James Cruikshank Movies
In this family comedy, a dad and his two kids undergo a cross-country move from Los Angeles to Edmonton on Christmas Eve. They visit the local mall to do some last-minute Christmas shopping, and while they're there, they stumble upon a pile of counterfeit cash, and inadvertently catch the criminals behind it. It would all seem like a decidedly magical sequence of events, but that just might be because there's something magical residing in the West Edmonton Mall. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Swayze, Carmen Electra, (more)
Four Japanese surfers load up a 1961 EK Holden and wind their way down the scenic Australian coastline in this guerilla style road movie featuring a blistering punk soundtrack and manga-inspired visuals. A unique, micro-budget film designed to be enjoyed as either a feature or as a simple, background eye candy, Bondi Tsunami follows chain-smoking wave rider Shark (Taki Abe) as he leads his fun loving friends on a psychedelic journey through the land sown under and kisses his consciousness goodbye. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Identical twin 9-year-old girls, one a poor orphan, the other a rich heiress, cause confusion when they decide to meddle in their caretakers' love lives in this family-oriented comedy. Amanda (Mary Kate Olsen) is the orphan, a scrappy young girl with no family, relying on the support of her caring social worker, Diane (Kirstie Alley). When Diane brings Amanda to a summer camp, she first encounters Alyssa (Ashley Olsen), the wealthy daughter of the camp's sponsor, Roger Callaway (Steve Guttenberg). The girls immediately bond and decide to switch places for the fun of it. They soon conclude that their lives would be improved if Roger and Diane were to get together and form a family, and they set out to bring the adults together. More jaded, older viewers may be put off by the film's saccharine tone and derivative, Parent Trap-like narrative, but the inoffensive humor and the presence of popular TV stars the Olsen Twins should appeal to family audiences. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirstie Alley, Steve Guttenberg, (more)
A young boy attempts to sabotage his single mother's relationship with her new fiancé in this family-oriented comedy. Ben Archer (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) has become protective of his attractive mother Sandra (Farrah Fawcett) since they were abandoned by his father, and he resents the intrusion of anyone else into their lives. Despite his disapproval, however, Sandra has built up a relationship with district attorney Jack Sturges (an extremely low-key Chevy Chase), who eventually pops the question. Ben decides that marriage is out of the question, and he sets out to drive the lawyer away through a variety of schemes. These plans culminate in an effort to trick Struges into participating in the "Indian Guides," a scouting program involving all sorts of strenuous father-son activities. As one might expect, things do not quite go as Ben planned, as Jack proves himself a more suitable father figure than either expected. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Farrah Fawcett, (more)
Just as the original 1950 version of Father of the Bride spawned a sequel, so did the 1991 remake; like its counterpart four decades earlier, this story concerns a father who learns that his anxieties are just beginning after his daughter takes the big walk down the aisle. George Banks (Steve Martin) has finally adjusted to the marriage of his daughter Annie (Kimberly Williams) when the fates drop a new bombshell on his head: Annie and her husband Bryan (George Newbern) announce that they're going to have a baby. While George's wife Nina (Diane Keaton) is happy enough about the news, George is thrown into an immediate mid-life crisis; while he and Nina were once discussing the possibility of selling the family home and moving to a place on the beach, George impulsively sells their home to Mr. Habib (Eugene Levy), a greedy land speculator. Now, with ten days to move, George gets even more unexpected news: Nina, who had earlier been fretting about the onset of menopause, has just learned that she's pregnant as well. George now has to deal with being a father again as well as becoming a grandparent, while he also figures out how to get the Banks family home back. Martin Short returns as Franck, the oddly accented wedding planner from Father of the Bride, who has moved into a new career organizing baby showers and redecorating homes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, (more)
- 1993
- PG
- Add Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit to QueueAdd Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit to top of Queue
In the sequel to the hit comedy Sister Act, Whoopie Goldberg reprises her role of Deloris Van Cartier, a Las Vegas entertainer who hid out with in a convent of nuns to avoid a nasty bunch of gangsters. In Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Deloris is persuaded to return to the convent by the Mother Superior (Maggie Smith), because her help is needed in teaching their choral students at St. Francis High in San Francisco. However, St. Francis is in a crisis, since the administrator running the school (James Coburn) is threatening to shut the place down. If the gospel choir wins first place in a singing contest in Los Angeles, St. Francis will be saved from the priest's plans. Though the plot is rather thin and derivative, Sister Act 2 is lighthearted fun, thanks to good musical numbers and winning performances from the cast. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimy, (more)
Steve Martin stars in this remake of the 1950 Vincente Minnelli classic as shoe executive George Banks, whose happily married existence hits a bump when he greets his daughter Annie (Kimberly Williams), home from a semester studying in Europe. She tells her father that she is engaged to be married. When the shocked George asks to whom, she says his name is Bryan (George Newbern) and that he is an "independent communications consultant." George is even more shocked when he finds out what the wedding will cost (when George goes through the card file for invited wedding guests and is told someone is deceased, George chirps, "He died? That's great!"). As George is ignored during the mad preparations for the wedding, he wistfully looks back to all the good times he has had with Annie and sadly looks forward to the time when he loses his little girl. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, (more)
Businessman Larry Burrows (James Belushi) has a wife who ignores him, a screwball friend who won't leave him alone, and a car that continually breaks down. All that and more is enough to give him a mid-life crisis. After his car stalls once more, he enters a bar looking for help and encounters a bartender (Michael Caine) who shows him what his life would have been like, if he hadn't struck out in a baseball game back in high school. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Belushi, Michael Caine, (more)
- 1988
14 Going on 30 starts out like Candida and ends up like Back to the Future. 14-year-old Danny O'Neill (Gabey Olds), carrying a torch for his teacher, Peggy Noble (Daphne Ashbrook), can only suffer in silence as Peggy plans to marry brutish gym instructor "Jackjaw" Kelton (Rick Rossovich). With the help of his nerdy pal Lloyd's (Adam Carl) experimental growth accelerator, Danny becomes an overnight adult (now played by Steve Eckholdt). While in his 30-year-old state, Danny intends to expose Jackjaw as the jerk he is-only to end up in hot water himself. Loretta Swit, Patrick Duffy, Alan Thicke and Dick Van Patten guest-star in this made-for-TV movie, originally presented in two parts (March 6 and 13, 1988) on the Disney Sunday Movie anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Three Men and a Baby is an Americanized remake of the 1985 French comedy hit Three Men and a Cradle. Tom Selleck, Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg play three upwardly mobile New York bachelors who share an apartment. Their even-keel lifestyle is thrown out of whack when a young woman leaves a baby on their doorstep, suspecting that film director Danson is the father. The balance of the film is devoted to milking as much humor as possible out of the situation of three urbane young men trying to play nursemaid with nary a clue of what they're doing (at one point, a desperate Selleck offers Guttenberg a thousand dollars if Guttenberg will change a diaper). A subplot involving drug dealers is thrown in to sustain audience interest after our trio of heroes become accustomed to a baby around the apartment. "Urban legend" aficionados please note: That cardboard cutout of Ted Danson briefly glimpsed in one scene of Three Men and a Baby is not the ghost of a little boy who died in the bachelors' apartment before filming started. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, (more)
- 1987
This children's biopic offers a Disneyfied excerpt from the life of infamous Harry Houdini, who apparently ran away from home at age 12 to join a wandering medicine show so he could fulfill his dream of becoming a magician. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1986
- PG
Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas team up one last time in Tough Guys. Harry Doyle (Lancaster) and Archie Lang (Douglas) are two old-time train robbers, who held up a train in 1956 and have been incarcerated for thirty years. After serving their time, they are released from jail and have to adjust to a new life of freedom, now as old men. Harry and Archie realize that they still have the pizzazz when, picking up their prison checks at a bank, they foil a robbery attempt. Archie, who spent his prison time pumping himself up, easily picks up a 20-year-old aerobics instructor named Skye (Darlanne Fluegel). Harry, on the other hand, has to waste away his days in a nursing home. They both have festering resentments --Archie for having to endure a humiliating job as a busboy; Harry for having to endure patronizing attitudes toward senior citizens. The two old pals finally go back to what they know best. After successfully robbing an armored car, they decide to rob the same train that they robbed thirty years ago. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, (more)
- 1985
- R
A lesser "teens on the loose" farce, Breaking All the Rules is set in a Canadian amusement park. The main characters are park worker Carl Marotte and his pal Thor Bishopic, who fancy themselves God's gift to women. The boys manage to impress the impressionable Carolyn Dunn and Rachel Hayward, especially after winning a stuffed toy at one of the booths. Since there has to be a plot somewhere, the toy contains a valuable diamond, stolen by three humorless crooks. The ensuing chase whisks our protagonists into a break-dancing contest, where the storyline is resolved in laff-riot fashion. Though four writers are credited for the screenplay of Breaking All the Rules, one gets the impression that it was being improvised as it went along. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carl Marotte, Thor Bishopric, (more)
