William Dear Movies

A struggling family find a wild stallion and wonder if the steed could save their farm. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A romantic comedy set during the 2008 presidential election, director William Dear's Politics of Love explores the complications that ensue when a hard-line conservative Republican falls head over heels for a stunning Democrat. As the competition between the candidates heats up and the historical election draws near, the two smitten campaigners learn that when it comes to love, there's no room for politics. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

High School Musical's Corbin Bleu trades in his dancing shoes for a helmet in this family film. In Free Style, young Cale (Bleu) gives his all in his effort to be on the Grand National Motocross racing team, while his mother (Penelope Ann Miller), sister (The Game Plan's Madison Pettis), and girlfriend (Sandra Echeverria) cheer him on. ~ Kimber Myers, Rovi

A self-absorbed slugger whose egotistical attitude threatens to bring the whole team down gets a second chance at learning the value of teamwork in the third installment of the kid-friendly Sandlot series. Tommy Santorelli (Luke Perry) is a Major League Baseball star whose impressive stats have gone to his head. One day, while stepping up to the plate for another home run hit, Tommy is beamed by a speeding fastball that knocks him clean unconscious. Awakening to discover that he has been mysteriously transported back to the scrappy sandlot where he first discovered his love of the game, 12-year-old Tommy is forced to work with his fellow players to save their favorite diamond from unscrupulous real-estate developer Earl Needman (Paul Jarrett). If Tommy's ragtag team can beat Needman's formidable group of miniature super-athletes, the sandlot will be theirs fair and square; if Tommy and company lose the game, however, they can kiss their favorite place to run the bases goodbye forever. When Tommy is offered the opportunity to pursue his own interests by joining Needman's team and getting a shot at the big leagues, he struggles to choose between personal advancement and the best interests of the team. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The change that passing years can bring become more obvious than ever before as four college buddies come back together for the first time since graduation in a nostalgic comedy about golf, cash and old friends. When Rick Forester (Kevin Dillon) organizes an impromptu reunion with four of his closest college friends, it appears as if his actions are being driven by purely benevolent intent. A close investigation of the gathering, however, soon reveals that Rick may be looking to make some quick cash of his college chums in a potentially lucrative game of golf. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Containing much of the same spirit that permeated Tim Allen's The Santa Clause, Santa Who? tells the story of Zack (Max Morrow), a young boy who helps Santa (Leslie Nielsen) figure out who he is after an attack of amnesia caused by a fall from his sled. Tommy Davidson, Steven Eckholdt, and Robyn Lively all play their parts in helping young Zack save Christmas for children everywhere. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

A man proves that hope can grow in the flintiest of soil in this made-for-TV drama for the family. A farming community is struggling to survive a severe drought when a mysterious stranger named Harvey Potter (Rip Torn) arrives in town. Potter rents a farm, a move which is believed to be the height of foolishness by his new neighbors, but one day a local child, Willow (Mara Wilson), passes by Potter's field to discover that it's full of colorful balloons. Willow is convinced that Potter has found a way to grow balloons, and while her mother Casey (Laurie Metcalf) knows better, she sees that Potter has brought an excitement and joy back into the lives of the town's children that had been all but snuffed out by the recent dry spell. Willow thinks that Potter knows some sort of magic, and Casey considers him to be a well-meaning eccentric, but a few of the locals are convinced that he has something dangerous up his sleeve. Disney's Balloon Farm was based on the book Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm by Jerdine Nolen; it premiered on the television anthology series The Wonderful World of Disney. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A scientific expedition to the earth's center goes awry, leaving the explorers marooned in a fantastic underground world. Adapted from Jules Verne's classic adventure. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Television flavor-of-the-month Richard Grieco made his feature-film debut in this juvenile spoof of James Bond films. He plays a high-school senior named Michael Corben who has flunked out of his French class, but has the chance to make up his grade on the French Club's summer trip to Europe. On the airplane booked to transport the French Club to France is another man by the name of Michael Corben, and this man happens to be a super-spy. When he is killed, the hapless high-school senior is mistaken for the real spy by British intelligence. He becomes involved in a mad plot by Augustus Steranko (Roger Rees) in which Steranko and his evil assistant Ilsa Grunt (Linda Hunt) plan to dominate the European continent by converting the gold standard to coins that will bear Steranko's likeness. Corben goes along with it when he is provided with a red sports car, a tuxedo, and some high-tech weapons. Along with all the spy accouterments, he latches onto a sexy helper -- Mariska (Gabrielle Anwar). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

While vacationing in the Pacific Northwest, the Henderson clan's dad, George (John Lithgow); mom, Nancy (Melinda Dillon); daughter, Sarah (Margaret Langrick); and son, Ernie (Joshua Rudoy), accidently run over a strange animal with their car, and when they get out to see what it is, they find the seemingly dead body of a hairy Bigfoot-type monster (Kevin Peter Hall). Believing that the creature is a grizzly bear, the Hendersons take it home, planning to stuff the beast and put it on display in their living room. Predictably, the hirsute monster revives and is adopted by the family as a pet. Originally conceived as a TV series by comedian Brad Garrett, Harry and the Hendersons ultimately did make it to the small screen as a weekly syndicated sitcom in 1990, with Kevin Peter Hall repeating the title role during the series' first 24 episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Michael Nesmith (famed as the talented one from '60s pop-band The Monkees) directed this melange of music and comedy clips starring Whoopi Goldberg, Garry Shandling, Rosanne Cash, Jay Leno and Jimmy Buffett. ~ John Bush, Rovi

Given the off-the-wall premise in this sci-fi western -- that a motorcyclist rides his bike through a time warp right into the Wild West, into the middle of a gang of outlaws, and cannot figure out what happened -- the glitches and gaps in the plot fit right in with the spirit of the adventure. When the outlaw Reese (Peter Coyote) catches sight of the macho bike, he decides that several hundred horsepower are better than his one and is out to rustle the vehicle any way he can. Unfortunately, the bike does not run on high-octane hay -- an issue that bites the dust when pistol-packing Clair (Belinda Bauer) appears on the scene. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The Firesign Theatre (Phil Austin, Philip Proctor, Peter Bergman) is still held in high esteem by those "FM heads" of the 1970s who committed the group's stream-of-consciousness comedy albums to memory. "Nick Danger: Third Eye" was a character created for the Firesign's 1969 album All Hail Marx and Lennon (aka How Can You Be In Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere At All?) The character was probably better seen than heard, as proven by the half-hearted videotape presentation Nick Danger and the Case of the Missing Yolk. The Bogart-like Nick Danger palavers with such slimy suspects as Rocky Rococo while he tackles the case of the Yolks, a hillbilly family who've vanished without a trace. The Yolks have been transported by aliens to a modernistic, fully automated "dream house". Most of the resulting jokes were done better by Ma and Pa Kettle. Nick Danger and the Case of the Missing Yolk is a distressingly mundane effort from the once-innovational Firesign Theatre. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi