Jerry Leider Movies

- 2004
- PG
- Add Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen to QueueAdd Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen to top of Queue
British actress/director Sara Sugarman makes her U.S. feature debut with the Disney-produced comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, based on the young-adult novel by Dyan Sheldon and adapted for the screen by Gail Parent. The story concerns a popular urban teenager named Mary Elizabeth Cep (Lindsay Lohan), who is convinced her real name is Lola. Unfortunately, her family moves from fashionable New York City to a small suburb in New Jersey. Disturbed by her environment, Lola is quick to wage war against the popular Carla Santini (Megan Fox). She's also pursued by high school hunk Stu Wolff (Adam Garcia), but chooses to focus her attention on winning back her title of Most Popular Girl in School. With the help of a frumpy drama teacher (Carol Kane) and shy new friend Ella (Alison Pill), Lola creates a dramatic performance to earn her coveted high status. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox, (more)
Paul Mazursky's Coast to Coast features a couple whose marriage is on the rocks. Barnaby (Richard Dreyfuss) and Maxine (Judy Davis) are attempting to salvage what might be left of their broken marriage by taking a road trip together. As they stop at various places and interact with a variety of people, they begin to bridge the wide gap that had taken its toll on their relationship. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Judy Davis, (more)
Two of the Disney Channel's brightest young sitcom stars, Hilary Duff (Lizzie Maguire) and Christy Romano (Even Stevens), team up for laughs and tears in the made-for-cable Cadet Kelly. The life of cool, artistically inclined 14-year-old Kelly Collins (Duff) is turned upside down when she is uprooted from Manhattan and whisked off to the campus of George Washington Military School in upstate New York. The move was instigated by Sir (Gary Cole), a retired general and the new husband of Kelly's mother. Hoping to impress her stepfather, Kelly enlists in the school, where her freewheeling eccentricities immediately run afoul of her hard-hearted, 17-year-old squad leader, Jennifer Stone (Romano). Though Kelly does her best, the pressure brought to bear upon her by military protocol is enough to have her contemplating desertion -- and even her growing fondness for upper classman, Brad (Shawn Ashmore), may not be enough to bring her back. Originally broadcast by the Disney Channel on March 8, 2002, Cadet Kelly made its ABC network debut on July 14, 2002, as an episode of the weekend "Wonderful World of Disney" anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hilary Duff, Christy Romano, (more)
My Favorite Martian stars Jeff Daniels as Tim O'Hara, once a newspaper man and now a struggling television producer in Santa Barbara. Tim has a crush on vapid news reporter Brace Channing (Elizabeth Hurley) while overlooking his feelings for Lizzie (Daryl Hannah), a technician working at the station. Driving home one night, Tim wanders upon the crash landing of a spaceship from Mars. The Martian inside (Christopher Lloyd) has come to Earth searching for a fellow Martian who had been lost here 35 years ago. After the crash, he hides on the beach and shrinks his spaceship to the size of a toy to avoid detection; Tim finds the ship anyway, and takes it home. With little choice, the Martian, aided by his sentient and very neurotic spacesuit, follows Tim home and reveals himself. Tim sees the alien as his ticket to the big time, but the Martian, now masquerading as Tim's Uncle Martin (thanks to some Martian gum that transforms his appearance to that of a human) thwarts Tim at every turn. Just as he gets the video he needs for his story, O'Hara develops a friendship with his planetary neighbor and new "Uncle." The two suddenly find they are racing against the the clock -- a government team, led by a wacky scientist (Wallace Shawn), hunts Martin down, and the spaceship (a rental) is on a timed sequence to self-destruct if it cannot be repaired in time. Along the way, Tim loses his infatuation with Brace and finds his true feelings for the loyal Lizzie. Martin might also find his lost friend on Earth, just as he has found new ones. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Daniels, Christopher Lloyd, (more)
- Starring:
- John Larroquette, JoBeth Williams, (more)
In this supernatural chiller, a small community is utterly terrorized when a fleet of driverless trucks rolls into town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Busfield, Brenda Bakke, (more)
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of a man whose scientific meddling has unexpected results gets a cross-gender update in this comedy. Richard Jacks (Tim Daly) is a research scientist trying to work his way up the ladder at a major perfume company when he inherits the notebooks of his great-grandfather, Dr. Henry Jekyll. Fascinated by Jekyll's ideas about the duality of man, Jacks starts performing experiments to refine his potion that would isolate man's good and evil natures. However, Richard's version has a very different result than the old Jekyll formula, instead of turning him into a snarling beast, the drug transforms him into Helen Hyde (Sean Young), a beautiful and powerfully sexy woman with a slight case of nymphomania. Jacks figures that a good looking woman willing to sleep with nearly anyone should have no trouble rising to a position of power within the company, so his alter-ego Helen may be his ticket to a room at the top. But this plan may require a bit of explaining to Jacks' girlfriend, Sarah (Lysette Anthony). The supporting cast includes Polly Bergen, Jeremy Piven, and Harvey Fierstein, who is so awestruck by Helen Hyde's allure that he's rendered heterosexual by the experience. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Young, Tim Daly, (more)
Actress Deborah Raffin had a hand in the screenplay of this Southern melodrama, set in the Depression. Christopher Reeve plays ex-con Will Parker, who is looking for work in a small Georgia town. The pregnant Elly Dinsmore (Deborah Raffin) has placed an ad looking for a husband to tend her farm and look after her children. Will applies for the job, and proceeds to work as a handy man for Elly. He is anxious to appear respectable, since the local sheriff, Reese Goodloe (J.T. Walsh), is breathing down his neck, anxious for him to break parole. But Will gives him no cause for concern and, as he works Elly's farm, the two slowly fall in love and agree to marry. Will gets a job as a custodian in the library and his life appears to be heading back to normal. But one night in the library, Lula Peaks (Helen Shaver), the local waitress, throws herself at him, kissing him passionately. The following morning, Lula's body is found and Goodloe arrests Will for murder. Out of her love for Will, Elly seeks out a lawyer to defend him at his trial. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Reeve, Deborah Raffin, (more)
In this two-part adventure drama based on a thriller by author Sidney Sheldon, three nuns must run for their lives from a cruel colonel. Their flight leads them straight to a renowned Spanish rebel. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deborah Raffin, Michael Nouri, (more)
In this pseudo-farce, the heroine Mickey (Margot Kidder) takes two weeks off work to go to Malta and write a mystery novel and finds herself caught up in a series of real-life murders that she weaves into her progressing story. Caught between a parody, a children's film, and a who-dunnit, the overplayed Disney charm of Trenchcoat wears thin very quickly. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margot Kidder, Robert Hays, (more)
Pop singer Neil Diamond stars in this ill-begotten second remake of Al Jolson's seminal 1927 musical The Jazz Singer. The moth-eaten story concerns a cantor's son who desires success as a pop singer, despite the wishes of his imperious father. The film takes place in the present day with Yussel Rabinowitz (Neil Diamond) playing a young (though middle-aged looking) cantor performing at the synagogue of his father (Laurence Olivier). Yussel is married and has settled down to a life of religious devotion to the teaching of his fath. But on the side, he writes songs for a black singing group, and when a member of the quartet takes ill, Yussel covers for him at one of their gigs by wearing blackface! The nightclub engagement is such a success that Yussel abandons his family -- and his father's synagogue -- and leaves his New York home for Los Angeles, hoping to break into the music business. Almost immediately he is spotted by spunky agent Molly Bell (Lucie Arnaz), who books him as an opening act for a touring comic. Yussel hits it big, but his father resents Yussel's forsaking their traditional Jewish ways. His father disowns him, rending his garments and bellowing, "I hef no son!" ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Neil Diamond, Laurence Olivier, (more)
Based on Mel Ellis' novel, The Wild Horse Killers, this Canadian film follows the quest of young Hank Bradford (Linda Blair) as she struggles to save a herd of wild horses that are scheduled to be killed. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Michael Wincott, (more)



















