Jay Scherick Movies
- 2012
Norbit writing duo Jay Scherick and David Ronn re-team to pen this family-friendly Eddie Murphy comedy adapted from the popular late-'70s/early-'80s television series and featuring the former SNL funnyman in numerous roles -- including that of the white-suited host originally played by Ricardo Montalban. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy
- 2010
Paul Blart's Kevin James stars as a lovelorn zookeeper who gets a little help from his animal buddies in order to find a mate in MGM's The Zookeeper. Click's Frank Coraci directs from a script by Jay Scherick and David Ronn. Voice acting talent for the animals includes such stars as Adam Sandler, Jon Favreau, Sylvester Stallone, Judd Apatow, and Cher. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
A meek and lovable milquetoast married to an overbearing, overweight tyrant finds his life turned upside down when he meets the woman of his dreams in this romantic comedy starring Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Eddie Griffin. His entire life, Norbit (Murphy) has been picked on and put down, and after being bullied into marrying the most obnoxious woman in town (also Murphy) it appears as if that's the way things will remain until the day he dies. Upon meeting the one woman who seems to accept him for who he is, Norbit is instilled with a newfound sense of hope for the future. In order to find true happiness, however, Norbit will first have to gather the courage to stand up to his monstrous spouse once and for all. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy
A man gets a very big surprise when he meets his prospective son-in-law in this comedy. Percy Jones (Bernie Mac) is the understandably proud father of Theresa (Zoe Saldana), a beautiful and intelligent young woman living in New York City. When Percy learns that his daughter is dating someone and things are getting serious, he decides to do some research, and learns that her beau is a solid businessman. Percy arranges to meet the young man, but is a bit taken aback when he comes face to face with Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher) -- Percy and his wife are African-American, and Simon is very, but very Caucasian. When it becomes clear that Simon and Theresa's relationship is likely altar-bound, Percy finds himself suddenly full of misgivings about the young man, especially since Simon tends to get rather clumsy when he's nervous. Guess Who was loosely adapted from the 1967 hit Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, though the race of the prospective father and son have been swapped, and the original film's comic undercurrent has been pushed to the forefront. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher, (more)
Adversaries become wary allies in this free-wheeling action comedy. Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) is a Los Angeles Police Department officer who finds himself out of a job after he becomes involved in a violent altercation with police academy flunk-out Earl Montgomery (Martin Lawrence), escalating into a media event which brings the LAPD a wealth of bad publicity. Unable to find work, Hank finally takes a job as a "rent-a-cop" with a private security firm -- and discovers to his annoyance that his new partner is Earl. While neither of them are thrilled to be working together on the lowest strata of the law enforcement community, the two find themselves dealing with bigger crime than they expected when they stumble across evidence of a elite smuggling network operated by criminal mastermind Nash (Eric Roberts). Hank and Earl want to put Nash out of business, and they try without success to persuade the police of the importance of the case. But before long they discover it's not just Nash's men who are after them, but two high-ranking LAPD officials, Lt. Washington (Bill Duke) and Detective McDuff (Colm Feore). National Security was directed by Dennis Dugan, who'd previously helmed antic comedies starring Adam Sandler and Chris Farley; this film also marked Martin Lawrence's entry into the elite of Hollywood's comedy stars, with Lawrence taking home a 20-million-dollar paycheck for his work on the picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Lawrence, Steve Zahn, (more)
A process server makes an unusual alliance with a beautiful but devious woman in this comedy. Joe Tyler (Matthew Perry) is a former attorney whose career went bust when he picked up some clients who turned out to be associated with the Mafia. These days, Joe makes his living as a process server, who presents people with legal papers -- papers they would usually prefer not to get. One of Joe's fellow servers, Tony (Vincent Pastore), is trying to weasel him out of his job, and has starting tipping off Joe's targets before he can deliver their papers in order to get Joe in dutch with their boss, Ray (Cedric the Entertainer). Joe, however, is able to persuade Ray to give him another chance with a high-profile client, Gordon (Bruce Campbell), a wealthy Texas cattle baron who has decided to divorce his wife and business partner, Sara (Elizabeth Hurley), in order to marry another woman, Kate (Amy Adams). When Joe presents Sara with the divorce papers, she is shocked by the news, which would cost her her half of the Gordon fortune. After Joe gets carjacked and finds herself on the same bus with Sara, she makes him a deal: If he's willing to take back the papers, say he never presented them, and serve a divorce petition to Gordon first, she'll pay Joe an even million dollars. Serving Sara became the focus of some unexpected controversy during its production -- first when Matthew Perry took a brief leave from the production to enter a rehabilitation clinic to fight an addiction to painkillers, and later when Elizabeth Hurley's former boyfriend, Steve Bing, accused Perry of being the father of Hurley's child (a charge both Hurley and Perry denied, and was proven false by blood tests). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Perry, Elizabeth Hurley, (more)
Yet another classic television series from the 1960s gets a big-screen update in this action-comedy inspired by the Bill Cosby/Robert Culp vehicle I Spy. Alex Scott (Owen Wilson) is a federal intelligence agent who has been assigned to find a particularly expensive and valuable weapon which has gone missing: a special stealth fighter jet which can not only hide from radar, but also turn invisible to the human eye. Scott learns a rogue agent has sold the jet to Gundars (Malcolm McDowell), a powerful and unscrupulous underground arms dealer. After blowing his opportunity to catch Gundars in the act, Scott formulates a Plan B -- it seems Gundars is a rabid boxing fan, so in order to get inside his organization, Scott recruits Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy), a longtime middleweight champion whose ego nearly exceeds his talent in the ring. Robinson is excited by the prospect of a life of espionage, but Scott and Robinson's personalities are like oil and water, and matters are hardly helped by the efforts of less-than-helpful fellow agents Rachel (Famke Janssen) and Carlos (Gary Cole). This adaptation of I Spy was directed by a woman who starred in a memorable television series herself, former Hill Street Blues regular Betty Thomas, who has gone on to a successful career behind the camera. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy, Owen Wilson, (more)
