel

Director of photography: Jeffrey L. Kimball

Production designer: Michael Corenblith

Music: John Powell

Costumes: Mark Bridges

Editor: Sheldon Kahn

Cast:

Chili Palmer: John Travolta

Edie Athens: Uma Thurman

Raji: Vince Vaughn

Sinclair "Sin" Russell: Cedric the Entertainer

Dabu: Andre Benjamin

Himself: Steven Tyler

Joe Loop: Robert Pastorelli

Linda Moon: Christina Milian

Nicki Carr: Harvey Keitel

Elliot Wilhelm: Dwayne The Rock Johnson

MPAA rating PG-13

Running time -- 120 minutes...

Be Cool is a sequel to Get Shorty, 1995's rich, dark comedic satire of Hollywood and criminals, but perhaps it's best not to dwell too much on that. For Be Cool has a different comic agenda, a different vibe and different rhythms. It's more of a cartoon, divorced from the usual fictional world of Elmore Leonard crime fiction -- more Hollywood than Detroit, you might say, where dark comedy turns gray and characters get exaggerated to the point of caricature. Be Cool is not really cool as Get Shorty was, but it's entertaining, a frivolous cocktail rather than a vintage wine.

John Travolta returns as Chili Palmer and Uma Thurman, his Pulp Fiction co-star, plays his inamorata, and there's Danny DeVito, actor and producer of this film, whose company also produced Get Shorty, and the whole thing becomes one boisterous class reunion. The new film -- with a new writing-directing team in Peter Steinfeld and F. Gary Gray, who adapt the Leonard novel -- might not approach Get Shorty's boxoffice, but the numbers will not be insubstantial. MGM might be moribund, but the grand old studio has a winner in its last few months.

Nearly a decade after Chili discovered his loansharking talents applied to Hollywood deal-making, Be Cool finds him tiring of the film racket and casting envious eyes at the music business. In a slam-bang opening, Chili and music producer Tommy Athens (James Woods) drive along the Sunset Strip as Chili complains about the movie industry. At a sidewalk cafe, Tommy pitches Chili a movie about his life and drops the name of a hot new singer. A decrepit car pulls up, and a Russian Mafia guy in a bad toupee blasts away at Tommy until he is dead -- the guy doesn't shoot too straight, understand. Within hours, Chili hears the new singer, Linda Moon (Christina Milian), steals her away from her managers and sweet-talks Tommy's widow, Edie (Thurman), into teaming up with him to produce Linda's album.

Soon half the town is arrayed against Chili for poaching this untested talent: There's her former managers, Nick (Harvey Keitel), an acquaintance from Chili's loansharking days; his partner, Raji (Vince Vaughn), a white guy who believes he's black; Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer) -- a parody of a Suge Knight-like gangsta rap label impresario -- who tools around L.A. with a posse that includes trigger-happy bodyguard Dabu (Andre Benjamin); and a motley crew of Russians, who don't seem to know what they want.

The basic premise here is there is no difference between the music and crime businesses. We're all wiseguys, Nick says. So Raji, pissed off at having his singer stolen from him, doesn't call in a lawyer. He calls in a hit man, Joe Loop (Robert Pastorelli), who has the bad habits of eating with his mouth open and whacking the wrong guy. Raji has poor luck, too, with his gay bodyguard, Elliot (Dwayne The Rock Johnson), who really wants to be an actor and music video performer.

Gray encourages his cast to treat the material as a jumping-off point for major clowning. Top dogs are Vaughn, never better at physical comedy than here, and Benjamin (aka Andre 3000 of the Grammy-winning OutKast), amusing as a dysfunctional gangsta. Travolta, all in black, and Thurman, often all in red, again make a great couple, even getting up for a brief turn on the dance floor though they should have sat the number out.

Cedric the Entertainer is good, but his character is overboard even for this parody. The Rock has a ball spoofing his own image. Milian's talent and beauty radiate throughout the movie, though she is stuck with the only normal character in the movie.

The sequel opens with Travolta's character dissing the whole notion of sequels, and later Aerosmith's Steven Tyler turns up to explain why at this stage in his career he doesn't need to turn up in a movie. Be Cool has that sense of humor.

The movie cruises all the hot Southland spots, slipping past doormen into the Viper Room, drifting into Staples Center for a Lakers game and relaxing poolside in a Hollywood Hills play pad. Cinematographer Jeffrey L. Kimball lights and shoots the film in the bright colors of a TV talk show, songs are surprisingly -- given the subject matter -- retro, and costumes wonderfully awful. Much effort went into creating the impression of casualness.

BE COOL

MGM

Jersey Films/Double Feature Films

Credits:

Director: F. Gary Gray

Screenwriter: Peter Steinfeld

Based on the novel by: Elmore Leonard

Producers: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, David Nicksay

Executive producers: F. Gary Gray, Elmore Leonard, Michael Siegel

Director of photography: Jeffrey L. Kimball

Production designer: Michael Corenblith

Music: John Powell

Costumes: Mark Bridges

Editor: Sheldon Kahn

Cast:

Chili Palmer: John Travolta

Edie Athens: Uma Thurman

Raji: Vince Vaughn

Sinclair "Sin" Russell: Cedric the Entertainer

Dabu: Andre Benjamin

Himself: Steven Tyler

Joe Loop: Robert Pastorelli

Linda Moon: Christina Milian

Nicki Carr: Harvey Keitel

Elliot Wilhelm: Dwayne The Rock Johnson

MPAA rating PG-13

Running time -- 120 minutes...

"Be Cool" is a sequel to "Get Shorty", 1995's rich, dark comedic satire of Hollywood and criminals, but perhaps it's best not to dwell too much on that. For "Be Cool" has a different comic agenda, a different vibe and different rhythms. It's more of a cartoon, divorced from the usual fictional world of Elmore Leonard crime fiction -- more Hollywood than Detroit, you might say, where dark comedy turns gray and characters get exaggerated to the point of caricature. "Be Cool" is not really cool as "Get Shorty" was, but it's entertaining, a frivolous cocktail rather than a vintage wine.

John Travolta returns as Chili Palmer and Uma Thurman, his "Pulp Fiction" co-star, plays his inamorata, and there's Danny DeVito, actor and producer of this film, whose company also produced "Get Shorty", and the whole thing becomes one boisterous class reunion. The new film -- with a new writing-directing team in Peter Steinfeld and F. Gary Gray, who adapt the Leonard novel -- might not approach "Get Shorty"'s boxoffice, but the numbers will not be insubstantial. MGM might be moribund, but the grand old studio has a winner in its last few months.

Nearly a decade after Chili discovered his loansharking talents applied to Hollywood deal-making, "Be Cool" finds him tiring of the film racket and casting envious eyes at the music business. In a slam-bang opening, Chili and music producer Tommy Athens (James Woods) drive along the Sunset Strip as Chili complains about the movie industry. At a sidewalk cafe, Tommy pitches Chili a movie about his life and drops the name of a hot new singer. A decrepit car pulls up, and a Russian Mafia guy in a bad toupee blasts away at Tommy until he is dead -- the guy doesn't shoot too straight, understand. Within hours, Chili hears the new singer, Linda Moon (Christina Milian), steals her away from her managers and sweet-talks Tommy's widow, Edie (Thurman), into teaming up with him to produce Linda's album.

Soon half the town is arrayed against Chili for poaching this untested talent: There's her former managers, Nick (Harvey Keitel), an acquaintance from Chili's loansharking days; his partner, Raji (Vince Vaughn), a white guy who believes he's black; Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer) -- a parody of a Suge Knight-like gangsta rap label impresario -- who tools around L.A. with a posse that includes trigger-happy bodyguard Dabu (Andre Benjamin); and a motley crew of Russians, who don't seem to know what they want.

The basic premise here is there is no difference between the music and crime businesses. "We're all wiseguys", Nick says. So Raji, pissed off at having his singer stolen from him, doesn't call in a lawyer. He calls in a hit man, Joe Loop (Robert Pastorelli), who has the bad habits of eating with his mouth open and whacking the wrong guy. Raji has poor luck, too, with his gay bodyguard, Elliot (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), who really wants to be an actor and music video performer.

Gray encourages his cast to treat the material as a jumping-off point for major clowning. Top dogs are Vaughn, never better at physical comedy than here, and Benjamin (aka Andre 3000 of the Grammy-winning OutKast), amusing as a dysfunctional gangsta. Travolta, all in black, and Thurman, often all in red, again make a great couple, even getting up for a brief turn on the dance floor though they should have sat the number out.

Cedric the Entertainer is good, but his character is overboard even for this parody. The Rock has a ball spoofing his own image. Milian's talent and beauty radiate throughout the movie, though she is stuck with the only normal character in the movie.

The sequel opens with Travolta's character dissing the whole notion of sequels, and later Aerosmith's Steven Tyler turns up to explain why at this stage in his career he doesn't need to turn up in a movie. "Be Cool" has that sense of humor.

The movie cruises all the hot Southland spots, slipping past doormen into the Viper Room, drifting into Staples Center for a Lakers game and relaxing poolside in a Hollywood Hills play pad. Cinematographer Jeffrey L. Kimball lights and shoots the film in the bright colors of a TV talk show, songs are surprisingly -- given the subject matter -- retro, and costumes wonderfully awful. Much effort went into creating the impression of casualness.

BE COOL

MGM

Jersey Films/Double Feature Films

Credits:

Director: F. Gary Gray

Screenwriter: Peter Steinfeld

Based on the novel by: Elmore Leonard

Producers: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, David Nicksay

Executive producers: F. Gary Gray, Elmore Leonard, Michael Siegel

Director of photography: Jeffrey L. Kimball

Production designer: Michael Corenblith

Music: John Powell

Costumes: Mark Bridges

Editor: Sheldon Kahn

Cast:

Chili Palmer: John Travolta

Edie Athens: Uma Thurman

Raji: Vince Vaughn

Sinclair "Sin" Russell: Cedric the Entertainer

Dabu: Andre Benjamin

Himself: Steven Tyler

Joe Loop: Robert Pastorelli

Linda Moon: Christina Milian

Nicki Carr: Harvey Keitel

Elliot Wilhelm: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

MPAA rating PG-13

Running time -- 120 minutes...

Late actor Robert Pastorelli was a suspect in his girlfriend's death when he died last year, police have confirmed. Lawmen say the former Murphy Brown star knew he was being investigated in the death of Charemon Jonovich, 25, who was found shot in the head in Pastorelli's Hollywood Hills home in 1999, reports American TV show Celebrity Justice. Jonovich's death was initially ruled either an accident or suicide, but several months after her death the coroner indicated she had died as a result of "homicide". Police were investigating the matter last year when Pastorelli, then 49, died of a drug overdose in March. The couple had a young daughter together.

Actor Robert Pastorelli died from an accidental overdose of cocaine and heroin, according to a long-awaited coroner's report. The former Murphy Brown star was found dead on March 8 in his Hollywood home, where his girlfriend reportedly shot herself five years ago. He was 49. In the coroner's report, leaked to internet scandal site Smokinggun.Com, it appears Pastorelli injected the drugs himself. His assistant found him slumped over the toilet with a syringe in his right arm and vomit on his pants. He was wearing a toupee. Pastorelli's family, who have been fighting reports the actor died of an overdose, are shocked by the news because they claim the actor - a former drug user - has been clean and sober for 15 years.

Fans of tragic actor Robert Pastorelli fear he died of a massive drug overdose, after an empty syringe was found next to his body. The beloved Murphy Brown star was found dead at his Hollywood home earlier this month. The actor's family insist Pastorelli died from a heart attack - but medics suspect he may have been killed by the drug he shot into his arm with a needle they found lying next to him. Toxicology reports won't be revealed until next month. At the time of his death, Pastorelli was reportedly being investigated by the FBI for the death of his girlfriend, which took place in the same home almost five years ago to the day. TV Guide reporter Mary Murphy, who is investigating Pastorelli's death, says, "He had not been called yet for the interviews but he was definitely, according to authorities, the prime suspect in the investigation." Murphy claims she has uncovered information that links Pastorelli with his late girlfriend Charemon Jonovich's apparent suicide in 1999. The reporter reveals an official source has told her that there were gunshot wounds on one of his hands, as well as hers.

News outlets reported today that actor Robert Pastorelli, best known for his role as Eldin the Housepainter on Murphy Brown, was found dead from a possible drug-related death; he was 49. Pastorelli was discovered at 3 p.m. on Monday in the bathroom of his Los Angeles home alongside drug paraphernalia, and an autopsy has been scheduled to determine the cause of death; initial police reports cited it as a "possible accidental death." Starting his career in the mid-80s, Pastorelli immediately found fame on the Candice Bergen sitcom Murphy Brown, where he played irasicble housepainter Eldin, whose neverending work on Bergen's home made him an integral part of the show. Staying with the show from 1988 through 1994, Pastorelli moved on to a number of small parts and TV guest appearances, appearing most notably in the films Sister Act 2, Eraser, Michael and Heist; he also appeared in the 2001 TV adaptation of South Pacific and played the lead in the short-lived but well-received Americanized version of Brit TV hit Cracker. Pastorelli had just completed work on the Get Shorty sequel Be Cool, scheduled for release later this year. He is survived by his daughter with Charemon Jonovich, who died in 1999 in what was determined an accidental shotgun death. --Prepared by IMDb staff...

British actors Robbie Coltrane and Robert Carlyle are set to unite their talents - as Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The pair have previously starred together in the James Bond film World Is Not Enough, The (1999) and Britain's award-winning television series "Cracker" (1993) (which had a short-lived American incarnation, starring Robert Pastorelli, on ABC). The film, about one of the greatest movie comedy duos of all time, is due to begin shooting in 2002.

Martin Short faces more problems than he can shake his wand at as Murray the Fairy Godmother in "A Simple Wish".

A serviceable family fantasy, this Bubble Factory presentation throws in enough whimsical touches to make up for uninspired plotting, but it's unlikely that its boxoffice wishes will be granted given other higher-profile options. Long-term prospects, however, look brighter once the picture visits the land of video.

When young New Yorker Anabel Greening (Mara Wilson) wishes that her widowed actor father (Robert Pastorelli) nab the lead role in a Broadway musical so the family won't have to pack up and move to Nebraska, she learns a valuable lesson in being careful about what one wishes for.

With an annual meeting of the North American Fairy Godmothers Assn. in progress, Anabel has to settle for the less-than-guaranteed services of Murray, not one of the most glowing examples of the powers of affirmative action.

Among his well-intentioned misfires, Murray turns Anabel's dad into a Central Park statue, whisks the two of them off into the middle of nowhere and turns a belligerent hillbilly into a giant rabbi instead of the much tinier rabbit he had in mind.

Meanwhile, the evil Claudia (Kathleen Turner), an excommunicated fairy godmother, crashes the meeting and makes off with a trunkful of magic wands in her pursuit of world domination. She's accompanied by her faithful minion Boots (a delightful Amanda Plummer), who's just a flea removed from her previous canine existence.

For the most part, the acting ensemble does sturdy work. Wilson once again conveys her role with a refreshingly unmannered honesty and sweetness, while Short, when not giving into a weakness for mugging, has his moments as the blundering Murray. Turner's Claudia, meanwhile, could have benefited from something a little more over the top instead of what is essentially a toss-away performance.

The rest of the cast, including Pastorelli, Francis Capra as Wilson's pesky Big Brother, Ruby Dee as the doyenne of fairy godmothers and Teri Garr as their prim receptionist, do fine work.

Director Michael Ritchie is no stranger to the family genre, having hit a home run with "The Bad News Bears". Here, he demonstrates a light, engaging touch, particularly with an Andrew Lloyd Webber parody of a musical version of "A Tale of Two Cities", but he's limited by Jeff Rothberg's fairly static script, which fails to capitalize on the possibilities posed by a building full of fairy godmothers, among other promising set-ups.

Technically, what the special effects may lack in scope they make up for in imagination and some colorful 3-D computer animation, overseen by visual effects producer Tim Healey.

A SIMPLE WISH

Universal Pictures

Director Michael Ritchie

Screenwriter Jeff Rothberg

Producers Sid, Bill and Jon Sheinberg

Director of photography Ralf Bode

Production designer Stephen Hendrickson

Editor William Scharf

Costume designer Luke Reichle

Music Bruce Broughton

Casting Rick Pagano

Color/stereo

Cast:

Murray Martin Short

Claudia Kathleen Turner

Anabel Mara Wilson

Oliver Robert Pastorelli

Boots Amanda Plummer

Charlie Francis Capra

Hortense Ruby Dee

Rena Teri Garr

Running time -- 89 minutes

MPAA rating: PG...

John Travolta may not be the first screen angel to touch down in theaters this holiday season (that honor, of course, went to Denzel Washington in "The Preacher's Wife"), but he handily takes the cake as the more unorthodox of the pair.

His Michael is a lusty, chain-smoking, rabble-rouser with a rampant sweet tooth and a beer gut that he brandishes with unbridled glee.

Travolta is terrific. The picture is less so.

Director Nora Ephron, who, along with her sister Delia also shaped the script by Pete Dexter and Jim Quinlan, has delivered an amiable but rambling road movie of a romantic comedy that comes up short in matters both of the heart and the funny bone.

Travolta's ever-magnetic presence should nevertheless give this New Line release wings, but the ultimate take will likely be less than "phenomenal."

Responding to a claim of Michael's ethereal existence, tabloid reporters Frank Quinlan (William Hurt), Huey Driscoll (Robert Pastorelli) and alleged angel expert Dorothy Winters (Andie MacDowell) are dispatched by their uppity boss (Bob Hoskins) to a quaint little motel in the sleepy town of Stubbs, Iowa.

There they meet the dotty but kindly Pansy Milbank (Jean Stapleton), with whom Michael has been staying, having recently returned her hospitality by obligingly smiting a bank that refused to approve Pansy's loan application. When Michael makes his long-awaited appearance, he's hardly the saintly specter the trio has been expecting. Descending down a staircase sporting several days of stubble, clad in a pair of boxers and wearing his wings like a comfortable old sweatshirt draped around his rather ample girth, Michael's a good ol' boy gone to heaven.

As it turns out, he's actually an archangel, having earned his stripes in battles on behalf of the likes of Daniel and Joan of Arc, and he still loves a good brawl. Initially dubious but knowing a great front page when they see one, Quinlan, Driscoll and Winters can't wait to take Michael Back to Chicago with them. He agrees, but only on his terms (driving, not flying, so they can make pit stops at the world's largest ball of twine and the world's largest Teflon frying pan). Of course, Michael's got his own personal agenda, and it involves reigniting a spark that has long gone out of the hearts of two members of his makeshift entourage.

Travolta's gonzo, fearless performance is a joy to behold. It's sweet and mischievous and lends the film an irresistible buoyancy. When Michael isn't around, however, the film's problems become readily apparent. While MacDowell's Winters is a subtle variation on her "Groundhog Day" and "Multiplicity" characters, she still manages to give her a delicate, down-home appeal. Hurt, on the other hand, is simply miscast as the jaded Quinlan. He just does not generate the kind of warmth that would ever suggest these two were ever destined to be together. As the odd man out, Pastorelli isn't used as effectively here as he was as a foil for Schwarzenegger in "Eraser".

Nora Ephron works well with her actors and delivers a number of fine set pieces, but the picture as a whole has a quilted-together, episodic feel. Its deliberate heartland rhythms lend the proceedings a visual drawl where crisper pacing is required.

Among the production values, "Field of Dreams" cinematographer John Lindley handily reproduces those sun-kissed, golden hues; Randy Newman's grass-roots score occasionally goes a little heavy on the hayseed.

MICHAEL

New Line Cinema

A Turner Pictures presentation

An Alphaville production

A Nora Ephron film

Director Nora Ephron

Screenwriters Nora Ephron & Delia Ephron,

Pete Dexter & Jim Quinlan

Story Pete Dexter & Jim Quinlan

Producers Sean Daniel, Nora Ephron,

James Jacks

Executive producers Delia Ephron,

Jonathan D. Krane

Director of photography John Lindley

Production designer Dan Davis

Editor Geraldine Peroni

Music Randy Newman

Costume designer Elizabeth McBride

Casting Mary Goldberg

Color/stereo

Cast:

Michael John Travolta

Dorothy Winters Andie MacDowell

Frank Quinlan William Hurt

Vartan Malt Bob Hoskins

Huey Driscoll Robert Pastorelli

Pansy Milbank Jean Stapleton

Judge Esther Newberg Teri Garr

Running time -- 105 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...

This severe case of divided personality seems to result from the fact that star Tom Selleck must be a credible threat to kill his parents by the end of the film; so for an hour we have to see what a basically nice, charming guy he's playing. The result, in any event, is a weak comedy with bleak boxoffice prospects.

Selleck plays Jon Aldrich, a Chicago stockbroker who flies off to Florida when he gets an emergency call that his mother is in the hospital. Mom (Anne Jackson, in the film's class performance), turns out to be OK, but dad Harry Aldrich (Don Ameche) turns out to be in the throes of what the film keeps calling senile dementia. Harry is living in a time warp where it's always 1943 and every meeting with his son is a joyful reunion.

After Harry Burns down his retirement-village home, Jon takes him to his Chicago condo where wife Audrey (Wendy Crewson) makes the best of things until Jon's income and savings vanish as a result of an FBI investigation (undercover agent played by Michael Murphy). Soon dad's wandering around in a daze, Audrey has taken the kids and scrammed, and shrewish sister Arlene (Christine Ebersole) has moved in with her bratty kids and commenced an affair with the apartment house's doorman (Robert Pastorelli). Mom and dad, pained by all the trouble they're causing, convince Jon, with Arlene's enthusiastic cooperation, that the best thing for Jon to do is kill them and thus relieve everybody of their burden.

Once the film gets to the murder attempts, with their effective slapstick gags (Jon unfailingly hurts himself more than he does his parents) and satiric bite, the film is at least entertaining. However, until then we're reassured over and over that Jon is a great guy, a wonderful husband and dad, a loving son (even though he hasn't seen his parents in eight years), an honest businessman (even though his firm is suffused with peculation) and an all-around sweetheart.

All without a trace of irony but a surplus of sitcom-like gags about nutty old pop. The film's first hour simply doesn't have the courage of its final 45 minutes' convictions.

FOLKS!

20th Century Fox

Mario & Vittorio Cecchi Gori and Silvio Berlusconi present a Penta Pictures Production

Producers Victor Drai, Malcolm R. Harding

Director Ted Kotcheff

Writer Robert Klane

Director of photography Larry Pizer

Production designer William J. Creber

Editor Joan E. Chapman

Music Michel Colombier

Casting Lynn Stalmaster

Color/Dolby

Cast:

Jon Aldrich Tom Selleck

Harry Aldrich Don Ameche

Mildred Aldrich Anne Jackson

Audrey Aldrich Wendy Crewson

Arlene Christine Ebersole

Running time -- 108 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13

(c) The Hollywood Reporter...