Judy Jones Movies
- 1990
- PG
An adoptive parent discovers that some children are given up by their biological parents for very good reasons in this dark comedy. Ben Healy (John Ritter) is a pleasant but brow-beaten yuppie working for his father Big Ben (Jack Warden), a tyrannical sporting goods dealer. Ben would love to have a son, but his wife Flo (Amy Yasbeck) has been unable to conceive. Ben approaches less-than-scrupulous adoption agent Igor Peabody (Gilbert Gottfried) with his dilemma, and Igor presents Ben and Flo with a cute seven-year-old boy, Junior (Michael Oliver). However, Junior is hardly a model child; mean-spirited and incorrigible, the child leaves a path of serious destruction in his wake, and is even pen pals with Martin Beck (Michael Richards), a notorious serial killer. After the cat ends up in the hospital, the house catches on fire, and Junior displays his effective but unethical method for winning in Little League, Ben is having serious doubts about Junior when Beck escapes from jail and decides to kidnap his faithful correspondent, along with Junior's new mom. Problem Child proved to be a major box office success, spawning two sequels and a TV series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ritter, Michael Oliver, (more)
- 1947
Juke Joint is one of the better-known films, produced especially for African-American audiences in the 1930s and 1940s. Spencer Williams Jr. and July Jones play a couple of shabby but resourceful gents who hit town with only 25 cents between them. Turning on the charm with various ladies of wealth, Williams Jr. and Jones manage to bankroll a nightclub. The whole plot is, of course, an excuse to spotlight several variety acts. Spencer Williams Jr., the "auteur" of Juke Joint, is the same corpulent gent who played Andrew H. Brown on the old Amos 'N' Andy TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
