Laura Dean Movies

Inheriting an antique dollhouse from her Aunt Silvia, Monica (Courteney Cox) doesn't want Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) anywhere near her "legacy," leading Phoebe to construct a little house of her own (and what a house!) Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) arranges a date between Chandler (Matthew Perry) and her boss, Joanna (Alison La Placa) -- then has second thoughts. And Joey gets serious about his co-star Kate (Dina Meyer). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Ross (David Schwimmer) look forward to a reunion with their high-school chum Gandolf, aka "the party wizard." When Gandolf fails to show, the boys grimly vow to party on by themselves. Meanwhile, Rachel's (Jennifer Aniston) climb to the top is sidetracked by her boss, Joanna (Alison La Placa), and Monica (Courteney Cox) is given the opportunity to write a food-critic column -- which results in a conflict with two different people in her life. Oh, and did we mention the van with the flashing nipples? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Trash-movie moguls Lloyd Kauffman and Michael Herz -- the creative team (so to speak) behind distributor Troma Films and makers of The Toxic Avenger -- foist yet another epic of bad taste upon the viewing public with this melding of teenage sex-comedy and slime-oozing monster mayhem, described by the filmmakers as "like The Breakfast Club, only not as stupid, and really, really drunk." The story involves the student body of Tromaville High school, who resemble the usual group of slackers, stoners and surf punks who drift through the halls of academe... except this is Tromaville, and the dilapidated nuclear plant is busily churning out glowing green effluvia next door. Before long, the kids are glowing in the dark too, riding hell-bent through the hallowed halls on their choppers, shrieking obscene pseudo-songs and giving birth to slimy mutant offspring... pretty much business as usual. The only way to put this film into any kind of perspective would be to say it's never dull; fans of Troma product (the cinematic equivalent of head cheese) should be delighted. Followed by two sequels, subtitled respectively Subhumanoid Meltdown and The Good, the Bad and the Subhumanoid. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

In this entertaining feature for the 3- to10-year-old set, the wicked witch Hydia (voice of Cloris Leachman) and her two nasty daughters, Reeka and Draggle (voices of Rhea Pearlman and Madeline Kahn) are scheming to flood Ponyland with a strange liquid called Smooze. The ponies find allies in the Grundles, who have already been made homeless by the Smooze. The challenge is to stop the witch and her daughters, send them back into their volcano, and retrieve the lost land of the Grundles from under its cover of Smooze -- not to mention protecting Ponyland from the worst. Not an easy agenda, even after several adventures gear everyone up for the grand finale. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Half zombie epic, half cannibal gorefest, this unusual blend of two popular Italo-horror subgenres results in a high-octane thriller that delivers the gory goods. The story involves a group of former Vietnam POW's who contract a bizarre disease in captivity which compels them to eat human flesh. Needless to say, this makes assimilation into post-war American life rather difficult as the gestating disease takes hold on the returning veterans, whose cannibal instincts eventually fight their way to the surface. One such victim is commando Norman Hopper (John Saxon), who is bitten by one of the POW's during a rescue mission and carries the gestating contagion back home. When the soldier who bit him (John Morghen) is released from a veterans' psychiatric hospital after apparently being cured, he makes brief phone contact with Saxon before succumbing to an immediate relapse, leading to a gory rampage and subsequent shootout with police. When Saxon begins feeling the urge to munch -- first developing an appetite for the teenage cupcake next door -- he springs his fellow cannibals from the hospital, leading to another bloody confrontation with the police -- this time in the city sewers. Director Antonio Margheriti (alleged ghost-director of Andy Warhol's Blood for Dracula and Flesh for Frankenstein) manages to fuse crime-thriller conventions with gory cannibals-in-the-streets horror without losing viewers' interest, although the drastically-edited video version (under the title Invasion of the Flesh Hunters) suffers badly from the absence of Gianetto De Rossi's chunk-blowing makeup effects. The dialogue, while better than the average Italian post-dubbing job, is so overloaded with profanity that it becomes unintentionally hilarious. Released under a dozen titles, the best-known being Cannibal Apocalypse. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Fame is set at New York's High School of Performing Arts, where talented teens train for show-business careers. The film concentrates on five of the most gifted students: singer Irene Cara, actors Paul McCrane and Barry Miller, dancer Gene Anthony Ray, and musician Lee Currieri. More so than the subsequent TV series Fame, the film emphasizes the importance of keeping up one's academic achievements in this specialized school. The faculty includes no-nonsense English teacher Ann Meara, erudite musical instructor Albert Hague, and martinet dance teacher Debbie Allen. Of the film's cast, Ray, Currieri, Allen and Hague were carried over to the TV version of Fame, which premiered in 1981. The score for the film version of Fame was honored with an Academy Award. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An animated Fred Astaire stars in this animated holiday story, which offers a fanciful story of how the Easter Bunny came to be. Sunny (voice of Skip Hinnat) is an orphaned bunny rabbit who finds a home in Kidsville, a town populated entirely by children. Sunny makes himself useful in Kidsville by delivering eggs, which he colors to disguise them from mean-spirited monster Gadzooks. When Sunny learns that the neighboring town is has no children at all other than a boy ruler who is being kept under wraps by his aunt, Sunny and his pals come up with a plan to free him. The Easter Bunny Is Coming To Town was directed and produced by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr., who made a number of popular animated television specials in the 1960's and 70's. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide