Bovie Movie

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.

Borrowing liberally from the French film La Totale, this is an action picture, domestic comedy, and political thriller rolled into a crowd-pleasing ball of entertainment. Producer James Cameron wrote and directed the film. Henry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a workaholic computer salesman neglecting his mousy wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), a legal secretary. Simon (Bill Paxton) seduces Helen with the lie that he is a secret agent; he’s really a used car salesman. Harry suspects that Helen is cheating on him, and he sends a few colleagues to kidnap them. Helen then discovers that Harry is a secret agent by night, working for a shadowy group called the Omega Sector. Harry and his partner Gib (Tom Arnold) are trying to find four nuclear warheads that have disappeared from a former Soviet republic.

A sixth grader discovers the joys and sorrows of first love — as if he doesn’t already have enough problems — in this comedy. Eleven-year-old Lloyd (Todd Bosley) is short, skinny, awkward, and wears thick round glasses; in most any American school, these qualities are enough to make you the target of every bully within shouting distance, and Lloyd has gotten accustomed to his status as the butt of his classmates’ jokes. Lloyd has also started to notice girls, which makes for even greater humiliation at home, as his eight-year-old brother Nathan (Sammy Elliott) has already mastered the fine art of sweet-talking the opposite sex. Lloyd has one close friend, the significantly less geeky Troy (Brendon Ryan Barrett), but their friendship begins to show signs of strain when Lloyd falls in love with Tracy (Kirsten Parker), a cute girl in his class. To Lloyd’s annoyance, Tracy only has eyes for Storm (Patrick Higgins), a charismatically sullen junior high student; can Lloyd’s mastery of magic tricks and way with a joke win him the girl of his dreams? Lloyd also features cameo appearances from Tom Arnold and Taylor Negron.

Why rent a dirty movie when you can make your own? That’s the can-do philosophy embraced by a handful of girl-crazy teens in this comedy. Fred (Tony Denman), Deacon (Erik von Detten), and Matt (Daniel Farber) are three high school kids who, like most teenaged boys, are obsessed with sex. Deacon has a part time job at a video rental shop with a large selection of adult films, and he’s been able to sneak porn titles out of the store on a regular basis, to the great enthusiasm of Matt and Fred, who not only enjoy the videos themselves but dub bootleg copies they sell to their classmates to make pocket money. However, when Deacon loses his job, the guys are left high and dry, until one of them gets an idea — they’ve seen enough porn movies to know what the average viewer expects from one, so why don’t they make one themselves? However, recruiting the performers necessary for such a project turns out to be harder than they expected, with exotic dancer Ashley (Sarah Jane Potts) and neighborhood bully Jake (Riley Smith) rising to the top of a very shallow talent pool. The first production from the guys is an unexpected success, but they soon discover that not everyone is happy with their good fortune, especially sleazy porn kingpin Vic Ramalot (Horatio Sanz), who isn’t interested in having more competition. Filmed under the title After School Special, Barely Legal also stars Tom Arnold, Amy Smart, and Dey Young.

A thief and a lawman join forces to hunt down a common enemy in this action thriller. Tony Fait (DMX) is a master thief who, along with his crew (Gabrielle Union, Anthony Anderson, and Drag-On), pulls off a major score when they steal a cache of highly valuable black diamonds. However, the hard-as-nails Tony has a soft spot for his young daughter Vanessa (Paige Hurd), and Ling (Mark Dacascos), a former detective turned ruthless criminal, kidnaps Vanessa, demanding a ransom from Tony for her return — the stash of black diamonds. The jewels have already been stolen, however, from Tony’s fence Archie (Tom Arnold), and are now in the hands of a powerful underworld boss (Chi McBride). Determined to get back his daughter whatever the cost, Tony and his gang set out to find both Ling and the diamonds, but he soon gets some invaluable help from an unlikely corner — Su (Jet Li), a government agent from Taiwan who was once Ling’s partner, and has an old score to settle with him. Cradle 2 the Grave also features Kelly Hu and Roxana Brusso.

Returning to his action feature terrain after a short hiatus, Steven Seagal plays Orin Boyd, a maverick Detroit detective with an unconventional way of taking down foes. After a failed intervention in a terrorist kidnapping case that humiliates his superiors, Boyd — who is hailed as a top-drawer investigator but frowned upon for his tactics — is forced to do time in a tough downtown precinct. After discovering the covert drug operation performed by several corrupt cops at his new assignment, he decides to break the rules yet again. While the cops are planning a massive heroin deal with big-time gangster Latrell Walker (DMX), Boyd finds that Latrell is not who he once was, and Boyd persuades him to assist in bringing an end to the amoral police influence that helped ruin him. Exit Wounds is the second film from cinematographer-turned-director Andrzej Bartkowiak (Romeo Must Die) and also features Tom Arnold, Isaiah Washington, and Jill Hennessy.