Bovie Movie

The made-for-cable musical satire Reefer Madness is based on the award-winning play of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the notorious — and deliciously awful — 1936 anti-marijuana film originally titled Tell Your Children. A smarmy lecturer (Alan Cumming in the first of his three roles in the film) arrives in a typical small town of the late ’30s to warn the populace of the dangers of the “evil weed,” bringing along a lurid propaganda film to dramatize his message. In broad, unsubtle, and hilarious strokes, the movie-within-a-movie shows how even a squeaky-clean pair of highschoolers named Mary Lane (Kristen Bell) and Jimmy Harper (Christian Campbell) can become hopeless dope addicts by succumbing to the lure of marijuana. Reefer Madness is not only a savage skewering of the original black-and-white movie (some of the musical’s campiest lines are taken directly from the earlier script!), but also a devastating attack on what playwrights Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney consider to be the real reason that the 1936 movie was made: to frighten the public out of their wits in order to keep them under the thumb of an oppressive government. Thus, the musical manages to take a number of not-so-veiled swipes at xenophobia, racism, McCarthyism, the Bush Administration’s Homeland Security policy, and even the recent FCC clampdown on “offensive” TV fare (one of the film’s highlights is a garish nightclub number featuring Jesus Christ). The ebulliently staged songs include “The Stuff,” “Down at the Ol’ Five and Dime,” “Lonely Pew,” “Listen to Jesus Jimmy,” “Mary Jane/Mary Lane,” “The Brownie Song,” “Tell ‘Em the Truth,” and the title number. Officially titled Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, this film first aired April 16, 2005, on the Showtime cable service.

Filmmaker Roman Polanski, who as a boy growing up in Poland watched while the Nazis devastated his country during World War II, directed this downbeat drama based on the true story of a privileged musician who spent five years struggling against the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is a gifted classical pianist born to a wealthy Jewish family in Poland. The Szpilmans have a large and comfortable flat in Warsaw which Wladyslaw shares with his mother and father (Maureen Lipman and Frank Finlay), his sisters Halina and Regina (Jessica Kate Meyer and Julia Rayner), and his brother, Henryk (Ed Stoppard). While Wladyslaw and his family are aware of the looming presence of German forces and Hitler’s designs on Poland, they’re convinced that the Nazis are a menace which will pass, and that England and France will step forward to aid Poland in the event of a real crisis. Wladyslaw’s na?vet? is shattered when a German bomb rips through a radio studio while he performs a recital for broadcast. During the early stages of the Nazi occupation, as a respected artist, he still imagines himself above the danger, using his pull to obtain employment papers for his father and landing a supposedly safe job playing piano in a restaurant. But as the German grip tightens upon Poland, Wladyslaw and his family are selected for deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. Refusing to face a certain death, Wladyslaw goes into hiding in a comfortable apartment provided by a friend. However, when his benefactor goes missing, Wladyslaw is left to fend for himself and he spends the next several years dashing from one abandoned home to another, desperate to avoid capture by German occupation troops. The Pianist was based on the memoir of the same name by the real-life Wladyslaw Szpilman; the book was first published in 1946 as Death of a City, but was banned by Polish Communist officials and went out of print until 1998, when a new edition was issued as The Pianist.

This film is based on an innovative short film made for MTV about a guy living in a horrible downtown apartment filled with scores of mischievous, smart-alecky roaches. The story chronicles the adventures of Joe (Jerry O’Connell), a hapless rube from the rural Midwest who journeys to the wilds of New York City. Mugged repeatedly on his arrival, his luck seems to turn when he finds an affordable apartment in a very dubious neighborhood. Unfortunately, his landlord (Don Ho) is more interested in evicting or, if need be, murdering his tenants, so that the building can be turned into a (highly profitable) penitentiary. Joe finds the allies he needs in his apartment’s cockroaches, who sing and dance their way into his heart. This film should be of interest for fans of 1930s musicals; it makes reference to Busby Berkeley’s elaborate dance phantasmagorias and the odd water ballets of Esther Williams. Many of the scenes utilized real roaches who were “choreographed” via tiny filament harnesses and other devices. Animal rights activists will be pleased to note that no roaches were intentionally harmed during filming.

Mousse up your hair and pull your Missing Persons records out of mothballs for this romantic comedy set in that era of questionable fashion decisions, the ’80s. In 1985, Robbie Hart (Adam Sandler) is a vocalist whose rock band stubbornly refuses to get off the ground. In the meantime, he makes a living playing wedding receptions, where his easy charm and ability to schmooze brings him a steady income. Robbie meets Julia Sullivan (Drew Barrymore) when she’s working as a waitress at one of his wedding gigs; he immediately takes a shine to her, but since he’s engaged, he keeps his distance. Robbie learns that Julia is also engaged; unfortunately, her fianc?e Glen Gulia (Matthew Glave) is an obnoxious, self-obsessed yuppie who is chronically unfaithful to her. When Robbie gets stood up at the altar by his fianc?e, it’s a crushing blow to his ego, and he moves from working weddings to bar mitzvahs to avoid the humiliating issue of matrimony, and he considers giving up on music altogether. In time, Robbie realizes that he needs to step in and stop Julia from marrying Glen before the woman he’s come to love ruins her life. Adam Sandler’s former Saturday Night Live co-stars Kevin Nealon and Jon Lovitz make cameo appearances, as do Steve Buscemi and Billy Idol — as himself.

Prolific television director Gary Nelson made the Walt Disney live-action comedy Freaky Friday, based on the novel by Mary Rodgers. Barbara Harris stars as suburban housewife Ellen Andrews, the wife of Bill (John Astin) and the mother of Annabel (Jodie Foster) and Ben (Sparky Marcus). Ellen just can’t understand what’s going on with teenaged Annabel, who hangs around the house making snappy remarks, eating ice cream for breakfast, and calling her brother Apeface. They each make a separate wish to be in the other’s place, and they get their wish on Friday 13th. Ellen has to go through the day as a kid, playing on the field hockey team and dealing with typing class. Annabel has to deal with grown-up problems like getting appliances fixed and preparing a banquet. The whole silly story ends with a wacky car-chase/water skiing/hang-gliding conclusion in keeping with other Disney movies of the day. Freaky Friday was remade twice with the same title, and spawned a whole subgenre of body-switching movies in the 1980s.

Purple Rain, the first starring film for Prince, is the story of an arrogant, young black singer, born and raised in Minneapolis, who reaches the pinnacle of stardom. The dramatic complications include “The Kid’s” (Prince) miserable home life, where he suffers the brutalities of his father (well played by Clarence Williams III) and the youth’s efforts to win the love of the beautiful Apollonia. Despite the misogynistic undercurrents in Purple Rain, the film’s biggest fans were young women. Gorgeously photographed by Donald Thorin, Purple Rain is essentially a glorified music video, highlighted by a catalogue of Prince’s hits, including I Would Die 4 U, When Doves Cry and Let’s Go Crazy; the score deservedly won an Academy Award and a Grammy.

They’ve kept television viewers laughing for nearly 20 years, and now the most popular animated family on the small screen makes the leap into theaters as Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, ad Maggie embark on their first-ever feature-length adventure. Directed by David Silverman and written by a whole host of Simpsons veterans including Matt Groening and James L. Brooks, The Simpsons Movie also features special guest appearances by Albert Brooks among others.

Louis de Bernières’ best-selling novel of love during wartime is brought to the screen in this story that blends comedy, action, and romance. In 1940, war rages throughout Europe, but the fighting has yet to arrive on the Greek island of Cephallonia, where life continues to follow its own slow, deliberate path until word arrives that Italian troops have invaded neighboring Albania. A wave of anti-Axis patriotism sweeps the island, and Mandras (Christian Bale), a local fisherman, is one of a handful of men who volunteer for the army, leaving behind his aging mother (Irene Papas) and the woman he loves, Pelagia (Penélope Cruz), the daughter of the island’s physician, Dr. Iannis (John Hurt). The timing of Mandras and his compatriots proves less than fortuitous, as Italian troops invade Greece in their absence, but the remaining leaders of the island issue an ultimatum — the people of Cephallonia will surrender, but only to a ranking German officer. Since none of the available German officers can speak a word of Greek, an Italian soldier fluent in the language, Capt. Antonio Corelli (Nicholas Cage), is sent in to serve as translator. Corelli stays on with the Greek occupation forces, and he soon finds himself falling in love with beautiful Pelagia, who believes that Mandras was killed in the fighting in Albania. But as romance slowly blooms between the Italian soldier and the Greek girl, Mandras and a handful of surviving soldiers have joined a guerilla resistance faction, and they join up with Allied forces in a bid to retake Greece; soon, Pelagia must choose between the two men she loves, as the Greeks battle both the Italian occupation troops and German soldiers who have been sent in to replace them. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin was directed by John Madden; the project originally began shooting with Roger Michell, but Michell was forced to resign from the film after he suffered a heart attack.

Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, and Will Arnett headline this high-concept comedy concerning two male figure-skating rivals aching to compete despite having been banned from the sport. Their medals stripped after getting into a highly publicized fight at the World Championships, star figure skaters Chazz Michael Michaels (Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Heder) are barred from ever competing in the sport again. Upon discovering a loophole that will allow them to perform together in the pairs figure skating category, the two athletes determine to put their differences aside in order to pursue their gold medal aspirations. Amy Poehler, Jenna Fischer, Craig T. Nelson, and Rob Corddry co-star.

Featuring a majestic score by Ennio Morricone and lush Oscar-winning cinematography by Chris Menges, Roland Joff?’s The Mission examines the events surrounding the Treaty of Madrid in 1750, when Spain ceded part of South America to Portugal, and turns this episode into an allegory for the mid-’80s struggles of Latin America. Two European forces are on hand to win the South American natives over to imperialist ways. The plunderers want to extract riches and slaves from the New World. The missionaries, on the other hand, want to convert the Indians to Christianity and win over their souls. Mendoza (Robert De Niro) is an exploiter dabbling in the slave trade. But after he kills his brother Felipe (Aidan Quinn) in a fit of rage, he seeks redemption and calls upon the missionaries to assist him. After repeatedly climbing a cliff with a heavy weight as penance, Mendoza finds redemption and becomes a devout missionary at a settlement run by Gabriel (Jeremy Irons). The missionaries want to promote a new society in which the natives will live together in peace with the Spanish and the Portuguese. But this concept frightens the royal governors, who would rather enslave the natives than encourage peaceful coexistence between the Europeans and the Indians. They order the mission to be burned to the ground. But this event causes a rift between Gabriel, who wants to pray and pursue peaceful resistance, and Mendoza, who wants to take up arms and fight the Europeans.