Bovie Movie

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.

Supernatural forces hover over the courtroom in this devilish drama adapted from the novel by Andrew Neiderman. Attorney Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) doesn’t heed the Bible-based warnings of his mother (Judith Ivey), who views New York City as “the dwelling place of demons.” Instead, he leaves Gainesville, Florida, with his wife Mary Ann (Charlize Theron) to put his legalistic skills to the test at a leading Manhattan law firm run by John Milton (Al Pacino). It all goes smoothly — with Milton urging them to stay, putting Kevin on a $400-per-hour salary, and moving the couple into a luxurious apartment in his own building on Fifth Avenue — where Mary Ann falls under the influence of neighbor Jackie (Tamara Tunie). After Kevin defends a weird animal sacrificer (Delroy Lindo, uncredited), he moves up to an important case with an apparent murderer, real-estate tycoon Alexander Cullen (Craig T. Nelson). Ignored by Kevin, the troubled Mary Ann has some disturbing experiences, verging on the occult, while Kevin, at work, becomes attracted to redhead Christabella (Connie Neilsen). Dazzled by his entrance into paradise, Kevin doesn’t grasp who handed him this Big-Apple success. Could it be…Satan? The film features demonic creatures by Rick Baker. Cameos (Senator Alfonse D’Amato, Don King, others) add to the ambiance of ambition and power in the canyons of Manhattan.

Washington Irving’s tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman gets a few new twists in a screen adaptation directed by Tim Burton. In this version, Ichabod (Johnny Depp) is a New York City detective whose unorthodox techniques and penchant for gadgets make him unpopular with is colleagues. He is sent to the remote town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of bizarre murders, in which a number of people have been found dead in the woods, with their heads cut off. Local legend has it that a Hessian ghost rides through the woods on horseback, lopping off the heads of the unsuspecting and unbelieving. Ichabod refuses to believe in this legend, convinced that there must be a logical explanation for the murders. In time, Ichabod becomes smitten with a local lass, Katrina Van Tassel (Christina Ricci), who is the sweetheart of the burly Brom Bones (Casper Van Dien), and he becomes determined to capture the murderer to prove his bravery and win her heart. Christopher Walken, Jeffrey Jones, and Christopher Lee highlight the supporting cast; Lee’s appearance is particularly apt, since Burton has cited the Hammer films of the 1960s as a major influence in making this film. Andrew Kevin Walker and Tom Stoppard contributed to the screenplay.

The first of several films based on Tom Clancy’s “Jack Ryan” technothrillers, Hunt for Red October stars Alec Baldwin as eccentric CIA analyst Ryan and Sean Connery as Soviet submarine commander Marko Ramius. Ramius sets the plot in motion when he murders his political adviser, burns his orders, and steers his sub Red October towards American waters, hoping to defect. The CIA, aware that the Red October was about to embark on an evasive mission to demonstrate its ability to avoid detection and fire its nuclear missiles upon U.S. installations, believes that Ramius is insane, and that he plans to start World War III. To cover their own behinds, the Russians back up the CIA’s suspicion. Only Jack Ryan believes that Ramius’ mission is not as apocalyptic as it seems — and it is Ryan who is assigned to infiltrate the Red October to prove his theory. The sort of film that in an earlier era would have been called a “thinking man’s thriller,” The Hunt for Red October ushered in a new series of Hollywood-produced post-Cold War adventure films, including 1995’s Crimson Tide.

E.B. White’s classic children’s story is brought to the screen in this fantasy, which combines computer-animated characters with a cast of live actors. Mrs. Little (Geena Davis), Mr. Little (Hugh Laurie), and their son George (Jonathan Lipnicki) live in a brownstone near New York’s Central Park. The Littles have decided to adopt a younger brother for George, and while they’re meeting the children at an orphanage, they are greeted by a mouse named Stuart (voice of Michael J. Fox), who can talk, walk upright, wear clothes, and do nearly anything a human child can do. The Littles are so taken with Stuart that they decide to adopt him, and soon the rest of the family is just as charmed by Stuart — with the possible exception of Snowbell (voice of Nathan Lane), their house cat. The cast of humans includes Jennifer Tilly, Bruno Kirby, and Dabney Coleman; animal voices are contributed by Chazz Palminteri and Steve Zahn, Jim Doughan, and David Alan Grier.

When the street-smart, down-with-it rapper C-Note (Big Boi) applies for membership to the snotty, all-white Carolina Pines Country Club, the establishment’s proprietors are hardly ready to oblige him. Undeterred and unwilling to take the rejection dished out, C-Note smacks down a fat escrow on the crib next door to the 17th green — which virtually guarantees membership to the musician, and sets the stage for an outrageous assault on the country club and its stuck-up members. Horrified, club president Cummings (Jeffrey Jones) and his cronies try desperately to have C-Note’s membership revoked. Meanwhile, C-Note decides to bring in a crew of his in-your-face homeboys, who turn the club upside down and inside out with their boisterous hip-hop antics.

After the little white lies of Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997), director David Mirkin focuses on scheming of a different sort in Heartbreakers. Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt play Max and Page Conners, a mother and daughter who share everything with each other: relationship advice, hair and makeup hints, and the money they win in costly divorce settlements with rich men. When the film opens, the Conners are putting the finishing touches on conning Dean (Ray Liotta), an auto-body shop owner. When the dust from that scam clears, Page announces she’s ready to move away from her mother and set up shop on her own — but in order to clear an outstanding debt, Max insists they bankrupt one more bachelor together. They settle upon phlegmatic Palm Springs widower William B. Tensy (Gene Hackman), a chain smoker with a heart of gold and a similarly bountiful bank account. Only two things stand in their way: Tensy’s Teutonic caretaker Miss Madress (Nora Dunn) and beachfront bartender Jack (Jason Lee), a wry stargazer with whom Page becomes unexpectedly smitten. Heartbreakers is the third collaboration from writers Steven Mazur and Paul Guy, whose previous screwball comedy was 1997’s international hit, Liar Liar.