Joe Ross 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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anne Hathaway, Julie Andrews, (more)
Norman Jewison directed this subdued character study of the effect of the Vietnam War on a small-town Kentucky family -- based on the novel by Bobbi Ann Mason. The film centers upon 17-year-old Samantha (Emily Lloyd) who lives in Hopewell, Kentucky with her Uncle Emmett (Bruce Willis), a quiet, laid-back veteran of Vietnam suffering from post-traumatic stress. Samantha's father was killed in Vietnam when he was 19-years-old (almost her age now), and her mother Irene (Joan Allen) has remarried. Samantha finds some old photographs of her father, and she becomes obsessed with finding out more about him. Irene, who has moved to Lexington with her second husband, wants Samantha to move in with them and go to college. But Samantha would rather stay with Uncle Emmett and try to find out more about her father. Her mother is no help, as she tells Samantha, "Honey, I married him four weeks before he left for the war. He was 19. I hardly even remember him." Finally Samantha, Emmett and her grandmother (Peggy Rea) go to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Finding her father's name in the memorial releases cathartic emotions in Samantha and her family. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Emily Lloyd, (more)
- 1987
Hunter (Fred Dryer) finds it curious that burglary victim Carol Benson (Cindy Morgan) is reluctant to assist in his investigation of the theft of her diamond necklace. What Hunter doesn't know is that the necklace was a phony, and that the adulterous Mrs. Benson has resorted to fraud in order to provide financial support to her current lover. The lady's chickens come home to roost in a disastrous manner when she tries to buy back the stolen goods from the bewildered thief. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1986
This episode marks the first appearance of Calhoun Fletcher (Peter Bonerz), the troublesome--and trouble-prone--distant cousin of mystery writer Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury). At the behest of her Aunt Mildred (played in a delightful cameo by filmdom's former "Blondie" Penny Singleton), Jessica agrees to look up Calhoun in New Orleans, where the Mardi Gras celebration is in full swing. It turns out that Jessica's sleuthing talents are desperately needed: Cal has been accused of murdering a famous--and famously crooked--professional poker player. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
The humor in this Chevy Chase comedy lies solely in the eyes of the beholder. The comic plays Eddie Muntz, an arms dealer looking to make a big sale of war planes to a South American dictator. In order to do so, his girlfriend (Sigourney Weaver) has to sleep with the dictator and his friend (Gregory Hines) has to be convinced to do one more killing. Eddie's archenemy is Stryker (Vince Edwards) who wants to make that deal himself and will stop at nothing to obtain his ends. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Sigourney Weaver, (more)
- 1977
In the conclusion of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), new mother Mary Ellen (Judy Norton-Taylor) is in a state of panic after her baby son John Curtis Willard disappears. It turns out the infant has been kidnapped by a girl named Cassie (Beth Raines), who has not been in her right mind since the death of her own infant. Elsewhere, the Walton men conspire to keep Olivia (Michael Learned) from finding out that Jason (Jon Walmsley) has landed a piano-playing job in a seedy burlesque house! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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