Bonnie Morgan Movies
A handful of kids stranded without their parents is determined to make the most of a bad situation in this comedy. It's Christmas Eve, and Oliver Porter (Lewis Black), the passenger relations manager at a busy airport in the Midwest, is looking forward to spending Christmas in Hawaii with his wife after 15 years in a row working on the busy Yuletide holiday. However, fate conspires against him when a massive snowstorm sweeps in and all flights are canceled. Porter suddenly has to deal with a number of stranded passengers, including six tween-age kids who are each flying unaccompanied from one divorced parent to another -- spoiled little rich girl Grace (Gina Mantegna), geeky but likable Spencer (Dyllan Christopher), his pesky little sister Katy (Dominique Saldana), plus-size comic book fan Beef (Brett Kelly), grumpy tomboy Donna (Quinn Shephard), and bright but mischievous Charlie (Tyler James Williams). With his hands full and determined to make his way to the islands, Porter puts his assistant Zach Van Bourke (Wilmer Valderrama) in charge of the kids. Zach doesn't care for this assignment and the kids don't care for him, and before long they've escaped from the basement conference room where he's stashed them and turned the airport into their playground. Unaccompanied Minors also features Paget Brewster, Rob Corddry and Teri Garr. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lewis Black, Wilmer Valderrama, (more)
H.G. Bissinger's best-selling true-life account of a few months in the life of a high-school football team comes to the screen in this adaptation written and directed by Peter Berg. Odessa, TX, is an oil town in the western part of the state that's home to the Permian High School Panthers, the football team with the best winning record in the state. Odessa is a town with more than its share of problems; the decline of the oil business in Texas has set the city's economy into a tailspin, and racial tensions still erupt into violence on occasion. But football is the one thing that brings all the people of Odessa together, and on Friday nights every fall, as many as 20,000 people fill Permian's football stadium to watch Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) and his boys try to lead the team to victory. As Gaines works to build a winning team in a town where victory is prized above all else, however, his players struggle through the emotional trials common to any teenager and ponder the fact that there is little future in their hometown...and that a championship season can be as much a burden as a triumph. Friday Night Lights also stars Lucas Black, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, and country singer-turned-actor Tim McGraw. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke, (more)
Director P.J. Hogan (Muriel's Wedding, My Best Friend's Wedding) helms this live-action retelling of J.M. Barrie's classic children's play Peter Pan. Starring Jeremy Sumpter (Frailty) in the title role, the film follows the adventures of the Darling children, Wendy (Rachel Hurd-Wood), John (Harry Newell), and Michael (Freddie Popplewell), as they are visited by the boy who never grows up and whisked away to Neverland, where they encounter The Lost Boys, Tinker Bell (Ludivine Sagnier), and the evil Captain Hook (Jason Isaacs). ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Sumpter, (more)
Jake Gyllenhaal, the young star of the critically well-received October Sky (1999), follows up that film with this offbeat comedy. Gyllenhaal stars as Jimmy Livingston, a teenager with an immune system deficiency who has spent his entire life living in a plastic bubble under the doting, overprotective care of his mother (Swoosie Kurtz). Jimmy is in love with his next-door neighbor Chloe (Marley Shelton), so when he learns that she has left for Niagara Falls in order to be married, he's devastated. He quickly assembles a portable "bubble suit" and sets out on a 2,755.8-mile odyssey in order to stop her and proclaim his affection. Along the way, Jimmy experiences a number of adventures, including encounters with freaks, bikers, rock stars, and a cult. Bubble Boy is a comic riff on the classic TV movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976), which starred a young John Travolta. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jake Gyllenhaal, Swoosie Kurtz, (more)
- 2001
When a deaf man is run over by a car, the early evidence suggests that this is just another case of vehicular homicide. But the CSI unit quickly determines that the victim was actually dead before the accident occurred. Making things difficult is the obstructive attitude of the school in which the dead man was enrolled. And in another case, five customers of an upscale coffee shop are slain in an apparent mob hit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
In this heart-warming, youth-oriented drama, a girl raises an orphaned bear cub. When the cuddly fur ball turns into a full-grown bear, she must make a difficult decision about whether or not she should return it to the wilderness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cheech Marin, Mr. T, (more)
