Florence Schauffler Movies
They say you can't miss what you never had, but one woman wants to put that idea to the test in this comedy. Kathy Whiting (Harley Jane Kozak) is a housewife and mother of two who enjoys a happy but unexciting relationship with her husband Peter (Bill Pullman), while her best friend Emily Embrey (Elizabeth McGovern) runs an art gallery and is living with a good-looking artist, Elliot Fowler (Brad Pitt). Both women feel that a sense of romantic adventure is missing from their lives, and Kathy has never been able to forget Tom Andrews (Ken Wahl), a football player that she was in love with in high school but never slept with (she was saving herself for marriage at the time). So when Kathy learns that Tom is living in Denver, and Emily will be going there on business soon, she asks Emily for a very big favor: find Tom, seduce him, and then give her a full report on what she's been wondering about these 15 years since graduation. The Favor was filmed in 1991 but went unreleased until 1994, after A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall had made fourth-billed Brad Pitt a box-office draw. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harley Jane Kozak, Elizabeth McGovern, (more)
- 1990
- PG
An adoptive parent discovers that some children are given up by their biological parents for very good reasons in this dark comedy. Ben Healy (John Ritter) is a pleasant but brow-beaten yuppie working for his father Big Ben (Jack Warden), a tyrannical sporting goods dealer. Ben would love to have a son, but his wife Flo (Amy Yasbeck) has been unable to conceive. Ben approaches less-than-scrupulous adoption agent Igor Peabody (Gilbert Gottfried) with his dilemma, and Igor presents Ben and Flo with a cute seven-year-old boy, Junior (Michael Oliver). However, Junior is hardly a model child; mean-spirited and incorrigible, the child leaves a path of serious destruction in his wake, and is even pen pals with Martin Beck (Michael Richards), a notorious serial killer. After the cat ends up in the hospital, the house catches on fire, and Junior displays his effective but unethical method for winning in Little League, Ben is having serious doubts about Junior when Beck escapes from jail and decides to kidnap his faithful correspondent, along with Junior's new mom. Problem Child proved to be a major box office success, spawning two sequels and a TV series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ritter, Michael Oliver, (more)
First airing on television, this campy romantic fantasy stars Vanna White (best known as the "letter turner" on the long-running TV game show Wheel of Fortune) as Venus, the goddess of love. Normally she lives in Mount Olympus with the other Grecian gods, but when a hairdresser accidentally revives her statue, Venus has no choice but to return to the mortal plane. Once there, she must earn the love of a modern man or else she will be forever banished from Mount Olympus. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Made for television, Winnie is adapted from the fact-based book Winnie: My Life in the Institution by Jamie Paster Bolnick. Meredith Baxter-Birney plays Winnie Sprockett, who at age 6 is adjudged moderately retarded and confined to an Iowa mental institution. After being locked away for 30 years, Winnie campaigns for her release, attempting to write a book of her experiences. At one point she escapes with a fellow patient (David Morse). Through the intervention of a compassionate administrator (Barbara Barrie), Winnie is at last allowed to re-enter the outside world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A bereaved farmer enlists the aid of a terrifying demon to help avenge his son's death in this stylish horror movie that contains a strong moral. It all begins as gentle widowed farmer/general store owner Ed's beloved 10-year-old son is involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident with an careless unknown motorcyclist. Ed nearly goes berserk with grief and to bring back his son heads to the cabin of a wise old witch to see if she can rejuvenate the youth. Unfortunately, it is beyond her considerable powers so Ed, now equally desperate for revenge, invokes the legendary Pumpkinhead, a terrifying demon with the power to make the biker pay. One by one, Pumpkinhead dispatches the terrified cyclist and his friends, leaving Ed to reconsider his rashness. He tries to call the demon back, but by then it is far too late.... The film is the directorial debut of Oscar-winning special effects wizard Stan Winston. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, (more)
- 1987
- PG13
Any film with a cast that runs the age-and-experience gamut from Ione Skye to Maureen O'Sullivan is certainly worth at least one look. Stranded casts Ione as a lonely 17-year-old, living in a remote farmhouse with her grandmother, O'Sullivan. Late one evening, five space aliens crash-land near the farm. Holding Skye and O'Sullivan prisoner, the extraterrestrials run afoul of the law when one of them impulsively kills Ione's boyfriend, who happens to be the son of local hothead and rabblerouser Michael Greene. Despite the aliens' laser weaponry, sheriff Joe Morton intends to treat the incident as a standard hostage crisis, but Greene wants to storm the farmhouse, with no consideration of Skye and O'Sullivan's safety. In true "Stockholm syndrome" fashion, the hostages befriend the more likeable aliens--one of whom is played by Flea, bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. A curious blend of several genres, Stranded has true cult-classic potential, should any distributor want to give it a second chance on the midnight-movie circuit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ione Skye, Joe Morton, (more)
Benjy Taylor (D.B. Sweeney) is a rookie cop who goes undercover to nab a gang of car thieves in this routine crime drama. Taylor salivates over the lifestyle and money enjoyed by Ted Varrick (Charlie Sheen), the smooth operator who leads the Porsche pilferers, and he reports back to Lieutenant Vincent Bracey (Randy Quaid), who is convinced Ted is a cop killer but needs more proof. Taylor joins the gang and begins to justify car theft and the money it brings as gathering evidence. Soon his reasoning is clouded and the rookie cop gets in deeper when he actually begins to like Ted and the suspect's sultry sister Ann (Lara Harris). ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Sheen, D.B. Sweeney, (more)
Tom Hanks stars in this raunchy teen comedy from veteran screenwriters Pat Proft and Neil Israel, who had previously collaborated on the amusing sketch film Tunnelvision (1976) and the disappointing Americathon (1980). Bus-driver Rick Gasko (Hanks) is engaged to wealthy Debbie Thompson (Tawny Kitaen), much to the chagrin of her father (George Grizzard), who considers Rick a loser. To keep an eye on her future groom, Debbie and her friends dress as prostitutes to attend his bachelor party, which quickly turns into a bacchanal of smutty debauchery. Familiar faces in the cast include action stars Michael Dudikoff and Ji-Tu Cimbuka, pin-ups Monique Gabrielle and Rosanne Katon, and teen-movie regulars Adrian Zmed and Wendie Jo Sperber. It's an occasionally hilarious excursion into bad taste, although one which two-time Oscar winner Hanks would probably like to forget. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Hanks, Tawny Kitaen, (more)
