Deborah Blum Movies

Two hapless psychics unwittingly aid a criminal in his quest to obtain a mystic relic in this farcical adventure. Street smart beauty-school dropout Sylvia Pickel (Cyndi Lauper) navigates life with the counsel of a spirit named Louise, while genteel Nick Deezy (Jeff Goldblum) has the ability to "read" an object's past just by holding it. Harry Buscafusco (Peter Falk) is the treasure hunter who brings them together for a trip to Ecuador to find his missing son. Nick and Sylvia don't get on at first, their animosity only amplified by various slapstick escapades that find them posing as siblings and hobnobbing with monied jet-setters. Eventually, Buscafusco's missing-child premise turns out to be a ruse; his true intentions envelop Nick and Sylvia in serious peril just as they're beginning to let down their guard and fall for one another. The action climaxes in a special effects-laden jungle sequence. Vibes marked the screen debut of pop singer Cyndi Lauper, whose single "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)" graces the closing credits. Despite the poor box-office results of Vibes and the generally poor reviews for her performance, Lauper would go on to earn an Emmy award for a guest stint on TV's Mad About You and appear with Christopher Walken in the indie drama The Opportunists. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Michael Keaton stars as a wheeler-dealer who hopes to save a failing Pennsylvania automobile-assembly factory from having to close its doors. Keaton persuades a Japanese auto firm to reopen the factory, retrain its staff, and streamline the operation. It isn't long before the American-born workers grow to resent the disciplinary demands of their new Japanese bosses, setting the stage for a comic clash of cultures. The day is saved when it turns out that the poker-faced owner of the auto company possesses a really strange sense of humor. Gung Ho was later spun off into a short-lived TV sitcom, starring Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap fame. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi