Troy W. Slaten Movies
Marshall Herskovitz directed this tearjerking schizophrenic combination of The Wonder Years and To Kill a Mockingbird. It is 1972, and John Leary (Danny De Vito) and his two sons Jack (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.) and Dylan (Miko Hughes) have just moved to Oakland, California. John is a television celebrity who has been fired from one station after another, appearing now on a cheap local station as the Saturday night host of a horror-film showcase. But John spends most of the time drinking and grieving over the loss of his wife, who was recently killed in an accident. The children try to adapt to their new school, and the family tries to adapt to the collection of kooks that populate their neighborhood. Foremost among them is Norman Strick (Gary Sinise), a sinister neo-Nazi who lives across the street. When Strick circulates a petition for the local white-supremacist candidate, John gets drunk and attacks him on his television show. As a result, Strick takes his revenge by abducting one of John's children. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny DeVito, Robert J. Steinmiller, (more)
- 1990
Miles (Grant Shaud) puts together a junior version of "FYI" to appeal to preteen viewers, and he asks Murphy (Candice Bergen) to mentor one of the youthful reporters. In her diligence to do the right thing, Murphy succeeds only in creating a Frankenstein--specifically a younger, even nastier clone of herself! Future Blossom star Mayim Bialik appears as the "mini-Murphy", while a very young Mark-Paul Gosselaar (NYPD Blue) is seen as one of the other student reporters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Darlene wins a prize for a poem and gets an invitation to read it aloud during Culture Night at her school. However, she thinks the event is geeky and she would rather stay home to watch a ballgame with Dan. Roseanne steps in and voices her thoughts on the matter. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
This spoof of the 1930s and '40s crime stories ranges from the ridiculous to the sublime as it tells the story of Johnny Dangerously (Byron Thames as the young Johnny, Michael Keaton as the older), a devoted son to his ailing mother (Maureen Stapleton), so ill that she needs money for several operations. Johnny has nowhere to turn, and because gangsters tend to flourish in his neighborhood he goes to work for Dundee, a benevolent godfather-gangster type, in order to cover his mother's medical bills. Johnny hides his association with Dundee from his younger brother Tommy (Griffin Dunne) and goes so far as to pay for Tommy's law school fees -- supporting him until Tommy joins the staff of the local (and corrupt) district attorney's office for Burr (Danny DeVito). When Johnny starts working for Dundee, he clashes with the evil Vermin (Joe Piscopo) right from the beginning, but things only get worse. After Dundee decides to retire, Johnny ascends to the helm, and it does not look like Vermin is going to take that sitting down. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Keaton, Joe Piscopo, (more)
