Marianne Muellerleile Movies
An attractive bachelorette (Paris Hilton) finds that her chances of landing a man hinge far too much on her unattractive best friend (Christine Lakin), whom she goes out of her way to find a mate for by denying a childhood friend's romantic advances until he finds this hottie's pal a mate in this Regent Releasing comedy. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paris Hilton, Joel David Moore, (more)
A meek and lovable milquetoast married to an overbearing, overweight tyrant finds his life turned upside down when he meets the woman of his dreams in this romantic comedy starring Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Eddie Griffin. His entire life, Norbit (Murphy) has been picked on and put down, and after being bullied into marrying the most obnoxious woman in town (also Murphy) it appears as if that's the way things will remain until the day he dies. Upon meeting the one woman who seems to accept him for who he is, Norbit is instilled with a newfound sense of hope for the future. In order to find true happiness, however, Norbit will first have to gather the courage to stand up to his monstrous spouse once and for all. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy
An ancient demon and his sugar-craving army of kung-fu warriors are set to take over the entire planet, leaving the only hope for mankind in the hands of a young boy and a beautiful Chinese warrior. The demons are coming, and in order to stop them young Johnny Dow must harness the hidden power of an elaborately carved dragon head on his father's guitar. Perhaps with the help of Mika - a pretty but fearsome female fighter, Johnny will be able to defeat the forces of darkness and prevent the world from crumbling to chaos. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Twining, Matt Mullins, (more)
When a shifty magician turns state's evidence against a Las Vegas underworld heavy, the high price placed on his head sparks a fevered race to rub the snitch out and collect a tidy paycheck in Narc director Joe Carnahan's dark action comedy. Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) is a small-time scammer who has somehow managed to get the goods on big-time mobster Primo Sparazza. Upon discovering that Buddy is about to deliver the evidence needed to get him thrown in jail for life, Primo takes out a sizable contract on Buddy that entices every two-bit thug, grizzled bounty hunter, deadly vixen, skilled assassin, and ladder-climbing Mafioso within a hundred-mile radius into taking a shot at the prize. Now holed up in his luxurious Lake Tahoe hideout with only two FBI agents (Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta) standing between him from a virtual army of money-hungry rogues, Buddy is about to find out just how far this motley crew of killers is willing to go in order to take him out and hit the jackpot. Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys, and Martin Henderson co-star in a bullet-strewn, ensemble crime comedy that never stops to reload. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, (more)
Screen newcomer Joseph Cross portrays Augusten Burroughs in director Ryan Murphy's film adaptation of author Burroughs' best-selling personal memoir of the same name. A child of the 1970s whose alcoholic father Norman (Alec Baldwin) and delusional, unpublished poet mother Deidre (Annette Benning) serve as the dictionary definition of the word "dysfunctional," Augusten is sent by his mother to live with her eccentric psychiatrist Dr. Finch (Brian Cox) when his disagreeable parents ultimately decide terminate their turbulent marriage. Suddenly thrust into an environment that is as unfamiliar as it is unpredictable, young Augusten forms a curious relationship with the doctor's two whimsical daughters while learning to adapt and survive under even the most unusual of circumstances. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annette Bening, Brian Cox, (more)
The directorial debut from Jason Reitman, the media satire Thank You for Smoking stars Aaron Eckhart as Nick, a man who has turned spinning news and information into a successful career for the tobacco lobby. He plots strategies with his colleagues (Maria Bello and David Koechner) on how to make other dangerous products more appealing to the American public. Nick ends up going to Hollywood with his young son (Cameron Bright) in order to get a movie producer to include characters smoking in his newest film. Nick is kidnapped by a vigilante group concerned about the harmful nature of his product. The cast includes William H. Macy as a Senator who runs on a strong anti-tobacco position, Rob Lowe as the Hollywood bigwig, and Robert Duvall as the king of the tobacco industry. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Christopher Buckley. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, (more)
- 2002
In her third attempt to launch a successful starring sitcom, comedienne Bonnie Hunt starred as Bonnie Molloy, host of the low-rated TV chat show "Morning Chicago." The basic humor arose from Bonnie's efforts to juggle her career with her home life as the wife of doctor John Molloy (played by Lance Kerwin in the unaired pilot episode, and by Mark Derwin in the series proper) and the mother of three rambunctious kids. The domestic scenes admirably avoided the usual "setup-punch line" formula, with Bonnie making jokes almost as an afterthought as she tried to cope with her hectic lifestyle, while the scenes allegedly taking place during the telecast of "Morning Chicago" were largely improvised. The supporting cast included Samantha Browne-Walters and Charlie Stewart as Bonnie's kids Cathleen and Tommy (youngest child Connor was played by an uncredited infant), Marianne Muellerleile as autocratic live-in maid Gloria, David Alan Grier as Bonnie's TV producer David Bellows, Holly Wortell as studio makeup artist Holly, Anthony Russell as Bonnie's on-air piano player Tony Russo, and Chris Barnes as Marv, the cue-card guy. Life With Bonnie debuted September 17, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bonnie Hunt, Mark Derwin, (more)
In this romantic comedy, a man loses the love of his life, only to find her heart beating in the body of someone new. Architect Bob Rueland (David Duchovny) is happily married until his wife Elizabeth (Joely Richardson), a zoologist, dies in an auto accident. A year later, Bob is still dealing with his loss when he meets Grace Briggs (Minnie Driver), a shy woman who waits tables in an Irish/Italian restaurant run by her grandfather Marty (Carroll O'Connor). Bob falls for Grace at first sight, and she's attracted to him as well, but what he doesn't know is that a year ago Grace was the recipient of a heart transplant -- and that Elizabeth was the donor. Return to Me was directed and co-written by actress Bonnie Hunt, who also appears in a supporting role as Grace's best friend Megan; the cast also includes Robert Loggia, James Belushi, and David Alan Grier. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Duchovny, Minnie Driver, (more)
- 1997
Pomerantz (Jami Gertz) refuses to put a woman with Down's syndrome on a heart-transplant list; Greene (Anthony Edwards) and Doyle (Jorja Fox) try to persuade her to change her mind. Now that he is of legal age, Jad Houston (Chad Lindberg), suffering from terminal cystic fibrosis, insists upon being taken off life support -- but Jad's mother (Veronica Cartwright) won't hear of it, forcing Ross (George Clooney) to act as "mediator" between life and death. And the relationship between Jeanie (Gloria Reuben) and Fischer (Harry J. Lennix) becomes more serious. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This romantic comedy from the John Hughes school of domestic farce stars Greg Kinnear and Lauren Holly as Danny Robertson, an elevator installer, and his wife Jennifer, the owner of an aroma therapy products store. They have a great marriage until Jennifer, who desperately wants a child, secretly stops taking her birth control pills. When she fails to become pregnant, she covertly delivers a sample of Danny's sperm to a fertility clinic, which discovers a biological problem. Danny is furious and embarrassed, but he reluctantly joins the effort to conceive. The crusade to have a baby becomes a humiliating spectacle for both Robertsons, and, as their marriage begins to fracture from the stress, Danny contemplates the charms of a sexy architect (Jill Hennessy) while Jennifer eyes a charming business executive (Christopher McDonald). A Smile Like Yours was the directorial debut of Keith Samples, producer of Big Night (1996) and Two Days in the Valley (1996). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greg Kinnear, Lauren Holly, (more)
In this action thriller, a group of Islamic terrorists, led by Nagi Hassan (David Suchet), highjacks a 747 jetliner with 400 passengers aboard, but Lt. Col. Austin Travis (Steven Seagal), a United States intelligence agent, is convinced that this isn't an ordinary case of air piracy. His suspicions are soon confirmed; Hassan's men have obtained a large cache of stolen Soviet nerve gas, and they are using the 747 to smuggle the deadly gas into the United States, where they intend to use it to wipe out Washington D.C. and possibly the entire East Coast. As the jet approaches the U. S., engineer Dennis Cahill (Oliver Platt) designs a plan in which a military plane will be able to transfer U.S. soldiers onto the 747 and regain control of the plane and its deadly cargo. However, when Travis dies in the course of the mission, intelligence agent Dr. David Grant (Kurt Russell) is forced to take his place alongside explosives expert Cappy (Joe Morton), commando Rat (John Leguizamo), and stewardess-turned-anti-terrorist Jean (Halle Berry). Executive Decision was the first directorial assignment for veteran film editor Stuart Baird; he cut the film as well. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, (more)
Versatile Canadian comedian Martin Short plays a 10-year old boy in this comedy aimed at younger audiences. The tale is told in flashback to another little boy. Clifford is a manipulative brat. Clifford really wants to visit Dinosaur World in Los Angeles. Clifford wants to go so badly that he manages to force the Hawaii bound plane he and his parents are on to land in L.A. His parents need to attend a convention in Hawaii so they leave him with his Uncle Martin who despises children. Martin's fiance adores kids, so he pretends to be ecstatic about Clifford's visit. He must also pretend that Clifford is the angel child he isn't. Because Martin reneges on a promise to take him to Dinosaur World, Clifford begins an elaborate plot for revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Short, Charles Grodin, (more)
- 1994
- R
Scott Glenn plays an ex-cop, and Lara Flynn Boyle is his gorgeous neighbor in this crime thriller about hot sex and murder that is chock-full of twists and turns. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Glenn, Anthony LaPaglia, (more)
This adaptation of the comic novel by T. Coraghessan Boyle is the story of real-life Corn Flakes inventor Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins), an eccentric health nut in the early 20th century. Convinced of the benefits of holistic health practices (mostly involving irrigation of the bowels and colon), Kellogg opens a spa in Battle Creek, Michigan that immediately attracts the well-to-do of his time, including Will (Matthew Broderick) and Eleanor Lightbody (Bridget Fonda). A young couple with sexual and marital problems, the Lightbodys aren't helped much by the forced separation of sexes at Kellogg's sanitarium, and the situation is further exacerbated by Will's obliging nurse (Traci Lind) and Eleanor's encounters with a group of German sex therapists. Also at the spa are Charles Ossining (John Cusack), an ambitious con man who sees a fortune in Kellogg's cereal, and the unwashed, cretinous George Kellogg (Dana Carvey), one of the doctor's several dozen adopted children. A spoof as obsessed as its protagonist with its scatological subject matter, The Road to Wellville was an unusual effort for director-composer Alan Parker, known better for darker dramatic material and musicals. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Bridget Fonda, (more)
With Heaven and Earth -- cobbled together from two autobiographical reminiscences (When Heaven and Earth Changed Places and Child of War, Woman of Peace by Le Ly Hayslip -- Oliver Stone completes his self-declared "Vietnam Trilogy" (the other films being Platoon and Born On the Fourth of July) of films examining the Vietnam War from different perspectives. Heaven and Earth begins in the central Vietnamese village of Ky La during the 1950s. Phung Le Ly (Hiep Thi Le) is an innocent peasant girl, helping her mother (Joan Chen) to tend the rice paddies while being lectured in the ways of life by her father (Haing Ngor). The idyllic peace of the village is disrupted when a jet bomber crosses the skies. Soon the village is decimated as the American-backed South Vietnamese government troops and the Viet Cong engage in brutal warfare in which the victims are the innocent villagers. Le Ly is both tortured and raped. She leaves Ky La for Danang for a life as a prostitute. There she meets the tall and craggy American soldier Steve Butler (Tommy Lee Jones), a kind but lonely man who isn't looking for sex but for someone to settle down with -- as he says, "I want an Oriental wife." They marry, and Steve takes her back to the United States, where her in-laws look at her not as a wife but as a pet. In the harsh glare of 1970s U.S. culture, Le Ly has trouble adjusting to the American way of life. But not as hard a time as her husband, who, after twenty years in Vietnam, discovers he cannot adapt to civilian life. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Joan Chen, (more)
With his trademark emphasis on character development and dialogue, writer/director John Sayles tells the story of May-Alice Culhane (Mary McDonnell), a New York soap opera actress left paralyzed by a car accident. As the film opens, she lies in a hospital bed, confused and scared, watching her own show on TV and shrieking, "That was supposed to be my closeup!" With no other options, she returns to her family's old and empty Southern home, where she drinks hard, offends every caregiver, and wallows in self-pity. Her outlook begins to changes with the arrival of Chantelle (Alfre Woodard), a nurse with her own life problems. The two gradually find a heartfelt connection with one another, and, as a result, their lives subtly change. McDonnell's work in Passion Fish earned her an Oscar nomination as Best Actress. ~ Norm Schrager, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, (more)
In the comedic farce Soapdish, the behind-the-scenes lives of several soap opera actors are just as melodramatic as those of their television counterparts. Sally Field stars as Celeste Talbert, the star of a declining TV show. To make matters worse, Talbert's career is thrown into turmoil when her rival, Montana Moorehead (Cathy Moriarty), tries to persuade producer David Barnes (Robert Downey Jr.) to write Talbert off the show. Smitten by Moorehead, Barnes comes up with a scheme to get Talbert off the show by hiring her niece Lori (Elisabeth Shue) and then Jeffrey (Kevin Kline), an old flame and cast member who was written out of the show 20 years prior. Soon, mayhem rules on the set as the cast and crew tangle, culminating in a special episode, broadcast live. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Field, Kevin Kline, (more)
If a comedy is to be made from the plight of the homeless, who have to scrape through their days returning deposit bottles and cleaning car windshields to get their daily bread as the rich get richer and more heartless, it may as well be Mel Brooks' Life Stinks. The trademark Brooks humor dominates this fable about a ruthless billionaire, Goddard Bolt (Mel Brooks), who wants to obliterate a poor section of Los Angeles and build a high-tech commercial center in its place. His only problem is that he owns only half the land needed for the construction, the other half belonging to equally ruthless billionaire Vance Craswell (Jeffrey Tambor), who has his own ideas for the land. The two try to buy each other out until, finally, a deal is struck: Craswell bets that Bolt cannot survive a month on the streets as a homeless man. If Bolt makes it, he gets the property. If he doesn't, Craswell gets it. Bolt agrees and, as a poor man, he begins to feel the pain of being uprooted and alone, even meeting a friendly homeless woman, Molly (Lesley Ann Warren) with whom he forms an attachment. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mel Brooks, Lesley Ann Warren, (more)
- 1991
Despite his sorry mishandling of the Phil Foundation--to say nothing of his recent abduction of Christine--Dan (John Larroquette) is allowed to return to practicing law. Unfortunately, there's a price to pay: rather than being reinstated in Night Court, Dan has been demoted to dog-law court. At the same time, Judge Harry T. Stone (Harry Anderson) nearly sparks an international crisis by offending an arrogant diplomat (Stephen Lee) from a tiny but troublesome country. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
The Night Court staff is invaded by the crew of a hard-hitting TV magazine show called "A Closer Look." The show's host Ed Druthers (Bob Sarlatte) has it in his head to expose the New York courtroom system in all its "primitive form." Needless to say, Ed gets much more than he bargained for thanks to zany Judge Harry T. Stone (Harry Anderson) and his colleagues. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Matthew Perry makes his final appearance as Carol's boyfriend Sandy in this, the most famous of Growing Pains' handful of "very special" episodes. By now convinced that they are truly in love, Carol and Sandy celebrates the occasion with a joyous night on the town--and one too many scotch highballs. Not long afterward, Carol learns that Sandy has been seriously injured in a drunk-driving accident. Rushing to the hospital, Carol prays that her sweetheart will be permitted a "second chance" in life...but it may already be too late. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
"It's the craziest wedding of the year!" promised the ads for the TV movie Going to the Chapel. Well, maybe not the craziest, but certainly the silliest. The thinnish plot concerns the roadblocks standing in the way of the impending wedding of Scott Valentine and Michelle Greene. As a means to sustain audience interest, the producers populated the supporting cast with a veritable village full of top TV names: Cloris Leachman, John Ratzenberger, Max Wright, Dick Van Patten, Eileen Brennan and Barbara Billingsley. First shown October 9, 1988, Going to the Chapel died in the ratings opposite the blockbuster biopic Liberace: Behind the Music. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
It's been a while since Murphy (Candice Bergen) has wound her biological clock, but the ticking begins anew when her pregnant friend Lisa (Jenny O'Hara) pays a visit. Now determined to be "with child" herself, Murphy doesn't want to waste time with such details as love and marriage, so she tries to coerce her coworker Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto) into donating his sperm for an in-vitro procedure. This idea fizzles, leaving Murphy no other choice but to try to obtain Frank's sperm through the time-honored direct method! Marianne Muellerleile appears--and promptly disappears--as Murphy's eighth secretary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
This in-name-only sequel to the mediocre H.P. Lovecraft adaptation The Curse is a slight improvement on its predecessor, eschewing any trace of Lovecraft in favor of a standard nuclear-mutant-beast plot but imbuing this theme with a menagerie of brain-damaged setpieces. When the protagonist and his girlfriend stumble across an abandoned atomic test site, he's bitten on the arm by an irradiated snake-monster; in a creative but excessively grotesque twist, only the venom-infected arm begins to undergo the inevitable transformation into a fanged beast (sort of a reptilian variant on Bruce Campbell's rebellious demonic hand in Evil Dead 2), which leads to some unpleasant quirks in the young couple's relationship. Before long, the poor guy becomes a veritable snake-factory, churning out baby serpents at an incredible clip. The performances are quite good and the makeup effects (by Screaming Mad George) deserve credit for their disgusting audacity. Very weird but more fun than its predecessor, this is probably the film that Sssss! wished it could have been. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jill Schoelen, J. Eddie Peck, (more)
