Jonathan Ke Quan Movies

A clueless caveman meets his intellectual match in the form of Pauly Shore in this teen-oriented comedy. Dave Morgan (Sean Astin) is a high school student in Encino, California, where he spends most of his time with his dazed-and-confused buddy Stoney Brown (Shore) and tries to figure out why his girlfriend Robyn (Megan Ward) left him for thick-headed jock Matt (Michael DeLuise). Hoping to boost his low status in the High School pecking order, Dave wants to put in a swimming pool at his family's home for a massive post-prom party. While Dave and Stoney are digging the pit, an earthquake strikes that unearths a frozen caveman (Brendan Fraser). To Dave and Stoney's surprise, the frozen Neanderthal soon comes to life, and after a bath, a shave, and a new set of clothes, the boys are passing off their dim-witted-but-friendly companion "Link" as an exchange student from Estonia. Link soon becomes the most popular guy at school, and Dave is determined to use Link's social success as a way to win back Robyn and foil Matt. Encino Man marked the directorial debut of Les Mayfield, who previously produced the critically acclaimed documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

By rights, Head of the Class should have ended its run at the end of its fourth season, with the departure of series star Howard Hesseman. However, ABC decided to film a fifth and final season as a back-up, in case any of their new programs of the 1990-1991 season should be prematurely canceled. As it turned out, the network's new sitcom Baby Talk was not quite ready for prime time in September, thus Head of the Class was hastily inserted into the schedule until the production problems on the other series could be ironed out. In the season opener, it was explained that Hesseman's character, Fillmore High School substitute teacher Charlie Moore, had quit his job to pursue a full-time acting career. Thus, the genius-level students in Moore's Individual Honors Program now had a new teacher, a flamboyant Scotsman named Billy McGregor (played by Hibernian comedian Billy Connolly). Like Moore, Mr. McGregor was dedicated to instilling in his brilliant charges the emotional maturity and social skills that they would need when finally released into the real world. Unlike Moore, McGregor conducted his classes as though he were performing a monologue at the local comedy club. He also tended to become more involved than your average teacher in the students' off-campus lives, notably in the episode "Viki's Torn Genes," in which he helps student Viki Amory (Lara Piper) locate her birth mother -- with surprising results. Occasionally, his unorthodox methods backfired disastrously, notably in the two-part episode in which, after McGregor lectures the kids on the proper way to protect themselves from being mugged, nerdish Arvid (Dan Frischman) is inspired to purchase a gun! Head of the Class was canceled mid-season on January 15, 1991, only to return on May 28 with five new episodes, all of them leading up to the series finale when the IHP class finally graduates -- not so much because it is high time that they did so (which of course it is), but because Fillmore High is about to be demolished. In the last episode, the two-part "It Couldn't Last Forever," the IHP kids try to figure out who among a classroom full of geniuses will be chosen to deliver the valedictory speech. This terminal episode marks the brief return of former regular Tannins Valelly in the role of child prodigy Janice Lazarotto. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of the George Lucas/Steven Spielberg Indiana Jones epics is set a year or so before the events in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1984). After a brief brouhaha involving a precious vial and a wild ride down a raging Himalyan river, Indy (Harrison Ford) gets down to the problem at hand: retrieving a precious gem and several kidnapped young boys on behalf of a remote East Indian village. His companions this time around include a dimbulbed, easily frightened nightclub chanteuse (Kate Capshaw), and a feisty 12-year-old kid named Short Round (Quan Ke Huy). Throughout, the plot takes second place to the thrills, which include a harrowing rollercoaster ride in an abandoned mineshaft and Indy's rescue of the heroine from a ritual sacrifice. There are also a couple of cute references to Raiders of the Lost Ark, notably a funny variation of Indy's shooting of the Sherpa warrior. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide