Sandra Taylor Movies
This teen comedy from Disney is based on a popular novel by Meg Cabot and directed by Garry Marshall. Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) is a teenage klutz who's openly mocked by the popular Lana Thomas (pop singer Mandy Moore). In fact, Mia's only friend at her exclusive prep school is the socially outcast Lilly (Heather Matarazzo). Mia's life takes a dramatic turn, however, when her mom announces that her late biological father was in actuality the crown prince of a small European nation, Genovia. Now Mia is the sole heir to the throne, and her grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews) wants to tutor the awkward teen in royal behavior. It's a daunting task given Mia's lax table manners, poise, and hair care, but the girl perseveres with some makeover help from her grandmother's security chief Hector Elizondo) and a style expert (Larry Miller). In the meantime, Mia's romantic affections are torn between the handsome, popular Josh (Erik Von Detten) and the more appropriate Michael (Robert Schwartzman), who also happens to be Lilly's brother. The Princess Diaries is the second film from Whitney Houston's production shingle after the television version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Hathaway, Julie Andrews, (more)
- 1999
The ER staffers treat three teenagers injured in a fiery car crash while on their way to their prom. An AIDs patient and her son are flown into County General after a fishing mishap. Greene (Anthony Edwards) and Corday (Alex Kingston) grow closer, while Benton (Eriq La Salle) awaits word about the Trauma Fellowship. And amidst all this confusion, the hospital is besieged by obstreperous FBI agents who demand immediate and preferential medical treatment for a wounded stripper -- but is this incredible scenario too "good" to be true? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
A pair of not-so-happily married academics confront their various emotional problems as temptations appear on all sides in this comedy. Mary Jane Dankworth (Sally Kellerman) teaches film at the same university where her husband Harvey (Ed Begley, Jr.) teaches Russian literature. Their relationship has been in rough waters for some time now; Harvey is no longer sexually attracted to M.J., and she feels as though she threw away her career as a documentary filmmaker in exchange for a marriage that doesn't make her happy. Mary Jane begins seeing a therapist, Dr. Guttmacher (Tyne Daly), and she discusses with her the Walter Mitty-esque daydreams that have lately been pervading her thoughts. Harvey, on the other hand, is also seeing an analyst, Dr. Brown (Rance Howard), and as he tries to regain his lost youth after turning 50, he attracts the attentions of Muriel Johansen (Sandra Taylor), an attractive graduate student who is working with Harvey on her masters thesis concerning erotic literature. Suspecting that something is up with her husband, M.J. hires a private detective, Carmine Ficcone (Stuart Margolin), but she soon discovers that he's more interested in chasing her than in following Harvey. Mel Shapiro wrote the screenplay based on his own play, while leading lady Sally Kellerman also served as co-producer, in tandem with her husband Jonathan D. Krane. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Kellerman, Ed Begley, Jr., (more)
This was the third follow-up to Tim Burton's Batman (1989), the original revisionist look at the Gotham City legend, as well as the second in the Batman series directed by Joel Schumacher and the first featuring George Clooney as the Caped Crusader; it features not one but two super-villains, and a new heroine to fight crime alongside Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) and Dick Grayson (aka Robin) (Chris O'Donnell). The experiments of Dr. Victor Fries (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to preserve his late wife cryogenically have gone horribly wrong, turning him into the evil genius Mr. Freeze, who must keep his body at sub-zero temperature in order to say alive -- and he wants to put Gotham City on ice. Shy horticulturist Pamela Isley (Uma Thurman) goes a bit wild with a Venus Fly Trap-like creation she's been working on and mutates into Poison Ivy, who wants to kill all the people on Earth so plants can take over. Can Batman and Robin stop these fiends before their plans go too far? Meanwhile, Bruce and Dick's faithful butler Alfred (Michael Gough) isn't feeling well, so his niece Barbara (Alicia Silverstone) comes to pay a visit. When Barbara finds out what her uncle's employers do in their spare time, she decides she wants in on the action, and she joins the crime fighting twosome as Batgirl. Batman & Robin also features Jesse Ventura in a small role as a prison guard; it would be his last film role before becoming Governor of Minnesota in 1998. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, (more)
