Josh Peck
- 2008
- R
- AddThe Wacknessto Queue
A psychiatrist (Ben Kingsley) is put into a moral quandary when a young drug dealer who's been supplying him with pot in exchange for clinical treatment ends up dating his daughter in this comedy from All the Boys Love Mandy Lane's writer/director Jonathan Levine. Josh Peck, Famke Janssen, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Method Man co-star in the Occupant Films production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, (more)
Determined not to spend their entire high-school career being tormented by the local bully, three freshmen place an ad in Soldier of Fortune magazine seeking an experienced combat veteran to protect them in this comedy produced by Judd Apatow, penned by Seth Rogen and Kristofor Brown, and starring Owen Wilson. It's their first day of high school, and best friends Ryan (Troy Gentile), Wade (Nate Hartley), and Emmit (David Dorfman) are determined to make the most out of the next four years. Trouble soon arises, however, in the form of sadistic hallway hooligan Filkins (Alex Frost) -- an unrelenting bully who makes it his mission to ensure that these three friends suffer all the way through to their senior year. Desperate to find protection by any means possible, Ryan, Wade, and Emmit place an ad in Soldier of Fortune magazine. While most of the responses they get come from men who are either too experienced or too expensive, one down-on-his-luck mercenary named Drillbit Taylor (Wilson) is right in their price range and eager to help out. Drillbit may be homeless (or, as he likes to call it, "home free"), but he's more than willing to offer these three brave souls the mental and physical training needed to fend off Filkins and get on with their lives. Trouble is, Drillbit isn't quite the fearless freelance soldier he has made himself out to be. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Owen Wilson, Leslie Mann, (more)
Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (John Leguizamo), and Diego (Denis Leary) may have made it through the big freeze, but when the ice begins to melt, the heroic trio must warn the other inhabitants of their peaceful valley of the coming flood in directors Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha's sequel to the computer-animated 2002 hit Ice Age. As the ice age winds to an end, the animals of the Earth have taken warmly to the melting paradise that surrounds them. Despite the false comfort of a lush valley teeming with vegetation, however, great danger looms just over the horizon. When Manny, Sid, and Diego realize that the miles of liquefying ice overlooking their valley will soon turn from a gentle trickle to a violent force of nature capable of destroying anything and everything unfortunate enough to be in its path, they quickly set out to spread the word and get their endangered friends out of harm's way. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, (more)
- 2005
- R
An unremarkable parking-enforcement officer living a low-key existence of solitary lunches in the park, lonely dinners at home, and superhero comics that at least afford him the quiet release of fantasy enrolls into a clinical trial for antidepressant pills, only to find that it has some decidedly unexpected side effects, in directors Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore's quirky comic book superhero comedy. Les Franken (Michael Rappaport) leads an unassuming life that rarely deviates from a strict regiment of working, eating, sleeping, and comic book reading. His only two friends a pair of stoners who own a local comic shop, Les determines to shake things up a bit by volunteering as a test subject for an experimental drug designed to curb depression. When the drug appears to give Les special powers, the doctor in charge of the clinical controlled test insists that Les is simply experiencing an unanticipated psychological reaction to the medication. But Les is convinced that his powers are genuine, and as he ditches his work uniform in favor of more superhero-appropriate threads, he is about to find out once and for all whether he truly is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, or his depression, combined with the strange side-effects of the drug, have somehow propelled his superhero fantasies to the forefront of his damaged psyche. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Rapaport, Paul Blackthorne, (more)
A pair of naïve young girls learn that even the most insignificant actions can have lasting consequences in this music-driven take on teen culture starring Anne Hathaway and Bijou Phillips and directed by two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple. Influenced by the hip-hop thug lifestyle and seeking to explore life outside of their insulated, culturally homogenized suburb, pretty young teenagers Allison (Hathaway) and Emily (Phillips) set their sights on East L.A. to experience the "gangsta" lifestyle firsthand. By the time the pair meet some true-life Latino gang-bangers and realize just how far out of their element they really are, it may already be too late to turn back. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Independent filmmaker Jacob Aaron Estes makes his feature debut with the coming-of-age drama Mean Creek. Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz, Josh Peck, Trevor Morgan, and Carly Schroeder are teenagers living in small-town Oregon. Some of the boys take a boat trip for a birthday celebration. When they get an idea to play a mean trick on the town bully, it suddenly goes too far. Soon they're forced to deal with the unexpected consequences of their actions. Mean Creek was workshopped at the Eugene O'Neill Center's National Playwrights Conference and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the American Spectrum program. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelley, (more)
- 2002
A freewheeling animated spoof of the "hard-boiled private eye" school of fiction, Fillmore revolves around the adventures of seventh grader Cornelius Fillmore, a safety monitor in an extremely accident-prone middle school. Under the guidance of safety chief Vellejo, and with the help of sidekick Ingrid Third, Fillmore wages endless war against those who would despoil the sacred walls of learning with graffiti, or who would leave oil-soaked rags in the vicinity of matches, or who would operate a baseball-card black market threatening the financial well-being of his fellow students. As in most cartoon series of the era, this one abounds in pop-culture spoofs, notably a Silence of the Lambs takeoff involving a grafitti artist who'd been sentenced to permanent detention. Created by Scott Gimple of Disney's Pepper Ann fame, Fillmore joined the ABC Saturday-morning lineup on September 14, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orlando Brown, Tara Strong, (more)
A crystal-meth addict struggles to get his next fix as he obsesses over a recent breakup in Spun, a black-comic drug drama from music video director Jonas Akerlund. Rushmore's Jason Schwartzman stars as Ross, a young man who finds his maniacal world crumbling around him over the course of one long weekend. Spun chronicles Ross' travails as he tries to score from his regular dealer, Spider Mike (John Leguizamo), who realizes during Ross' visit that he's misplaced his stash. Indisposed by the frantic drug search, Spider Mike's girlfriend, Cookie (Mena Suvari), enlists Ross to pick up her stripper friend Nikki (Brittany Murphy) from work, and when he grudgingly agrees, he learns that Nikki might have an inside line on some of her own speed, courtesy of The Cook (Mickey Rourke). Meanwhile, two bumbling cops are onto Spider Mike's trail, and in his paranoid-delusional state, he sets out to find out who set him up. Spun premiered at the 2002 CineVegas Film Festival before securing berths at the Sundance, Toronto, and South by Southwest festivals. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Schwartzman, John Leguizamo, (more)
After having been outmatched in the live-action family film department by rival Nickelodeon in recent years, Disney jumps back into the kid-friendly fray with this comedy about a seventh grader (Alex D. Linz) who's mercilessly picked on by his school's bullies and by his principal (Larry Miller). When his parents (Nora Dunn and Robert Carradine) inform Max that they're moving at the end of the week, he takes the opportunity to exact several forms of creative revenge on his many tormenters. When it subsequently turns out that the Keebles aren't leaving town after all, little Max is left to the mercy of those he's just humiliated. Max Keeble's Big Move is the second feature film from Tim Hill, the nephew of famed director George Roy Hill (The Sting). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alex D. Linz, Jamie Kennedy, (more)
- 2001
Kovac (Goran Visnjic) again treats the stubborn Bishop Stewart (John Cromwell). Sixteen-year-old cardiac patient Nick Stevens (Josh Peck) balks at having another heart transplant. Another patient, a gay man named Jeff (Robert Beitzel), refuses to use contraceptives, and indeed seems eager and willing to contract the AIDs virus. Greene's (Anthony Edwards) erratic behavior increases. And Carter (Noah Wyle) asks Abby (Maura Tierney) to be his date at a gala charity function -- leading to an uncomfortable "reunion" for Abby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
It's the day children dream of and parents dread: a sudden snowstorm causes the cancellation of school, giving kids a day off and their folks one more thing to worry about. Snow Day traces what happens in an upstate New York town when a thick layer of white stuff forces local schools to take a day off. Fifteen-year-old Hal Brandston (Mark Webber) is crazy about Claire Bonner (Emmanuelle Chriqui), the prettiest girl in his tenth-grade class, who already has a boyfriend -- the class jock and BMOC. Will the magical powers of Snow Day give Hal a chance to win her away? Meanwhile, Hal's ten-year-old sister, Natalie (Zena Grey), is having so much fun with Snow Day that she doesn't want it to end, so she makes sure the Snow Plow Man (Chris Elliott) can't get the roads cleared before morning. Four-year-old Randy Brandston (Connor Matheus) is all cranked up and ready to enjoy life on a day with no day care -- bad news for his mom, Laura (Jean Smart), a businesswoman who has to close an important deal. And weather is a sore spot with father Tom Brandston (Chevy Chase); as the meteorologist at the lowest-rated TV station in town, he is trying in vain to get folks to pay attention to what he has to say about snow, rain, and the elements. Snow Day was produced by Nickelodeon Movies, the feature-film branch of the children's television network, and its eclectic cast also includes Pam Grier, John Schneider, and Iggy Pop. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Elliott, Mark Webber, (more)
