Amy Hill Movies
- 1985
- PG
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Wayne Wang's follow-up to his low-budget success Chan Is Missing is a gentle, slice-of-life comedy about the shifting relationship between a widowed mother and her thirty-year-old unmarried daughter in San Francisco's Chinatown. Mrs. Tam (Kim Chew) lives with her youngest daughter Geraldine (Laureen Chew) -- her older children having already left home. Geraldine is a graduate student who wants to live on her own but tells herself that she should stay at home with her mother and her Uncle Tam (Victor Wong), a happy-go-lucky bartender who would like to marry Mrs. Tam if only Geraldine would just go away and get married. Mrs. Tam, convinced that she will die before she hits 62, wants to see her daughter married. But under the surface, Mrs. Tam likes Geraldine's presence in her house, Uncle Tam may not be serious about his marriage intentions, and Geraldine herself could possibly be using her mother as an excuse not to get married and have to assume responsibility. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laureen Chew, Kim Chew, (more)
Director Steven Okazaki has made less than a handful of documentaries but has received awards or nominations for all of them. This look at the internment of Americans of Japanese descent in detention camps during World War II is a compelling story of that gross injustice (and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1985). Okazaki combines newsreel footage of that time, interviews with the three men who went to court to fight the internment, and clips from their press conferences. To round out the narration, he adds some sequences from Point of Order, a play about one of the court cases. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
The murderous Evelyn (Anna Chappell) runs her own version of the Bates Motel, a series of run-down units set on a mountainside. After the batty Evelyn finds her daughter performing a Satanic ritual in the basement, she stabs her to death and then invents a story for the suspicious sheriff. A number of people arrive for the daughter's funeral and they are put up at the motel. Evelyn, meanwhile, tries terrifying her guests with hordes of rats and nasty bugs. When this isn't enough, she decides to up the terror factor by using her sickle, exterminating the guests instead of the bugs and rats. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Thurman, Anna Chappell, (more)
- 1988
In the conclusion of Night Court's two-part Season Six opener (originally telecast as a single hour-long "special"), prosecutor Dan Fielding (John Larroquette) is still marooned in a remote Eskimo village after surviving a plane crash. Successfully--if nervously--performing an emergency appendectomy, Dan then manages to alert the authorities to his whereabouts. Returning to New York City in a barely recognizable condition (shaggy beard and all), Dan arrives just in time to attend his own funeral! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Night Court launches its sixth season with the second episode of a two-part story, introduced as the cliffhanger ending of Season Five (the denouement was originally telecast on October 26, 1988 as a one-hour special, later to be re-edited for syndication as two separate episodes). Judge Harry T. Stone (Harry Anderson) and the Night Court staff are mourning the demise of smarmy prosecutor Dan Fielding (John Larroquette), who was reported killed in an Alaskan plane crash. In truth, however, Dan is still alive, having been rescued by an Eskimo family after his plane did "a half-gainer" in a glacier. Now stuck in the remote village of Kiska, Dan sets off a flare to alert the authoritities of his whereabouts--and accidentally incapacitates the only doctor in the area who is able to perform an emergency appendectomy on an Eskimo girl! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A darkly comic and surreal contemporization of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, this effects-heavy Bill Murray holiday vehicle from 1988 sees the former SNL funnyman assuming the role of television executive Frank Cross, the meanest and most depraved man on earth. Cross will stoop to unheard of levels to increase his network's ratings -- even if it means mounting outrageous programs to retain an audience, such as "Robert Goulet's Cajun Christmas" and Lee Majors in "The Night the Reindeer Died," with an AK-47-toting Santa. Cross plots his foulest move, however, for the Christmas holiday, when he will force his office staff to mount a live production of A Christmas Carol on national television -- and thus work through Christmas Eve. Cross's life is turned upside down with visits from three ghosts: a craggy-faced cabbie known as The Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen); the sugar-plum fairy Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) (who gets her jollies by bonking Frank across the face with a toaster oven); and, eventually, the caped, headless Ghost of Christmas Future, who will send Frank sliding into a crematory oven -- just before he gives the sleazoid one last chance to redeem himself. Along the way, the spirits carry Frank to scenes from his past, present, and future (per Scrooge) and impart a glimpse of how he became so thoroughly rotten. The radiant Karen Allen co-stars as Frank's girlfriend, Claire Phillips, and the film packs in cameos from countless celebrities -- among them, Mary Lou Retton, John Houseman, Jamie Farr, and, in a truly grisly and tasteless bit, John Forsythe. Richard Donner directs, from a script credited to the late Michael O'Donoghue and Mitch Glazer. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Murray, Karen Allen, (more)
- 1988
The wife of a policeman hires a private detective to spy on her unfaithful husband in this mystery film noir send-up. The detective finds no proof of infidelity but uncovers a drug-running operation that involves the crooked cop. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Brisbin, Taunie Vrenon, (more)
Bill Cosby mugs so uncontrollably that it looks as if he may be the victim of a muscular disorder in the inane and unfunny Ghost Dad. Cosby plays Elliot, a workaholic widower with three children -- Danny (Salim Grant), Amanda (Brooke Fontainbe), and the teenage Diane (Kimberly Russell). Elliot is hoping to close a big deal that will mean a promotion, more money, and lots of perks, but a cab ride with a freaked-out cab driver causes his untimely demise. Elliot discovers that he is now a ghost and has to learn to spend more time with his kids rather than worry about money and career. Otherwise, after three days, he'll be whisked away into the great beyond. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Cosby, Kimberly Russell, (more)
- 1990
- R
Set in a grim post-WW III America, this sci-fi fantasy tells the story of a woman attempting to sell black-market computer chips that allow patrons to experience the nearly forgotten pleasures of sex and drugs. She is hanging out with the gang she works for in a local nightclub when the police raid the joint. She manages to escape and decides to double cross her gang and sell the chips for herself. But first she must escape both the police and the gangsters and make it to the New York underground. She is helped out when she runs into Plughead, an android covered with electrical outlets. He uses these to tap in to the fantasies of other people. The soundtrack by Deborah Holland provides a highlight. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Metzler, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, (more)
Set amidst the burgeoning Seattle alternative music scene of the early '90s, Singles follows a group of twentysomethings as they try to find love and try to come to terms with their passage into adulthood. Arranged as an episodic comedy, the film follows a group of friends who live in the same apartment building and hang out at the same coffee shop. The central couple is Steve Dunne (Campbell Scott) and Linda Powell (Kyra Sedgwick), a pair who meet at an Alice In Chains concert and eventually fall in love. Singles follows the tumultuous relationship between Steve and Linda and their friendship with Janet Livermore (Bridget Fonda), who is trying to win the affection of grunge-rocker Cliff Poncier (Matt Dillon). The film also has a number of cameos, including actors Eric Stoltz, Tom Skerritt, Peter Horton, director Tim Burton and the film's author/director, Cameron Crowe. From the musical side of the fence, Singles features appearances by Sub Pop executive Bruce Pavitt, musicians Chris Cornell (Soundgarden), Pat DiNizio (Smithereens), Tad (Tad), and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament, and Stone Gossard, who play Dillon's backing band, Citizen Dick. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, (more)
When Michael Crichton wrote his best-selling thriller Rising Sun, he wrote the character of hero John Connor with Sean Connery in mind. For Philip Kaufman's film version of the novel, Sean Connery, needless to say, fits seamlessly into the role of a legendary police detective who is an expert in Japanese culture. The story takes place in the towering office building of the Japanese Nakamoto Corporation in Los Angeles, who are negotiating a deal with Microcon, an American electronics firm. During a gala held one night in the Nakamoto offices, the body of a woman, Cheryl Lynn Austin (Tatjana Patitz) is found murdered in the main conference room. Arriving quickly on the scene is high-amped police lieutenant Tom Graham (Harvey Keitel), who oozes hatred for anything Japanese from every pore. When he has trouble getting cooperation from the Nakatomo executives, Graham calls in Web Smith (Wesley Snipes), a Special Services liaison, and John Connor (Connery), a man well-versed in Japanese culture and traditions. Together they form a team as they investigate the crime. Connor questions computer video expert Jingo (Tia Carrere), who works on a security system computer disc that captures the killer's identity. The only problem is that the image of the killer on the disc has been altered to conceal the murderer's face. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, (more)
If you met Adolph Hitler when he was just a struggling cartoonist, wouldn't you have done the world a big favor by murdering him? That philosophical question provides the linchpin of this black comedy. Jude (Cameron Diaz), Pete (Ron Eldard), Paulie (Annabeth Gish), Marc (Jonathan Penner), and Luke (Courtney B. Vance) are five graduate students who are confirmed members of the political left, participate in small-scale activism, and share a house together. One night, Pete is stuck in the middle of nowhere, and Zack (Bill Paxton), a truck driver, gives him a lift home. The housemates are just about to sit down to dinner, so to show his gratitude, Pete asks Zack to join them. However, it soon becomes obvious that Zack doesn't share the group's political views, and when he states that he thinks Hitler had the right idea, the argument turns into a fight, with Zack brandishing a knife. The trucker is accidentally killed in the scuffle, and rather than report the death to the police, his body is buried in the backyard vegetable garden. However, the event prompts much discussion among the housemates -- if Zack was a hateful bigot, isn't the world better off without him? And wouldn't killing other ignorant hatemongers improve society all the more? Before long, the group is having a weekly dinner party in which they invite a special guest -- including an anti-environmental activist (Jason Alexander), a right-wing religious leader (Charles Durning), a sexist who doesn't believe there's such a thing as rape (Mark Harmon), and a teenager campaigning against sex education in schools (Erin Bryn) -- and serve them some wine, which happens to be laced with arsenic. While the group's attempt at community improvement does wonders for their tomato plants, the recent disappearances eventually attract the attention of the local sheriff (Nora Dunn). The Last Supper was the first feature for director Stacy Title, who won an Academy Award for her short subject Down on the Waterfront; screenwriter Dan Rosen appears in a supporting role as a police deputy. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cameron Diaz, Ron Eldard, (more)
This independent debut film for writer-director Chris Chan Lee follows the adventures of a group of eight L.A. teenagers on the last night before their high school graduation. Sin Lee (Michael Chung) can't join in the fun his friends have planned, because his parents are making him mind their grocery store. The store is robbed at gunpoint, and the thieves make off with $1,500. Sin tells his friends that his father won't let him go to college unless he gets the money back. The young men and women decide to find the thieves and the money, and spend a wild and dangerous night trying to recover the loot. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- 1999
After nearly two months of pre-emptions, Mad About You returned on April 26, 1999. with a brace of first-run episodes. In "Murray at the Dog Show," the Buchmans' pet pooch remains traumatized by the "Puma in the Kitchen" incident earlier in the seventh season. On a potentially happier note, therapist Sheila Kleinman (Mo Gaffney) declares that Paul (Paul Reiser) and Jamie (Helen Hunt) are cured -- but Jamie doesn't buy this diagnosis. And how does Billy Joel figure into all this? ~ All Movie Guide
- 2000
Still harboring what she thinks is a harmless crush on her personal assistant Tag (Eddie Cahill), Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) writes a capricious work evaluation for him -- which ends up being delivered to the human relations department. In other developments, the friends make Phoebe's dream come true by buying her a bike, unaware that Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) wouldn't know how to ride the vehicle to save her life. And Monica (Courteney Cox) learns how to make candy...but not how to make new friends. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cahill, Cole Sprouse, (more)
- 2000
Brassy, bosomy Julie Brown headlines an ensemble cast in this Comedy Central series set in that scourge of consumer culture, the strip mall. Brown plays Tammi, a former child actor who fell upon hard times after assaulting an elder co-star. Now she's pushing drinks at a desolate mini-mall watering hole. As a remedy to her situation, she plots to marry and subsequently kill the mall's dry-cleaning entrepreneur, Harvey (Jim O'Heir). Meanwhile, other wacky store-owning neighbors show up: the lesbian duo who helm the strip mall's Chinese restaurant; the Russian emigrant who juggles wedding videography with his amateur pornography business; the spacey wicker artisan who can't sell a basket to save her life; and the smarmy insurance agent a few doors down from Tammi's bar. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Brown, Tim Bagley, (more)
In this sequel to the urban comedy Friday, rap music star Ice Cube returns as Craig Jones, a streetwise man from South Central Los Angeles who has a knack for getting into trouble. This time out, Craig is still trying to outsmart neighborhood bully Debo (Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.); after Craig gets the better of Debo in a fist fight, Debo is determined to flatten Craig in a rematch. Looking to stay out of Debo's way, Craig decides that it would be a good time to visit his cousin (Mike Epps) and uncle (Don "DC" Curry), who have recently won the lottery and moved into a spacious new home in the suburbs. Like Friday, Next Friday was written by Ice Cube and his frequent musical collaborator DJ Pooh; music video director Steve Carr made his feature debut with this film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
A woman defies convention to find happiness, only to discover the costs are greater than she imagined in this drama based on the novel by Pearl S. Buck. In 1938, with Communist rebels on the rise in China and Imperial Japan intent upon expanding its rule into Manchuria and China, Lord Wu (Shek Sau) is a feudal leader who rules both his community and his family with an iron fist. But his wife, Madame Wu (Luo Yan), has just turned 40 and has grown weary of her husband's dominance. With her son Fengmo (John Cho) now 18 and engaged to be married, Madame Wu sees her responsibilities to her family all but complete, so in violation of traditional custom, she arranges for Chiuming (Yi Ding), a peasant girl just turned 18, to be brought into the household as Lord Wu's concubine, freeing her from sexual servitude to her husband. However, Chiuming's lack of sexual experience proves problematic for herself as well as Lord Wu, whose erotic tastes run to the unconventional. Meanwhile, Madame Wu makes the acquaintance of Andre (Willem Dafoe), an American missionary and doctor who is helping Fengmo with his studies; Andre is kind, compassionate, and intelligent, and he makes a tremendous impression on Madame Wu, who soon finds herself falling for the mysterious American as circumstances cause both her household and China to explode into chaos. Pavilion of Women was the first co-production between an American studio, Universal Pictures, and Beijing Film Studio of China; the film was shot on location in China, but with a primarily English-speaking cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Willem Dafoe, Luo Yan, (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)
The women of a suburban town are suddenly forced to live without men in a feminist comedy that parodies the mood and look of '50s sci-fi thrillers. Lisa LaStrada (Mary Woronov) is a seemingly happy housewife in the quiet desert community of Lacuna. But looks can be deceiving, and not all is well in the LaStrada household; Lisa's husband, Jay (Michael White), the local sheriff, is having an affair with her friend Virginia (Roma Maffia). Lisa's sister, Janet (Jaime Tolbert), has problems of her own, running her grocery delivery business and propping up her marriage to Steve (Matt North). One day, a bizarre lightning storm hits Lacuna, and the next morning, while the women wake up, all the men in the community appear to be in a comatose state. Soon it appears that every man in America has fallen into a deep sleep, and no one can wake them, and the women of Lacuna discover they have wildly different reactions to this crisis -- some are lost without their husbands, some are perfectly happy getting to know one another better, while a few ponder the future of the human race without men, who may never wake up again. The New Women also stars Sandra Kinder, Jane Ray, Amy Hill, Jenny Shimizu, and Cheryl Dunye. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Woronov, Jaime Tolbert, (more)
The world of competitive figure skating takes a pratfall in this satiric comedy. Professor Robinson (Chris Hogan) is a documentary filmmaker whose latest project presents an in-depth look at three figure skaters hoping to someday rise from the lowest rungs of amateur competition into the ranks of the U.S. Olympic Team. Robinson's subjects are Veda Tilman (Barret Swatek), a high-strung young woman who suffers from an eating disorder; J.C. Cain (A.J. Langer), a chain-smoking trailer-park refugee with more than her share of attitude; and Wendy Wodinski (Marissa Winokur), whose rotund build would make her seem like an unlikely contender for a skating championship. As Veda, J.C., and Wendy train for their next match, seen-it-all Zamboni driver Phil (Jason Alexander) offers his perspective on the action. On Edge features cameos from noted comic actors Kathy Griffin, Michael McKean, and Wendie Malick, as well as appearances by real-life skating champions Scott Hamilton, Kristi Yamaguchi, Tai Babilonia, Randy Gardner, Steven Cousins, and Peter Carruthers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Alexander, John Glover, (more)
Former co-stars of the TV sitcom Head of the Class teamed up to write the story and script for this teen comedy. When junior high-school student Jason Shepherd (Frankie Muniz) realizes that his class paper has been ripped off and turned into a hit motion picture called "Big Fat Liar," he takes matters into his own hands. Along with his best friend, Kaylee (Amanda Bynes), Jason travels to Los Angeles, where he intends to confront Hollywood big shot Marty Wolf (Paul Giamatti), the sleazy producer responsible for ripping him off. When he's unable to get Wolf to do the right thing, Jason subjects the showbiz power broker to a series of humiliating pranks and stunts designed to make an honest man out of him. Big Fat Liar co-stars Lee Majors and Amanda Detmer. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frankie Muniz, Paul Giamatti, (more)
