Fern Persons Movies
- 1999
During a power outage at the ER, Greene (Anthony Edwards) is forced to improvise to treat an injured utilities repairman. Elsewhere, a helpful neighbor brings in an elderly couple suffering from suspicious injuries. Carol (Julianna Margulies) tries to send word to Ross about her pregnancy, despite a total shutdown of communication within the building. Romano (Paul McCrane) finds himself in the position of begging to Corday (Alex Kingston). And a rapist is on the loose somewhere in County General. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
A gangster's reputation as a tough guy is put severely to the test when he discovers that he has been made guardian to his dead sister's children. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
In this quirky romantic comedy about soul transference, Alec Baldwin plays Peter Hoskins, the straight-laced head of the microfiche department at a company that publishes scientific journals. When he meets a free-spirited, sleep-deprived bartender named Rita (Meg Ryan), the opposites attract and launch into a round-the-clock romance characterized by private jokes and an intense connection that defies description. When the two decide to marry, however, an unforeseeable cosmic occurrence entirely alters the nature of their relationship. Those who claim that marriage changes a person couldn't be more right in this case, as a confused old man (Sydney Walker) wanders into the wedding reception and plants a single kiss on the lips of the new bride. Longing for the youthfulness he sees in the happy couple, the man inadvertently causes the two to switch bodies during the smooch. Thinking no one will believe the story, Rita (now hidden inside a cancer-ridden octogenarian) leaves the premises before causing any more of a stir, while the old man in Rita's body is whisked off with Peter on their honeymoon before anyone is the wiser. Soon, Peter begins noticing that his new bride is an entirely different person, but can't figure out why -- and wonders if it's just a natural dose of cold feet. When he can no longer ignore the total dissimilarity, Peter begins suspecting that something supernatural has occurred, and wondering how he can restore his wife to her former self, especially when her body's new occupant resists the effort and goes on the lam. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Baldwin, Meg Ryan, (more)
"If you build it, he will come." That's the ethereal message that inspires Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) to construct a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. At first, "he" seems to be the ghost of disgraced ballplayer Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), who materializes on the ballfield and plays a few games with the awestruck Ray. But as the weeks go by, Ray receives several other messages from a disembodied voice, one of which is "Ease his pain." He realizes that his ballfield has been divinely ordained to give a second chance to people who have sacrificed certain valuable aspects of their lives. One of these folks is Salingeresque writer Terence Mann (James Earl Jones), whom Ray kidnaps and takes to a ball game and then to his farm. Another is Doc Graham (Burt Lancaster), a beloved general practitioner who gave up a burgeoning baseball career in favor of medicine. The final "second-chancer" turns out to be much closer to Ray. That "magical" field in Dyersville, Iowa still draws thousands of baseball-happy tourists each year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, (more)
An unexpected late-1986 box-office hit, Hoosiers tells the true story of a group of underdogs who become champions. Set in the 1950s, Hoosiers is about a hard-luck, unemployed college basketball coach (Gene Hackman) who gets a chance to coach a small-town Indiana high-school basketball team. Facing resentment from the community and the team itself, Hackman manages to inspire his young athletes, leading them to the state championship with the help of the assistant coach (Dennis Hopper), who happens to be a recovering alcoholic. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, (more)
In this light-weight romantic story, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's Myra Meets His Family and set in the 1920s, a young woman is out for a carefree time until one day she decides she needs to marry, and then her life changes more than she could have imagined. When Myra (Sean Young) picks out a dashing rich friend (Lenny von Dohlen) as her lucky future bridegroom, she is unprepared for his off-beat parents. After arriving at the family mansion to meet her future in-laws, the unsuspecting young Myra is at first treated with a certain aloofness and then with straightforward cruelty. After several twists of fate, Myra has an opportunity to give as good as she got. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Young, Lenny Von Dohlen, (more)
- 1984
- R
The Saroyanesque Grandview USA focuses on a sleepy Midwestern town and its younger denizens. Bored out of his gourd, recent high-school graduate Tim (C. Thomas Howell), befriends the much-older Michelle (Jamie Lee Curtis), who runs the local demolition derby. Michelle's top driver is "Slam" (Patrick Swayze), who though a star on the track is a washout when it comes to affairs of the heart. As the three characters grow closer, each does a lot of growing up. When it sticks to business, Grandview USA can be quite charming; it falters only in a couple of rock-video and fantasy sequences, reportedly tacked on at the insistence of the distributors. The highly appropriate supporting cast ranges from such TV regulars as Troy Donahue and William Windom to such stars-to-be as Jennifer Jason Leigh and John Cusack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Lee Curtis, C. Thomas Howell, (more)
Risky Business is the film in which 19-year-old Tom Cruise dances around his living room in his underwear. He does this to celebrate the fact that his parents have left him alone while they go on vacation. Somewhere along the line, hooker Rebecca De Mornay, fleeing her vicious pimp, hides out in the Cruise manse. Things go from bad to worse to as Cruise inadvertently drives his father's Porsche into Lake Michigan and nearly scuttles his college recruitment interview. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay, (more)
With a plot that is a cross between a teen, low-brow farce and a coming-of-age story, Class opens with scenes of two best friends -- nerdy whiz Jonathan (Andrew McCarthy) and carefree jock Skip (Rob Lowe) -- going around in lingerie; they also barf on a double date, break into a quiet meeting at a girls' school, and generally behave as emotional throwbacks. But when the nerd Jonathan is picked up in a Chicago bar by Skip's mother Ellen (Jacqueline Bisset), the tone changes completely. The affair between the student and the older woman is torrid until they rendezvous in New York and Ellen dumps Jonathan because she finds out he is not a Ph.D. candidate from Northwestern University. Meanwhile, Jonathan does not know who Ellen is until Skip brings him home for the Christmas holidays and the two clandestine, September-May ex-lovers come face to face with the truth. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rob Lowe, Jacqueline Bisset, (more)
- 1981
- PG
In this drama, a homeless shoeshine boy who lives in a locker at the train station finds himself quite popular after he reveals a talent for picking winners at the racetrack. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Coleman, Michael Lembeck, (more)
- 1950
The Golden Gloves Story is the sort of heartwarming fare that MGM used to turn out once a week in the 1930s. Though this 1950 film was produced by pinchpenny Eagle Lion Studios, director Felix E. Feist manages to perform miracles on a tiny budget. Dewey Martin stars as Nick Martel, a tough tenement punk on the road to perdition. As he competes in the Golden Gloves boxing competition, Nick cleans up his act, but it takes him nearly eight reels to do so. Romance enters the picture when Nick falls for Patti (Kay Westfall), the daughter of referee Joe Riley (James Dunn). A surface reality is maintained by the inclusion of clips from actual Golden Gloves bouts, and by the presence in the cast of boxing champ Tony Zale and veteran sports announcer Jack Brickhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Dunn, Dewey Martin, (more)
