John Morris Movies

An FBI agent finds himself crossing the gender line again in the name of national security in this sequel to the comedy hit Big Momma's House. Tom Fuller (Mark Moses) is a computer whiz who is under investigation by the FBI, who suspect he may be the man behind a dangerous piece of underground software that would allow terrorists and criminals to access secured intelligence files online. The Bureau is looking for a way to get inside Fuller's home to find out what he's doing when a golden opportunity presents itself -- Fuller and his wife, Leah (Emily Procter), are in the market for a nanny to help look after their three children. The FBI sends in Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence), who will once again impersonate feisty septuagenarian Hattie Mae Pierce, better known as "Big Momma." "Big Momma" gets the job, but while trying to dig up the truth about Fuller's possible criminal connections, Malcolm also finds himself developing a close relationship with the suspect's wife and kids. Malcolm also finds himself offering unlikely romantic advice to his new partner, Kevin (Zachary Levi), and developing a new appreciation of the day-to-day travails of his wife, Sherrie (Nia Long). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on Raymond Radiguet's book of the same (French) title, this erotic film revolves around a September-May adulterous love affair. Unlike the book, the setting is the Australian outback in 1943, and the French heroine Marthe (Katia Caballero) has been legally "quarantined" by the Aussie government for the duration of the war. That is to say, her Italian husband has been put in jail, and she is not allowed to leave the country. After meeting schoolboy Paul Hansen (Keith Smith), sexual sparks ignite a smoldering desire, and the two eventually are engaged in an all-out affair. Rumor and innuendo and Paul's parents notwithstanding, the affair runs its course -- but the tragedy that ends the book has been written out here. As this film was released, director Marco Bellocchio was completing his own 1987 version of the same story, Il Diavolo in Corpo. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This Aussie/Western variation on the Psycho formula is set in the tiny Outback town of Gippsland in the 1890s, where travelers visiting a remote inn are being bumped off by a mysterious interloper. After a perfectly dreary hour or so, wily lawman Alex Cord solves the mystery that somehow managed to befuddle the rest of the cast -- it seems crackpot innkeeper Dame Judith Anderson and her husband have never quite recovered from the trauma of seeing their children killed by escaped convicts who once invaded their home, and they have been busily hacking up their guests ever since. The setting provides for some pleasant location photography and gives the film a unique look and feel, but the story is completely bogged down by dull pacing and lackluster performances -- except for Anderson, who is always a treat to watch, even when she's given little to work with. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Years before the story proper in The Wrong Box gets under way, a "tontine" is drawn up on behalf several young British boys. Each of the boys' parents had placed 1000 pounds in a pool, to be invested and expanded upon. The resultant fortune will go to the last surving member of the tontine. A series of montages depicts the various demises of the heirs (our favorite occurs when one of them is inadvertently beheaded while being knighted by Queen Victoria). Finally, only two of the tontine participants are left: aged brothers Ralph Richardson and John Mills. On his last legs, Mills is determined that Richardson will not outlive him, and to that end attempts to kill his brother; each attempt fails spectacularly, with the doddering Richardson none the wiser. Standing to benefit from the tontine are Mills' dimwitted med-student son Michael Caine and Richardson's greedy nephews Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. When Richardson is supposedly killed in a train wreck, Cook and Moore don't want the authorities to find out, so they appropriate what they think is their uncle's corpse and ship it home in a box. Thus it is that Caine finds the body of a perfect stranger on his doorstep. The farcical complications begin flying about thick and fast from this point onward. Among the participants in this wacky gigglefest are such formidable talents as Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Wilfred Lawson, Thorley Walters, Norman Rossington, Irene Handl and Cicely Courtenedge. Based on a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Wrong Box is a delightful harkback to the glory days of Britain's Ealing comedies. We were so wrapped up in the story that we didn't even notice all those TV antennae sprouting up on the rooftops of Victorian London. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide