Allyce Beasley Movies

Two men look for a wife -- just one will do, thank you -- in this offbeat comedy. Jake (Tim Blake Nelson) and Josh (David Arquette) are two brothers who live and work in a vegetable farm somewhere in the Midwest, where they're looked after by their Ma (Lois Smith), who cooks, cleans, and keeps the guys company. When Ma dies, Jake and Josh find they're a bit lonely all by their lonesome, and more importantly, they're not much good at everyday domestic activities, so they decide to do the sensible thing -- one of them will get married so they'll have someone else to talk to and handle things in the kitchen and the laundry room. Woefully naïve, socially clumsy, and less interested in romance than day-to-day practicalities, Jake and Josh decide to head out on a matchmaking tour to St. Petersburg, Russia, where they're promised introductions to hundreds of women over the space of two weeks, in hopes that they'll find an understanding, old-fashioned wife who doesn't mind having a third wheel around at all times. A Foreign Affair was shot on location in St. Petersburg in the former Soviet Union, and in Chihuahua, Mexico, which stood in for the United States. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

E.B. White's classic children's story is brought to the screen in this fantasy, which combines computer-animated characters with a cast of live actors. Mrs. Little (Geena Davis), Mr. Little (Hugh Laurie), and their son George (Jonathan Lipnicki) live in a brownstone near New York's Central Park. The Littles have decided to adopt a younger brother for George, and while they're meeting the children at an orphanage, they are greeted by a mouse named Stuart (voice of Michael J. Fox), who can talk, walk upright, wear clothes, and do nearly anything a human child can do. The Littles are so taken with Stuart that they decide to adopt him, and soon the rest of the family is just as charmed by Stuart -- with the possible exception of Snowbell (voice of Nathan Lane), their house cat. The cast of humans includes Jennifer Tilly, Bruno Kirby, and Dabney Coleman; animal voices are contributed by Chazz Palminteri and Steve Zahn, Jim Doughan, and David Alan Grier. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This biographical drama was based on the true story of Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic who devoted much of her life to working with the poor and homeless on New York City's Lower East Side. Born in an Episcopalian household in 1897, Day (played by Moira Kelly) was a free-thinking agnostic in her young adulthood; she contributed to radical leftist journals and was friends with the likes of Eugene O'Neill (James Lancaste) and Mike Gold (Paul Lieber). After undergoing a painful abortion and giving birth to another child out of wedlock after her lover, Foster Batterham (Lenny Von Dohlen), abandoned her rather than marry, Day embraced Catholicism, a faith she would cling to strongly for the rest of her life. Day's leftist politics and her sense of personal activism remained; she established a political journal, "The Catholic Worker," in association with self-described Christian anarchist Peter Maurin (Martin Sheen), and was a tireless and outspoken champion of the rights of the poor and disenfranchised. Day came under heavy criticism for her political and social activism; as she put it, "If you feed the poor, you're called a saint, but if you ask why they're poor, you're called a Communist." However, Day continued her mission undaunted until her death in 1980, when she was called America's Mother Teresa. Entertaining Angels was produced by Paulist Pictures, a Catholic organization who also produced Romero, another film about a noted Catholic activist. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This groan-inducing would-be camp from the director of Leprechaun boasts some good makeup by Kevin Yagher but is still easily the worst of the '90s crop of fairy-tale horrors. Kim Johnston Ulrich plays a widowed mother who buys a jade rock at an antique store. When she cries on it, she releases Rumpelstiltskin (Max Grodenchik), a soulless hunchbacked gnome who grants wishes, demanding newborn babies as his price. He also spews a lot of bogus Freddie Krueger wisecracks, dons sunglasses to ride a motorcycle, and pulls off his own head to bite a cop's neck. Most of the film follows Ulrich and an obnoxious talk-show host (Tommy Blaze) as they flee from the little goon with Ulrich's baby. There are chases by motorcycle, 18-wheeler, dune buggy, bulldozer, and police car, as well as several crowd-pleasing explosions. At one point, Ulrich runs over the gnome and his severed hand gives her the finger. That should give an indication of the level of entertainment contained herein. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

When a rebellious young woman's cocaine habit results in an addicted premature baby, authorities whisk the infant away. Devastated, the young mother realizes that she will have to prove herself worthy and capable of motherhood and so sets out to clean up her act. Unfortunately, it may be too little too late as far as the courts are concerned. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Christina (Susan Dey) is a cocaine addict in a tumultuous relationship with an equally drug-addicted boyfriend. When she becomes pregnant, the baby is born not only prematurely but with the chemical dependency of its mother. Now Christina is in a fight to make her life clean and stable so that social services will allow her to have custody of her daughter. But first, she'll have to convince not only her jaded case worker, but herself, that she can. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

This allegorical comedy from scriptwriter Joe Minion (After Hours, Vampire's Kiss) offers a unique twist on the standard road movie formula. It tells the story of a young boy named Gus who grows sick and tired of parental squabbles and decides to steal his dad's red Mustang and hit the highway on a cross-country journey. The country presented in this film, however, is not the U.S., but a fictional land with states such as Bergen and Essex - a land with parallels to a giant board game. While on the road, Gus spots a billboard inviting him to play the "Motorama" game, a promotional effort by a major gas station that promises winners $500 million dollars. In order to win, one simply has to collect enough game cards from Chimera gas stations all over the country to spell out the word "Motorama." As Gus approaches his goal of collecting all eight letters, he has assorted adventures, many of them strange and a few that are distinctly unpleasant. The film features cameos from several notable cult favorites, including character players Jack Nance and Dick Miller, actress Drew Barrymore, and even the pop singer Meat Loaf. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this horror film, the murderous Ricky returns under the control of a cult of demon-possessed women, who use the killer for their own evil means. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Only 15 episodes of Moonlighting were produced during season three, down from the previous season's 18. The series' producers and stars made no secret of the fact that the production delays were being caused by backstage personality clashes; indeed, beginning in mid-season, each episode opened with an amusing "explanation" as to why the series was yielding so few new episodes. However, those episodes that were completed remain among the series' best. Highlights include the season opener, in which private eye David Addison (Bruce Willis, who won an Emmy for his work during season three) is uncomfortably reunited with his scapegrace father (Paul Sorvino); an elaborate It's a Wonderful Life takeoff spotlighting David's partner and erstwhile girlfriend Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd), featuring Lionel Stander reprising his role as Max from the earlier detective series Hart to Hart; a hastily assembled "clip" show, produced to fill a huge production gap, in which Pierce Brosnan recreates his earlier TV character Remington Steele, and which also features "commentary" by Cybill Shepherd's former mentor (and lover) Peter Bogdanovich; the increasing prominence of Curtis Armstrong in the role of Herbert Viola, David and Maddie's nebbishy junior partner at the Blue Moon Detective Agency; another thrilling solo "caper" for the agency's flighty receptionist Agnes DiPesto (Allyce Beasley), this one set in a supposedly haunted house; and a four-part story arc in which Maddie is torn between her growing affection for David and the romantic overtures of her new suitor, yuppie Sam Crawford (Mark Harmon). The most memorable of the season's episodes is a riotous spoof of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, replete with faux Elizabethan dialogue. But the biggest event of the entire season occurs at the very end, when after three years of verbal and physical fencing, David and Maddie finally consummate their relationship. ~ Rovi

The irrepressibly hip detective series Moonlighting really shifts into high gear for its second season, which offers 18 delightfully intriguing episodes, chock-full of knowledgeable inside jokes and eccentric deviations from the plotlines. In the opener, reluctantly teamed private eyes Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) and David Addison (Bruce Willis) find themselves in hot water thanks to David's charming but thoroughly untrustworthy older brother (Charles Rocket). In later episodes, the couple is hired by a self-proclaimed lady leprechaun to find her missing pot o' gold; Christmas Eve finds the Blue Moon Detective Agency being used as a combination nursery and "Santa Hot Line"; the agency's ditsy secretary, Agnes DiPesto (Allyce Beasley), gets the thrill of her life when she subs for her bosses at a fancy ball; a Hitchcock-style plotline, replete with Bernard Herrmannesque music, finds Maddie probing the mysterious suicide of the artist who pained her portrait; an elderly client insists that David and Maddie serve as "expert witnesses" -- to his own murder; and Whoopi Goldberg guest stars as a con artist who becomes a target for assassination after inadvertently emerging as a national hero. Other highlights include the first appearance of Maddie's well-heeled parents (played by Eva Marie Saint and Robert Webber) and a lavish film noir black-and-white episode in which Dave and Maddie solve a cold case from 1946 -- and which is dedicated to narrator Orson Welles, who died five days before the episode was telecast. ~ Rovi

First telecast in early 1985, the 2-hour pilot film for the lighthearted TV detective series Moonlighting opens with fashion model Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepard) discovering that her business manager has skipped with her fortune. The only asset she has left is the ramshackle Blue Moon Detective Agency, manned by acerbic David Addison (Bruce Willis). Maddie takes an immediate dislike to David, while he considers her a sexual conquest-to-be. The twosome continues to bicker their way through their first case, pausing for amenities only when it appears that both of them are about to be bumped off. Once safely back in the office, their verbal guerilla warfare resumes, leading the viewer to expect marvelous things from the subsequent Moonlighting TV series. Little of the series' fabled self-consciousness (talking directly to the audience, making references to the quality of the scriptwriting, etc.) surfaces in the Moonlighting pilot, but the film works well despite this "drawback." The series itself ran (or, as it turned out, limped) until May of 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this lightweight made-for-television domestic comedy, a beautiful divorcee, who got the house and the kids, finds herself allowing her husband and his ditzy young fiancee to stay with them after he gets into financial dire straits. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi