Michael Oliver 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)
- 1991
- PG13
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the adoption agency, along comes this sequel to the 1990 comedy hit Problem Child. Ben Healy (John Ritter) and his sociopathically unruly son Junior (Michael Oliver) move out of town after Ben and his wife split up. Ben discovers that his new city is overrun with divorced women looking for husbands, and Lawanda Dumore (Laraine Newman) soon sets her predatory sights on Ben. However, Lawanda doesn't care for Junior (not difficult to understand) and intends to ship him off to boarding school as soon as she and Ben tie the knot. Junior gets wind of her plans and does all in his power to scuttle them. Meanwhile, Junior finds a new playmate -- Trixie (Ivyann Schwan), a girl even more obnoxious than himself, who is the daughter of Annie (Amy Yasbeck), the school's nurse, who also has her eye on Ben. Oddly enough, Amy Yasbeck also appeared in the original Problem Child as Flo, the wife that Ben divorced in this picture. Yasbeck and Ritter married in real life in 1999. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ritter, Michael Oliver, (more)
- 1992
Gumshoe is a nearly universal slang term in English-speaking countries denoting a private detective. This Australian documentary explores the way a group of detectives in Sydney go about their business. In addition to being in the missing-persons business, these detectives also help document insurance fraud and, in one case shown, stop a fraudulent gambling scheme. Some of the scenes shown of detectives at work are re-enactments. As a counterbalance, a prominent Sydney trial attorney discusses some of the shortcomings of the profession. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Oliver
- 1995
- R
In 1934, J. Edgar Hoover and the boys made headlines for mowing down John Dillinger in a hail of bullets outside Chicago's Biograph theater. But in fact, according to this Jon Purdy gangster thriller, the Feds iced Dillinger's brother. Fast-forward five years, when mobster kingpin Al Capone (F. Murray Abraham) gives the real Dillinger (Martin Sheen) an offer he can't refuse: rob millions from a secluded vault or watch his wife and child get whacked. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
