Tag Archives: media hype

Ricochet

IMDB Rating: 5.70
3959 votes

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Storyline
Rookie Los Angeles cop Nick Styles is at a Los Angeles street fair, where hit man Earl Talbot Blake pulls a double cross on some drug dealers, killing four men. Minutes later, Nick shoots Blake in the knee, and Blake is grabbed by Nick's partner and best friend Larry Doyle. Nick becomes the focus of the media, thanks to an amateur cameraman's footage of Nick disarming Blake. Over the next few years, Nick's career takes off: he's offered a job in the district attorney's office, and his hip media style keeps him in the public eye. Nick marries a woman named Alice and they go on to have two daughters named Lisa and Monica. While Blake is in prison, he vows revenge on Nick. When Blake comes up for parole, he orchestrates a bloody escape — which includes faking his own death. Blake doesn't want Nick dead. He just wants Nick to suffer in spades. He wants to ruin Nick's life as completely as possible, and then have Nick sent to prison for murder so Nick will know how Blake feels. Blake begins his vendetta by killing city councilman U. B. Farris and planting evidence to make everyone think Nick and Farris are running an underage pornography ring. Blake then kidnaps Nick, forces him to take drugs and have sex with a prostitute, videotapes the whole thing, and then releases Nick. Nick tells everyone that it was Blake who kidnapped him, but everyone refuses to believe Nick because everyone thinks Blake is dead. That night, Blake breaks into Nick's house, and makes a threatening videotape with Lisa, Monica, and an ax in it, but Blake didn't actually do anything to Lisa and Monica. Nick is then suspended from the DA's office, with everyone thinking that Nick is mentally ill because he keeps saying that Blake is still alive. Blake then begins the final phase of his vendetta — he kills Larry and frames Nick for it. Blake also links Nick to misappropriation of public funds, specifically, the funds he's supposed to be raising for a children's center in a building at the base of the Watts tower. Nick is forced to turn to his childhood friend, gang leader Odessa, for help in clearing his name and stopping Blake once and for all.
Actors
Nick StylesDenzel Washington
Earl Talbott BlakeJohn Lithgow
OdessaIce-T

Serial Mom

IMDB Rating: 6.30
7577 votes

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Storyline
A picture perfect middle class family is shocked when they find out that one of their neighbors is receiving obscene phone calls. The mom takes slights against her family very personally, and it turns out she is indeed the one harassing the neighbor. As other slights befall her beloved family, the body count begins to increase, and the police get closer to the truth, threatening the family's picture perfect world.
Actors
Beverly R. SutphinKathleen Turner
Eugene Sutphin, D.D.S.Sam Waterston
Misty SutphinRicki Lake

Showtime

IMDB Rating: 5.30
12122 votes

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Storyline
LAPD Detective Sergeant Mitch Preston cares only about doing his job and nailing crooks. LAPD Patrol Officer Trey Sellars joined the force as a day job until his acting career took off. During an undercover drug buy Mitch was working that Trey botched by calling in for backup and drawing media attention, Mitch's partner is shot with a very exotic 12-gauge automatic weapon; Mitch then shoots the video camera out of the hands of a reporter filming the action when the cameraman refused to shut it down. Faced with a $10 million lawsuit, the department agrees to let producer Chase Renzi film Mitch's investigation for a new reality TV show, and constantly tries to make everything more "viewer friendly" by changing everything about Mitch's life to fit the stereotypical view of police officers—and partners him with Trey.
Actors
Lazy BoyMos Def
Det. Mitch PrestonRobert De Niro
TeacherRachael Harris

Space Cowboys

IMDB Rating: 6.30
17177 votes

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Storyline
Negli anni '50 erano stati allontanati dalla NASA per motivi politici ed oggi questi quattro anziani astronauti, ormai in pensione e con qualche acciacco, sono richiamati per una missione difficile: bisogna andare a rimettere in sesto l'Ikon, un vecchio satellite russo in orbita sopra la Terra, che si si è guastato e rischia di lasciare la Terra priva di collegamenti e telecomunicazioni. I nostri eroi sono i disegnatori di un vecchio sistema satellitare identico a quello russo e sarebbero i soli a poter affrontare l'emergenza. In pensione da tempo, sono richiamati al lavoro dal loro capo, Frank Corvin, un anziano astronauta, che conosce il satellite al punto da poterlo riparare. Così la squadra dei 'nonnetti' parte alla conquista di gloria e fama. La pensione e l'ospizio possono attendere.
Actors
Hawk HawkinsTommy Lee Jones
Jerry O'NeillDonald Sutherland
Tank SullivanJames Garner

Edtv

IMDB Rating: 6.10
14174 votes

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Storyline
Cynthia, TV producer, has an idea about how to save the station: A normal person's life should be broadcasted 24 hours a day. "Ed TV" is born the second her eye falls on Ed Pekurny, a sympathetic Joe Sixpack. After the first week on air Eds fame grows and grows, but conflicts break open: His brother Ray publishes a very negative book about Ed, who now dates Ray's ex; Ed's parent's partnership problematics are broadcasted nationwide and a very attractive and seducing model uses innocent Ed to raise her own fame. Also, Ed's contract proves to be unquittable, so that Ed Pekurny suddenly can see the golden bars around his cage. But in a country that switches the TV set on for breakfast and off for bedtime, nearly everything can happen - and people can be counted on.
Actors
Ed 'Eddie' PekurnyMatthew McConaughey
ShariJenna Elfman
Ray PekurnyWoody Harrelson

Reality Bites

IMDB Rating: 6.20
8985 votes

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Storyline
In this study of Generation X manners, Lelaina, the valedictorian of her college class, camcords her friends in a mock documentary of posteducation life. Troy is her best friend, a perpetually unemployed musical slacker. Vickie is a manager at the Gap who worries about the results of an AIDS test, while Sammy has problems grappling with his sexuality. When Lelaina meets Michael, an earnest video executive who takes her homemade video to his MTV-like station, she must decide what she values--the materialism of yuppie Michael or the philosophical musings of Troy.
Actors
Lelaina PierceWinona Ryder
Troy DyerEthan Hawke
Vickie MinerJaneane Garofalo

Natural Born Killers

IMDB Rating: 6.70
29733 votes

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Storyline
Delivery boy Mickey Knox (Woody Harrelson) falls in love with customer Mallory Wilson (Juliette Lewis). He soon helps her kill her abusive father (Rodney Dangerfield) and enabling mother (Edie McClurg), beginning their macabre journey down Route 666. Their M.O.: every few miles, they attack everyone within their site, invariably leaving only one person alive to tell the tale. The two are made famous by unscrupulous reporter Wayne Gale (Robert Downy jr.), as they run across the countryside, pursued by the equally sadistic Jack Scagnetti (Tom Sizemore). Just before the trial, a ratings-whoring interview by the same reporter who made them famous leads to pandemonium, not just within the prison itself, but nationwide. A satire of the media, public opinion, and the modern attitude toward violence.
Actors
Tom Sizemore
Tommy Lee Jones
Mickey KnoxWoody Harrelson
Clicky