Constance Shulman Movies

Doug Funnie and his friends from Bluffington make the leap from TV to the big screen in the animated comedy Doug's 1st Movie, based on the long-running children's series. Doug (voiced by Thomas McHugh) is a good-natured 12-year-old who is chronically infatuated with his classmate Patti Mayonnaise (voiced by Constance Shulman). Doug's best friend Skeeter (voiced by Fred Newman) is convinced there's a monster in Bluffington's Lucky Duck Lake. Surprisingly enough, it turns out Skeeter is right -- pollutants dumped in the lake by cranky factory owner Bill Bluff (voiced by Doug Preis) have spawned a large but thankfully friendly beast Doug and Skeeter name Herman Melville. Doug and Skeeter both want to protect Herman -- Doug so he can look cool in front of Patti, and Skeeter so he can prove the damage Bluff is doing to the environment -- but that isn't so simple when Bluff sends his hired guns to track down the monster. Doug creator Jim Jenkins served as co-producer for this film adaptation, which like the TV series was created by the Jumbo Pictures studios. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

There oughta be a law against TV-movie "title thinker uppers." Lethal Innocence is not a crime or judicial melodrama, but instead an innocuous family-oriented effort about a Cambodian refugee child. Adopted by an American couple, the child presses her new family to bring the rest of her Cambodian relatives to US shores. The film boasts some good work from Blair Brown as the foster mother and Brenda Fricker as an efficient UN representative. Lethal Innocence was originally made for cable. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A woman learns the value of friendship as she hears the story of two women and how their friendship shaped their lives in this warm comedy-drama. Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) is an emotionally repressed housewife with a habit of drowning her sorrows in candy bars. Her husband Ed (Gailard Sartain) barely acknowledges her existence, and while he visits his aunt at a nursing home every week, Evelyn is not permitted to come into the room because the old women doesn't like her. One week, while waiting out Ed's visit, Evelyn meets Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy), a frail but feisty old woman who lives at the same nursing home and loves to tell stories. Over the span of several weeks, she spins a whopper about one of her relatives, Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson). Back in the 1920s, Idgie was a sweet but fiercely independent woman with her own way of doing things who ran the town diner in Whistle Stop, Alabama. Idgie was very close to her brother Buddy (Chris O'Donnell), and when he died, she wouldn't talk to anyone except Buddy's girl, Ruth Jamison (Mary-Louise Parker). Idgie gave Ruth a job at the cafe after she left her abusive husband, Frank Bennett (Nick Searcy). Between her habit of standing up for herself, standing up to Frank, and serving food to Black people out the back of the diner, Idgie raised the ire of the less tolerant citizens of Whistle Stop, and when Frank mysteriously disappeared, many locals suspected that Idgie, Ruth, and their friends may have been responsible. Evelyn finds herself looking forward to her weekly visits with Ninny, and is inspired by her story to take a new pride in herself and assert her independence from Ed. Fried Green Tomatoes was based on the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by actress-turned-author Fannie Flagg, who makes a cameo appearance as the leader of a self-help group. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Though the original Fletch was drubbed by critics, it proved a major success for star Chevy Chase. It was inevitable, then, that a sequel would make an appearance. Surprisingly, Fletch Lives didn't come out until 1989--a full five years after the original. Once more, Chase stars as Irwin Maurice "Fletch" Fletcher, the gonzo investigative reporter created by novelist Gregory McDonald. Indulging his penchant for disguises and bizarre aliases, Fletch investigates a deep dark mystery at a crumbling Southern plantation. Various friends and enemies are portrayed con brio by Hal Holbrook, Cleavon Little, Juliane Phillips, Randall "Tex" Cobb, Richard Libertini and Richard Belzer (Chase's cohort from the old Groove Tube days). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Adam Horovitz, of Beastie Boys fame, plays a troublesome teen who is shipped off by his wealthy parents to an institute for "problem" youths. This is the sort of place where any sign of rebellion is dealt with in draconian fashion. The strapped-down Horovitz tells his life story to psychiatrist Donald Sutherland. In flashback, we see a fairly docile young Horovitz, whose chance involvement in a rumble instigated by gang leader Don Bloomfield leads to an arrest. Appearing in court, Horovitz is railroaded into the institute by his father, more as a means of getting even with his divorced wife than out of any concern for his son. Sutherland tries to help, but Horovitz betrays the doctor's trust once too often. Only by extricating himself from the influence of Bloomfield does Horovitz have any chance for redemption--and only by undergoing a domestic reversal of his own is Sutherland truly able to aid the boy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi