Dolores Drake Movies

Home Improvement's Richard Karn lends his talents to this family-oriented animal-sports adventure from the producers of another animal-sports picture, Air Bud. MVP II: Most Vertical Primate picks up the story line of the first film in the series, MVP: Most Valuable Primate, but transfers its star monkey from the suburbs to the city, and switches his sport of choice from hockey to skateboarding. MVP II opens with the lovable Jack being ousted from his hockey team, the Seattle Simians, and having to hit the road after being falsely accused of league misconduct. Jack ends up in the city, where he's befriended by Ben (screen newcomer Scott Goodman), a homeless skateboarder, and Ollie (Karn), a skate shop owner. Jack proves to be as adept at mastering the half-pipe as he does at delivering a slap shot, and before long, he and Ben are crashing amateur skateboarder competitions all over the country. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

Ethel Lina White's suspense novel Some Must Watch was first filmed under the title The Spiral Staircase in 1946. This same title was applied to a subsequent 1962 TV special adaptation, and a 1975 British TV-movie remake. The Spiral Staircase resurfaced again in 2000 as a made-for-cable feature film, which updated the original story from the early 20th century to the present day. Pathologically mute since a terrible trauma in her youth, Helen Capel (Nicollette Sheridan) works as a housekeeper in the gloomy old mansion of wealthy Emma Warren (Holland Taylor). By nature timid and frightened, Helen has good reason of late to be even more afraid to venture outside the Warren home: A serial killer who preys upon "imperfect" women is on the loose, with such victims as a blind girl and a clubfooted woman in his wake. Understandably, the literally speechless Helen is worried that she will be the next victim. What she doesn't know is that her would-be murderer is someone living within the walls of the Warren mansion -- and it isn't the most obvious suspect. The Spiral Staircase debuted April 2, 2000 on the Fox Family Channel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Set in British Columbia, Canada shortly after Pearl Harbor, this thought-provoking made for television drama chronicles the fate of the Kawashima family, who are forcibly uprooted from their lovely Vancouver home and successful business by the Canadian government and sent to a backwater mining camp deep in the province's interior to live until the war ended. Both Mr. and Mrs. Kawashima were Japanese immigrants, but their two children were born in Canada. Mr. Kawashima is also a WWI veteran who fought with the Canadian army so the government's suspicious and insensitive treatment of his family comes as quite a shock. They, and the 400 other "enemy" guests of the mining town, are all city dwellers are also shocked by the primitive living conditions. The townsfolk are uniformly ignorant and unsophisticated. They too have trouble adjusting to their visitors and for a while racial tensions run high. Aya Kawashima, the eldest child, gets a job working as a housekeeper for her neighbors Peg and Ed Parnham. She also helps out with their two daughters. Ed is pretty friendly and open minded about the Japanese, but Peg is at first nervous around Aya and treats her like a maid. Eventually they become real friends and this is an important part of the story. As time passes the Japanese and the townsfolk begin to intermingle and young romances bloom. Things are looking up until the Kawashima's learn that the government they have supported and staunchly believed in, sold their house and business without consulting them. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This semisweet backwards glance at 1960s impulsiveness stars Margaret Langrick as a Canadian college freshman. She undergoes a bit of a culture shock when her white-bread values are challenged by her new hippie friend Liisa Repo-Martell. With a trio of her new and old chums, Langrick heads to Portland to attend a wedding. Once they arrive at the ceremony, the girls wreak a little bit of sexual havoc amongst the male guests before deciding to journey on to California. Thus a pattern is set for the previously shy and sheltered Langrick of letting her heart rule her head-a pattern ending up as far afield as Europe! American Boyfriends was the sequel to the equally fey, funny and freewheeling My American Cousin (1985). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Housekeeping is the film in which Christine Lahti invites a guest into a living room half-submerged in water. This is hardly the oddest moment in this characteristically quirky Bill Forsyth film (his first American production). When their grandmother dies, Idaho pre-teens Sarah Walker and Andrea Burchill are watched over by their late mother's sister (played by Ms. Lahti). This strange young woman has throughout her life made unconventionality a life form. The girls are at first embarrassed by their loopy aunt, but when Burchill moves in with another family, Walker draws closer to the older woman. They hit the road, where Lahti has spent most of her life, and experience several picaresque episodes before the more sober-sided Burchill informs the authorities about their vagabond lifestyle. Threatened with losing custody of Walker, Lahti makes an effort to clean up her act, but by this time her niece has become just as endearingly unpredictable as she. Director Forsyth adapted his script from a novel by Marilynne Robinson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi