Mary Steelsmith Movies
John Hughes's third directorial effort, Weird Science, follows in the tradition of his previous teen-centered films, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith play the wannabe hipster Gary and his nebbish weak-willed best friend, Wyatt, a pair of high-school geeks who are hapless with members of the opposite sex. Using Wyatt's computer, they create what they believe is the ideal woman. A lightning storm brings that woman to life, and she takes the form of Kelly Le Brock. Lisa sets about building their self-confidence, but trouble begins brewing when Wyatt's cruel, military-minded older brother, Chet (Bill Paxton), begins to realize that something is not as it should be. Hughes would finish his cycle of high-school themed films with his next movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock, (more)
- 1981
- R
While traveling across Arizona with his divorced mother and her new boyfriend, a precocious young boy stumbles onto a grisly murder scene, placing the three of them in mortal danger at the hands of a pair of good-ol'-boy twin psychopaths. It's hard to tell whether the producers of this film decided to "dress up" a standard slasher script with spooky desert vistas and quality actors (including cuddly little Peter Billingsley, who forever endeared himself to viewers of the perennial favorite A Christmas Story), or rather chose to inject gratuitous T&A and gore scenes into an otherwise more sophisticated Hitchcockian thriller to lure the Friday the 13th crowd. Whatever the motivation, the end result is a muddled mishmash of family drama and sleazy dead-teen mayhem that never found an audience. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Le Mat, Catherine Hicks, (more)
- 1979
A group of religious leaders is up in arms over a WKRP program starring self-styled preacher Little Ed Pembrook (Michael Keenan). In additon to making a farce of all things spiritual, Little Ed insists upon promoting such questionable religious icons as "Baptist shower curtains." But inasmuch as the 300-pound preacher used to be a professional wrestler, no one at the station has the guts to question his ethics--dumping the problem into the trembling hands of Andy (Gary Sandy) and Carlson (Gordon Jump). This is the final episode of WKRP in Cincinnati's first season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A standard, mindless teen comedy that is patently geared toward the pre-teen set, H.O.T.S. involves a lot of bouncy females, in this case, sisters in the H.O.T.S. sorority, in hot-blooded competition with the women in another mythical sorority on campus. The objective seems to be to show as many cruel practical jokes, lame-brain jocks, non-stop action, wild orgies, and exaggerated characters as can fit into a 95-minute running time. Added to the pile are the requisite idiot adults who are never able to see what is going on around them, and it becomes apparent (if it was not from the beginning), which age group is meant to be the target audience here. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Kiger, Lisa London, (more)
- 1978
- PG
In this, Joan Rivers' first attempt at film direction, a young virgin male (Billy Crystal) is engaged to be married when he finds out he is pregnant! Using the film as a vehicle for her acerbic humor, director Rivers may as well be on stage, for interspersed throughout this questionable plot is an unending onslaught of sarcastic slams pointed at just about every sector of society. Ms. Rivers even makes a cameo appearance. Other big names in this film are Tom Poston (as a minister), Roddy McDowall (in several roles), and George Gobel as the U.S. President. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Crystal, Joan Prather, (more)
