Robert Weiss Movies

Comedy writers David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams of Airplane and The Naked Gun fame got their start at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, when they formed a theatrical group known as The Kentucky Fried Theater. The Kentucky Fried Movie is based on the KFT's gag-filled theatrical skits. Including well-known stars such as Bill Bixby, Donald Sutherland, Tony Dow, George Lazenby and Henry Gibson, the film has over 22 different segments of varying lengths. Some are seconds long. Longer segments include such highlights as: "Zinc Oxide," which spoofs school educational films; "Cleopatra Schwartz," a spoof of female blaxploitation action films, whose heroine is married to a rabbi; "Sex Record," which depicts a couple who are attempting to follow the step-by-step instructions of a how-to-do-it record; "Catholic High School Girls In Trouble," and "A Fistful of Yen," (the longest episode), which is an elaborate spoof of martial-arts films. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A college professor (Dan Aykroyd is forced to go undercover as a Chicago pimp disguised by a bushy wig -- the height of hairlarity in this anemic comedy. When Smooth Walker (Howard Hesseman) is hunted by his gangster rival, Mom (Kate Murtagh), he foists his bevy of hookers on the professor -- and then ends up dead. Among the four hookers who are suddenly in his undercover life are Fran Drescher in an early role as an archetypal Jewish princess, and Donna Dixon as another of the high-class call-girls (Dixon and Aykroyd were later married). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The 1987 portmanteau comedy feature Amazon Women on the Moon lampoons several film genres in general and the 1954 sci-fi cheapie Cat Women of the Moon in particular. Other sketches in Amazon Women include an opening bit with Arsenio Hall; a vignette titled "Son of the Invisible Man" wherein a naked Ed Begley Jr. runs around in full view of the nonplussed supporting cast; the It's Alive parody "Hospital", which offers the spectacle of Michelle Pfeiffer giving birth to Mr. Potato Head; and a Siskel & Ebert takeoff, featuring Arche Hahn as a TV viewer whose entire life is given a "thumbs down." Directed by several hands, including Joe Dante, Carl Gottleib, Peter Horton, John Landis, and Robert K. Weiss, Amazon Women on the Moon also features a satire of the Kroger G. Babb school of "sex hygiene" exploitation cheapies, with syphilis victim Carrie Fisher being counseled by unctuous doctor Paul Bartel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dan Aykroyd must have practiced for months to perfect his Jack Webb inflections for Dragnet. Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz's directorial debut (also written by Mankiewicz, along with Aykroyd, and Alan Zweibel) is a gentle spoof of the legendary '50s television police drama -- pitting '50s conservatism smack up against the attitudes of the '80s. Basically, the film is another 48 Hours or Beverly Hills Cop clone. Aykroyd stars as Joe Friday, the nephew of the original Friday. But with his brown suit, fedora, and lockjaw, he could just as well be the incarnation of Jack Webb. He is involuntarily assigned a smart alecky, street-wise partner, Pep Streebeck (Tom Hanks), and they are appointed to investigate a series of religious cult murders in L.A. The two cops follow the trail to a phony televangelist, the Reverend Jonathan Whirley (Christopher Plummer). From there, they are only at step away from uncovering an Orange County-based religious cult calling itself P.A.G.A.N. (People Against Goodness and Normalcy). After sneaking into a secret ceremony, Friday falls in love with the sacrificial victim Connie Swail (Alexandra Paul). So much so that even after his superior Captain Gannon (Harry Morgan, reprising his role from the '60s revival of the Dragnet program) orders him off the case, Friday continues on, with the requisite car chases and crashes that usually climax any '80s cop movie or comedy. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

UHF is the film debut of comedy-rock satirist Weird Al Yankovic, who also co-wrote the screenplay. George Newman (Yankovic) and his friend, Bob (David Bowe from The Cable Guy), are fired from their jobs at Burger World. So George decides to take over channel 62, a failing local TV station that his Uncle Harvey (Stanley Brock) won in a poker game. George turns it around into an overnight success after letting the janitor, Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards from Seinfeld), host a kid's show. George then fills the broadcast day with bizarre programming, bringing the ratings up and saving the station. Soon, rival station CEO R.J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy) of channel 8 threatens to sabotage the successful station and George must come up with a way to save it. Only loosely constructed around this story line, UHF is mostly a series of TV, movie, and music parodies strung together and played for cheap laughs. UHF also stars Victoria Jackson, Emo Philips, and Fran Drescher. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Leslie Nielsen returns as the intrepid (and accident-prone) Lt. Frank Drebin in Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, "un film de David Zucker." This second feature film from the "Police Squad!" series finds Drebin as a guest at a White House dinner, receiving an award for shooting his 1,000th drug dealer, although he admits to shooting only 998 -- he ran over the last two in his car. ("Luckily, they turned out to be drug dealers"). Also at the White House dinner is energy czar Dr. Albert S. Meinheimer (Richard Griffiths), whom President George Bush (John Roarke) has chosen to start a new national energy policy. Since Meinheimer believes in promoting alternative energy resources, the evil leaders of the polluting energy industries (coal, oil, and nuclear power--or the lobby groups SMOKE, SPILL and KABOOM) are horrified at Bush's choice. Joining together with arch-villain Quentin Hapsburg (Robert Goulet), they plan to kidnap the real Meinheimer and substitute a fake Meinheimer in his place who will enact energy policy according to the dictates of the energy lobby. Drebin becomes deeply involved in the conspiracy when he runs into his ex-girl friend Jane (Priscilla Presley), who is not only Meinheimer's public relations director but also Hapsburg's current paramour. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The further misadventures of bumbling Los Angeles police Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) are chronicled in this third installment in the popular Naked Gun comedy series. This by-the-numbers entry begins with Drebin as a happily retired house-husband called back into action when an evil terrorist organization threatens Los Angeles. As in the other Naked Gun films, this plot is merely an excuse for an unhinged, rapid-fire succession of gags, ranging from satirical lampoons of cop movies to broad slapstick, all played with a perfectly straight face. Nielsen provides his familiar combination of complete witlessness and oblivious dignity as Drebin, and the film attempts to match the earlier Naked Gun films -- and the Police Squad! television series that inspired them -- in the number of jokes. However, the film proved less successful than its predecessors, as some viewers found that the freewheeling comic style of the earlier films had solidified into its own formula, now mildly entertaining but disappointingly predictable. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

First seen over the Fox network on March 22, 1995, the weekly, hour-long Sliders was a sci-fi-fantasy opus about a group of people who visited bizarre parallel worlds by means of a device that could open wormholes in the universe. Jerry O'Connell starred as Quinn Mallory, the San Francisco-based college student who invented the device, a timing mechanism that resembled an ordinary TV remote. Together with his physics professor Maximillian P. Arturo (John Rhys-Davies), his computer-store co-worker Wade Wells (Sabrina Lloyd) and washed-up soul singer Rembrandt "Crying Man" Brown (Cleavant Derricks), Quinn continually popped up in infinite alternate versions of San Francisco, some only subtly different than the world the travelers were familiar with, others radically changed. In one episode, Frisco was a Communist city; in another, the town was in the throes of the Ice Ace; in still another, the city is a tributary of "the country of Texas"; and in yet still another, dinosaurs roam throughout the city's streets and hills. In these other worlds Elvis still lived, the British had won the Revolutionary War, psychics and hippies controlled the government, and Rembrandt Brown was still the biggest singing star on Earth. In each episode, it fell to the four protagonists -- the sliders -- to right various wrongs in these crazy-quilt worlds, and to find a way to return to their own San Francisco. Beginning with the series' third season, the sliders moved beyond San Francisco and visited alternate worlds all over the Earth and the rest of the universe. In the course of their journeys they picked up another slider from another world, Maggie Beckett (Kari Wuhrer). The series ended its Fox run on August 8, 1997, with Professor Arturo being killed and Wade disappearing from view. Beginning June 8, 1998, Sliders was picked up by cable's Sci Fi Channel, with Jerry O'Connell, Cleavant Derricks, and Kari Wuhrer still in the cast. It was explained that Quinn's home Earth had been overrun by a race of warrior sliders called the Kromagg, who had conquered the planet and shipped Wade off to a breeding farm. It also turned out that Quinn's own parents had been sliders from another world, and that he'd been implanted with a micro-dot which would not only enable him to find a super-weapon with which he could destroy the Kromagg, but also locate his long-lost brother Colin (Charlie O'Connell) -- who, when found, became the newest member of the sliders' team. At the outset of the series' final season, both of the Mallory brothers perished in a bad slide, but Quinn's "life essences" were manifested into another slider (played by Robert Floyd), who was immediately re-christened Quinn Two. Ultimately, Quinn Two linked up with Rembrandt, Maggie, and another new slider, a scientist named Diana Davis (Tembe Locke). The last episode of Sliders -- which rather perversely brought the whole saga full-circle -- was originally aired on February 4, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Handsome, smooth-talking Al Donnelly (Tim Matheson) has everything going for him. A politician, he is engaged in a heated gubernatorial race with the feisty Governor Tracy (Christine Ebersole), a tough old bird who doesn't hesitate to play hardball with opponents. Unfortunately for her, things are looking good for Donnelly. Fortunately she finds his Achilles' heel with his young brother Mike Donnelly (Saturday Night Live alumnus Chris Farley), a fat slob gym teacher and hopeless imbecile who only wants to win his more successful sibling's respect. Unfortunately all he does is embarrass poor Al to death. In desperation, Al assigns the sardonic and prissy Steve Dodds (David Spade) to keep Mike under constant surveillance. The real trouble begins when Tracy's aids try to frame hapless Mike for arson. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

During the first two seasons of the Fox series Sliders, college student Quinn Mallory (Jerry O'Connell) and his companions Prof. Arturo (John Rhys-Davies), Wade (Sabrina Lloyd) and Rembrandt (Cleavant Derricks) have used the time-sliding device created by Quinn to pop up in various alternate versions of contemporary San Francisco, all the while endeavoring to return to their own world. Beginning with season three, the sliding device has been modified so that the foursome will be able to emerge in countries and worlds other than San Francisco -- meaning, in many cases, alternate editions of the universe. The two-part episode "The Exodus" introduces Kari Wuhrer as Captain Maggie Beckett, a slider from another world whose husband has been killed by the sinister Col. Angus Rickman (played variously by Roger Daltrey and Neil Dickson), who has been hopping through time and space to drain the intelligences of innocent victims in order to save his own diseased brain. Joining Maggie in her pursuit of the elusive Col. Rickman, Professor Arturo dies at the villain's hands. The season finale finds Maggie, Quinn, Wade, and Rembrandt finally reaching "their" world and cornering Rickman, who perishes by diving off a cliff. As the timing device's vortex begins to close, Quinn and Maggie manage to escape -- but are thrust far into the future, and to yet another alternate world. It sure looks like the end for Sliders, and indeed it is so far as the series' Fox network run is concerned. But it will not be long before the series returns with new episodes on the cable's Sci Fi Channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After completing a three-year run on the Fox network, the sci-fi series Sliders appropriately resurfaced on cable's Sci-Fi Channel for an additional two seasons. When last we saw Quinn Mallory (Jerry O'Connell) and Maggie Beckett (Kari Wuhrer), the two sliders who had used Quinn's timing mechanism to travel to alternate worlds and universes throughout the time-space continuum, they had been hurtled centuries into the future. As the series' fourth season begins, Maggie and Quinn have reached his home earth, now in the thrall of the Kromaggs, a fascistic race of warrior sliders. As for the other former series regulars, prof. Arturo was killed near the end of season three, and Wade Wells has been shipped off to a Kromagg breeding camp; only Rembrandt Brown (Cleavant Derricks) is able to link up with Quinn and Maggie. Before long, Quinn discovers that his own parents had been sliders from a different world, and that he has been implanted with a microdot that will enable him to locate a powerful weapon capable of wiping out the Kromagg. As icing on the cake, this microdot will also ultimately reunite Quinn with his long-lost brother, Colin (Charlie O'Connell), who upon being rescued joins sliders Quinn, Maggie, and Cleavant in their quest to topple the Kromagg and save their world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally seen on cable's Sci Fi Channel, the fifth and final season of Sliders continues the efforts by a group of time-and-space travelers to hopscotch from one alternate world to another, with the ultimate goal of saving their world (which of course is also our world) from the despotic reign of the warrior Kromagg race. In the course of events, the series loses its original leading man: Quinn Mallory, the college student who'd invented the device that enabled him and his companions to "slide" from world to world, is lost during a "bad slide," and at the same time his brother Colin is blown to smithereens. Though we may never see Colin again in this world, Quinn's life essences are transferred to another slider who is immediately rechristened Quinn Two -- a mighty slick method to replace departing cast member Jerry O'Connell with newcomer Robert Floyd. As for Quinn Two's sliding comrades, only Cleavant Derricks as Rembrandt Brown remains from the series' original cast; the other slider, Maggie Beckett (Kari Wuhrer), has been with the series since its third season. In addition to Quinn Two, Rembrandt, and Maggie, the slider team now boasts the services of African-American scientist Diana Davis (Tembe Locke). At the conclusion of the series, the team ends up on yet another alternate earth, where "slideology" has become a religion thanks to a prophet called The Seer, and the sliders' exploits have been dramatized on a cable TV show. (What was that old saying, "life imitates art?") Now it is up to our heroes to take this Earth's miraculous "anti-alien" virus to Rembrandt's Earth in order to squash the Kromagg -- but as so often happens on Sliders, things go awry, and the whole cycle starts all over again! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide