Joel Murray Movies

Writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait skewers everything that's wrong with contemporary American culture in this firebomb satire about a disillusioned middle-aged man who embarks on a violent crime spree with a cynical teenage girl. Fed up with his selfish neighbors, fired from his soul-sucking job, and depressed at the infrequency of visits with his bratty young daughter, 45-year-old divorcé Frank (Joel Murray) prepares to end it all after being diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. Just as Frank is about to pull the trigger, however, he has a sudden flash of inspiration: Before he takes his own life, he'll do the world a big favor and permanently silence the loudmouthed teenage star of a popular reality-television show. After witnessing the clumsy execution firsthand, high-school misfit Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr) convinces Frank to continue his bloody mission of cultural cleansing with her as his sidekick. In no time, Frank and Roxy are leaving a trail of bodies in their wake, and making headlines across the country. But all good things must come to an end, and when their partnership hits an unexpected hitch, Frank draws up plans to go out with a final bang. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Peggy offers superb suggestions during a focus-group session, and her ideas are so well received that her future at the agency looks much brighter; Don asks Rachel's advice about an ad campaign for Israeli tourism. ~ Ray Stackhouse, Rovi

The brainchild of Rocko's Modern Life creator Joe Murray, the half-hour animated series Camp Lazlo was set at a summer camp populated by goofy-looking anthropomorphic animals. Most of the "Bean Scouts" at Camp Kidney were willing to follow orders and toe the line, which was just the way that Scoutmaster Lumpus, a egocentric, control-freak moose, preferred to have things. Unfortunately for Lumpus, he had to contend with the rule-bending shenanigans that went on in the camp's "Jelly Cabin". Ringleader for the troublemakers was Bean Scout Lazlo, a mischievous monkey; his best friends and co-conspirators were Raj, an adolescent elephant, and Clam, a pygmy rhino. To counteract the hijinks of Lazlo and his buddies, Lumpus kept a pair of obnoxious snitches at his beck and call: Slinkman, a nerdish banana slug; Edward, a snotty, anal-retentive Platypus; and Edward's own flunkeys, the dung beetles (Chip and Skip). Some of the episodes focused on the great rivalry between Camp Kindey and the all-girl Squirrel Scouts in the camp on the other side of Leakey Lake. Foremost among the Squirrel Scouts were Gretchen the alligator, Nina the giraffe, and Patsy the mongoose, who had a crush on Lazlo (and frequently crushed him in her enthusiasm!) A good, old-fashioned exercise in harmless cartoon nihilism, Camp Lazlo premiered July 8, 2005, on the Cartoon Network. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The feature film directing debut of actress Betty Thomas, this romantic farce attempts to mimic the screwball comedies of the 1930s. Andrew McCarthy stars as Cliff Godfrey, a doll house designer and perpetual loser in love who is dumped by his fiancee on the eve of their pre-nuptial vacation to Mexico. Informed by pretty travel agent Claire Enfield (Helen Hunt) that his tickets are non-refundable, the depressed Cliff goes to a bar, where he picks up a drunk party girl, Amanda Hughes (Kelly Preston), who agrees to accompany him on the trip south of the border. Once she sobers up, however, Amanda proceeds to make Cliff's vacation a nightmare, alternately flirting with and teasing him, then rejecting him for more studly prospects. But Cliff runs into Claire, who's staying at the same hotel while photographing a travel brochure, and the two begin spending time together, as Cliff helps her on the project by modeling for her pictures. Though Cliff and Claire are discovering that they are each other's soul mate, the flighty Amanda threatens to destroy their nascent romance. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

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, Rovi