Dan Warry-Smith Movies
Two kids with nothing in common are brought together in a very unexpected way in this comedy. Nell (Samaire Armstrong) is a pretty but hopelessly geeky teenage girl who loves Shakespeare and wants little more than to study literature at Yale when she graduates from high school in a few months Woody (Kevin Zegers), who lives next door, is the quarterback on the school's football team, and seems like a sure bet to land a lucrative football scholarship despite the fact he isn't especially bright. Nell and Woody are not at all friendly and normally have nothing to say to one another, but one day during a class field trip to a historical museum, the two fall under the spell of an Incan icon and when they awake the next morning, Woody's mind is in Nell's body, and vice versa. Neither is comfortable with their sudden gender switch or having to assume the other's personalities, but they quickly realize that until they can find a way to reverse the spell, they have to work together if Nell is to go to Yale and Woody is to get his scholarship and move away from this loutish parents (Sharon Osborne and Maury Chaykin. Elton John was an executive producer on It's A Boy Girl Thing, and songs from his back catalog appear on the soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Zegers, Samaire Armstrong, (more)
Moral hypocrisy and the woes of America's public schools and educational system are the focus of Cheaters, which is based on a real-life 1995 cheating scandal at a Chicago high school. In a working class area of the city, teacher Dr. Gerald Plecki (Jeff Daniels) is desperate for his students to triumph at an upcoming academic decathlon against students of a more affluent high school across town. His desperation causes him to cast a blind eye when one of his students gets hold of a copy of the decathlon test -- and, thanks to their combined dedication to cheating -- the team wins the competition with the highest total score in state history. Of course, the score leads to suspicion on the part of Illinois officials, and the resulting scandal is accompanied by a media frenzy of monolithic proportions. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Daniels, Jena Malone, (more)
Former federal agent Dean McConnell (Eric Roberts) and his teenaged son, Jeremy (Kag-Erik Eriksen), stop by the high-rise building in Seattle where Dean used to work to pick up his girlfriend, Fiona (Cali Timmins), and her daughter, Aimee (Lisa Marie Caruk), to go to a basketball game. Their timing is pretty bad; a helicopter has landed on the roof of the building, releasing a small band of heavily armed thieves, lead by Quentin Darby (Jurgen Prochnow), with the intention is to steal 120 million dollars worth of U.S. Treasury plates used to print 100 dollar bills. Dean catches onto the plot, and mayhem erupts as bullets fly and the building catches fire, capturing innocent visitors as well as Jeremy, Fiona, Aimee, and, as it happens, Dean's ex-wife between burning floors. But the bad guys are still intent on getting away with their heist, and they don't look kindly upon potential witnesses. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Roberts, Jürgen Prochnow, (more)
Two bored young practical jokers inadvertently scare up a heap of trouble in their backwater Mississippi town when they re-create the local myth, Gator Face, a swamp creature said to be half alligator and half human. Their little prank proves so effective that soon the town is swamped with media types. But things become serious when the National Guard begins combing the swamps and the real Gator Face shows up. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Warry-Smith, Paul Winfield, (more)
