Daryl Roach Movies
- 2001
Los Angeles' Miss USA 2000 Pageant is a beauty contest with a difference -- while in many ways it seems like a typical pageant, complete with contestants competing in evening gown, swimsuit, and talent categories, and celebrity judges weighing in on their presentations, the participants in Miss USA 2000 are all drag queens, with the men posing as women and also posing as representatives from different nations from around the world. Queen of the Whole Wide World is a documentary that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the annual event (which in 2000 raised close to a quarter-million dollars for AIDS-related charities), with the participants speaking both "in character," as they prepare for the gala event, and out of costume about their personal lives. Linda Blair and Julia Louis-Dreyfus both appear briefly as judges at the pageant. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Scott Lane
- 1997
Trying to collect on a bad check, Drew (Drew Carey) finds out that the check was issue by a woman named Kyra (Ann Magnuson)--and he becomes convinced that she's the same Kyra for whom he carried a torch back in junior high school. Blaming her financial mismanagement on her roommate, Kyra persuades Drew to let her move in with him. As things turn out, Kyra may be great in bed, but she's a dangerous liability everywhere else! And on a related topic, Kate (Christa Miller) is faced with enormous debts when her many "deferred payments" suddenly catch up with her. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1994
- R
In this horror movie based on a sci-fi book by Dean Koontz, a brave hero and his regiment head for the jungle to fight a deadly mutant creature. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1994
Jamie (Helen Hunt) is eager and willing to return to college. Alas, husband Paul (Paul Reiser) forgot to mail Jamie's registration papers. Racing against a deadline, Paul, Fran (Leila Kenzle), Lisa (Anne Ramsay), and Ira (John Pankow) try to correct Paul's oversight, leading to a series of confusing confrontations with a steady stream of self-involved teachers -- notably a persnickety French instructor (Julia Sweeney). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1993
A former criminal is recruited to help cops in this made-for-television movie. Powers Boothe stars as Mace Moutron, also known as The Sandman, a former convict who is used by the police to help fight crime. More familiar and more satisfied with the swiftness of street justice, the Sandman decides to take some police matters into his own hands. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- 1992
This adaptation of playwright Oscar Wilde's memorable romantic comedy about two wealthy noblemen who begin calling themselves Ernest in hopes of winning the love of two beautiful girls is set in modern times. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wren T. Brown, Daryl Roach, (more)
- 1990
- R
Trash-TV pioneer Morton Downey Jr. stars as an evil savings-and-loan financier who is investigated by a private eye (Robert Davi) in this thriller also released as Ladies Game. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
This is an eerily prescient family adventure starring Kate Capshaw as Andie, a frustrated NASA astronaut who's never actually been into outer space. Her husband, flight controller Zach (Tom Skerritt), is sympathetic, but he can't influence her place in the rotation. Andie is assigned to train a group of intelligent high school students at the summer science camp called Space Camp, which is run by NASA and supervised by her husband. There she meets her campers: Kevin (Tate Donovan), a blasé, horny teenager; Tish (Kelly Preston), an airhead with a photographic memory; Kathryn (Lea Thompson), an arrogant pilot; obnoxious youngster Max (Joaquin Phoenix, then billed under the first name Leaf); and scientist-in-training Rudy (Larry B. Scott). While testing the solid booster rockets aboard a real shuttle, the team is blasted into space accidentally. Without enough air, the discordant team pulls together, each discovering hidden talents. The Challenger space shuttle disaster in January 1986 was bizarrely similar to the events depicted in Spacecamp, with far more horrific results. Its release date pushed back several months because of the tragedy, the film was still a painful reminder to the public of the national calamity, and it consequently grossed only about ten million dollars at the box office. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kate Capshaw, Lea Thompson, (more)
Co-written by Paul Reubens and Phil Hartman, Pee Wee's Big Adventure marks the debut of director Tim Burton, who stamps the entire film with his quirky trademark style. The premise: Pee Wee (Reubens), an overgrown pre-pubescent boy sporting a molded Princeton cut, blush, lipstick, and a shrunken gray flannel suit, lives an idyllic life in his bizarre home (some have compared the remarkable set design to the expressionistic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) until someone nabs his most prized possession: a fire engine-red customized bicycle. He then embarks on an epic cross-country search to find his lost love, not to mention more than a little adventure. Along the way, he makes friends with various oddball characters, visits the Alamo, endures various hallucinatory nightmares, and has a supernatural run-in with a spectral trucker. In this reprisal of his popular standup routine, Reubens is wonderful as the nerdy man child; he plays it silly, yet he manages to imbue the role with some sensitivity without ever seeming maudlin. The score by Danny Elfman is terrific -- as is the case in nearly every film Burton has directed -- and the script is fresh and inventive. Some of the most memorable moments: the opening sequence involving Pee Wee's morning activities is a stroke of genius (note the bunny slippers and talking breakfast), as are the scenes at the truck stop, and the "Hollywood" version of Pee Wee's story at the end (starring James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild in surprise cameos). In all, Pee Wee's Big Adventure is a delightful film, enjoyable for children as well as adults. ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, (more)
In this undistinguished parody of the sci fi genre, Robert Urich is Jason who leads a band of pirates in redistributing the wealth of the few to the coffers of the needy. He also joins up with Princess Karina Mary Crosby in searching for her father and a possible source of water in the next galaxy. Meant to be a campy romp through the sci fi genre, the film stops short of achieving a goal that should have been effortless. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, (more)
- 1979
The family is concerned about the mercurial behavior of Thelma's husband, Keith (Ben Powers). They are aware that he is frustrated about losing out on a lucrative pro football contract, and his difficulty in landing a good job. What they don't know is that Keith has begun drinking -- and drinking a lot. Originally slated to air during Good Times' sixth season, this is one of three episodes that were never telecast by CBS, though all have been included in the series' syndication package. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1977
In this special 90-minute episode, Charles Ingalls (Michael Landon) replaces the injured Jonathan Garvey (Merlin Olsen) in a high-stakes boxing match. Charles wins with astonishing ease -- only to discover that his opponent, a black man named Joe Kagan (Moses Gunn), is in no condition to be in the ring. Doc Baker (Kevin Hagen) tells Kagan that he must give up boxing or face an early death -- but what else can Joe do, and where can he go without facing racial prejudice? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, (more)
A frankly adult comedy about the sex lives of the aimless and the rich, Shampoo is also a pointed commentary on the demise of 1960s idealism at the dawn of the Nixon era. It is Election Day, 1968, and randy Beverly Hills hairdresser George Roundy (Warren Beatty) is too worried about attending to all of his women's tonsorial and sexual needs, while trying to swing a bank loan to fund his own salon, to notice the fateful Presidential race. As George juggles the demands of girlfriend Jill (Goldie Hawn) and mistress Felicia (Lee Grant), not to mention Felicia's daughter (Carrie Fisher), he meets Felicia's husband Lester (Jack Warden) to get money for the salon and discovers that his beloved ex-girlfriend Jackie (Julie Christie) is now Lester's mistress. Lester asks George to escort Jackie to a banquet for Nixon supporters, leading to a series of climactic confrontations at the dinner and a Hollywood orgy that expose the conflicting demands of sex, love, and security among these terminally narcissistic L.A. denizens. As Nixon's victory speech drones in the background the following day and Paul Simon's mournful '60s music plays on the soundtrack, George's free-wheeling world collapses around him for reasons that he can barely begin to comprehend. Produced and co-written (with Chinatown scribe Robert Towne) by its star Warren Beatty, Shampoo became Beatty's second critical and popular success as a producer after Bonnie and Clyde, and it bolstered Hal Ashby's track record as director. Shampoo earned Grant an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, as well as a Supporting Actor nomination for Warden and Beatty's first nomination as writer. With Nixon's 1974 Watergate disgrace adding an extra edge to the humor for 1975 audiences, this tragic bedroom farce became one of the highest-grossing films in Columbia Pictures' history at the time. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- Starring:
- Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, (more)
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