Christopher Meledandri Movies

When a kindly elephant hears a faint cry of help from a floating speck of dust, his attempts to protect the tiny particle cause his neighbors to question his sanity in this animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss' classic 1954 children's book of the same name. Produced by Ice Age makers Blue Sky, scripted by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, and directed by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino, Horton Hears a Who reunites Bruce Almighty co-stars Jim Carrey and Steve Carell as the eponymous elephant and the mayor of Whoville respectively. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

For this follow-up to their mega-hit Ice Age, directors Carlos Saldanha and Chris Wedge team with the screenwriting duo behind Parenthood and City Slickers, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. Robots stars Ewan McGregor as the voice of Rodney Copperbottom, an idealistic robot who wants to convince his electronic brethren to come together and work toward making the world a better place. As the story unfolds, Rodney faces opposition from an evil corporation headed by Big Weld (Mel Brooks) and finds some unlikely allies in the form of a ragtag group of misfit robots called the Rusties and voiced by the likes of Drew Carey and Amanda Bynes. Stanley Tucci and Dianne Wiest provide the voices of Rodney's parents, and Halle Berry portrays his love interest, Cappy. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Joanne Whalley-Kilmer stars as a woman corrupted by the criminal justice system in this courtroom suspense thriller. She plays a civil servant named Valerie Alston, a single mother living in New York City, who gets placed on a jury trying the case of mob boss Rusty Pirone (Armand Assante). A former homicide detective gone bad, Tommy Vesey (William Hurt), is now working for Pirone. He kidnaps Valerie and threatens her and her son with more harm if she votes to convict Pirone. At the trial, District Attorney Daniel Graham (Gabriel Byrne) proves himself to be willing and able to stoop to unethical means to convict Pirone. In the jury room, Valerie skillfully exploits factions among the jurors in order to win an acquittal. Now cynical and corrupt herself, Valerie seduces mob boss Pirone to extract her own rewards for her service. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Cool Runnings fictionalizes the true story of a bobsledding team from Jamaica making it to the Olympics. The tale begins when Derice Bannock (Leon), realizing that due to an accident his chances of qualifying for Jamaica's 1988 Olympic track team are dashed, scrounges around looking for another sport for the competition. Since ex-United States gold medal bobsledding winner Irv Blitzer (John Candy) now lives in Jamaica, Derice chooses bobsledding, convincing Irv to coach the team. Derice then forms his team. He gets his friend Sanka Cofie (Doug E. Doug) to join up and recruits Junior Bevil (Rawle D. Lewis), a young man who lacks self-confidence, and Yul Brenner (Malik Yoba), a disagreeable and bitter malcontent. After setbacks and near disasters, the group jells as team members and they head off to the Olympics to compete for an Olympic spot. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In 1939 Hamburg, Germany, a group of teenagers express their rebellion against Adolph Hitler's Nazi regime through their affection for American swing music, British fashion, and Harlem slang. American and British big-band jazz records are among those banned by the Fuhrer, but the young men secretly get together with their friends to listen and dance to the music. As their escapades become increasingly bold, they each get into trouble with the authorities. Robert Sean Leonard stars as Peter, who ends up being forced -- by a prank -- into having to join the Hitler Youth with his friend Thomas (Christian Bale). They are both engineering students at the university, where Thomas' father was taken away for defending his Jewish colleagues. With Arvid (Frank Whaley), they pretend to be Nazi supporters by day while rebelling with the swing music by night. Kenneth Branagh, in an uncredited appearance, is a glib Nazi Gestapo chief who makes matters more difficult. Each of the boys must choose among family, safety, friendship, and freedom as politics impinges on their youthful exuberance, and the Nazis set them against one another. The movie was shot in Prague, directed by Thomas Carter from a script by Jonathan Marc Feldman, and released by Disney. Barbara Hershey appears as Peter's mother. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Saturday Night Live star Dana Carvey had his first leading role on the big screen in this comedy. Eddie (Carvey) and Lou (Todd Graff) are a pair of small-time con artists deep in debt to Pinkie (Mike Bacarella), a loan shark. During a lean period, Eddie and Lou resort to breaking and entering to make some money, but as they're clearing out a house, they overhear the answering machine announce that the owner is away on business for a few weeks -- and the housesitter won't be able to stop by. Eddie and Lou settle in and enjoy their good fortune, which just gets better when Milt (Robert Loggia) pays a visit. Milt assumes that Eddie is the housesitter, who is a close friend of his son. Eddie is soon introduced to Milt's beautiful daughter, Annie (Julia Campbell), and Milt decides that Eddie is executive material at his successful manufacturing firm. Soon Eddie starts to wonder if he should go on lying to the people he's come to like -- and there's the little matter of the 60,000 dollars that Eddie and Lou swiped from Pinkie's car. Opportunity Knocks also features Milo O'Shea and James Tolkan. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this underscripted and not wholly convincing drama, Kevin Bacon plays Jack Casey, an up-and-coming broker who crashes on the stock market one day and cashes in whatever he has left to become a bicycle messenger in San Francisco. Although not exactly a logical alternative, bicycling the hilly streets of S.F. turns out to be dangerous after Casey runs into Gypsy (Rudy Ramos), the street pusher who has the messengers run drugs for him. A series of characters and events drop in and out of the conflict between Gypsy and Casey, including love interest Terri (Jami Gertz) and Casey's friend Hector (Paul Rodriguez). Music dominates throughout the film which includes scenes of breakdancing on bikes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide