Sachi Parker Movies
- 2008
This heartwarming family film from Japan centers around a 13-year old girl named Mai. Suffering from intense asthma, and even more intense anxiety, Mai is sent to live with her English-born grandmother in the country. The mysterious old woman is thought by many to be a witch, so Mai asks her to teach her secrets of magic. The grandmother agrees and the two set off on a series of educational adventures, but soon it becomes clear that the lessons Mai is learning from her grandmother require no sorcery -- just a little common sense. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sachi Parker
- 1991
While on a first contact mission with the Malconian race, Riker is seriously injured. When he awakens in a hospital, he insists that he is someone else, specifically, Rivas Jakara of the Marta Community. The Malconian authorities place him in custody, accusing him of being the leader of an impending alien invasion. The subsequent plot twists and turns may prove baffling even for hard-core Next Generation fans. Scripted by Dennis Russell Bailey, David Bischoff, Joe Menonsky, Ronald D. Moore and Michael Piller from a story by Marc Scott Zicree, "First Contact" was first presented to the American viewing public on February 23, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
- PG13
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In this film, the small town of Clyde, Ohio is buzzing with excitement when it is said that the famous Roxy Carmichael is leaving her luxurious Hollywood life to return to her old hometown. Her return causes upheaval in the lives of family-man Denton Webb (Jeff Daniels), her old boyfriend, and an angst-ridden teen, Dinky Bossetti (Winona Ryder), who is convinced that Roxy Carmichael is her natural mother. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Winona Ryder, Jeff Daniels, (more)
- 1990
- R
From a script by Tom Badal and C. Courtney Joyner comes this film about a man whose wartime experiences continue to affect his life back in the U.S. Robert Ginty, a veteran low-budget actor who specializes in portraying drifters and loners, directs himself as Thomas McCain, an American GI who returns home and tries to wipe out the past by becoming a priest. McCain is haunted by his acts in Vietnam, where he had a baby with a Vietnamese lover but abandoned both of them. When he learns that his daughter has come to the U.S. with her mother, McCain goes to Houston to reconcile his newfound morality with his past and to try to get his daughter back from the notorious drug dealer whom the mother of his child has married. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Ginty, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, (more)
Successful LA marketing analyst Michael Boll (James Spader) seemingly has it all-except a sense of self-confidence. Enigmatic drifter Alex (Rob Lowe) enters Michael's life and immediately begins to exert a negative influence. As Michael's self-esteem zooms (aided by generous dollops of sex and drugs) he allows himself to be dragooned into a life of crime by the demonic Alex. The "doppelganger" aspects of Bad Influence, and the film's many unexpected twists and turns, echo films of Alfred Hitchcock, especially Strangers on a Train. The film's boldest stroke is to cast the likeable Lowe as the bad guy (albeit a charming one) and the often villainous Spader as the malleable milquetoast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rob Lowe, James Spader, (more)
- 1988
A mother who has lost three sons to the sea is plagued with worry that the same fate is in store for her last son. ~ All Movie Guide
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Murray, Karen Allen, (more)
David Mamet's play Sexual Perversity in Chicago was adapted for the big screen by fellow Chicago citizen Tim Kazurinsky and became About Last Night... The film stars Rob Lowe as Danny and Demi Moore as Debbie. The pair meet and engage in a torrid sexual relationship, but then slowly negotiate if there is anything more between them. Lowe seeks advice from his loudmouthed friend Bernie (Chicago native James Belushi), whose offers little more than outrageous tales of his randy exploits. Debbie confides in her best friend Joan (Elizabeth Perkins), a bitter, single kindergarten teacher who has lost any hope of finding the right person on the dating scene. Although Danny and Debbie talk, they have trouble communicating. The film ends on a coda that suggests the pair are still unsure as to where their relationship may be headed. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, (more)
During her 25th high school class reunion, middle-aged Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) tries to forget her marital problems with husband Charlie (Nicolas Cage) by renewing old friendships. Wondering if she made the right decisions in her life, Peggy Sue gets a chance to try again when, zapped into a time warp, she finds herself a teenager back in 1960. Armed with foreknowledge (the scene in which she tells off her algebra teacher is a particular treat), Peggy Sue gets to retrace the steps leading up to her unhappy marriage to high-school sweetheart Charlie. Will nerdish Richard Norvik (Barry Miller), who always carried a torch for Peggy Sue and whom she knows will become a millionaire computer mogul by 1985, win out over the unreliable Charlie this time? A "small" film from the otherwise profligate Francis Ford Coppola, Peggy Sue Got Married possesses an irresistible charm that makes up for its glaring plot deficiencies. The youthful cast is matched in its appeal by such veterans as Leon Ames, Maureen O'Sullivan and John Carradine. And yes, that is Jim Carrey as Walter Getz. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathleen Turner, Nicolas Cage, (more)
- 1985
- PG
Contemporary high schooler Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) doesn't have the most pleasant of lives. Browbeaten by his principal at school, Marty must also endure the acrimonious relationship between his nerdy father (Crispin Glover) and his lovely mother (Lea Thompson), who in turn suffer the bullying of middle-aged jerk Biff (Thomas F. Wilson), Marty's dad's supervisor. The one balm in Marty's life is his friendship with eccentric scientist Doc (Christopher Lloyd), who at present is working on a time machine. Accidentally zapped back into the 1950s, Marty inadvertently interferes with the budding romance of his now-teenaged parents. Our hero must now reunite his parents-to-be, lest he cease to exist in the 1980s. It won't be easy, especially with the loutish Biff, now also a teenager, complicating matters. Beyond its dazzling special effects, the best element of Back to the Future is the performance of Michael J. Fox, who finds himself in the quagmire of surviving the white-bread 1950s with a hip 1980s mindset. Back to the Future cemented the box-office bankability of both Fox and the film's director, Robert Zemeckis, who went on to helm two equally exhilarating sequels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, (more)
- 1985
- R
Burt Reynolds directed and starred in this actioner from an Elmore Leonard novel about an ex-con living dangerously close to the drug traffickers in Miami. When Stick (Reynolds) arrives in Miami just out of prison, an old buddy of his is murdered, sending Stick on a wild and complex journey to track down the killers. Along the way, he meets the attractive Kyle (Candice Bergen), has to deal with Chucky (Charles Durning in a blond wig and loud tourist shirts), a mob go-fer, and the albino Moke (Dar Robinson). In order to better zap his enemies, Stick gets a job as chauffeur to rich Palm Beach underworld figure Barry (George Segal) -- and the plot coils and twists from there until the bad guys get their due. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Candice Bergen, (more)
- 1984
Just because "everybody does it," does that make it right? This is one of the questions posed by the made-for-TV romantic melodrama His Mistress. Robert Urich stars as high-profile tycoon Allen Beck, "happily" married to trophy wife Katherine (Linda Kelsey). When Allen takes a liking to his extremely ambitious employee, Anne Davis (Julianne Philips), he exercises his executive prerogative by taking the pliant Anne as his mistress, setting her up in a luxurious condo penthouse. At one point, Anne indignantly declares "I thought your supporting me was an insignificant gesture that has nothing to do with our relationship." His Mistress was first shown by NBC on October 21, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
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This made-for-TV children's film (from the Faerie Tale Theatre) concerns five princesses who wear out the soles of their shoes each day. The King promises a fortune to the person who can figure out the reason for the problem. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
