Frank Lugo Movies
Popular comic and television personality Ellen DeGeneres had her first starring role in a feature film in this black comedy. Martha Alston (DeGeneres) is a thirtysomething single working as a producer for a talk show. Ever since Martha's younger sister got married, her parents have been after her to settle down, but Martha has had little luck finding the right guy. On Valentine's Day, Martha is depressed and drinking at a bar when she meets Whitman Crawford (Bill Pullman), who seems like the perfect man -- he's good looking, sensitive, intelligent, and affectionate. However, when she makes the mistake of telling her new beau that he can be himself around her, she discovers the real Whitman -- he's a horrible poet, he likes awful music, he enjoys shoplifting ("Stolen beer just tastes better!"), and he's a borderline psychotic who doses her with LSD for fun. What's more, his mother (Joan Plowright) and ex-girlfriend (Joan Cusack) hate Martha's guts and don't mind telling her so. So how can Martha convince her friends and family that she wants nothing to do with the man of her dreams? More importantly, how does she convince Whitman? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Pullman, (more)
A young girl secretly adopts a runaway monkey only to have to deal with the simian's mischief-making tendencies in this family comedy. Young Eva (Thora Birch)'s dreams of having a pet are frustrated by the objections of her mother (Mimi Rogers) and allergic stepfather (Christopher McDonald). When she finds a stray capuchin monkey, she cannot resist it, and she keeps the animal -- which she names Dodger -- hidden in her room. Eva doesn't know that Dodger has just escaped from an evil organ grinder named Azro (Harvey Keitel, playing a regrettable Gypsy stereotype), who had trained the monkey to become an accomplished pickpocket. Old habits prove hard to break, and Dodger begins stealing everything in sight, landing Eva in plenty of trouble. Her problems are only compounded by the actions of the unscrupulous Azro, who wants to find Dodger and use him as part of an important robbery. The standard misunderstandings and slapstick comedy ensue, with the spunky Eva struggling to protect her new pet and herself. While probably too predictable to appeal to many adults, Monkey Trouble's skillful animal antics and resourceful young heroine may prove entertaining to youngsters. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Finster, Thora Birch, (more)
- 1989
- R
Tony award-winning British musical comedy star Robert Lindsay makes his first important American film appearance in Bert Rigby, You're a Fool. Lindsay, of course, plays the title character, a coal miner who dreams of becoming a big showbiz star. Only problem is, there's very little demand for Bert Rigby's impersonations of Buster Keaton and Gene Kelly. Undaunted, Bert heads to Hollywood, where, while working as a butler in the household of movie mogul Jim Shirley (Corbin Bernsen), he must fend off the advances of Shirley's hot-to-trot wife, Meredith (Anne Bancroft). Befitting the old-fashioned nature of Bert Rigby's behavior and tastes in entertainment, director Carl Reiner adopts a "retro" approach to his material; at times, the film looks as though it was made in 1939 rather than 1989, despite its R-rated sex, profanity, and body-function jokes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Lindsay, Cathryn Bradshaw, (more)
- 1988
A group of mischievous teen-agers get a notoriously difficult instructor that becomes their summer driving school teacher. ~ All Movie Guide
Modern-day Texas Ranger Jack Benteen (Nick Nolte) was once the best friend of local drug kingpin Cash Bailey (Powers Boothe). At present, however, the only element linking them together is Jack's lover Sarita (Maria Conchita Alonso), Cash's former mistress. When Sarita tires of Jack's Spartan lifestyle, she returns to Cash as a voluntary hostage to make certain that Jack keeps his hands off Cash's operation. The film comes to a head during a meticulously planned drug bust, in which both Jack and Cash butt heads with CIA-funded paramilitary Maj. Paul Hackett (Michael Ironside, who isn't all he seems to be). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, (more)
- 1987
- PG13
In this comedy, artistic con man Harry (Michael Keaton) teams up with lady detective Rachel Dobs (Rae Dawn Chong) to trick a corrupt TV lottery-show host into revealing how he has been rigging the contest to benefit the Mob. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Keaton, Rae Dawn Chong, (more)
- 1987
- PG
Veteran television writer-director Jerry Belson concocted this sweet comedy that stars Michael Caine as Sean Stein, a best-selling mystery novelist who's been constantly hurt by women he's fallen for. Sally Field plays Daisy Morgan, an artist who has not yet hit it big. She and Stein are at a museum party when a band of thieves arrive, tie up the guests, and proceed to pull off a heist. They are tied up together, which thrusts them into an unlikely romantic pairing. Because Daisy does not know who Stein is, he pretends that he, too, is a struggling artist. He distrusts women, because in the past, his ex-wife and other women pursued him solely for his money and fame. Steve Guttenberg and Peter Boyle play attorneys vying for Stein's money. Julie Kavner and Louise Lasser are among the fine supporting cast. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Field, Michael Caine, (more)
- 1985
A vicious narcotics supplier has dispatched a Hawaii-based hit man known as "Beach Boy" to bump off those Los Angeles drug dealers who have refused to do business with him. Hunter (Fred Dryer) and McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) are assigned to prevent "Beach Boy" from carrying out his mission--a task that thrusts the two detectives on a deadly odyssey from Malibu to Chinatown. Garrett Morris makes his first series appearance as flamboyant street hustler Sporty James. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In the first episode of a two-part story, McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) investigates a murder at the Curaguyan embassy in Los Angeles. While on the job, she is wooed by handsome envoy Raoul Marianos (Richard Yniguez)--who turns out not only to be the murderer but also a serial rapist, with McCall as his next victim. Worse still, Hunter (Fred Dryer) can do nothing to avenge his partner: Marianos is shielded from prosecution by diplomatic immunity! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
- R
This undistinguished comedy about life in prison features caricatures of inmates and law enforcement officers, as well as prison guards, in attempts at slapstick action. After Duke Jarrett (Jeff Altman) is put into prison because he had sex with the wife of a government VIP, he discovers that life in the prison is out of control -- until a disciplinarian takes charge. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Altman, Dey Young, (more)
- 1984
In this rather blatant "all-white" derivation of the Gene Wilder-Richard Pryor starrer Stir Crazy, Christopher Lemmon and Charles Rocket are cast as pair of dimwitted innocents who suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of the law. While promoting a zany get-rich-quick scheme, uptight suburbanite Eugene Griswold (Lemmon) and his eccentric inventor pal Stanley Flynn (Rocket) are hijacked by a pair of equally stupid jewel thieves. Wrongly accused and convicted of the heist, Eugene and Stanley get swept up in a prison break, spending the balance of the film on the lam and in disguise. Filmed in 1982 as the pilot for a unsold TV series, The Outlaws didn't see the light of day until ABC had to fill an unplugged 90-minute scheduling hole on July 9, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The humor in this Chevy Chase comedy lies solely in the eyes of the beholder. The comic plays Eddie Muntz, an arms dealer looking to make a big sale of war planes to a South American dictator. In order to do so, his girlfriend (Sigourney Weaver) has to sleep with the dictator and his friend (Gregory Hines) has to be convinced to do one more killing. Eddie's archenemy is Stryker (Vince Edwards) who wants to make that deal himself and will stop at nothing to obtain his ends. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Sigourney Weaver, (more)
Three teenage candy stripers find adventure in love within the walls of the local hospital in this silly exploitation vehicle. Marissa (Maria Rojo) is a hotheaded Mexican girl who has been ordered by the principal of her high school to serve ailing patients in the hopes that she might learn some discipline. Dianne (Robin Mattson) is a modern dance enthusiast who wants to go on to medical school. Sandy (Candice Rialson) has hot pants and can't say no; her head is turned and her blouse removed by doctors, patients, and a rock star who visits the hospital's sexual dysfunction clinic. Along the way the girls find love, save a wrongfully accused man from a robbery rap, and uncover a college basketball drug scandal. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
