Sara Rue Movies

The charming, pleasantly plump Sara Rue starred on this ABC sitcom as Claudia "Claude" Casey, a "permanent temp" working in various low-level clerical capacities in a TV news department. Claude's amusingly self-deprecating self image was given a boost when she was appointed assistant to Will Butler (Eric Roberts), the TV station's preening peacock of an anchorman. This sudden field commission from the ranks of the "peons" did not sit at all well with Claude's snooty new colleagues Lydia (Andrea Parker) and Kipp (Zachary Levi), who began concocting schemes to topple the heroine from her lofty perch. Fortunately, Claude could count on the support and encouragement from two subordinate employees who "knew her when," Owen (Andy Dick in a less manic replay of his NewsRadio character) and Ramona (Sherri Shepherd). Sort of a Mary Tyler Moore Show with weight issues, Less Than Perfect premiered October 1, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this contemporary drama, Sigourney Weaver plays a woman out of her element and at the end of her rope. Alice Goodwin is a wife and mother who finds that the pressures of her life are starting to become more than she can bear. Alice works part-time as a school nurse while her husband Howard (David Strathairn) runs the family farm; they both look after their two daughters. Alice, who wasn't raised in farm country, still feels like an outsider, and she embraces a cynical, sarcastic humor as a defense mechanism. Alice's only real friends in town are Dan and Theresa Collins (Ron Lea and Julianne Moore), who live nearby and often babysit Alice's kids; Alice does the same for the Collins children as well. One day, while watching Theresa's two-year-old daughter Lizzie, Alice has to step away for a few minutes, and she returns to discover Lizzie has fallen into a pond near the house; the child falls into a coma and dies several days later. Lizzie's death puts a permanent wedge between Alice and Theresa, and most people in the community believe Alice is to blame for the girl's death. Any support she might have had is driven away when Robbie (Marc Donato), a boy who lives nearby, claims Alice molested him. Alice is sent to jail while awaiting trial, and Howard (who can't afford her $100,000 bail) must watch over their daughters and keep house by himself as he tries to keep the farm afloat. As Alice falls into a deep depression behind bars, Howard and Theresa begin edging into a romance. Based on the best-selling novel by Jane Hamilton, A Map of the World was adapted for the screen by Peter Hedges and Polly Platt and director Scott Elliott. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Making its world premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, this story adapted for the screen and directed by first-timer Toni Kalem is based on the Anne Tyler novel of the same name. The story deals with finding love in a dead-end life. Evie (Lili Taylor) is a loner, living with her widowed father, who works at an aging kiddie park where she is a costumed cartoon character. One night she hears the words and music of a musician named Drumstrings Casey (Guy Pearce) on the radio, and Evie is immediately infatuated by him. She attends his concerts and falls in love with him. The problem is he doesn't know she exists, so Evie decides to carve Casey's name on her forehead with broken glass. The resulting media attention gets her an introduction to Drumstrings Casey himself. From there, a relationship develops as Casey needs Evie for creative support and Evie needs Casey for emotional stability. Soon after, they get married; unfortunately their problems only get worse as Casey's career takes a nosedive and Evie's father passes away. Will these two people make something of themselves or will they forever just be slipping down life? ~ Chris Gore, All Movie Guide

This TV sitcom apparently was inspired by the low concept of Martha Stewart meets Green Acres, since the central character is country-living TV host Sara Campbell (Judith Light) who feels it's deceptive to do a show about life in the country as part of the population in New York City. So she decides to relocate her life, her huge business empire, and her television show to a farm in upstate New York. As she explains to her daughter Frederica (Ashlee Levitch), "You don't need therapy in the country. If you get tense, you just go and milk something!" Accompanying Sara on this rural sojourn are her complaining mother Muriel (Florence Stanley) and her producer Greg (James Patrick Stuart). Husky farm foreman Lucas (Brett Cullen) offers a contrast to the citified types, including Fran Drescher and Rachel Chagall who guest as cameos in the first episode, re-creating their roles on The Nanny. Filmed in L.A., the series premiered June 3, 1998 on CBS. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Fresh from the recently closed South Side hospital, new ER chief of staff Anspaugh (John Aylward) imperiously asserts his authority by imposing patient quotas on each doctor. Though they resent Anspaugh, the staff is more politely inclined to the other South Side expatriates, doctors Abby Keaton (Glenne Headly) and Maggie Doyle (Jorja Fox). Elsewhere, Jeanie (Gloria Reuben) has trouble keeping her HIV-positive status a secret from Weaver (Laura Innes), while Benton (Eriq La Salle) is uncertain that Jeanie should even continue working; and Greene (Anthony Edwards) is taken aback when Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) suggests that they both take a vacation to Hawaii. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Roseanne stays home while everyone else goes out to a Halloween party. She gets visited by the ghosts of Halloween Past (Lee Arenberg), Halloween Present (Mario Roccuzzo), and Halloween Future (Garry Bullock). Laurie Metcalf's daughter Zoe Perry plays Jackie as a little girl. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Mike Judge wrote and directed this offbeat sci-fi comedy which gives a new meaning to the expression "people are getting dumber all the time." In 2005, Pvt. Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson) is a soldier chosen to take part in a secret military scientific experiment in which he will be put into induced hibernation for one year, along with a woman named Rita (Maya Rudolph). Bowers is chosen for the assignment because he is statistically the most average man in the Army, while Rita is a hooker ordered to do some community service; however, Bowers and Rita are forgotten when the military base where the experiment took place is closed down, and when they wake up in the year 2505, Bowers finds himself living in a society where intelligence has taken such a landslide he's now the smartest man in the world. Can Bowers save America from its own remarkable stupidity, and he can he get the dunderheads around him to believe what he says? Produced under the title 3001, Idiocracy also stars Dax Shepard as Bowers's numb-skull lawyer, Stephen Root as a judge, and Terry Crews as Camacho, a former porn star and professional wrestler who is now president of the United States. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A disturbing videotape appears to hold the power of life and death over those who view it in this offbeat thriller. A strange videotape begins making the rounds in a town in the Pacific Northwest; it is full of bizarre and haunting images, and after watching it, many viewers receive a telephone call in which they are warned they will die in seven days. A handful of teenagers who watched the tape while spending a weekend at a cabin in the mountains scoff at the threat, but as predicted, they all die suddenly on the same night. Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), the aunt of one of the ill-fated teens, is a journalist who has decided to investigate the matter and travels West with her young son, Aidan (David Dorfman), a troubled child who has been drawing pictures of strange and ominous visions. Rachel managed to find the cabin in the woods and watches the video herself; afterward, she receives the same phone call, and realizes she must solve the puzzle of the video and the person or persons behind it within a week. Rachel turns to her ex, Noah (Martin Henderson), an expert in video technology, who at first is convinced the story is a hoax until he digs deeper into the mystery. The Ring was adapted from a 1996 Japanese film by Hideo Nakata, which became a massive box-office success in Asia and spawned two sequels. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

After the Huntington Hills High graduation ceremony, the fun gets underway at the graduation party where an assortment of jocks, geeks, prom queens, bimbos, headbangers, and nerdy misfits unload four years' worth of emotional baggage at a house where the hostess (Michelle Brookhurst) loses control of her guests. Writer wannabe Preston Meyers (Ethan Embry) has been in love with Amanda (Jennifer Love Hewitt of Party of Five) since the first time he saw her during their freshman year. His tormented infatuation with Amanda has intensified throughout high school and culminates at the party, where Preston must now seize this final opportunity to proclaim his love for her before he leaves the next day for Boston. Preston decides to make his move at some point during the party, a particularly auspicious occasion since Amanda has just been dumped by her super-jock boyfriend, Mike Dexter (Peter Facinelli), who wanted freedom to pursue his testosterone-charged fantasies with college women. Cringing at this ludicrous love triangle is Preston's introverted pal and confidante, Denise Fleming (Lauren Ambrose). When Denise runs into her ex-childhood friend Kenny (Seth Green), the two begin sexual experimentation behind the closed bathroom door. Geeky science-fiction fan William Lichter (Charlie Korsmo) devises a plan to ruin Mike's stud reputation and publicly humiliate him and his meathead buddies -- sweet revenge for four years of agony. Former Huntington Hills graduate Trip McNieley (Jerry O'Connell) tells Mike about the terror awaiting in college where "Guys like us are a dime a dozen." Yearbook Girl (Melissa Joan Hart of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch) wants everyone to sign her cherished volume of memories as the partying teens attempt to move into the uncertain future. Party house exteriors were shot on Rubio Street in Altadena, California, and other California locations included Johnnie's Broiler in downtown Downey, Dutton's Book Store in Reseda, Marshall High School in Los Feliz, and Union Station in LA. With more than 70 speaking parts, this film is the directorial debut of the scriptwriting team of Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

On the occasion of wealthy patriarch Burt Lancaster's 77th birthday, his Long Island home is invaded by well-meaning family members. Lancaster is bored by the well-meaning interference of his grown children, but he thrives on the company of his grandchildren, especially 5-year-old Macaulay Culkin (in a terrific pre-star performance). To the kids, Lancaster reveals what he really wants as a birthday present: an old-fashioned Viking funeral! From this point on, the ending of Rocket Gibraltar is a "done deal", but getting there is all the fun. A superb, hand-picked cast--including Suzy Amis, Sinead Cusack, John Glover, Bill Pullman and Kevin Spacey -does full justice to Amos Poe's whimsical, often deeply touching script. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide