Matthew Walker Movies

A man trying to save his relationship with the woman he loves finds himself sinking into a quicksand of small lies and half-truths in this comedy. Paul (Jason Lee) is a regular guy who is engaged to marry Karen (Selma Blair); while Paul loves Karen, he's more than a bit nervous around her family, even though her father (James Brolin) has already given him a job in the family business. Shortly before the wedding, Paul's friends throw him a bachelor party, complete with a boatload of liquor and a squadron of grass-skirt-clad tiki dancers. Paul strikes up a conversation with one of the dancers, the cheerful if inept Becky (Julia Stiles), and the next morning, he wakes up bleary-eyed with a massive hangover -- and Becky in bed next to him. Paul soon receives a phone call from Karen saying she's stopping by for a visit, and Paul scrambles to get Becky out of his apartment. Paul attempts to explain some incriminating evidence with a few white lies, but a messy situation gets messier when Paul runs into Becky at a pre-wedding family get-together...and discovers she's Karen's cousin. A Guy Thing also features Shawn Hatosy, Lochlyn Munro, and Julie Hagerty. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

On his 16th birthday, Stephen Dorff discovers that he is adopted. This in itself is not so traumatic, but the worst is still to come: His adoptive parents had bought him from a baby broker, who kidnapped the infant from his natural mother. Dorff rejects the protestations of love from his "mother" and "father", and sets out on a long journey to locate his real family. Patty Duke costars as the woman from whom Dorff was stolen some 14 years earlier. Timed for telecast during the Christmas season, Always Remember That I Love You premiered December 23, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This version of Jack London's classic adventure was made for television and stars Rick Schroder as the inexperienced young prospector who heads northward for the Klondike gold-rush of 1897. While in the rugged territory he becomes friends with Buck, a courageous German Shepherd being used as a sled-dog. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Several years have passed since the events of the previous film, and yet again the makers of Good Guys dolls -- a line which included the homicidal Chucky -- decide to reinstate their product line. Unfortunately, some of the materials used are still imbued with the evil spirit of serial killer Charles Lee Ray (voice of Brad Dourif), whose soul once inhabited the Chucky doll... and who returns to action in a spanking new Good Guy body. Determined at first to finish the job he started by swapping bodies with young Andy (Justin Whalin) -- who is now a teenager in military school -- Chucky decides to change tactics, setting his sights on a much younger boy. When Andy becomes aware of the situation, he is compelled to put a stop to Chucky's Satanic antics once and for all. The signs of a creatively-depleted horror franchise are evident (they had already shown themselves in the previous installment), but there is still enough juice left for the spooky climax, which borrows a riff from Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Cool Runnings fictionalizes the true story of a bobsledding team from Jamaica making it to the Olympics. The tale begins when Derice Bannock (Leon), realizing that due to an accident his chances of qualifying for Jamaica's 1988 Olympic track team are dashed, scrounges around looking for another sport for the competition. Since ex-United States gold medal bobsledding winner Irv Blitzer (John Candy) now lives in Jamaica, Derice chooses bobsledding, convincing Irv to coach the team. Derice then forms his team. He gets his friend Sanka Cofie (Doug E. Doug) to join up and recruits Junior Bevil (Rawle D. Lewis), a young man who lacks self-confidence, and Yul Brenner (Malik Yoba), a disagreeable and bitter malcontent. After setbacks and near disasters, the group jells as team members and they head off to the Olympics to compete for an Olympic spot. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Deception: A Mother's Secret premiered as a made-for-TV effort during Thanksgiving week, 1991. There's little reason for leading man Steven Weber to offer thanks for the events which transpire in this heavy-going soap opera. Upon the death of his wife, Weber discovers that his entire marital relationship was founded on lies. In particular, he learns that even his young son has an unsavory past--and that Weber may have to give up his child to strangers before long. Though not indicated by the title or the ad campaign, Deception: A Mother's Secret is at base the story of a single father's right to adopt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the third installment in the Free Willy series, Jesse (Jason James Richter), the once-troubled youth whose life was changed by his friendship with the killer whale Willy, is spending the summer on board a ship assisting a group a whale researchers, including his old friend Randolph (August Schellenberg), and Drew (Annie Corley), an oceanographer. Jesse once used a harmonica to communicate with Willy, and when he plays his mouth harp through the ship's underwater sound system, he is able to find his old friend, who is now raising a family of his own. As Jesse, Randolph, and Drew are out to study and assist the whales, a ten-year-old boy named Max (Vincent Berry) is accompanying his father John Wesley (Patrick Kilpatrick) on the fishing boat that John helps to run. Max soon discovers that John and the crew are not fishing for salmon, as he believed, but killer whales, which is illegal, but very profitable, as whale meat fetches $200 a pound on the black market. Jesse meets Max on shore, and when Jesse learns what John and his crew are up to, he tries to teach Max that while his father may not be a bad man, he's doing a very bad thing in killing the whales, who are intelligent, compassionate, and deserve the right to live; Jesse also acts to save Willy and his family from John and his fellow poachers. As in Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Free Willy 3: The Rescue used mechanical and animated whales rather than flesh-and-blood aquatic mammals. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In Halloween 5, one of the less successful of the series of sequels to the original Halloween, the infamous Michael Myers (Donald Shanks), returns to stalk his niece and kill her. Jamie (Danielle Harris) is hospitalized and unable to speak because of her trauma during Michael's last killing spree. She has visions of where Michael will appear and kill again and he intends to stop her. Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) is working with Jamie to help her find Michael and lock him away. But, there is also another mysterious stranger following Michael. Halloween 5 is a routine slasher film and adds little that hasn't been done before in this series. But, it has its moments and has a gory, flashy ending that will be remembered. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

After directing the first two movies in the Harry Potter franchise, Chris Columbus opted to serve as producer for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and passed the baton to Y Tu Mamá También director Alfonso Cuarón. Though "immensely popular" is an understatement when it comes to Harry Potter, Azkaban is somewhat of a departure from its predecessors, and particularly beloved among fans for its surprise ending. Prisoner of Azkaban also marks the introduction of Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), who has escaped from the title prison after 12 years of incarceration. Believed to have been the right-hand-man of the dark wizard Voldemort, whom Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) mysteriously rendered powerless during his infancy, some of those closest to Harry suspect Black has returned to exact revenge on the boy who defeated his master. Upon his return to school, however, Harry is relatively unconcerned with Black. Run by Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) -- who is widely regarded as the most powerful wizard of the age -- Hogwarts is renowned for its safety. Harry's nonchalance eventually turns to blind rage after accidentally learning the first of Black's many secrets during a field trip to a neighboring village. Of course, a loose serial killer is only one of the problems plaguing the bespectacled wizard's third year back at school -- the soul-sucking guards of Azkaban prison have been employed at Hogwarts to protect the students, but their mere presence sends Harry into crippling fainting spells. With the help of his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson), and Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), Harry struggles to thwart the Dementors, find Sirius Black, and uncover the mysteries of the night that left him orphaned. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

As his mother Alcmerne (Liddy Holloway) lies dying, Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) mournfully recalls his first taste of war. In a lengthy flashback, Young Hercules (Ian Bohen) and his equally youthful friends, Iolaus (Dean O'Gorman) and Jason (Chris Conrad), eagerly align themselves with King Eteocles (Ray Woolf) to ward off King Stavros' (Martin Baynton) Parthenon invaders. Can it be that all this bloodshed has no purpose, or will something good emerge from the carnage after all? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this thriller set against the majestic backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness, the late John Denver stars as a retired FBI agent seeking to clear the name of a close friend. Disillusioned with his job as a G-man, Jim Clayton retires from the FBI and goes into the airfreight business with his best friend. When Clayton's pal is murdered and branded a bootlegger, the former agent embarks on his most treacherous mission to date - clearing the name of an innocent man. Martin Kove, John Rhys-Davies, and Richard Masur co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A made-for-TV effort from horror director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), this supernatural thriller is ostensibly based on the novella of the same name by Cornell Woolrich -- but the title is pretty much where the similarity ends. The plot involves a possessed Aztec ceremonial cloak (once used to line a sacred burial chamber) which poisons the soul of anyone who wears it. An improbable string of events sees the cloak turned into a little slip of a dress -- donned by several different women, but worn to evil perfection by Madchen Amick (Twin Peaks's Shelly). I'm Dangerous Tonight features colorful supporting performances from Anthony Perkins and R. Lee Ermey. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide