Robert Zemeckis Movies
American director Robert Zemeckis studied filmmaking at Northern Illinois University, and then got his start with a job with the film editing department at WMAQ-TV, Chicago's NBC flagship station. After commercial work, Zemeckis and his friend and collaborator, Bob Gale, became assistants to Steven Spielberg. It was Spielberg who lined up Zemeckis' first directing job, the 1977 comedy/nostalgia blend I Wanna Hold Your Hand; despite the film's low budget, it demonstrated Zemeckis' ability to combine credible live-action sequences with elaborate special effects devices. Spielberg next had Zemeckis and Gale work on the screenplay of 1941 (1979), which, despite its disappointing box-office returns, convinced the young director that his protegés were valuable commodities.Working again under Spielberg's aegis, Zemeckis directed his first real financial success, Romancing the Stone (1981), a wild adventure yarn that somehow never lost sight of its sense of humor. The director then took on Back to the Future (1984) and its two sequels, once again proving that live actors could be combined with special effects to produce spectacular results. Zemeckis further proved this when, in collaboration with Spielberg and cartoon producer Richard Williams, he directed Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), a groundbreaking combination of cartoon animation and "real" action, which went on to become one of the decade's biggest moneymakers. By the early '90s, Zemeckis was recognized as a director of great technical skill but little personal viewpoint, something that changed with the 1994 release of Forrest Gump. Beyond its top-heavy special effects, the film was a distinctly human drama about a mildly retarded young man (Tom Hanks) who achieves professional and personal success by refusing to see anything but the good in people. Expected to be a moderately profitable feature, Forrest Gump amazed everyone by becoming the top moneyspinner of the summer of 1994 -- and one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. As an added bonus, it helped Zemeckis snag a Best Director Oscar, as well as several other awards.
He found further success, albeit moderate by comparison, with Contact, a 1997 film starring Jodie Foster as an astronomer seeking out extraterrestrial life forms. The 1990s also found the frequent director becoming much more active as a producer, and in addition to producing many of his own films Zemeckis also backed future Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson on his first stateside feature The Frighteners. As he continued to produce such William Castle remakes as The House on Haunted Hill and Thir13en Ghosts, Zemeckis prepaired to shoot his next feature, a film that once again found him teaming with Forrest Gump star Hanks. A memorable adventure drama concerning a dedicated FedEx executive's struggle for survival after enduring a horrific plane crash and becoming stranded on a deserted island, the filming of Cast Away was halted halfway through so that star Hanks could physically transform himself for the demanding role - and in the meantime Zemeckis took the helm for the Harrison Ford/Michelle Pheiffer fright fest What Lies Beneath. In the end both films performed fairly well at the box office, even if Cast Away had recieved a somewhat negative reaction by many due to its meditative pacing and open ended coda. By the time The Polar Express hit theaters it had been nearly four years since Zemeckis had invaded the multiplexes. A holiday hit featuring vocal contributions by Tom Hanks and Daryl Sabara, The Polar Express thrilled families in both traditional theaters and as an IMAX 3D release, and took in an impressive pull at the domestic box office.
His credits as a producer steadily grew as he played an instrumental part in bringing such diverse efforts as House of Wax and The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio to the screen, Zemeckis continued his efforts to provide fun frights for viewers of all ages by serving as executive producer of both the kid-friendly, computer animated haunted house flick Monster House, and producer to the apocalyptic Hilary Swank starer The Reaping. Back in the director's chair, Zemeckis would be putting the finishing touches on the Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery-scripted adventure fantasy Beowulf - an Eighth Century tale of good versus evil inspired by the popular Old English poem of the same name.
He had a huge hit in 2009 with the Jim Carrey starring motion-capture version of A Christmas Carol, however audiences rejected Mars Needs Moms, an animated film he helped produce. He returned to live-action actors with 2012's drama Flight, and followed that up with a remake of The Beatles Yellow Submarine.
~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Ridley Scott directs the crime comedy Matchstick Men, based on the novel of the same name by Eric Garcia. Neurotic con man Roy (Nicolas Cage) suffers from several emotional problems, including obsessive-compulsive disorder. He and his partner Frank (Sam Rockwell) swindle people out of money by posing as money collectors who promise things like tax refunds, package vacations, and other fabulous prizes (which they never get). Frank wants to pull a really big job, but Roy is too consumed with fear and panic attacks to join him. Only cigarettes and his trusty illegal prescription drugs seem to keep him going. When Roy finds himself in desperate need of more pills, he is forced to see legitimate psychotherapist Dr. Klein (Bruce Altman). Roy ends up talking about his emotional damage from a troubled marriage and divorce, which results in the discovery of a child whom he has never met. Dr. Klein suggests that he spend a weekend with the kid, so in walks teenaged Angela (played by twentysomething Alison Lohman). Reluctant to develop his role as a father, Roy also gets heavily involved in Frank's ambitious swindle. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, (more)
A suburban home has become physically animated by a vengeful human soul looking to stir up trouble from beyond the grave, and it's up to three adventurous kids from the neighborhood to do battle with the structural golem in this comically frightful tale, directed by Gil Kenan and featuring the voices of Steve Buscemi, Nick Cannon, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Kevin James. DJ Harvard (voice of Mitchel Musso) lives directly across the street from a most unusual house. A malevolent entity that longs to feed on the energy of the living, the once peaceful house that looms ominously outside of DJ's bedroom window would like nothing more than the chance to feast on the children of the neighborhood. As Halloween begins to draw near and the children of the neighborhood prepare for another long night of trick-or-treating, it appears as if it may be the house that is in for the biggest treat of all. Now, with the adults turning a deaf ear to DJ's strange findings, it's up to the brave young boy and his faithful friends Chowder (voice of Sam Lerner) and Jenny (Spencer Locke) to break through the barrier of the supernatural and defeat the powers of darkness before the house grows too powerful to fight. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Steve Buscemi, Nick Cannon, (more)
A retired pugilist transitions to the business side of the ropes after human boxers are replaced by robotic ones in director Shawn Levy's feature-length adaptation of the Twilight Zone episode "Steel." Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) was a true contender when the sport of boxing was changed forever. Now, instead of humans duking it out for the masses, huge, powerful steel robots trade blows in the ring. As a result, former gladiator Charlie has been forced into the role of two-bit promoter, piecing together cut-rate fighting bots from scrap metal as he makes the rounds on the underground boxing circuit. Just when it seems that Charlie has sunken to the nadir of his career, his estranged 11 year old son, Max (Dakota Goyo), offers him the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at a comeback by constructing and training a true champion. Now the stakes are higher than ever before, and Charlie is about to get a second chance at leaving an indelible mark on the sport he once dedicated his life to. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, (more)
An unemployed New York doctor with a suspended license and few prospects for the future travels to Jamaica to care for the ailing brother of a wealthy landowner, only to make a horrifying discovery regarding the ailing man in director Avi Nesher's contemporary re-imagining of Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie. Dr. Alice Dodgson (Jennifer Grey) is an open-minded oncologist whose experiments with an unapproved drug have just cost her patient his life and found her license to practice medicine promptly revoked. Subsequently summoned to Jamaica by affluent American Paul Claybourne (Craig Sheffer), Dr. Dodgson is assigned the duty of caring for Claybourne's cancer-stricken brother, Wesley (Daniel Lapaine). Though Dr. Dodgson at first dismisses the local tales of zombies and possession as mere superstition while she cares for the increasingly despondent Wesley, her growing feelings for her patient soon bring her to the realization that Wesley is not suffering from cancer after all, but the powerful curse of a local witch doctor. Now, in order to save the man that she has come to love, Dr. Dodgson must uncover the secret behind the potentially fatal curse while facing off against a vicious voodoo queen with the power to destroy anyone and anything in her path. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jennifer Grey, Craig Sheffer, (more)
Kathleen Turner plays a writer of adventure stories, Joan Wilder, who has been having trouble selling her works of late because they aren't remotely believable. The basic problem is that the mousy Joan has never had any real adventure in her life. All this changes when she receives a frantic phone call from her sister, whose is being held prisoner by evil art dealers in Colombia. It seems that sis has mailed Joan a map leading to a valuable treasure. Nasty but cowardly Ralph (Danny DeVito), cousin of the principal villain (Zack Norman), has been assigned to claim the map from Joan. But upon arriving in Colombia, Joan and Ralph learn that others of a more homicidal bent are also after the map. Joan is rescued by soldier of fortune Jack Colton (Michael Douglas), who isn't quite clear about his stake in the proceedings. Jack and Joan undergo several perilous adventures in the wilds of Colombia. The treasure turns out to be a valuable jewel, which changes hands (one of them severed!) many times before it is swallowed by an alligator. Joan manages to break free from her pursuers, but Jack is presumed dead. Jack returns at the end of the film in Manhattan to surprise Joan. The sequel to Romancing the Stone was 1985's The Jewel of the Nile. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, (more)
- 2013
Teenage criminal Colton Harris-Moore is the subject of this 20th Century Fox production from director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. Dubbed "The Barefoot Bandit," Moore was infamous for multiple counts of stealing aircrafts as well as numerous thefts of upscale residents all while evading law enforcement officers. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
- 1996
- R
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In this satirical horror-comedy, a gumshoe investigates a combination TV ministry/whorehouse/vampire infestation. After bounty hunter Vincent (Phil Fondacaro) unearths the remains of Lilith, queen of the vampires, he restores the alluring creature to life and lords over her using a magical talisman. Later, rowdy youngster Caleb Verdoux (Corey Feldman) convinces one of his dim-witted buddies to accompany him to a combination mortuary/house of ill repute where both young men fall prey to Lilith's charms. Rather than merely drinking her victims' blood, this vampire has a tendency to rip out their hearts with her projectile tongue. Caleb's sister, Katherine (Erika Eleniak), who works for a large televangelism operation run by the shady Reverend Current (Chris Sarandon), hires private dick Rafe Guttman (Dennis Miller) to track down the errant Caleb. Rafe's wise-guy antics soon get him in trouble with Lilith and the law, but not before he uncovers the ties between Lilith's organization and Current's ministry; it seems Vincent, and therefore Lilith, are working for the reverend. Soon, Rafe finds himself in the boudoir of Lilith's bordello, armed with a holy-water squirt gun and fighting to save Erika from the glamorous but deadly vampire. Like Tales From the Crypt Presents Demon Knight, the previous film spin-off from HBO's EC Comics-inspired Tales From the Crypt series, Bordello of Blood features interludes hosted by the puppet skeleton known as the Crypt Keeper (voice of John Kassir). Director Gilbert Adler, who previously helmed Demon Knight, would go on to produce 13 Ghosts and The House on Haunted Hill. Whoopi Goldberg makes an uncredited cameo as a hospital patient. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dennis Miller, Erika Eleniak, (more)
- 1989
It isn't often that a popular TV series is inspired by a literary property that all but destroyed a particular industry, but such was the case with the weekly, half-hour horror anthology Tales From the Crypt. Most of the episodes depicted herein were based on stories originally published in the EC comic book series Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Shock Superstories in the 1950s. In these grim little morality plays, a number of nasty characters deservedly met grisly fates appropriate to their misdeeds. Examples included the compulsive neat freak who is cut up into little pieces and then tidily repackaged into carefully labeled mason jars, or the homicidal baseball player whose bloody body parts are used as bats, balls, and bases in a grim nocturnal ball game played by the vengeful teammates of his last victim. It was this sort of merry mayhem that brought down the wrath of professional do-gooders (such as the infamous Dr. Frederick Wertham) and their political co-conspirators, who demanded that the comic book industry immediately purge itself of all horror magazines -- and never mind these were among the best written and illustrated comics in the business.
At any rate, the old EC comics had become classics by the time Tales From the Crypt made its HBO debut on June 10, 1989. The series, like the comic books that inspired it, was hosted by the ghoulish "Cryptkeeper," seen here as a skeletal animatronic puppet whose voice was provided by actor John Kassir. Cracking delightfully gruesome jokes all the while, The Cryptkeeper introduced each episode, and showed up at the denouement to make a few additional creepy comments. In keeping with the standards set by the comics, the individual episodes dealt primarily with unpleasant people who were given their just desserts in an even more unpleasant fashion, usually with supernatural assistance. Several top filmmakers contributed their directorial talents to Tales from the Crypt, among them Robert Zemeckis, Walter Hill, Steven E. de Souza, John Frankenheimer, Elliot Silverstein, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Hanks. The casts were equally impressive, boasting the likes of Joe Pantoliano, Amanda Plummer, Kirk Douglas, Miguel Ferrer, Teri Hatcher, Harry Anderson, Teri Garr, Beau Bridges, Christopher Reeve, Mimi Rogers, Martin Sheen, Shelley Hack, Natasha Richardson, and Ewan McGregor. The seven seasons of Tales from the Crypt, totalling 93 episodes, aired first in uncut, uncensored form on HBO, then were rebroadcast with a few judicious trims and expurgations here and there by the Fox Network. The last first-run episode was telecast July 19, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
At any rate, the old EC comics had become classics by the time Tales From the Crypt made its HBO debut on June 10, 1989. The series, like the comic books that inspired it, was hosted by the ghoulish "Cryptkeeper," seen here as a skeletal animatronic puppet whose voice was provided by actor John Kassir. Cracking delightfully gruesome jokes all the while, The Cryptkeeper introduced each episode, and showed up at the denouement to make a few additional creepy comments. In keeping with the standards set by the comics, the individual episodes dealt primarily with unpleasant people who were given their just desserts in an even more unpleasant fashion, usually with supernatural assistance. Several top filmmakers contributed their directorial talents to Tales from the Crypt, among them Robert Zemeckis, Walter Hill, Steven E. de Souza, John Frankenheimer, Elliot Silverstein, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Hanks. The casts were equally impressive, boasting the likes of Joe Pantoliano, Amanda Plummer, Kirk Douglas, Miguel Ferrer, Teri Hatcher, Harry Anderson, Teri Garr, Beau Bridges, Christopher Reeve, Mimi Rogers, Martin Sheen, Shelley Hack, Natasha Richardson, and Ewan McGregor. The seven seasons of Tales from the Crypt, totalling 93 episodes, aired first in uncut, uncensored form on HBO, then were rebroadcast with a few judicious trims and expurgations here and there by the Fox Network. The last first-run episode was telecast July 19, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1989
Robert Zemeckis' "And All Through the House" is about a psychotic Santa Claus (Larry Drake) who has just escaped from an insane asylum and comes knocking at the door of a woman (Mary Ellen Trainor), who's fresh from killing her husband for greedy reasons. The episode is a remake of one of the segments of the 1972 Tales from the Crypt feature directed by Freddie Francis and starring Joan Collins. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
- Starring:
- Larry Drake, Mary Ellen Trainor, (more)
Charlatan Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) has genuine psychic powers, but he doesn't use them to help people. Rather, he generates cases for his supernatural private-eye firm by harassing a group of hapless ghosts (including a dearly departed Wild West outlaw and an undead judge played by John Astin) into staging hauntings and poltergeists in the homes of likely marks. Bannister's world turns on its head when he starts noticing real hauntings around town -- ghostly assassinations that seem to be tied to the execution 20 years earlier of a brutal serial killer. Lucy Lunskey (Trini Alvarado), the wife of one unlucky victim, teams up with Bannister to get to the bottom of the killings and find out what shut-in Patricia Bradley (Dee Wallace Stone) and her witchy mother (Julia McCarthy) have to do with the sinister spree. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, (more)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on children's author Chris Van Allsburg's modern holiday classic of the same name, The Polar Express revolves around Billy (Hayden McFarland), who longs to believe in Santa Claus but finds it quite difficult to do so, what with his family's dogged insistence that all of it, from the North Pole, to the elves, to the man himself, is all just a myth. This all changes, however, on Christmas Eve, when a mysterious train visits Billy in the middle of the night, promising to take him and a group of other lucky children to the North Pole for a visit with Santa. The train's conductor (Tom Hanks) along with the other passengers help turn Billy's crisis in faith into a journey of self-discovery. A long-time fan of Van Allsburg's book, Hanks also helped produce the film. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Hanks
- 2005
- PG13
- Add The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio to Queue Add The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio to top of Queue
The true story of one woman's effort to keep her family afloat under difficult circumstances comes to the screen in this bittersweet comedy drama. Evelyn Ryan (Julianne Moore) was a woman of intelligence, talent, and pluck living in the small town of Defiance, OH, in the 1950s. Evelyn was married to Kelly Ryan (Woody Harrelson), a man who gave her ten children but not much else; Kelly had a severe drinking problem, struggled to hold on to a job, and tended to spend his money as soon as he earned it. It was seemingly up to Evelyn to support the family, but with ten kids to look after, taking a job outside the home hardly seemed practical. But the resourceful Evelyn discovered a way to bring some extra money into the household -- at a time when a number of companies held contests to find new advertising jingles for their products, Evelyn had a genius for coming up with slogans and winning contests, and for the better part of a decade Evelyn kept food on the table and a roof over her head by dreaming up jingles, tag lines, and ad headlines and winning contests with her handiwork, often selling the merchandise she won to pay the bills. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio was based on the best-selling memoir by Terry Ryan, who was the sixth of Evelyn Ryan's ten kids. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, (more)
- 1992
- R
Howard Franklin wrote and directed this film noir character study based on the famed New York Daily News photographer Weegee. Joe Pesci plays a character named Bernstein, a freelance photographer for the New York City tabloids of the 1940s. His life is dedicated to his work; with a police radio under the dashboard of his car and a darkroom in his trunk, he quickly and efficiently races to the scene of crimes, accidents and murders to snap photographs of gangsters, politicians, cops, and prostitutes, which he promptly delivers to the newspapers. His knack for arriving at a crime scene before the police earns him the nickname the Great Bernzini. The trouble begins for Bernstein when he agrees to look up a gangster for Kay (Barbara Hershey), the sexy owner of a fancy Manhattan nightclub. After making inquiries, Bernstein traces the man Kay is looking for, but he turns up dead. When he informs the police, he becomes a suspect in the murder; it also turns out that the FBI is interested the case. Bernstein then uncovers an elaborate conspiracy concerning gas rationing, the mob, and the government. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joe Pesci, Barbara Hershey, (more)
Her faith shaken by a family tragedy from which she was never quite able to fully recover, a professor of theology from Louisiana State University moonlighting as a debunker of unexplained religious phenomena finds herself faced with an apocalyptic series of events that seem to reflect the ten plagues of Exodus in director Stephen Hopkins' Southern gothic chiller. The terrified citizens of Haven, LA, have been beset by swarms of locusts and watched as rivers turned to blood. As if that wasn't enough to put the fear of God into any Bible-reading Christian, ominous rumors of a local swamp cult have left many of the small-town citizens turning to prayer for fear that the end is finally nigh. Enter Katherine Winter (Hilary Swank), a skeptical myth-buster and renowned theology scholar with a special knack for spotting religious trickery. Though at first exceedingly confident that she will uncover a human component behind the otherworldly occurrences, Katherine quickly learns that just because one doesn't believe in the supernatural doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't exist. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hilary Swank, David Morrissey, (more)
A crime fighter created in the 1930s and popularized in movies, pulp novels, and a radio show starring a young Orson Welles, The Shadow came back to life in 1994 in this slick, well-cast production. Alec Baldwin stars as Lamont Cranston, a murderous opium dealer reformed by a Tibetan mystic, who teaches him how to use his keen mental powers to manipulate others. As penance for his past misdeeds, Cranston masquerades as a degenerate New York City playboy by day and secretly plays the heroic Shadow by night, staving off evildoers with a network of agents and a cab-driving sidekick (Peter Boyle). A greater challenge arrives when Cranston must fight Shiwan Khan (John Lone), the final descendent of Genghis Khan, who has received training from the same Tibetan master who instructed Cranston. Shiwan plans to use atomic weapons to take over New York and then the world. At the same time, Cranston meets socialite Margo Lane (Penelope Ann Miller), and, although he's instantly enamored of her, he discovers that her psychic abilities render his secret identity vulnerable. The Shadow was directed by former music video creator Russell Mulcahy, whose feature film debut Highlander (1986) was a cult classic. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alec Baldwin, John Lone, (more)
Maverick director Walter Hill, who had a big hit with 48 Hrs., indulges his customary yen for violent and disturbing scenes in this overlooked action film, which was also released under the name Looters. Set in the economically-depressed town of East St. Louis, IL, the film's release was delayed several months because its riot scenes were too similar to those that actually took place in the summer of 1992 in L.A. Bill Paxton plays Vince and Bill Sadler plays Don. They are a couple of good-old-boy firefighters who are tipped off that some stolen gold treasures have been hidden in an old warehouse. They find and enter the building but witness a brutal murder. The gangland killing is part of a turf battle between two rival drug lords. When one of them finds out that the firemen have seen the execution, he orders the witnesses murdered. But they have found the treasure and have kidnapped one gang leader's brother. An elaborate and violent series of skirmishes and chases ensue. Rapper-actors Ice-T and Ice Cube have roles as leading gang members. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bill Paxton, Ice-T, (more)
Used Cars is one of Robert Zemeckis' pre-Roger Rabbit and pre-Forrest Gump efforts starring Kurt Russell is a devious car salesman who goes to work for affable but monumentally unsuccessful used car dealer Jack Warden. Warden's principal rival is his more prosperous twin brother, also played by Warden, who schemes to take over the "good" brother's lot. After a series of raunchy vignettes, the film boils down to an every-man-for-himself price war between the two Wardens, which rages on even after we're one Warden short. The supporting cast of Used Cars is populated by such reliables as David L. Lander, Michael McKean, Al Lewis, Dub Taylor, Dick Miller and Betty Thomas. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kurt Russell, Jack Warden, (more)
In this supernatural thriller, a woman believes that a visitor from another dimension is trying to guide her into a sinister mystery. Feeling lonely after her daughter leaves home for college, Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer) begins to sense that something is wrong in her house, and feels a spirit is trying to contact her. At first her husband Norman (Harrison Ford), a scientist doing research in genetics, attributes her paranormal beliefs to stress or possibly a nervous breakdown, and sends her to a psychiatrist (Joe Morton) who puts no more stock in Claire's stories than does Norman. While Claire's contention that someone or something sinister is afoot leads her down a number of blind alleys, in time she becomes convinced that the mysterious happenings at her home are somehow connected to the disappearance of a woman who was a student at the nearby college -- and bore a striking resemblance to Claire. What Lies Beneath marked the debut of screenwriter Clark Gregg, whose script is based on a story by himself and Sarah Kernochan; the supporting cast includes Diana Scarwid as Claire's best friend Jody, and James Remar and Miranda Otto as a contentious couple living next door. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer, (more)
In Robert Zemeckis's trailblazing combination of animation and live-action, Hollywood's 1940s cartoon stars are a subjugated minority, living in the ghettolike "Toontown" where their movements are sharply monitored by the human power establishment. The Toons are permitted to perform in a Cotton Club-style nightspot but are forbidden to patronize the joint. One of Toontown's leading citizens, whacked-out Roger Rabbit, is framed for the murder of human nightclub owner Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye). Private detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), whose prejudice against Toons stems from the time that his brother was killed by a falling cartoon piano, reluctantly agrees to clear Roger of the accusation. Most of the sociopolitical undertones of the original novel were weeded out out of the 1988 film version, with emphasis shifted to its basic "evil land developer" plotline --and, more enjoyably, to a stream of eye-popping special effects. With the combined facilities of animator Richard Williams, Disney, Warner Bros., Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic, the film allows us to believe (at least for 90 minutes) that "toons" exist, and that they are capable of interacting with 3-dimensional human beings. Virtually every major cartoon character of the late 1940s shows up, with the exceptions of Felix the Cat and Popeye the Sailor, whose licensees couldn't come to terms with the producers. Of the film's newly minted Toons, the most memorable is Roger Rabbit's curvaceous bride Jessica (voiced, uncredited, by Kathleen Turner). The human element is well-represented by Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, and Joanna Cassidy; also watch for action-film producer Joel Silver as Roger Rabbit's Tex Avery-style director. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, (more)
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