Eric Jacobs Movies
- 2005
- PG
A handful of men begin behaving like children when their kids enter a Boy Scout competition in this family-friendly comedy. Ever since he was in fifth grade, Phil Davis (Greg Germann) has been coming in second place to Ace Montana (Marc Raymond) whenever they've been in some sort of competition together, and now that Phil and Ace are both middle-aged fathers, history seems to repeat itself when Brady (Adam Hicks), Phil's son, loses the city junior basketball championship to a team featuring Ace's boy. When Phil learns that Brady will be going up against Ace's son again in his Boy Scout troop's annual Pinewood Derby race, Phil decides it time to end the Davis family's losing ways once and for all, and with help from his childhood friends Blaine (Ross Brockley) and Jimmy (Perry Anzilotti), Phil sets out to build the perfect Pinewood derby car -- whether or not that's what Brady has in mind. Produced with the cooperation of the Boy Scouts of America, Down and Derby also stars Lauren Holly, Pat Morita, and Hunter Tylo. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Greg Germann, Lauren Holly, (more)
Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Paola di Florio directs Home of the Brave, a documentary about the impact of Viola Liuzzo's murder. Detroit housewife and mother of five, Liuzzo was a civil rights activist who went to Alabama to help with voter registration in 1965. She was in town during the pivotal march organized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which ended in violence at the Edmund Pettus Bridge near Selma. While trying to transport the tear-gased marchers in her car, she was shot by three members of the Ku Klux Klan. Suspects Eugene Thomas, Collie Leroy Wilkins Jr., and William Orville Eaton were found guilty of civil rights violations and later acquitted. The film also explores the FBI investigation in the aftermath of her death, as well as the reaction in the Liuzzo home. Home of the Brave was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 as part of the documentary competition. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mary Liuzzo, Tony Liuzzo, (more)
- 2003
This Disney Channel feature film is based on the true story of female hot rod racers Erica Enders and her sister Courtney Enders. When the National Hot Rod Association begins a new children's league, eight-year-old Erica (Briana Shipley) is first in line to sign up -- only to be flatly informed that hot rodding is a "man's" sport, and that little girls should stay home with their dollies. Undaunted, and urged on by her supportive father Gregg (Jon Robert Lindstrom), Erica persists in her dream to become a champion racer, and by the time she has entered her teen years (whereupon she is played by Beverly Mitchell), the girl has handily beaten all of the local male competition, with her equally talented kid sister Courtney (Brie Larson) keeping apace in her own souped-up roadster. But the big-time national competitions are still in the future, and Erica and Courtney have yet to confront their most formidable racing rivals. The real-life Enders sisters doubled for the actresses portraying them in the hot-rodding sequences. Filmed in Salt Lake City, Right on Track made its cable TV bow on March 21, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Beverley Mitchell, Brie Larson, (more)
- 2003
In his final acting appearance, Dennis Weaver is cast as Emmet Rivers, an elderly, eccentric inventor who has spent a good portion of his life trying to create a new water-based energy source. Altruistic angel Gloria (Valerie Bertinelli), employed as research assistant for big-oil magnate Carl Northram (Michael Nouri), tries to persuade Emmet to sell his invention to Northram's company in a move to save the environment. But Emmett angrily turns down the offer, convinced that Northram's motives are less than honorable...and much to Gloria's dismay, it turns out that Emmett's instincts are right on target! Della Reese (Tess) does not appear in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
