Courtney Brown Movies
A normal suburban mother poses as a famous soccer star in order to save her daughter's struggling soccer team in this affectionate sports comedy starring Missi Pyle and Emily Osment. Becca (Osment)'s soccer team is locked into a depressive losing streak, and without a new coach there's no chance they will ever make it to the regional finals. As luck would have it, Italian soccer legend "Lorenzo Vincenzo" is in town, and he's got a foolproof plan to get Becca's team back on the right track. What none of the players or parents realize, however, is that "Lorenzo Vincenzo" is actually Becca's mother Wendy (Pyle) in disguise. Will Wendy be able to maintain her elaborate ruse long enough to lead Becca's team to the regional finals, or will the stress of balancing family responsibility with maintaining her secret identity cause this well-meaning soccer mom to come completely unglued before the winning goal can be scored. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Missi Pyle, Emily Osment, (more)
The popular memoir by Pulitzer prize-winning author Willie Morris became this family comedy-drama about a boy and his dog. Young Willie Morris (Frankie Muniz) is a shy eight-year-old in 1942 Yazoo, MS, who is more comfortable reading than playing sports. A target for local bullies, Willie's only real pal is his older next-door neighbor Dink Jenkins (Luke Wilson), once the town's living sports legend and a big brother figure to Willie, an only child. When Dink is shipped overseas for service in World War II, Willie's mother Ellen (Diane Lane) finally forces his gruff father Jack (Kevin Bacon) to allow into the family a pet dog, a Jack Russell terrier named Skip. The smart and playful Skip gets his owner into a series of adventures on the baseball field and with a band of moonshiners, quickly turning Willie into a popular, accepted kid who even wins the affections of the school's prettiest girl, Rivers Applewhite (Caitlin Wachs). In the meantime, Dink returns from war branded a coward for an incident that occurred in combat but finds an unexpected ally in the normally taciturn Jack, a fellow veteran. Harry Connick Jr. narrated as the adult Willie; the role of Skip was played in later scenes by Moose, the pooch star of television's Frasier. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frankie Muniz, Diane Lane, (more)
