Patrick O'Brien Movies

Many a lovesick young man has threatened to camp out by a girl's front door, but one guy actually tries it in this alternately sweet and tasteless romantic comedy. Peter (Josh Schaefer) is a good-natured but socially inept young man who is madly in love with Erica (Keri Russell), the sweet and devastatingly sexy girl next door. Peter desperately wants Erica as his girlfriend, even though she already has a boyfriend, the large and humorless Nick (Johnny Green). Eager to prove himself, Peter takes up the advice of Nonno (Buck Kartalian), his batty grandfather, and literally camps out on her front lawn, willing to wait out the entire summer until she gives him a chance to prove that he can be the man of her dreams. Meanwhile, Peter is frequently kept company by his buddy Matt (R.D. Robb), who has learned how to deal with his sexual tensions through the use of fresh fruit, while Peter's dad (Mark Taylor) is convinced that his son has gone nuts and won't allow him back in the house, even for a change of clothes. While it won the Audience Award at the 1997 Slamdance Film Festival, Eight Days a Week didn't receive much commercial exposure until its release on video, after Keri Russell had made a splash on the acclaimed TV series Felicity. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The exciting world of rollerblading provides the basis of this tale of a young teen who tries to inspire the affection of a pretty girl with his skating prowess. The lad is 15-year-old Mitchell Goosen who is sent from sunny southern California to snowy Cincinnati to live with relatives while his parents go on a long trip to Australia. The boy comes to the Ohio city clutching his surfboard and meets his goofy cousin who quickly becomes his friend. Naturally his laid back West Coast ways make him the subject of ridicule in his new high school. His biggest foe is the school jock. The pain of his new life is eased a bit after Mitchell meets perky blond Nikki. They talk and then he is forced to play in a hockey game. Mitchell has no idea what hockey is about but still manages to score the winning goal causing him to be the victim of more ostracism. In the spring, he begins rollerblading and the other kids are amazed by his many stunts. Eventually, he uses his skills to win the respect of his enemies and Niki's heart, but not without a lot more daring skating escapades. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Dan (John Larroquette) and Harry (Harry Anderson) both angle for the attentions of Christine's gorgeous friend Heather (Sela Ward). After carefully weighing the options, Heather decides to spend the weekend with Dan, sending Harry spiraling into a depression. But worse is still to come: It seems that Harry's idol Mel Torme prefers Dan's company as well! Jay Robinson,the unforgettable Caligula in The Robe, appears as Roland Jeffries. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A mid-1960s TV documentary special (and a New Yorker cartoon before that) was the inspiration for If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium. The film is a likeable satire of "packaged" European tours, where the nonplused tourists are expected to rush from one landmark to another in a breathless 18 days. Ian McShane stars as the amorous tour guide, with Suzanne Pleshette as the American department store buyer he falls for; their romance ends when Pleshette decides that the supposedly worldly McShane is too immature for her. An all-star cast, including Murray Hamilton, Peggy Cass, Pamela Britton, Marty Ingels, John Cassavetes and Vittorio De Sica, pops up in comic cameo roles. Our favorite bit: an American and German tourist, simultaneously regaling their respective wives with wildly divergent accounts of the same wartime confrontation. If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium was reworked in 1987 as a made-for-TV movie, cleverly title If It's Tuesday, It Still Must be Belgium. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi