Bovie Movie

Based on Helen Fielding’s hugely popular novel, this romantic comedy follows Bridget (Renee Zellweger), a post-feminist, thirty-something British woman who has a penchant for alcoholic binges, smoking, and an inability to control her weight. While trying to keep these things in check and also deal with her job in publishing, she visits her parents for a Christmas party. They try to set her up with Mark (Colin Firth), the visiting son of one of their neighbors. Snubbed by Mark, she instead falls for her boss Daniel Hugh Grant), a dashing lothario who begins to send her suggestive e-mails that soon lead to a dinner date proposition. Daniel reveals that he and Mark attended college together, during which time Mark had an affair with his fianc?e. When Bridget finds Daniel cavorting with an American colleague, she decides to change her life with a new job as a TV presenter. At a dinner party, she bumps into Mark again, who expresses his affection for her; when Daniel claims he wants Bridget back, the two fight over who deserves her affections the most. Popular British performers Gemma Jones, Jim Broadbent, and Shirley Henderson appear in the supporting cast.

For his debut feature, John Hoffman wrote and directed this effects-heavy family film based on the story Dogs from Outer Space by Zeke Richardson. Produced by Jim Henson Productions, Good Boy! presents the idea that dogs are actually an intelligent alien species sent to earth thousands of years ago to spy on humans in preparation for a full-scale invasion and takeover. But when the spies stop reporting back to the home planet, Canid 3942 (voiced by Matthew Broderick) is sent to earth to investigate. Once there, Canid 3942 encounters Owen Baker (Liam Aiken), a young boy who runs a dog-walking service. Owen befriends the space-dog, renaming him Hubble. When it becomes obvious that the dogs of earth have forgotten their mission, Hubble enlists the help of Owen to get them all into shape before The Great Dane arrives to inspect. If they fail, all of earth’s dogs will be recalled to their home planet of Sirius. With Kevin Nealon and Molly Shannon as Owen’s parents, Good Boy! also features the voice talents of Brittany Murphy, Carl Reiner, Megan Mullally, and Donald Faison.

Dick Harper (George Segal) and his wife Jane (Jane Fonda) have always lived way beyond their means. Just because Dick has just lost his high-paying job is no reason for Jane to stop spending like there’s no tomorrow. To make ends meet, Jane takes up a new career: armed robbery.

The Jewel of the Nile takes up where Romancing the Stone left off, with romance novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) traveling around the world with her boyfriend, Jack Colton (Michael Douglas). But Joan is becoming bored with Jack and all the romantic attention; as she asks, “How much romance can one woman take?” Invited by Omar (Spiros Focas), a wealthy Arabian potentate, to travel with him to his homeland, Joan readily accepts. Jack decides to pass on the trip, preferring instead to sail through the Mediterranean. It turns out that Omar wants to usurp the role of an Arab holy man known as “The Jewel of the Nile” (Avner Eisenberg), and Joan finds herself thrown in prison with the hapless spiritual leader. Jack comes to the rescue, teaming up with the slapstick bad guy from Romancing the Stone, Ralph (Danny DeVito). Together, the foursome have to cross North Africa in order to escape Omar’s minions.

A washed-up actor finds an unlikely path back to the big screen in this offbeat family comedy. Bill Williams (Tom Arnold) is an actor whose career has gone into a severe tailspin ever since his brief fling with fame — a supporting role in the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle True Lies. Sinking into a well of alcohol and depression, Williams unsuccessfully attempts suicide before his agent (Henry Winkler) tells him he’s finally found a project for him. Aaron Roman (Eric Gores) is a teenager with cerebral palsy who loves action movies, especially True Lies. Aaron’s father, Davis Roman (Joe Mantegna), is a very wealthy man — so wealthy that, as a present for his son’s 18th birthday, he’s going to bankroll a professionally shot action movie which will star Aaron. Would Williams be willing to write and co-star in Aaron’s birthday movie? Williams isn’t so sure this is a great idea, even with a million-dollar payday, until he meets Aaron. Charmed by the kid’s pluck and determination, Williams signs on for the world’s most expensive home movie. Williams and producer Susan Mandeville (Linda Hamilton) hire Wayne’s World director Penelope Spheeris to helm the project, and persuade bikini model Arielle Kebbel to appear as Aaron’s love interest, but what started out as strictly a job-for-hire becomes something more as Williams and his fellow cast and crew members get to know their challenged young star. The Kid & I actually was written by co-star Tom Arnold, and Penelope Spheeris directed the film as well as playing herself. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Shaquille O’Neal also appear in cameo roles.

The third pairing of comic actors Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder was much less successful than their previous team-ups, Silver Streak(1976) and Stir Crazy (1980). Wilder plays Dave, the deaf proprietor of a newsstand and employer of blind gambler Wally (Pryor). When Wally’s bookie is shot and killed at the stand, Dave and Wally are arrested for the crime. Since the deaf Dave had his back turned and didn’t see the crime, while the blind Wally only heard it, the clues they have to offer the police are slim: Dave’s glimpse of a shapely leg and Wally’s whiff of a perfume called Shalimar. It turns out the dead man was in possession of a coin that he dropped into Dave’s tip box, which Wally is now carrying. The coin contains a valuable microchip sought by crime baron Sutherland (Anthony Zerbe), for whom hired killer Eve (Joan Severance) and her British partner Kirgo (Kevin Spacey) are working. Posing as lawyers, Eve and Kirgo spring Dave and Wally from jail, leading to a series of misadventures as the coin changes hands and the two sensory-challenged pals attempt to learn who has framed them and why.

John Candy’s popularity from his appearances on the Canadian television series Second City TV did not translate into film success until he made the John Hughes comedy Uncle Buck. Who’s Harry Crumb? was released just before the more well-known film, and some SCTV regulars make cameo appearances. In this farcical comedy, Candy plays bumbling Harry Crumb, scion of a family of great detectives, who works as a trainee in the agency his legendary grandparents founded. His slimey boss Eliot Draisen (Jeffrey Jones) assigns the inept young detective to find the kidnapped daughter of a multi-millionaire. The plot twist is that Draisen doesn’t want the kidnappers found, for reasons of his own. While Crumb blithely bumbles along through various mishaps, Draisen tries to put the moves on the millionaire’s wife (Annie Potts). Fans of Candy will probably enjoy this film, which he dominates with his comedic talents and (literally) large presence.

Like M*A*S*H and Catch-22, both released the same year, this military comedy takes place in an earlier war but is really a thinly disguised treatise on the modern-day insanity and avariciousness then unfolding in Vietnam. Clint Eastwood stars as Kelly, a former lieutenant whose illusions about the glory of war, if he has any, are lost when he is busted in rank for following some poorly considered orders in World War II France. After capturing a friendly German officer, Kelly learns the whereabouts of millions of dollars in gold bars, earmarked to finance a military payroll. Taking advantage of a three-day liberty, Kelly assembles a motley trio of fellow soldiers to help him sneak behind enemy lines and retrieve the booty. They include Big Joe (Telly Savalas), a gruff sergeant; Crapgame (Don Rickles), a supply sergeant already enriching himself as a black marketer and con man; and the hippie-like tank commander Oddball (Donald Sutherland). Since crossing into enemy-held territory means heading in the opposite direction of the retreating Allies, Kelly and his men encounter armed resistance. Receiving word of their campaign, the vain General Colt (Carroll O’Connor) mistakes the quartet of freelancing scam artists for all-American heroes.

In the mid-’90s, an Englishman by the name of Alan Conway (John Malkovich) conned many people into believing that he was the reclusive American director Stanley Kubrick, despite the fact that Conway was openly gay, bore no physical resemblance to Kubrick, and knew little about the director’s work. Conway’s story has been loosely adapted into the comedic feature Colour Me Kubrick. Anthony Frewin, who worked as Kubrick’s personal assistance for many years, wrote the script, and Brian Cook, who served as Kubrick’s assistant director on several films, including Barry Lyndon and Eyes Wide Shut, marks his directorial debut with the film. Colour Me Kubrick follows Conway on a number of adventures, wherein he cadges drinks, cash, sex, and more from unsuspecting victims, ranging from a heavy metal band to a wine bar owner (Richard E. Grant) to a British lounge singer (British television comic Jim Davidson making his feature-film debut), who are awestruck by his purported fame and fortune, and willing to overlook Conway’s genuinely bizarre behavior in the hopes of impressing the great director. Conway’s act reached its pinnacle when he temporarily pulled the wool over the eyes of then-New York Times theater critic Frank Rich (William Hootkins). Colour Me Kubrick features cameos by Ken Russell, Honor Blackman, Peter Sallis, and Marc Warren. The French production had its international premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.

Robin Hood, Douglas Fairbanks’ biggest (though not necessarily best) production of the silent era, represents the first time that many familiar of the elements of the Robin Hood legend were presented on screen. To bring the project to full fruition, Fairbanks and his wife Mary Pickford purchased the old Jesse Hampton studio in Santa Monica, and on that site constructed a near-lifesized replica of 12th century Nottingham. The humongous castle set was so awesome that Fairbanks became worried that his own performance might be dwarfed. It wasn’t: take our word for it. When first we meet Robin Hood, he is still the Earl of Huntington, preparing to joust with his bitter enemy Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Paul Dickey). Despite Sir Guy’s propensity for cheating, the Earl is victorious. Shortly thereafter, Huntington rides off to the crusades with Richard the Lionhearted (Wallace Beery). Upon learning that Prince John (Sam De Grasse), goaded on by Sir Guy, has usurped his brother Richard’s throne, Huntington returns to Nottingham in a new guise: dashing righter-of-wrongs Robin Hood. While robbing from the rich, giving to the poor, and bedevilling the villains, Robin romances the fetching Maid Marian (Enid Bennett). The film’s singular highlight is Fairbanks’ slide down a two-story tapestry, a bit of bravado accomplished by hiding a playground slide behind the huge cloth. As in all of Fairbanks’ films, Charlie Stevens, a grandson of Geronimo and Doug’s “mascot”, appears in several minor roles. Also appearing is Alan Hale Sr. as Little John, a role he’d repeat in the 1938 Errol Flynn Robin Hood, not to mention the 1950 swashbuckler Rogues of Sherwood Forest. Long thought lost, Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood (as the film was so copyrighted) was rediscovered in the early 1960s. Most current prints fail to do justice to Arthur Edeson’s glistening photography; also, some versions are stretch-framed to slow down the action to “normal” speed, a process that retards the marvelously fast pace instilled by star Fairbanks and director Allan Dwan. We recommend that you seek out a good-quality, tinted print of Robin Hood, processed at the slightly faster-than-life speed at which it was originally filmed.