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Marie Cheatham
- 1988
- PG
This direct to video, youth-oriented comedy is about Chuck (Tate Donovan) and Wally (Grant Heslov), friends in their senior year at college. Graduation is fast approaching. A wealthy industrialist (Robert Stack) offfers them jobs after graduation if they'll do him a favor and deliver a car to the his daughter in Lake Tahoe. The car, a red Porsche, gets stolen for use as the prize in a beauty pageant. The lads wind up in San Diego attempting to recover the car and their preserve their future careers. Their efforts are complicated when they become involved with the pageant contestants, exposing them to undreamed-of oceans of feminine pulchritude. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tate Donovan, Danielle von Zerneck, (more)
Diane Keaton directed and starred in this comedy/drama about a family brought together by potential tragedy. In her mid-40s, Eve (Meg Ryan) minds her house, runs a business organizing parties and events for others, and looks after her father (Walter Matthau), an alcoholic former writer who has grown argumentative and increasingly difficult to handle. Eve's sisters -- Georgia (Keaton), who is a few years older and the editor of a successful fashion magazine, and Maddy (Lisa Kudrow), a few years younger and a working actress with a spot on a soap opera -- have also had to deal with Dad, but only by long distance when he makes one of his frequent telephone calls. Dad now doesn't have long to live, and the siblings must pull together and make peace with their father and each other. Sisters Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron adapted the screenplay from Delia's novel; the supporting cast includes Adam Arkin, Cloris Leachman, and Mary Steenburgen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, (more)
- 1987
A band of gorgeous models has turned crooked, using their sexual wiles--and a powerful "knockout" drug--to rob gullible men of their valuables. When one of the girls' victims turns up dead, Hunter (Fred Dryer) swings into action. Meanwhile, McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) goes undercover as a model--only to end up as a hostage thanks to the effusive stupidity of street hustler Sporty James (Garrett Morris. Yes, that's a pre-ER George Clooney in the role of Matthew Adler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A couple's worst nightmare becomes a reality as they find themselves behind bars with their children are taken away from them in this made-for-TV drama, inspired by a true story. Brenda and Scott Kniffen (Viginia Madsen and Jeffrey Nordling) are asked by friends to testify as character witnesses at a child custody hearing. After The Kniffens take the stand, a relation of their friends, who was upset by the testimony, tells authorities that Brenda and Scott are guilty of beating their young sons, molesting them sexually, and taking pornographic photographs of them. While there is no truth to the accusations, a prosecutor determined to prove he's tough on child abuse takes on the case, and his staff badgers Brandon Kniffen (Cory Dorkin) and his brother Brian (Ryan Wilson) into giving damaging statements and testifying against their parents in court. Brenda and Scott spend the next twelve years behind bars, fighting their case as best they can as they try to prove their innocence and become reunited with their children. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virginia Madsen, Jeffrey Nordling, (more)
- 1998
Having been burned by a traumatic childhood experience, greedy toy tycoon Tyler Madison (Harry Hamlin) is contemptuous of his fellow man, ruthlessly nasty in his business dealings, and callously neglectful of his wife Elyse (Megan Gallegher) and son Danny (Curtis Blanck). Just before Christmas, Madison piles into his private plane and heads for the North Pole, determined to put his chief competitor, Santa Claus (William Hookins), out of business. But upon his arrival, he realizes that he and S.C. have a lot in common--and thus the inevitable epiphany occurs, culminating in the settling of an "Elf strike" and a closer bond between Tyler and his loved ones. Like Father, Like Santa was telecast by cable's Fox Family Channel on December 1, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Hamlin, Megan Gallagher, (more)
- 2004
Not long after being voted "employee of the month" at a suburban Mega-Mart retail store, Edna Coruthers (Marie Cheatham) is killed in what appears to be a freak accident. Monk (Tony Shalhoub) is called in to investigate by the store's security manager Joe Christie (Enrico Colantoni), who suspects foul play. The assignment proves most distasteful for Monk, inasmuch as Christie is his ex-partner, who'd been thrown off the force for stealing drugs. Despite his animosity toward Christie, Monk manages to figure out that Edna was, indeed, murdered--but NOT for what seems to be the most obvious motive. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A woman discovers that a part of her family history may be more complicated -- and more famous -- than she ever imagined in this comedy. Thirtysomething Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston), who has spent most of her adult life in New York City, is flying home to California with her long time boyfriend, Jeff Daly (Mark Ruffalo), for the wedding of her annoyingly perky younger sister, Annie (Mena Suvari). While Sarah and Jeff have recently announced they're engaged to be married, Sarah has been having second thoughts, and she isn't excited about the prospect of spending time with the family where she's always felt like the odd duck. As Sarah tries to decide what she should do with her personal and professional lives, she turns to her sharp-tongued and still youthful grandmother, Katharine (Shirley MacLaine), for advice, and Katharine shares a little-known bit of family history -- that Sarah's now-deceased mother left her father, Earl (Richard Jenkins), a few days before their wedding and ran off with another man for several days before coming back and marrying Earl. However, after hearing this Sarah is also treated to some long-simmering local gossip about a young man who ran off with a bride-to-be after he was seduced by her mother...and that the story became the basis for the hit movie The Graduate. Sarah begins to wonder, was Katharine the real-life Mrs. Robinson of this story? And if it's true, who was the man who had affairs with Sarah's mother and grandmother? Was it dashing and wealthy family friend Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner), who has also turned Sarah's head? Rumor Has It... was produced from an original screenplay by Ted Griffin; Griffin was originally set to direct the film, but shortly after production began he was replaced, with Rob Reiner taking over the project. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, (more)
- 1997
If it worked for Speed, it'll work for Runaway Car--or at least, that seems to have been the philosophy behind the making of this highly derivative made-for-TV actioner. Having suffered through an unusually rotten day on the job, timid nurse Jenny Todd (Nina Siesmaszko) heads to the garage where her 1978 Rambler Hornet is being repaired. Here she meets neurotic computer programmer Ed Lautner (Judge Reinhold), who asks her to give him a ride home. En route, Jenny picks up her baby nephew, as well as an unexpected hitchhiker: wiseguy skateboarder Dex Strang (Brian Hooks), whom Jenny may or may not have caused to suffer a nasty fall. Once the "dramatis personae" is established, the situation goes from bad to horrendous: The brakes jam, the door latches lock, the accelerator sticks at 100mph, and our wide-eyed heroine finds herself at the wheel of an out-of-control death machine, dangerously zooming through the busy city streets, barely avoiding crashes and collisions at every corner. The film's abundance of thrills, spills and impossible coincidences come to a climax of sorts when a police helicopter attempts to rescue Jenny's screaming nephew. Based (believe it or don't) on a true story, Runaway Car rolled off the Fox network TV-movie assembly line on January 21, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judge Reinhold, Nina Siemaszko, (more)
