Edie McClurg Movies

Santa finds himself in serious trouble when Rusty Reindeer leaves the North Pole in order to do some soul searching in the big city, and a malfunctioning "Nice 'N Naughty O'Matic" leaves him unable to distinguish the good kids from the bad in this animated adventure for the entire family. Rusty Reindeer is having a personal crisis, and now he's hoping to find his true role in Christmas by venturing into the city and joining a support group for holiday icons. Meanwhile, as Rusty is trading stories with Albert the Thanksgiving turkey and Mr. C the ornery cupid, Santa's "Nice 'N Naughty O'Matic" goes on the fritz. Now a young boy who should have been on the good list has been mistakenly shifted to the bad, and in order to ensure that the child has a good Christmas Rusty will enlist the aid of moody Halloween ghosts Trick and Treat. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A pedal-to-the-metal race car determined to prove his worth on the tracks discovers that life isn't always about crossing the finish line first in Toy Story director John Lasseter's mechanically minded tale of friendship and loyalty. Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) may be just a rookie, but he's convinced that he can realize his dream of zooming by the checkered flag if he can only make it to California in time to compete in the upcoming Piston Cup Championship. When Lightning takes a detour into the slow-moving, Route 66 town of Radiator Springs, however, it begins to appear as if his shot at the big time has effectively stalled out. Of course, Lightning's exciting cross-country trek wasn't all for naught, and after befriending such quirky Radiator Springs residents as Sally the Porsche (voice of Bonnie Hunt), Doc Hudson (voice of Paul Newman), and Mater the Tow Truck (voice of Larry the Cable Guy), the eager young racer learns that sometimes life is more about the voyage than the outcome of the race. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The insane ramblings of a madman become all too real for a young medical student assigned to investigate the murder of a mental patient's mother in director Mark Edwin Robinson's twisted tale of psychological horror. Don Wake is a troubled soul whose secrets run deep. As the medical student assigned to the case pushes Don to reveal the true events that lead to his mother's murder, the mention of a menacing figure named Malachi leads her to believe that Don's paranoia has reached new heights. As a strange figure begins to stalk the suspicious student's every move, she is forced to question whether Don is telling the truth about the mysterious Malachi, or her overactive imagination is suddenly getting the best of her. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In keeping with his background in television sitcoms, Sam Weisman directs the cameo-filled comedy Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. Dickie Roberts (David Spade) was a child actor on the hit TV show "The Glimmer Gang" and remains remembered for a particular catch phrase. Now in his thirties, he finds work as a parking valet and spends time with other nominal child stars (enter cameos by Danny Bonaduce, Corey Feldman, and the like). Wanting to make a comeback, he manages to get an audition with director Rob Reiner. When the role requires him to be normal, he decides to hire a normal family in order to relive the childhood he missed out on. He ends up with sleazy salesman George Finney (Craig Bierko) and his loving wife, Grace (Mary McCormack). Dickie shares a room with their two kids: sunny daughter Sally (Jenna Boyd) and impressionable son Sam (Scott Tessa). Former child star Alyssa Milano appears as Dickie's girlfriend, Cyndi. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

A newly single woman confronts the perils of both dating and life in California in this independent comedy drama. Jules (Jenna Mattison) is an aspiring actress who has grown disenchanted with her handsome but remote boyfriend, Danny (Brad Rowe). Jules decides to break up with him and lands a role in a play in Los Angeles, where she has to fight off the none-too-subtle advances of her director, Michael (Bryan Callen). As rehearsals go on, Jules finds herself developing an infatuation with her co-star Ben (Brian Austin Green), but she isn't certain if she's ready for a new commitment so soon, which leads her into the strange world of dating in Hollywood. As she tries to sort out her future and her love life, Jules often confides in her close friend Vicki (Jennifer Blanc), a lesbian who carries just a bit of a torch for Jules, and she gets some solid if unexpected advice from middle-aged Greta (Edie McClurg). Jenna Mattison wrote the screenplay for Fish Without a Bicycle as well as playing the leading role, while Brian Austin Green did double duty by playing Jules' co-star and love interest while also directing the picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A shared affliction -- namely, breast cancer -- forges an unlikely friendship between two Southern women, ebullient young Amber Collins (Lauren Holly) and crabby, reclusive oldster Betty Miller (Faye Dunaway). As they join forces to battle and cope with their disease, Amber and Betty also end up helping one another with their respective romantic entanglements. Tom Skerritt is cast as Betty's faithless former flame, Johnny Pinkley (now the self-styled Lothario of a nursing home), while Ian Somerhalder plays Amber's troubled -- and much younger -- amour Jason Kelly. Daniel Wright adapted the script of this independently produced movie from his own award-winning play Colored Eggs (the film's working title), retaining the original's sizeable supporting cast of lovable eccentrics. Decked out with musical highlights by Rita Coolidge, Earl and Randy Scruggs, Jan Howard, and Jeannie Seely, Changing Hearts was given scattered theatrical release in 2002 before it was picked up for TV play by the Lifetime cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A pair of former high school sweethearts whose love has never faltered looks forward to a life of marital bliss until, on the eve of the groom's Las Vegas bachelor party, the bride suddenly calls off the wedding with no explanation. Their once promising future together instantly destroyed for reasons unknown to the would-be groom, the pair soon boards an airplane bound for home to pick up the pieces of their fractured lives and attempt to surmise just where it was that everything began to fall apart. Jeremy Sisto and Rashida Jones star in an incisive romantic comedy that proves once and for all that you can never tell where love will lead you. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Mel Brooks is back as Paul's redoubtable Uncle Phil. As Paul (Paul Reiser) stands on the sidelines with mouth agape, Uncle Phil elects to go for his high school diploma -- some 63 years after dropping out. This plot development is almost as fascinating as the breast-transplant treatment undergone by Jamie's (Helen Hunt) mercurial sister, Lisa (Anne Elizabeth Ramsay). ~ All Movie Guide

John Lasseter, director of Pixar's movie phenomenon Toy Story, has set new standards in computer animation with this effort, another Disney-released children's epic entitled A Bug's Life. Blending classic Disney storytelling characters and the mysterious underground world of bugs, Lasseter has created a film that can be enjoyed by all audiences, and another franchise in the process. A Bug's Life is a computerized retelling of the Aesop fable The Ant and the Grasshopper, made as a cartoon-short by the one-and-only, Walt Disney, in the mid-'30s. However, A Bug's Life has modernized the story with many new twists and celebrity voices. The story focuses on a colony of ants who seasonally gather food for themselves and a wild gang of rowdy grasshoppers. When bumbling worker ant Flik (David Foley) destroys the food supply, the angry grasshoppers, lead by the maniacally warped Hopper (Kevin Spacey), threaten to kill the ants if they don't produce a new supply of food by the time they return -- an impossible feat. Flik leaves the anthill in search of help in the form of bigger bugs, and to wage war against the grasshoppers. What he doesn't know is he has actually discovered a group of down-on-their-luck traveling circus insects in need of a job. When the ants realize that their heroes are really circus performers (and the circus bugs realize these grasshoppers are really big and mean), the situation goes from bad to worse. Ultimately, the ants use their large numbers to overcome the grasshoppers. ~ Chris Gore, All Movie Guide

In this dark comedy, Peter (Josh Charles) is a well-educated Jewish writer from Los Angeles who has fallen in love with Melanie (Alexandra Wentworth), who was born and raised in the Deep South -- where much of her family still lives. Melanie travels to Georgia for a few days to visit her father, Col. Branson (Lloyd Bridges), but Peter soon gets a call from Melanie, begging him to come down and "rescue" her from her family. It isn't until Peter arrives that he fully understands what Melanie is talking about. Most of her relatives can be politely described as "eccentric," while the Colonel is only a few steps away from psychotic, so Josh busily brainstorms a way for he and Melanie to go back to L.A. sooner rather than later. Meeting Daddy also features Beau Bridges, son of star Lloyd Bridges; appropriately enough, Beau plays Lloyd's son. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Although dimwitted Lonnie (Charles Esten) has only recently held the Bundy family hostage, Kelly Bundy (Christina Applegate) has fallen madly in love with him--and in fact wants to become his bride. Al (Ed O'Neill) is dead set against the union, rightly summing up Lonnie as a faithless fool, but he changes his mind when he discover that the boy's father (Gordon Jump) is a millionaire. Originally telecast back-to-back with the previous episode "The Desperate Half-Hour", this final-first run Married. . .With Children installment has all the earmarks of a pilot for a spinoff starring Christina Applegate and Charles Esten--until Al throws a monkey wrench in the works in the last few seconds! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Here's something new in the annals of made-for-cable movies: a dysfunctional family of three in outer space. Coming across a derelict spaceship, Foster Carver (Corbin Bernsen), his wife, Katrina (Lara Harris), and their daughter, Amy (Brittany Ashton Holmes), rescue the vessel's sole survivor, a handsome fellow named Adam (Richard Grieco). It soon develops that everyone else on the derelict ship has been murdered, and that Adam is an android who has been programmed without morals or conscience -- as proven when Adam brazenly sets about to seduce Katrina and wipe out the rest of her family. An extraterrestrial variation on the old theatrical feature Dead Calm, Inhumanoid originally aired July 23, 1996, as part of the Showtime channel's "Roger Corman Presents" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A frenetic, bloody look at mass murder and the mass media, director Oliver Stone's extremely controversial film divided critics and audiences with its mixture of over-the-top violence and bitter cultural satire. At the center of the film, written by Stone and Quentin Tarantino, among others, are Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis), a young couple united by their desire for each other and their common love of violence. Together, they embark on a record-breaking, exceptionally gory killing spree that captivates the sensation-hungry tabloid media. Their fame is ensured by one newsman, Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.), who reports on Mickey and Mallory for his show, American Maniacs. Even the duo's eventual capture by the police only increases their notoriety, as Gale develops a plan for a Super Bowl Sunday interview that Mickey and Mallory twist to their own advantage. Visually overwhelming, Robert Richardson's hyperkinetic cinematography switches between documentary-style black-and-white, surveillance video, garishly colored psychedelia, and even animation in a rapid-fire fashion that mirrors the psychosis of the killers and the media-saturated culture that makes them popular heroes. The film's extreme violence -- numerous edits were required to win an R rating -- became a subject of debate, as some critics asserted that the film irresponsibly glorified its murderers and blamed the filmmakers for potentially inciting copy-cat killings. Defenders argued that the film attacks media obsession with violence and satirizes a sensationalistic, celebrity-obsessed society. Certain to provoke discussion, Natural Born Killers will thoroughly alienate many viewers with its shock tactics, chaotic approach, and disturbing subject matter, while others will value the combination of technical virtuosity and dark commentary on the modern American landscape. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide