Move over Hollywood – Boston is on the scene! In recent years, the Boston area has grown into a film production haven, hosting a throng of big name actors, directors, producers and picture crews. Sites such as Faneuil Hall, the South End, and the Public Gardens appear in a multitude of films ranging from adrenaline-pumping action classics to heart-warming romantic comedies.
Bobby Walker is living the American dream: great job, beautiful family, shiny Porsche in the garage. When a corporate downsizing leaves him and co-workers Phil Woodward and Gene McClary jobless, the three men are forced to re-define their lives as men, husbands, and fathers. Bobby soon finds himself having a realization that perhaps there is more to life than chasing the bigger, better deal. With humor, pathos, and keen observation, writer-director Jon Wells introduces us to the new realities of American life.
Release Date: January 21, 2011
Genre: Drama
Director: John Wells
Starring: Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner
Production Companies: Battle Mountain Films, Company Men Productions, Spring Creek Productions
Featured Locations: Boston; Burlington; Quincy; Lynn; Marblehead; Milton; Wellesley
Awards and Accolades:
On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and begins working on a new idea. In a fury of programming, what begins in his dorm room soon evolves into a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history...but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications.
Release Date: October 1, 2010
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake
Production Companies: Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Scott Rudin Productions, Michael De Luca Productions, Trigger Street
Featured Locations: Andover; Cambridge; Wheelock College, Boston; Somerville
Awards and Accolades:
Doug is an unrepentant criminal and leader of a group of ruthless bank robbers. With no real attachments, Doug never has to fear losing anyone close to him but that all changes when his gang briefly takes a hostage on their latest job - bank manager, Claire. Though they let her go, Claire is aware that the robbers know her name and where she lives. She lets her guard down when she meets an unassuming and rather charming man named Doug not realizing that he is the same man who only days earlier had terrorized her. The instant attraction between them gradually turns into a passionate romance that threatens to take them both down a potentially deadly path.
Release Date: September 17, 2010
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Pete Postlethwaite, Blake Lively
Production Companies: Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, GK Films, Thunder Road Film
Featured Locations: Bunker Hill, Fenway Park, Boston; Harvard Square, Cambridge; Melrose; Somerville
Awards and Accolades:
Just because you grow older doesn’t mean you have to grow up! Lenny, Eric, Kurt, Marcus, and Rob are childhood friends who reunite one holiday weekend to honor the passing of their childhood basketball coach and relive the good old days. It doesn’t matter that these five guys are now respectable business men, husbands and fathers, once they get back together, nothing is going to stop these kids-at-heart from having the time of their adult lives.
Release Date: June 25, 2010
Genre: Comedy
Director: Dennis Dugan
Starring: Adam Sandler, Salma Hayek, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider
Production Companies: Happy Madison Productions, Relativity Media
Featured Locations: East Wareham; Essex; Marblehead; Southborough
Awards and Accolades:
When a small-town girl named June meets a mysterious stranger, she thinks she’s found the man of her dreams. But she soon discovers he’s a fugitive super-spy, who thrusts her into a thrilling international cat-and-mouse chase. As if dodging assassins and uncovering world-changing secrets weren't enough, June must decide if her “Knight” in shining armor is a dangerous traitor or the love of her life.
Release Date: June 23, 2010
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Director: James Mangold
Starring: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard
Production Companies: Twentieth Century Fox, Regency Enterprises, Pink Machine, Tree Line Film, Dune Entertainment
Featured Locations: 31 Stuart Street, 36 New Street, Boston Logan International Airport, Boston; Bridgewater; Danvers; Melrose; New Bedford; Waltham; Worcester Regional Airport
Awards and Accolades:
A live action family comedy in which an ambitious young real estate developer faces off with a band of angry animals when his new housing subdivision pushes too far into a pristine part of the wilderness. Led by an incredibly clever raccoon, the animals stymie the development and teach the man about the environmental consequences of his intrusion on nature.
Release Date: April 30, 2010
Genre: Comedy, Family
Director: Roger Kumble
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Brooke Shields, Ricky Garcia
Production Companies: Summit Entertainment, Participant Media, Imagination Abu Dhabi FZ, Robert Simonds Productions
Featured Locations: Boston; Crane Beach; Danvers; Topsfield
Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule are two U.S. marshals summoned to a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island's fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane. Directed by Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese and based on Dennis Lehane's 2003 novel of the same name.
Release Date: February 19, 2010
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
Production Companies: Paramount Pictures, Phoenix Pictures, Sikelia Productions, Appian Way
Featured Locations: Boston Harbor, Hyde Park, Boston; Dedham, Mansfield, Taunton
Awards and Accolades:
Thomas Craven is a veteran homicide detective for the Boston Police Department and a single father. When his only child, Emma, is murdered on the steps of his home, everyone assumes that he was the target. But he soon suspects otherwise and embarks on a mission to find out about his daughter's secret life. His investigation leads him to a dangerous world of corporate cover-ups, government conspiracy, murder and shadowy government operative Darius Jedburgh, who has been sent to clean up the evidence.
Norma and Arthur Lewis are, by all accounts, an average couple living an average life in the suburbs with their young son...until a mysterious man appears on their doorstep and presents Norma with a life-altering proposition: the box. With only 24 hours to make their choice, Norma and Arthur face an impossible moral dilemma – winning a fortune at the expense of the life of someone they do not know.
Release Date: November 6, 2009
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Director: Richard Kelly
Starring: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella
Production Companies: Warner Brothers, Radar Pictures, Media rights Capital, Darko Entertainment, Lin Pictures
Featured Locations: Boston Public Library, Castle Hill, Deer Island, Hough's Neck, South Boston, Boston; Ipswich; Kingston; Medfield; Milton; North Andover; Quincy; Winthrop
Awards and Accolades:
A romantic comedy set in an alternate reality where the concept of a lie does not exist - everyone speaks the truth and nothing but the truth with no thought of the consequences. But when down-on-his-luck Mark suddenly develops the ability to lie, he finds that dishonesty has its rewards. In a world where every word is assumed to be the absolute truth, Mark easily fibs his way to fame and fortune. But lies have a way of spreading, and Mark begins to realize that things are getting a little out of control when some of his tallest tales are being taken as the absolute truth.
Release Date: October 2, 2009
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Directors: Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson
Starring: Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K.
Production Companies: Warner Bros. Pictures, Radar Pictures, Media Rights Capital, Lin Pictures
Featured Locations: Boston; Haverhill; Lowell; North Andover; Quincy; Sudbury
FBI agents investigate the mysterious murder of a college student linked to the man who helped create a high-tech phenomenon that allows people to purchase perfect robotic versions of themselves - fit, good looking remotely controlled machines that ultimately assume their life roles, enabling people to experience life vicariously from the comfort and safety of their own homes. The murder spawns a quest for answers: in a world of masks, who's real and who can you trust?
Release Date: September 25, 2009
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Starring: Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Ving Rhames
Production Companies: Touchstone Pictures, Mandeville Films, Top Shelf Productions, Wintergreen Productions
Featured Locations: Boston; Hopedale; Lawrence; Lynn; Medford; South End; Taunton; Wayland; Woburn; Worcester
When pushy high-powered editor Margaret faces deportation to Canada, she declares her engagement to her unsuspecting assistant Andrew, whom she's tormented for years. He agrees to participate in the charade, but with a few conditions of his own. The unlikely couple head to Alaska to meet his quirky family and with an impromptu wedding in the works and an immigration official on their tails, Margaret and Andrew reluctantly vow to stick to the plan despite the uncomfortable consequences.
Release Date: June 19, 2009
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Anne Flecther
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, Betty White
Production Companies: Touchstone Pictures, Mandeville Films, Kurtzman/Orci
Featured Locations: Franklin Street, Boston; Gloucester; Manchester; Rockport; South Hamilton
Awards and Accolades:
Celebrity photographer Connor loves freedom, fun and women...in that order. A committed bachelor, he thinks nothing of breaking up with multiple women on a conference call while prepping for his next date. Just when it looks like Connor may single-handedly ruin his brother Paul's wedding with his mockery of romance, he gets an urgent wake-up call from the ghost of his late uncle through the ghosts of his jilted girlfriends - past, present, and future.
Release Date: May 1, 2009
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Director: Mark Waters
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Michael Douglas
Production Companies: Jon Shestack Productions, New Line Cinema, Panther
Featured Locations: Boston; Ipswich; Needham; Sudbury
In 1958, as part of a dedication ceremony for a new elementary school, a group of students are asked to draw pictures to be stored in a time capsule. 50 years later, a new generation of students examine the capsule's contents and one student's cryptic message ends up in the hands of a young boy and his father who then makes a startling discovery - the message is a code that predicts with pinpoint accuracy the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major disaster of the past 50 years.
Release Date: March 20, 2009
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Director: Alex Proyas
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne
Production Companies: Summit Entertainment, Escape Artists, Mystery Clock Cinema, Goldcrest Pictures, Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment, Wintergreen Productions
Featured Locations: MIT, Museum of Science
Awards and Accolades:
When legendary treasures from around the world go missing, including the priceless Pink Panther Diamond, Chief Inspector Dreyfus is forced to assign intrepid-if-bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau to a squad of equally inept international detectives. Their mission: Stop the globe-trotting thief who specializes in stealing historical artifacts.
Release Date: February 6, 2009
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Family
Director: Harold Zwart
Starring: Steve Martin, Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer, Andy Garcia
Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Columbia Pictures, Robert Simonds Productions
Featured Locations: Bedford; Boston; Chelsea; Ipswich; Westwood; Winchester
Awards and Accolades:
Paul Blart is a single, suburban dad, trying to make ends meet as a security officer at a mall. Though no one else takes his job seriously, Paul considers himself on the front lines of safety. When a heist shuts down the mall, mild-mannered Paul has to become a real cop to save the day.
Release Date: January 16, 2009
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime, Family
Director: Steve Carr
Starring: Kevin James, Keir O'Donnell, Jayma Mays, Raini Rodriguez
Production Companies: Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Happy Madison Productions
Featured Locations: Burlington Mall, Burlington; West Roxbury; Northshore Mall; South Shore Plaza
Awards and Accolades:
Liv and Emma are best friends who have planned every detail of their respective weddings since childhood. At the top of their bridal must have list: a ceremony at New York's ultimate bridal destination, the Plaza Hotel. When a clerical error causes both of their weddings to be scheduled on the same day, Liv and Emma, two best friends who'd normally do anything for each other, find themselves in a no-holds-barred struggle that threatens to erupt into an all-out war and destroy their lifelong friendship.
Release Date: January 9, 2009
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Director: Gary Winick
Starring: Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Candice Bergen
Production Companies: Fox 2000 Pictures, Regency Enterprises, New Regency Pictures, Firm Films, Sunrise Entertainment
Featured Locations: Boston; Salem; Sudbury
Awards and Accolades:
A master at seducing and offending women, Tank is a professional "best friend's girl". When guys get dumped, they hire Tank to take their ex-girlfriends out on the worst date of their lives, an experience so horrible it sends them running gratefully back to their beaus. So when Tank's best friend, Dustin is dumped, Tank naturally offers to help out...and ends up meeting the challenge of a lifetime in smart, beautiful and headstrong, Alexis.
Release Date: September 19, 2008
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Director: Howard Deutch
Starring: Kate Hudson, Dane Cook, Jason Biggs
Production Companies: Lionsgate, Management 360, Terra Firma Films, Superfinger Entertainment, New Wave Entertainment
Featured Locations: Belmont; Boston Harbor, Beacon Street, Copley Plaza Hotel, East Boston High School, Old South Church, Suffolk University Law School, Western Avenue, Boston; Crane Beach; Jamaica Plain; North End; South Boston
Awards and Accolades:
Mary seems to have it all - a beautiful home, a rich husband, an adorable daughter and a part-time career creating clothing designs. When Mary's husband enters into an affair with a sultry 'spritzer girl' lurking behind the Saks Fifth Avenue perfume counter, all hell breaks loose. Mary's relationship is tested to the breaking point while her tight-knit circle of friends, including mega-mommy Edie, lesbian essayist Alex, and fashion editor Sylvie, all start to question their own friendships and romantic relationships as well.
Release Date: September 12, 2008
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Director: Diane English
Starring: Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Bette Midler
Production Companies: Picturehouse Entertainment, Scion Films, Inferno Distribution, Jagged Films, New Line Cinema, Shukovsky English Entertainment
Featured Locations: Boston; Gloucester; Sudbury
Awards and Accolades:
Ben is a brilliant M.I.T student who is recruited to join a group of the school's most gifted students that head to Vegas every weekend armed with the know-how to turn the odds at blackjack in their favor. By counting cards and employing an intricate system of signals, the team can beat the casinos big time. Seduced by the money, glamour, and his sexy teammate, Ben begins to push the limits. Though counting card isn't illegal, the stakes are high, and the challenge becomes not only keeping the numbers straight, but staying one step ahead of the casinos' menacing enforcer.
Release Date: March 28, 2008
Genre: Crime, Drama
Director: Robert Luketic
Starring: Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne
Production Companies: Columbia Pictures, Relativity Meia, Trigger Street Productions, Michael De Luca Productions, GH Three
Featured Locations: Back Bay, Boston Convention & Exposition Center, Boston University, Newbury Street, Boston Public Gardens, Boston; Cambridge; Chelsea
Awards and Accolades:
Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South and inspired by a true story, this film chronicles the journey of a brilliant but volatile coach who uses the power of words to shape a group of underdog students from a small, modest black college in East Texas into an elite debate team while challenging the social mores of the time.
Release Date: December 25, 2007
Genre: Biography, Drama
Director: Denzel Washington
Starring: Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Kimberly Elise, Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, Jermaine Williams, Denzel Whitaker
Production Companies: Harpo Films, Marshall Production, The Weinstein Company
Featured Locations: Boston; Harvard University, Cambridge
Awards and Accolades:
Two Boston area detectives are hired to investigate a little girl's kidnapping. As the detectives take a closer look at the case they soon discover that nothing is what it seems. Ultimately, they will have to risk everything - their relationship, their sanity, and even their lives - to find the girl.
Release Date: October 19, 2007
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, John Ashton, Amy Ryan
Production Companies: LivePlanet, Miramax Films, The Ladd Company
Featured Locations: Boston; Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge; Chelsea; Dorchester; Medford; Lynn; South Boston; Quincy; Sherborn; Waltham; Worcester
Awards and Accolades:
NFL quarterback Joe is living the ultimate fantasy: he's single, rich, famous and the life of the party. But his dream is suddenly sacked for a loss when he discovers the 7-year-old daughter he never knew he had. Now, during the most important time in his career, he must figure out how to juggle his parties, practices and dates with ballet classes, bedtime stories, and dolls. Despite the often hilarious misadventures that come with being a new father, Joe discovers that there is more to life than money, endorsements and thousands of adoring fans: the love and care of one very special girl.
Release Date: September 28, 2007
Genre: Comedy, Family, Sport
Director: Andy Fickman
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kyra Sedgwick, Madison Pettis, Morris Chestnut
Production Companies: Walt Disney Pictures, Mayhem Pictures, Monkey Dance Productions
Featured Locations: Auburn; Bentley College, College of the Holy Cross, Emerson College, Gypsy Bar, Boston; Framingham, Gillette Stadium; Gloucester; Fort Point Landing; Westwood
Awards and Accolades:
A long time ago, far away on the planet of Cybertron, a war was waged between the noble Autobots and the devious Decepticons for the control of the AllSpark, a mystical talisman that would grant unlimited power to whomever possess it. The ancient struggle re-erupts on Earth between the two extraterrestrial clans, with a clue to the ultimate power held by a young man named Sam.
Release Date: July 3, 2007
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Director: Michael Bay
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Anthony Anderson, Jon Voight, Rachael Taylor
Production Companies: DreamWorks SKG, Paramount Pictures, Hasbro, Di Bonaventura Pictures, SprocketHeads
Featured Location: Boston
Awards and Accolades:
Sixteen-year-old Cole's struggle for independence is put to the test as his South Boston Irish-Catholic family implodes around him. Older brother Terry is descending into a life of drugs and crime, pregnant sister Kathleen is being sent away to cover up the shame of an unwed mother and Cole's father Desmond spends his days in a fog of alcohol and self-pity. A talented baseball pitcher, Cole overcomes self-doubt to fight his way into the state championships. To get there, however, he must make a life and death decision, one that will change his family forever.
Release Date: 2007
Genre: Drama
Director: Brad Gann
Starring: Michael Angarano, Brendan Gleeson, Emily VanCamp
Production Companies: Creanspeak Funding, Creanspeak Productions, Falcon Film Funding, Intellectual Properties Worldwide, Moody Street Pictures, Purple Princess Productions
Featured Locations: Boston, Sharon
Awards and Accolades:
Undercover cop, Billy, is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by a man named Costello. While Billy is quickly gaining Costello's confidence, Colin, a hardened criminal, has infiltrated the Boston Police Department as an informer for the syndicate and is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans of the operations he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the mob and the police that there's a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself.
Release Date: October 6, 2006
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Anderson, Alec Baldwin
Production Companies: Warner Bros. Pictures, Plan B Entertainment, Initial Entertainment Group, Vertigo Entertainment, Media Asia Films
Featured Locations: Flagship Wharf (Charlestown), Lynn, Quincy, South Boston, Waterfront
Awards and Accolades:
An account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on 9/11, this film recreates the doomed trip in actual time, from takeoff to hijacking to the realization by those onboard that their plane was part of a coordinated attack unfolding on the ground below. The film attempts to understand the abject fear and courageous decisions of those who, over the course of 90 minutes, transformed from a random assembly of disconnected strangers to bonded allies who confronted an unthinkable situation.
Release Date: April 28, 2006
Genre: Crime, Drama, History
Director: Paul Greengrass
Starring: David Alan Basche, Olivia Thirlby, Liza Colon-Zayas
Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Studio Canal, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Working Title Films
Featured Location: Boston
Awards and Accolades:
Free-thinking Katherine is the newest faculty member at Wellesley College in 1953. Her job is to instruct her students in classical art. She quickly realizes that her students already know all the paintings so she decides to help them cultivate their own appreciation for art, rather an accepting other people's opinions.
Release Date: December 19, 2003
Genre: Drama, Romance
Director: Mike Newell
Starring: Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Production Companies: Revolution Studios, Red Om Films
Location: Wellesley College
Awards and Accolades:
Jimmy, Sean and Dave were the best of friends when they were younger, but have parted ways. Decades later, they are all leading very different lives but when Jimmy's daughter turns up dead, the three men are reunited by circumstance - Sean as lead detective on the case and Dave as a suspect in the crime. Can their earlier friendship withstand the rigors of deception, murder and betrayal?
Release Date: October 15, 2003
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden
Production Companies: Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, NPV Entertainment, Malpaso Productions
Featured Locations: Franklin Park, East Boston, Canton, Charlestown, Chelsea, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, South Boston, Tobin Bridge
Awards and Accolades:
Alex is an author who must pay a debt to the Cuban mafia or face dire consequences. After his laptop is destroyed, he hires Emma, a stenographer who talks as much as she writes. As Alex dictates his melodramatic and semi-complicated love story to Emma, life begins to imitate art and Alex and Emma fall in love.
Release Date: June 20, 2003
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Director: Rob Reiner
Starring: Luke Wilson, Kate Hudson, David Paymer
Production Companies: Epsilon Motion Pictures, Franchise Pictures, Reiner-Greisman, Escape Artists
Featured Locations: Boston
Four young friends perform a heroic act and are changed forever by the uncanny powers they gain. Years later on a hunting trip in the woods, they are overtaken by a blizzard, a vicious storm in which something ominous moves. Challenged to stop an alien force, the friends must first prevent the slaughter of innocent civilians by a military vigilante then overcome a threat to the brotherly bond between them.
Release Date: March 21, 2003
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee
Production Companies: Castle Rock Entertainment, Village Roadshow Pictures, NPV Entertainment, Kasdan Pictures, WV Films II
Featured Location: Boston
Awards and Accolades:
A handful of teens suddenly die after watching a disturbing and strange videotape full of bizarre and haunting images. Curious to know more, Rachel decides to investigate the mysterious tape herself. After watching it and receiving a mysterious phone call, Rachel realizes that she must unravel the mystery in order to save her own life.
Release Date: October 18, 2002
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Director: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox
Production Companies: DreamWorks SKG, Macdonald/Parkes Productions, BenderSpink
Featured Locations: Boston
Awards and Accolades:
As a sorority president and calendar girl, Elle is a big hit on the campus of her sun-drenched Los Angeles college. She's also got the perfect boyfriend in Warner Huntington III, a wealthy East Coast blue blood. Fearing that his snooty friends and family will never accept the bubble-headed Elle, Warner dumps her before heading off to graduate law school at Harvard University. Determined to win back her man, Elle enrolls in the same imposing institution, quickly proving that despite her penchant for malls and makeup, she is no dummy.
Release Date: July 13, 2001
Genre: Comedy
Director: Robert Luketic
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, Luke Wilson
Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Marc Platt Productions
Featured Locations: Boston, Cambridge
Awards and Accolades:
Kevin is a thief who breaks into the supposedly unoccupied beachfront mansion of billionaire Max Fairbanks. Max unexpectedly catches the burglar red-handed and summons the police but, before the criminal can be carted off, Max impulsively claims that Kevin's lucky ring is his own. Enraged, Kevin vows revenge on the tycoon, and so begins a game of one-upmanship from which neither party will cease and desist, even when the result becomes public scandal, financial ruin, divorce, and criminal proceedings.
Release Date: June 1, 2001
Genre: Comedy, Crime
Director: Sam Weisman
Starring: Danny DeVito, Martin Lawrence, John Leguizamo
Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Turman/Morrissey Company, Hyde Park Entertainment
Featured Locations: Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Cambridge, Concord, Milton, South End
While researching a real estate transaction, title examiner Leah Farrell uncovers a forged name and the mystery of a missing woman. Finding her life threatened by the mob, she turns to special investigator Paul Shaughnessy for help. Amid foiling the plot to bring illegal gambling to a small Massachusetts town, a passionate romance blooms.
Release Date: May 15, 2001
Genre: Comedy, Action, Mystery
Director: Steven Furst
Starring: Maureen McCormick, Christopher Atkins, Laurie Gould
Production Company: Deco L.A. Productions
Featured Location: Boston, Cambridge, Charlestown, Salisbury, Seabrook, Topsfield
Neicy is a stylish, well-dressed young woman who maintains an air of intelligent arrogance in her part-time job as a window dresser at an upscale Boston department store. Neicy has a secret to looking good on a window dresser's salary -- she is an expert shoplifter who has learned how to steal the best outfits for herself and her friends. Desperate for love from her mother, Neicy decides to steal something of worth - a beautiful necklace from a luxury jewelry store.
Release Date: 2001
Genre: Crime, Drama
Director: Khari Streeter, DeMane Davis
Starring: Kerry Washington, Eugene Byrd
Production Companies: BET Pictures, Hart-Sharp Entertainment, Showtime Networks, True Film Fund
Featured Locations: Roxbury, Downtown Boston
Awards and Accolades:
Sixteen years have passed since Ann gave up on her son and her husband. In that time, she raised her three daughters. After a heart attack, Ann asks the three hard-living women to find their long-lost brother somewhere in Boston. They soon discover a brother studying at Harvard and their estranged, upper-class father. Now they women must wrestle with their emotions about their own feelings of abandonment as part of coming to terms with the realities of their lives.
Release Date: August 11, 2000
Genre: Drama
Director: Steve Mailer
Starring: Ally Sheedy, Tyne Daly, Jack Davidson
Production Company: Film Cellar
Featured Locations: Boston, Saugus
Awards and Accolades:
Kelley and Samantha are waiting out the summer after their high school graduation before moving on to college. Although Kelley comes from a wealthy family and Samantha's folks are working class, they soon find that they have more in common than they imagined, and they fall in love. In a tragic turn of events, Samantha's parents soon learn that their daughter has only a few more months to live. When Kelley learns the awful truth, he must decide if he should stay by the side of his first love or obey his father's wishes and go to college.
Release Date: March 24, 2000
Genre: Drama, Romance
Director: Mark Piznarski
Starring: Leelee Sobieski, Chris Klein, and Josh Hartnett
Production Companies: Fox 2000 Pictures, Friendly Productions
Featured Locations: Aerial Boston, Bradley Palmer State Park
Awards and Accolades:
Feeling that they are doing God's will, Catholic fraternal twins Connor and Murphy take to performing their divine duty against the Russian mob. They massacre a bunch of unsuspecting Mafioso in a scene of absurd violence, and then they let more blood in a mass killing of porn-shop customers. Instead of getting thrown in jail, they are dubbed 'saints' by the Boston Herald, and they are praised by the brilliant FBI agent Paul Smecker.
Release Date: January 1, 2000
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Director: Troy Duffy.
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus
Production Companies: Franchise Pictures, Brood Syndicate, Fried Films, The Lloyd Segan Company, Chris Brinker Productions, B.D.S Productions Inc.
Featured Locations: Boston Common, Copley Square, Longfellow Bridge, Newbury Street, South Boston
Release Date: May 28, 1999
Genre: Drama
Director: John Shea
Starring: Donnie Wahlberg, Anne Meara, Rose McGowan
Production Companies: Prophecy Pictures, Ltd.
Featured Location: South Boston
This remake of the 1970 comedy follows the adventures of a couple vexed by misfortune while in New York City for a job interview. Henry is an advertising man from Ohio who runs his life on an exacting schedule. His wife, Nancy, feels the spark has gone out of their lives altogether. After 24 years of marriage, their children are grown and nothing is tying them to their old home, so they decide to take a stab at relocating to New York City. Henry arranges a job interview in the Big Apple, they schedule a flight into Manhattan, and from that point on, anything that can go wrong does.
Release Date: April 2, 1999
Genre: Comedy
Director: Sam Weisman
Starring: Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, John Cleese
Production Companies: Cherry Alley Productions, Court/Madden Productions, Paramount Pictures, The Cort/Madden Company
Featured Locations: Arlington, Boston, Mass Pike
A courtroom drama based on a true story and non-fiction book by Jonathan Harr. The case revolves around an incident in 1979 where two drinking wells supplying water to the town of Woburn were found to be contaminated with industrial solvents. Residents felt the local factories were responsible for the pollution and unusually high rate of leukemia deaths amongst the town's children. Enter Jan Schlichtmann, a personal injury lawyer whose small firm is hired to sue the industrial giants for millions of dollars in damages.
Release Date: January 8, 1999
Genre: Drama
Director: Steve Zaillian
Starring: John Travolta, Robert Duvall, John Lithgow, Kathleen Quinlan, William H. Macy
Production Companies: Touchstone Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Wildwood Enterprises, Scott Rudin Productions
Featured Locations: Beacon Hill, Dedham, Fenway Park, Framingham Pond, Jamaica Plain, Public Gardens, Woburn
Awards and Accolades:
Car-thief Bobby O'Grady belongs to a small time Irish-American gang running the streets of Charlestown. When his cousin, Seamus, is gunned down, Bobby is divided between his personal conscience and loyalty to his boss, Jackie O'Hara.
Release Date: September 25, 1998
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Director: Ted Demme
Starring: Denis Leary, Ian Hart, Jason Barry, Martin Sheen
Production Companies: Apostle, Clinica Estetico, Filmline International, Kushner-Locke Company, Phoenician Films, Spanky Pictures, Tribeca Productions
Featured Locations: Bunker Hill, Charlestown, Chelsea, East Boston, Malden, Tobin Bridge, Wellesley
Awards and Accolades:
Christopher is young, good-looking, successful, and happily out of the closet. His one flaw is his fear of commitment - he tends to be more attracted to men with good looks rather than substance. He would rather hop from one relationship to another with little thought of a lasting love affair but that all changes when he meets witty, intelligent, and soft-spoken Stewart. Can Christopher control his lustful urges and hold on to his love or will the temptation prove to be too much?
Release Date: September 11, 1998
Genre: Comedy
Director: Roland Tec
Starring: Jean-Michael Lander, David Vincent, Jay Corcoran
Production Companies: Pinkplot Productions, Spade-a-Spade Pictures
Featured Locations: Back Bay, The Esplanade, South End
Erin Castleton, a night-shift nurse, seems to always be unlucky in love. After her relationship with her boyfriend Sean goes down the drain, she dates a variety of men - desperately searching for Mr. Right. Little does she know, Mr. Right is actually under her nose in unassuming plumber, Alan Monteiro.
Release Date: August 21, 1998
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Brad Anderson
Starring: Hope Davis, Alan Gelfant, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Production Company: Robbins Entertainment
Featured Locations: Chelsea, Commonwealth Avenue, Copley Plaza Hotel, Davis Square, East Boston, New England Aquarium, Public Gardens, Revere, Union Park
Awards and Accolades:
Desperate for a child, Eleanor begs her sterile husband Arthur to pay someone to impregnate her. Reluctantly, Arthur agrees and scours out Harvard law student Roger Martin, who agrees to the proposition for a monetary fee. Things quickly escalate and go awry when Martin becomes obsessed with Eleanor, infuriating Arthur.
Release Date: March 27, 1998
Genre: Drama, Romance
Director: Lesli Linka Glatter
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, William Hurt, Madeline Stowe
Production Companies: Interscope Communications, Polygram Filmed Entertainment
Featured Locations: Back Bay, Boston University, Boston, Moore State Park, North End
Joe Ross has just created a process that stands to make his company and his boss, Klein, millions of dollars. At a clandestine meeting in the Caribbean, Ross meets the wealthy and enigmatic Jimmy Dell, and the two strike up an unusual friendship. Eventually, Ross discovers that Dell has lied to him about his true identity and he ends set up as a murder suspect who learns, almost too late, to trust no one.
Release Date: April 3, 1998
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Director: David Mamet
Starring: Steve Martin, Ben Gazzara, Campbell Scott, Felicity Huffman, Ed O'Neill
Production Companies: Jasmine Productions, Inc, Jean Doumanian Productions, Magnolia Films, Sweetland Films
Featured Locations: Logan Airport, North End, Rowes Wharf, South Boston
Awards and Accolades:
Will Hunting is a 20-year-old janitor at MIT gifted with a photographic memory and an affinity for mathematics. After a professor by the name of Lambeau stumps students with a challenging math formula, Will anonymously writes the correct solution, prompting Lambeau to track down the elusive genius. As Will's problems with the police escalate, Lambeau offers an out, but with two conditions - visits to a therapist and weekly math sessions.
Release Date: January 9, 1998
Genre: Drama
Director: Gus Van Sant
Starring: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck
Production Companies: Be Gentlemen Limited Partnership, Lawrence Bender Productions, Miramax Films
Featured Locations: Harvard Square, Charlestown, Cambridge, Dorchester, Harvard University, MIT, Public Gardens, South Boston
Awards and Accolades:
Cinque is a slave aboard the Amistad, a slave-ship headed to America, when he leads the other Africans to revolt and takeover the ship. Captured, they are imprisoned in New England where former slave Theodore, viewing the rebels as freedom fighters, approaches property lawyer Baldwin, who attempts to prove the Africans were 'stolen goods' because they were kidnapped. Former President John Quincy Adams is reluctant to become involved, but when the case moves on to the Supreme Court, Adams intervenes and stirs emotions with a powerful defense.
Release Date: December 10, 1997
Genre: Drama, History, Mystery
Director: Steven Spielberg.
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne
Production Companies: DreamWorks SKG, Home Box Office (HBO)
Featured Locations: Boston, Massachusetts State House
Awards and Accolades:
Marcy, assistant to a congressman from Boston in the midst of a hard-fought reelection campaign, is sent to Ireland to find any surviving members of his family. Marcy is not especially enthusiastic about this assignment from the start, and her rancor grows when she arrives in the village of Ballinagra to discover that the annual matchmaking festival is in full swing. Villager Sean takes an immediate fancy to Marcy, which she most certainly does not return. However, Dermot, the town's leading matchmaker is convinced that Sean and Marcy are perfect for each other, and he makes it his business to bring them together, whether Marcy likes it or not.
Release Date: October 3, 1997
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Director: Mark Joffe
Starring: Janeane Garofalo, David O'Hara, Milo O'Shea, Denis Leary
Production Companies: Good Film Company, Polygram Filmed Entertainment, Working Title Films
Featured Locations: Faneuil Hall, Cottonwood Cafe, One Ashburton Place, Harbor Towers
Andrew is an aspiring painter. Still living at home with his mother Genna, constantly rejected by art schools, and without a lover, he decides to enter a contest in hopes of winning a six month stay in Kenya. Since things aren't great, Lucy, Andrew's friend, introduces him to the suspicious-looking, enigmatic Jerry - could this be the love Andrew has been searching for?
Release Date: November 28, 1997
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Stephen Kijak
Starring: Alexis Arquette, Georgia Ragsdale, Margot Kidder
Production Companies: Mighty Reel Productions, Scout Productions
Featured Locations: Boston, Waltham, Rowley
Awards and Accolades:
Tyson, Hector and Bao are a trio of 14-year-old friends attempting to figure out which direction they'll go in life. As they work a legitimate job sweeping up at a gas station and attend a youth center with the facility's adult leader J.J., they also run drugs for the local gangsters that mock and taunt their efforts at self-improvement. When one of the boys' mothers kills herself, the ensuing crisis leads the three friends to choose very different paths.
Release Date: June 6, 1997
Genre: Crime, Drama
Director: Robert Patton-Spruill
Starring: Eddie Cutanda, Phoung Doung, Tyrone Burton
Production Companies: Danan/Moreno Films, ca.thar.tic filmWorks
Featured Locations: Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Roxbury
Awards and Accolades:
Nora is a 12-year-old girl who has been forced into a maturity beyond her years; her mother lost three younger children in a car wreck years before and has been subject to depression ever since, while her father struggles to hold the family together while trying to find work as a carpenter. When a national tragedy sends her mother into a deeper tailspin, Nora is forced to live with her Aunt Rose to continue her education.
Release Date: 1997
Genre: Drama
Director: Maureen Foley
Starring: Stephanie Castellarin, Brian Delate, Ellen Stone
Production Companies: Hazelwood Films, Scout Productions
Featured Locations: Hyde Park, Newton, Waltham
Awards and Accolades:
Mike and Jimmy, two over-loyal Celtic fans whose enthusiasm overwhelms their intelligence, come up with a new but legally problematic way of helping their team - kidnap Lewis Scott, star player of the Utah Jazz, in order to guarantee their favorite team the championship.
Release Date: April 19, 1996
Genre: Comedy, Sport
Director: Tom DeCerchio
Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Daniel Stern, Damon Wayans
Production Companies: Caravan Pictures, Hollywood Pictures
Featured Location: South End, Historic Boston Garden, North End, East Boston, Jamaica Plain, Waltham
Luckless Connie leaves home to move to New York, only to find herself stuck with no job or money and a louse of a boyfriend who impregnates her and then abandons her. Glumly taking a train back to Boston, Connie meets Hugh and Patricia Winterbourne, a wealthy couple also expecting a baby. Patricia notices Connie admiring her wedding ring and lets her try it on; moments later, the train jumps the tracks and Connie wakes up in the hospital to discover that the staff thinks she's Patricia Winterbourne, who died in the wreck along with Hugh.
Release Date: April 19, 1996
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Richard Benjamin
Starring: Ricki Lake, Shirley MacLaine, Brendan Fraser
Production Companies: A&M Films, TriStar Pictures
Featured Locations: Marblehead, Beverly, Charlestown, Boston-Shreve, Public Gardens, Boston Common
Awards and Accolades:
Jack Lambert is a college ethics professor who lives next door to kindly old man, Max Mueller. One day, an FBI agent approaches Jack with some news - Max is actually Karl Luger, an escaped Nazi war criminal responsible for the deaths of thousands. Outraged, Jack poisons the apples on the tree in Max's yard and, before long, Max has succumbed to the tainted fruit. However, Jack then learns that the FBI agents had the wrong man and Max was actually innocent. Wracked with guilt, Jack begins to court Inga, Max's frumpy and socially inept daughter.
Release Date: April 12, 1996
Genre: Comedy
Director: Harvey Miller
Starring: Dan Ackroyd, Jack Lemmon, Lily Tomlin
Production Companies: Price, The Rank Organisation, Savoy Pictures
Featured Locations: Downtown Boston and Back Bay
Lyn Vaus, a young man who still feels traumatized by his parent's two-decade old divorce, is trying to get to Patagonia. Unable to afford the usual transportation he decides to hitchhike. Unfortunately he gets as far as Panama and then finds himself faced with 80-mile Darien Gap, a gigantic swamp which he must somehow cross. While slowly pondering his plight, Lyn finds solace in the arms of hat-designer Polly Joy who tries to inspire her sluggardly lover to become a more lively fellow.
Release Date: 1996
Genre: Comedy
Director: Brad Anderson
Starring: Sandi Carroll, Bob Druwing, DW Ferranti
Production Company: Nomad
Featured Locations: Boston
Awards and Accolades:
Harvard professor Paul Armstrong is a legal expert whose days of trying cases are long behind him until he is moved by a plea he receives from Florida death row inmate, Bobby Earl. It seems that the educated, upstanding Earl has been railroaded by an overeager sheriff zealously trying to solve the kidnapping and murder of a little girl. Once Armstrong arrives in Florida, he is able to locate the murder weapon and cast doubt on Earl's innocence, even identifying a much more likely culprit in the homicidal genius Blair Sullivan.
Release Date: February 17, 1995
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Director: Arne Glimcher
Starring: Sean Connery, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Capshaw, Blair Underwood
Production Companies: Fountainbridge Films, Warner Bros. Pictures
Featured Locations: Harvard Square, Cambridge
For vacation, Gail is accompanying her son and husband Tom on a river trip. Gail and Tom are experiencing marital troubles and contemplating divorce, but their marital problems take a back seat when they encounter some menacing men on the water. After Tom saves the leader, Wade, from drowning, they discover that the men are murderous fugitives using the river as an escape route. Kidnapped by the killers, Gail is forced to leave her husband stranded on shore and guide the villains through the "Gauntlet," a raging confluence of rivers that few rafters ever survive.
Release Date: September 30, 1994
Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime
Director: Curtis Hanson
Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, David Stranthairn
Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Turman-Foster Company, David Foster Productions
Featured Locations: Charles River, Boston
Awards and Accolades:
Mr. Miyagi is back and he takes a new pupil under his wing - an orphaned 17-year-old girl. Relentlessly bullied by her male classmates and feeling responsible for her parents' fatal accident, the girl is taught self-worth through the tough-but-gentle guidance of Mr. Miyagi.
Release Date: August 12, 1994
Genre: Action, Family, Romance
Director: Christopher Cain
Starring: Pat Morita, Hilary Swank, Michael Ironside
Production Company: Columbia Pictures Corporation
Featured Locations: Boston, Brookline, Castle Hill, Groton, Rockport, Newton, Tufts University
Jimmy Dove is a veteran of the Boston Bomb Squad and is planning to retire from the force. Back in his past, Jimmy was a student of Ryan Gaerity, who constructed bombing devices for the IRA. Ryan's bombing plans came to include the killing of innocent people but his plans were thwarted by Jimmy. Twenty years later, Ryan, is hell bent on seeking his revenge and destroying Jimmy the best way he knows how - bombing his family.
Release Date: July 1, 1994
Genre: Action, Thriller
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones, Suzy Amis, Lloyd Bridges, Forest Whitaker
Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn -Mayer (MGM), Trilogy Entertainment Group
Featured Location: Boston Harbor, Charlestown, Copley Square, East Boston, The Esplanade, Fenway Park, MIT, St. Francis de Sales School, Gloucester
Awards and Accolades:
Twelve-year-old Billy is nuts about baseball and knows almost everything there is to know about the game. He should, his grandfather owns the perennial losers, the Minnesota Twins. When his grandfather dies, he leaves the Twins in Billy's hands. Naturally the players are skeptical, especially after Billy designates himself as team manager, but with a combination of guile, knowledge and determination, Billy earns their grudging respect and the team begins a winning streak.
Release Date: June 29, 1994
Genre: Comedy, Family, Sport
Director: Andrew Scheinman
Starring: Luke Edwards, Timothy Busfield, John Ashton
Production Companies: Castle Rock Entertainment, Lobell/Bergman Productions
Featured Location: Fenway Park
Awards and Accolades:
Convinced he'll graduate with honors because of his thesis paper, Monty, a stuffy Harvard student, finds his paper being held hostage by a homeless man named Simon. Simon agrees to return the thesis one page at a time in return for certain favors. The relationship with the bearded vagabond changes Monty's view of life and, in turn, also affects his housemates - wisecracking radio host Everett; immature and sex-obsessed Courtney; and studious nerd Jeff.
Release Date: April 29, 1994
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Director: Alek Keshishian
Starring: Joe Pesci, Brendan Fraser, Moira Kelly, Patrick Dempsy, Josh Hamilton
Production Companies: Spring Creek Productions, Warner Bros. Pictures
Featured Locations: Boston Athenaeum, Harvard University
Awards and Accolades:
Tracy, a teacher, and Andy, a college professor, are a happily married couple who would like to have children. Things are never the same after she is taken to the hospital and operated upon by Jed, a "know all" doctor.
Mitch is a young man from a poor Southern family who has struggled through Harvard Law School to graduate fifth in his class. Mitch is entertaining offers from major firms in New York and Chicago, but when Memphis-based Bendini, Lambert, & Locke offer him a 20 percent higher salary than the best offer he's received in addition to an enticing variety of perks and fringe benefits, he decides to sign on and remain in the South. Mitch's wife, Abby, warns him that the deal sounds almost too good to be true, but it's not until after several weeks of working that Mitch discovers that the vast majority of BL&L's business is tied to organized crime.
Release Date: June 30, 1993
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Director: Sydney Pollack
Starring: Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, Jeanne Tripplehorn
Production Company: Paramount Pictures
Featured Locations: Boston, Cambridge Square, Copley Plaza Hotel, Copley Square, East Cambridge, Harvard University, South Boston
Awards and Accolades:
David, a working-class Jewish boy from Pennsylvania, is offered a senior year scholarship to a prestigious New England academy. It's David's ticket to an Ivy League education and a way out of his Rust Belt hometown, but there's one condition: the school's elders ask him to be discreet about his religion. At first willing to do so, David struggles with his silence about his faith as his popularity grows. When jealous classmate Charlie learns David's secret at an alumni party, he exposes the school's new hero and David faces the full force of religious intolerance from the prejudiced institution.
Release Date: September 18, 1992
Genre: Drama, Sport
Director: Robert Mandel
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Chris O'Donnell, Ben Affleck
Production Company: Paramount Pictures
Featured Location: Acton, Boston, Concord, Framingham, Gardner, Leominster, Lowell, Southborough, Worcester
Awards and Accolades:
An ambitious press secretary discovers that the opposing political candidate has feathered the nest of his campaigns with terrible lies.
Release Date: August 2, 1992
Genre: Political, Thriller
Director: Daniel Adams
Starring: Judd Nelson, Justine Bateman
Production Company: Ascension Films
Featured Locations: Boston, Marshfield
Newton Davis is an impulsive dreamer who builds a rustic dream home for his girlfriend as a means of proposing to her -- only to be turned down. Three months later, depressed Newton meets a waitress who calls herself Gwen. After a one-night stand in which Newton tells Gwen the sad story of the house, Gwen poses as Newton's wife, the first of many lies that spin out of control and turn Newton into an unwitting co-conspirator.
Release Date: June 12, 1992
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Director: Frank Oz
Starring: Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, Dana Delany
Production Companies: Imagine Films Entertainment, Universal Pictures
Featured Locations: Cafe Budapest, Boston; Cohasset, Colonial Inn, Concord; Sudbury
Renata Bella is an aimless Bostonian thirty something who attends a seminar for aspiring condo salespersons. Here she meets hotshot salesman Sam Sharpe, who immediately falls in love with her. After the marriage, Sam's well-meaning but obnoxious insistence on inserting himself into every aspect of Renata's life rubs the rest of her family the wrong way.
Release Date: January 18, 1991
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Starring: Richard Dreyfus, Holly Hunter, Danny Aiello
Production Companies: Cinecom Entertainment Group, Double Play, Dreyfuss/James Productions, Universal Pictures
Featured Locations: Boston Public Gardens, Longfellow Bridge, Boston; Flagship Wharf, Charlestown; Mystic Valley Parkway, Arlington
Colonel Robert Gould Shaw is the leader of the 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the US Civil War's first all-black volunteer company. Despite the fact that the war is ostensibly being fought on their behalf, the black soldiers are denied virtually every privilege and amenity that is a matter of course for their white counterparts. Still, none of the soldiers quit the regiment when given the chance.
Awards and Accolades:
Ex-cop Wills and psychic Bobby team up as sleuths in Wills' new "Second Sight Detective Agency." To add a little spice, there is a very pretty nun who catches the eye of the laughable detective.
Release Date: November 3, 1989
Genre: Comedy, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Director: Joel Zwick
Starring: John Larroquette, Bronson Pinchot, Bess Armstrong
Production Companies: Lorimar Film Entertainment, Ursus Film
Featured Location: Boston
"If you build it, he will come" is the ethereal message that inspires Iowa farmer Ray to construct a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. At first, "he" seems to be the ghost of disgraced ballplayer "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, who materializes on the ball field and plays a few games with the awestruck Ray. But as the weeks go by, Ray receives several other messages from a disembodied voice and soon he realizes that his ball field has been divinely ordained to give a second chance to people who have sacrificed certain valuable aspects of their lives.
Release Date: April 21, 1989
Genre: Drama, Family, Fantasy
Director: Phil Alden Robinson
Starring: Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, Gaby Hoffmann, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones
Production Company: Gordon Company
Featured Locations: Boston, Fenway Park, Northeastern University, Yawkey Way
Awards and Accolades:
Dennis Alan is a Harvard researcher sent to Haiti by a pharmaceutical company to investigate a zombie legend and any possible connection it might have to a rumored drug that could be used as a new breed of powerful anesthetic. Once on the Caribbean isle, Alan is aided by a good voodoo priest and his daughter, who runs a local clinic. Alan's search also pits him against an evil priest, Dargent Peytraud.
Release Date: February 5, 1988
Genre: Biography, Horror, Thriller
Director: Wes Craven
Starring: Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae
Production Companies: Serpent and the Rainbow, Universal Pictures
Featured Location: Copley Place, Boston
Awards and Accolades:
Alex, Sukie and Jane are three single women living in a picturesque village. Every Thursday, they meet to chug martinis, learn Chinese aphrodisiac cooking and fantasize about their ideal man. Soon enough, the ladies have their wishes granted - at a cost - when a mysterious and flamboyant man arrives in their lives.
Release Date: June 12, 1987
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Director: George Miller
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer
Production Companies: Warner Bros. Pictures, The Guber-Peters Company, Kennedy Miller Productions
Featured Locations: Cohasset; Abbott Hall, Marblehead; Wang Center, Boston; Castle Hill, Ipswich; Milton Academy, Milton; Scituate
Awards and Accolades:
Bored by his opulent lifestyle and his "proper" friends, Basil is fascinated by his cousin, outspoken suffragette Olive. Basil and Olive's mutual friend is likeable, gregarious Verena. Soon a triangle develops, albeit an unorthodox one: Basil and Olive both find themselves pursuing Verena, Basil because he is in love with her, and Olive because she wants to exploit Verena's social connections and gift for public speaking to promote her own political ideology.
Release Date: 1984
Director: James Ivory
Starring: Christopher Reeve, Vanessa Redgrave, Madeleine Potter, Jessica Tandy
Production Companies: Merchant Ivory Productions, WGBH, Rediffusion, Almi Entertainment Finance Corporation
Featured Locations: Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Gibson House Museum, the Athenaeum, Boston; Martha's Vineyard
Awards and Accolades:
Frank, is an alcoholic Boston lawyer who is down on his luck until he is approached by the family of a woman who has been left in a coma following an operation in a large Catholic hospital. Helped by his assistant Mickey, Frank agrees to take the case, hoping for a fast settlement. When he visits the victim in the hospital, he becomes emotionally involved, turns down a sizable settlement offer made by the hospital, and decides to bring the case to trial despite the formidable opposition of the Church and its lawyer.
Awards and Accolades:
Successful playwright Ivan can't get any work done as long as he is pestered by his wacko wife Gloria. Making things worse are the couple's children, many of them products of her previous marriages. Just as Ivan is completing his latest work, his wife walks out on him. That's the good news: the bad news is that he's saddled with a bunch of snot-nosed kids. Still and all, Ivan finds time to inaugurate an affair with his play's leading lady, Alice, while attempting to juggle the stresses of opening night with the needs of the demanding children.
Release Date: June 18, 1992
Director: Arthur Hiller
Starring: Al Pacino, Dyan Cannon, Tuesday Weld
Production Company: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Featured Location: Boston, Gloucester
Awards and Accolades:
Michael Jordan is an architect that accidently gets caught up in a web of intrigue and murder and is now on the run from false murder charges. Kate Hellman is a woman out to find her brother's killer. After sorting out some brief confusion, they embark on a wild cross-country ride from the Grand Canyon to New York City.
Release Date: June 4, 1982
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
Director: Sydney Poitier
Starring: Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner
Production Company: Columbia Pictures Corporation
Featured Location: New England Aquarium, Boston; Cambridge
A sculptor by profession, Ken Harrison is left a quadriplegic after a car accident. Embittered and feeling utterly useless as both an artist and a human being, Ken doesn't want his family's love, or his doctor's care, or his nurse's ministrations...he simply wants to die.
Release Date: March 12, 1982 (Australia)
Genre: Drama
Director: John Badham
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti
Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), SLM Production Group
Featured Locations: Columbus Park, Boston; Faulkner Hospital, Jamaica Plain
Alice Barrett plays a young woman with dreams of becoming a popular singer. Unfortunately, Alice is saddled with an unpredictable teenaged brother. Every time the family makes some progress, Alice's brother scotches things with his propensity for making trouble.
Release Date: 1982
Genre: Drama
Director: Robert Jones
Actors: Brian Burke, Alice Barrett, John Mahoney
Featured Location: Boston
The Countess Eugenia and her brother Robert are expatriate Americans who have grown up mainly in Europe. They have also grown accustomed to living well and have returned to see their New England relatives to try and take advantage of their prosperity by contracting an advantageous marriage with one of their wealthy cousins.
Release Date: October 8, 1979
Genre: Drama, Romance
Director: James Ivory
Starring: Lee Remick, Robin Ellis, Wesley Addy, Lisa Eichhorn
Production Company: Merchant Ivory Productions
Featured Locations: Concord, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, Salem, Waltham
Awards and Accolades:
Phil can't quite believe it when his wife Jessica kicks him out to realize her career dreams. Relocating to Boston, Phil starts to settle in with the help of his psychiatrist brother Mickey. Phil really begins to feel better when Mickey and his wife set him up with her friend Marilyn, a preschool teacher who has had her share of grief from newly single men. Phil wins her over and even convinces her to move in, but an unexpected visit from a regretful Jessica threatens to end Phil's new life with Marilyn before it has a chance to start.
Release Date: October 5, 1979
Genre: Comedy
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Starring: Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen
Production Companies: Century Associates, Paramount Pictures
Featured Location: Boston Garden
Awards and Accolades:
Oliver is emotionally devastated after the death of his wife Jenny, and while he tries to lose himself in his work as a lawyer, the long hours don't ease his pain. Eventually, Oliver's inconsolable grief begins to alienate those around him, until he finds new love with Marcie, the wealthy and beautiful heir to the Bonwit-Teller fortune. Despite his affection for Marcie, Oliver finds it difficult to leave the memory of Jenny behind, which causes major problems in his relationship with Marcie.
Release Date: December 15, 1978
Genre: Drama, Romance
Director: John Korty
Starring: Ryan O'Neal, Candice Bergen, Nicola Pagett
Production Companies: Drake Associates, Paramount Pictures
Featured Location: Boston, Cambridge
Small-time crook Tony discovers to his amazement that the Brink's headquarters in Boston is anything but an impregnable fortress. Quite the contrary, breaking into it late at night turns out to be almost ridiculously easy. Pino and his dim brother-in-law Vinnie put together a motley gang of thieves who, in any other circumstance would be written off as born losers, to pull off a heist. Together, they make off with more than a million dollars in cash along with another million-plus in securities and checks.
Release Date: December 8, 1978
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Director: William Friedkin
Starring: Peter Falk, Peter Boyle, Allen Garfield
Production Company: Dino De Laurentiis Company
Featured Locations: Charlestown Navy Yard, Charlestown; Doyle's Pub, Jamaica Plain; East Boston; McKinley Square, North End, Old Dudley Square T Station, Boston; Stoneham
Awards and Accolades:
When her best friend, Nancy, emerges in a vegetative state from a routine medical procedure, Dr. Susan Wheeler does some digging and discovers an overabundance of anesthesia-induced comas among otherwise healthy young patients. As Susan continues her crusade, the paper trail leads to the Jefferson Institute, a mysterious, experimental facility in which vegetative patients are stored en masse. A shadowy assailant begins to stalk Susan just as she uncovers the link between the Institute and the comas at Boston Memorial, setting the stage for climactic suspense scenes involving morgues, malpractice and endless institutional corridors.
Release Date: January 6, 1978
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Director: Michael Crichton
Starring: Genevieve Bujold, Rip Torn, Michael Douglas
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Featured Locations: Beacon Hill, Boston City Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; Crane Beach, Ipswich; Holiday Inn, Somerville; Lexington; Marblehead; Rockport
Awards and Accolades:
Thomas Crown is a self-made Boston millionaire who masterminds a bank heist in hopes of leaving it all behind for a move to Rio. Erwin Weaver leads the cast of crooks who never actually meet Crown but manage to pull off the robbery without a hitch. Crown deposits 3 million in a Swiss bank account, pays off the crooks, and waits for the insurance company to repay the bank for the loss. Eddy Malone is the savvy detective who helps insurance investigator Vicky Anderson locate the mastermind behind the heist.
Release Date: June 19, 1968
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Director: Norman Jewison
Starring: Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, Paul Burke
Production Companies: The Mirisch Corporation, Simkoe, Solar Productions
Featured Locations: Anthony's Pier 4 Restaurant, Beacon Hill, Blackstone and North Streets, Boston Common, Copp's Hill, National Shawmut Bank, North End, South Station, Tobin Bridge, Boston, Belmont, Beverly, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Crane Beach, Ipswich, Myopia Hunt Club, South Hamilton
