Michael Blackburn Movies
A successful retired jock and his geeky younger brother play out their sibling rivalry by coaching rival little league football teams in this family comedy. Ed O'Neill plays the older brother, Kevin O'Shea, a former Heisman Trophy winner whose gridiron exploits have made him a local hero in his small Illinois hometown. Kevin is the almost unanimous choice to head up the town's Pop Warner football team, and he happily builds an imposing team from the best local players. One of the few objectors is Kevin's young brother Danny (Rick Moranis), an awkward, bespectacled gas station owner who empathizes with the kids rejected from the team, including his own athletic daughter Becky (Shawna Waldron). As revenge, Danny starts his own competing team of misfits, taking on the coaching duties himself. Naturally, despite the total ineptitude of Danny and his players, they eventually find themselves major underdogs in a climactic battle against Kevin's well-trained juggernaut. Director Duwayne Dunham and a team of four screenwriters hit all the expected sports film conventions, throwing in a few innocent romantic subplots and cameos by real football players for good measure. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rick Moranis, Ed O'Neill, (more)
In this socially conscious drama with romantic overtones, Iris (Jane Fonda) is a working mother with a job at a large commercial bakery who is still getting over the death of her husband, though her circumstances don't give her much time to grieve. She's sharing her house with her two children, Kelly (Martha Plimpton) and Richard (Harley Cross); her unemployed sister, Sharon (Swoosie Kurtz); and her thuggish brother-in-law. The tensions at home become even greater when the teenaged Kelly announces that she's pregnant. One of the few bright spots in Iris' life is her blossoming friendship with Stanley (Robert De Niro), a nice guy who works in the bakery's cafeteria. However, Iris starts noticing a few odd things about Stanley and it slowly dawns on her that he can't read. When the boss figures this out, Stanley loses his job -- an especially troubling development, as Stanley has just had to put his father in a retirement home. Homeless and out of work, Stanley turns to Iris with a special request -- he'd like her to teach him how to read. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro, (more)
