Deborah Fallender Movies
A pair of garbage workers (Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez) are shocked to find the body of a city councilman in one of their trash cans. With help from a supervisor (Keith David), the duo must solve the case and find the man's killer while hiding the body from the cops. Estevez also directed and provided the screenplay for Men at Work. ~ John Bush, Rovi
- Starring:
- Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, (more)
In a gender-reversed version of his previous hit Pretty in Pink, John Hughes retreads all-too- familiar ground in Some Kind of Wonderful, the story of a sensitive, young would-be artist, Keith (Eric Stoltz), who vies for the affection of his high school's popularity queen, Amanda (Lea Thompson), seemingly out of some deep-rooted insecurity regarding his social ineptitude. He enlists the help of his butch best friend and fellow misfit, Watts (Mary Stuart Masterson), unaware that she secretly pines for him. While she goads him to give up his pointless pursuit of Amanda, he encounters one other small obstacle -- Amanda's rich bully of a boyfriend, Hardy (Craig Sheffer), who threatens Keith with a face rearrangement. Undeterred, Keith decides he will, by any means necessary, escort his dream girl to the prom -- but not before he buys her expensive jewelry with the money from his college fund in order to impress her. (Hughes expects the audience to side with Keith when his father protests.) Some Kind of Wonderful is pure fantasy, but the plot is too tired and flawed for it to be completely satisfactory escapism. Still, the performances are all-around good and the ending is slightly more likeable than its predecessor's. Hughes decided to use the original Pretty in Pink ending, which had been dropped from the original after poor audience response at the advance screenings. ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson, (more)
Predating the 1990s cycle of vampire-stripper films (From Dusk Till Dawn, Bordello of Blood, etc.) this cynical entry from director Richard Wenk concerns frat boys looking for a go-go girl to perform at their upcoming party. Wandering to the wrong side of town, the randy youths enter a seedy strip joint populated by vampires. Grace Jones is the nasty ringleader, Katrina, who acknowledges the film's debt to Hammer's Vampire Circus by performing an erotic dance painted in zebra-stripes. Among the heroes, co-star Robert Rusler is far more interesting than the bland lead (Chris Makepeace), while Gedde Watanabe manages to be both unfunny and offensive by turning in the most ridiculously stereotyped Asian performance since John Wayne assayed Genghis Khan in The Conqueror. This is the least of the comedic vampire films that came out in the mid-'80s, and although Billy Drago is menacing as the evil Snow and Greg Cannom's special effects are striking, Vamp remains unfunny and not frightening in the least. Famed female bodybuilder Lisa Lyon appears as a stripper named Cinnamon, and Dedee Pfeiffer, Hy Pyke, and Simmy Bow are among the recognizable supporting cast. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chris Makepeace, Sandy Baron, (more)
- 1985
- R
Goofy medical students have all kinds of rip roaring fun pulling crazy pranks such as scaring first year students by pretending to be cadavers. When the hijinks accelerate, the dean of the school tries to stop them. Filled with vulgarity, sexist and bathroom humor, the film's director Rod Holcomb, not wanting to take responsibility for the film, billed himself as "Allen Smithee," the official pseudonym of the Directors Guild. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Parker Stevenson, Geoffrey Lewis, (more)
Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy try but fail to bring this flat comedy to life, while the story itself is hampered by intercutting between the years of 1982 in Los Angeles (Moore) and 1984 in Kuwait (Murphy), with no explanation of how these two disparate people and locations are related. Wylie (Moore) is an inept engineer trying to perfect a gyro system for his employers who contract projects with the U.S. defense department. Wylie accidentally gets some blueprints for another type of gyro -- and his company successfully manufactures the part, much to almost everyone's benefit. Unfortunately, these plans are coveted by a certain ruthless industrial spy (David Rasche), and the FBI itself is suspicious about the origins of the blueprints in Wylie's hands. Meanwhile (and in constant interspersed segments), Landry (Murphy) is trying to get his tank to stay on course, but no matter what he does the machine swerves and lunges at random -- could there be a gyro at fault here? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dudley Moore, Eddie Murphy, (more)
Best-selling author Michael Crichton wrote and directed this science fiction thriller that combined the influences of Blade Runner (1982), comic books, and Crichton's ongoing fascination with the dangers of high technology. Tom Selleck stars as Sergeant Jack Ramsey, a single father in the near future, when robots have largely replaced humans in performing menial labor. However, the robots occasionally malfunction, threatening human life and requiring a specialist like Jack, who terminates the haywire "runaways." Investigating a particularly nasty series of recent cases, Jack and his new partner Karen Thompson (Cynthia Rhodes) discover a connection between the runaways and Charles Luther (Kiss frontsman Gene Simmons). Luther, a maniacal genius, is masterminding a plot to create an army of killing machines. With time running out, it's up to Jack and Karen to match wits with Luther and save humanity. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes, (more)
An Anglo-American co-production, S.O.S. Titanic is a costly, 150-minute reenactment of the infamous sea disaster of 1912. Heading the cast is David Janssen as millionaire John Jacob Astor, who went down with the Titanic, and Cloris Leachman as raucous Denver dowager Molly Brown, who didn't (for the record, Leachman had previously played Brown on a 1957 episode of the TV anthology Telephone Time). Third-billed is Susan Saint James as fictional passenger Leigh Goodwin, who carries most of the dramatic load. Written by Hallmark Hall of Fame veteran James Costigan, the made-for-television S.O.S. Titanic premiered September 23, 1979. In subsequent network and syndicated showings, the film was pared down to 102 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
An innocent country farmer experiences a number of improbable misadventures that culminate in a battle against the titular beast in this broadly comic fantasy. The first solo outing of director Terry Gilliam, who served as animator and co-director on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, returns to the medieval setting that had previously served him so well, and brings along fellow Pythonite Michael Palin for the ride as reluctant hero Dennis Cooper. Cooper's journey to defeat the fearsome Jabberwock is filled with a similar combination of traditional fairy-tale narrative and irreverent humor, which at times aims to be even raunchier than classic Python fare. But while the film is too awkward and repetitive to succeed, it does boast impressively grungy medieval sets and costumes, and flashes of the visual brilliance that would characterize Gilliam's more mature works. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Palin, Max Wall, (more)
