Scott Kroopf Movies

Benjy Taylor (D.B. Sweeney) is a rookie cop who goes undercover to nab a gang of car thieves in this routine crime drama. Taylor salivates over the lifestyle and money enjoyed by Ted Varrick (Charlie Sheen), the smooth operator who leads the Porsche pilferers, and he reports back to Lieutenant Vincent Bracey (Randy Quaid), who is convinced Ted is a cop killer but needs more proof. Taylor joins the gang and begins to justify car theft and the money it brings as gathering evidence. Soon his reasoning is clouded and the rookie cop gets in deeper when he actually begins to like Ted and the suspect's sultry sister Ann (Lara Harris). ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

With only a few days before their high-school graduation, it looks like airheaded rock star wannabes Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are doomed to flunk all their finals. The boys' long-suffering teacher (Bernie Casey) gives them one more chance. If they can ace an oral exam on the topic of how a famous historical personality might react to modern times, they will be allowed to pass. If not, Ted's dad will plunk the boy into military school, thereby breaking up the boys' garage band permanently. Bill and Ted receive unexpected aid from a very unexpected source: Rufus (George Carlin), an Emissary from the Future. It seems that in Rufus' time, Bill and Ted's rock music is the basis of all society-and if their band is aborted, Rufus' world will no longer exist. Thus, Bill and Ted are whisked off in a time machine (actually a telephone booth) to retrieve a few historical characters--including Joan of Arc, Abe Lincoln, Napoleon and Beethoven--as "eyewitnesses" for their crucial oral exam. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure inspired both a sequel (Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey) and a Saturday morning cartoon series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey find the two obtuse pals battling The Grim Reaper, God, robots, great philosophical questions, and girls -- although not necessarily in that order. In this loose parody of the Terminator movies, directed by Peter Hewitt, the ultimate has happened -- at Bill and Ted University of the future, for many years now the people of the world have been "excellent to each other." But fed-up with Bill and Ted's peaceful world and even more fed up with heavy metal, the evil De Nomolos (Joss Ackland) decides to do something about it. De Nomolos creates a cyborg Bill and Ted, who travel back in time to kill the original Bill and Ted, win the Battle of the Bands and pave the way for the hellish reign of De Nomolos. In the past of 1990, Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are immediately dispatched by the time-traveling cyborgs. And while the cyborgs Bill and Ted make time with the real Bill and Ted's girls (Sarah Trigger and Annette Azcuy) and prepare to take the real Bill and Ted's place in the Battle of the Bands, Bill and Ted are forced to deal with Hell ("Just like an Iron Maiden album cover"), the Grim Reaper (William Sadler), and God himself. When Bill and Ted are asked the secret of the universe, they get it right and as a reward a pair of Martians construct a set of "good" Bill and Ted robots to go head-to-head with the "bad" Bill and Ted robots at the Battle of the Bands. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A man trying to help out his sister finds himself chin-deep in hot water in this screwball comedy. Yuppie businessman Bill Campbell (Matthew Broderick) is close to sealing a $140 million business deal when he gets a phone call from his little sister Marci (Courtney Peldon), who is convinced that her new stepfather, Peter Van Der Haven (Jeffrey Jones), the mayor of the city of Buzzsaw, California, is up to no good. Though understandably wary, Bill heads to Buzzsaw, where he promptly loses his paperwork on the deal in progress and is confronted by the city's remarkable collection of eccentrics, including the crazed fugitive Sally (Heidi Kling), the subnormal Jim Jr. and Jim Sr. (John C. Reilly and Michael Monks), and Ann (Marian Mercer), the mayor's loopy wife. It turns out that Marci wasn't entirely wrong; year's ago, Peter's diabolical twin brother Matt (also played by Jones) was sent to jail in his brother's place on criminal charges, and now Matt has violent revenge on his mind. Out on a Limb features an original score by noted composer and arranger Van Dyke Parks. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

It's off to Africa for a former B-ball player who'd like to find a top-notch basketball recruit to help him become a successful coach. Kevin Bacon has the lead in this Paul Glaser-directed film. ~ All Movie Guide

Party-hard skydiving teacher Ditch Brodie (Charlie Sheen) has a knack for getting himself into trouble, but his booze-babes-and-planes shenanigans hardly prepare him for an international plot that pits Brodie and a mysterious KGB agent against a post-Cold War Russian villain called Kerr (Chris McDonald) and an American heavy named Ben Pinkwater (James Gandolfini). Aerial set pieces alternate with tongue-in-cheek flirtation and conspiracy-theory suspense as Brodie meets a beautiful new student, Chris Morrow (Nastassja Kinski), then must try to explain to the authorities how he allowed her to fall out of a plane to her death. Soon Brodie -- on the run from both Kerr and the police -- begins to realize that in espionage, as in romance, often nothing is as it seems. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

In the film Happy New Year (1987), actor Peter Falk donned old-age makeup to play a senior citizen. Eight years later, he did it again, twice, in the TV movie remake of The Sunshine Boys (1995) and this film, a comedy-drama. Falk stars as Rocky Holzcek, a cantankerous 76-year-old Polish-American baker who insists, despite relatives' protests, upon adopting his young grandson Michael when the boy's parents pass away. Twenty years later, Michael (D.B. Sweeney) is a medical student who's forced to take in his still-spry grandfather when the old man is evicted from his apartment building. Although the crusty, outspoken Rocky gets along fine with Michael's Chinese college roommates, he is less enthused about his grandson's girlfriend Beth (Julianne Moore). Eventually, Michael and Beth marry, move away and have children, while Rocky continues working as a baker, passing the age of 100. When a tragedy befalls Michael and his kids, the old man once again comes to his grandson's rescue, but even a force of nature like Rocky can't last forever. Roommates was loosely based on the real-life experiences of screenwriter Max Apple and his grandfather. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a woman discovers that it's impossible to get ahead in business without a man to guide her -- so she invents one. Laurel (Whoopi Goldberg) is an expert financial analyst with a top Wall Street brokerage; however, she keeps getting passed over for raises and promotions, and she's convinced that no one at her firm takes her seriously because she's a black woman. Frustrated, Laurel and her loyal assistant Sally (Dianne Wiest) open a new firm, but Laurel discovers that her fears were based firmly in reality: male clients don't want to take financial advice from women, especially women of color. So Laurel invents a white man, Robert S. Cutty, to be the firm's top adviser. Speaking on Cutty's behalf, Laurel passes along the fictional man's advice, which her new clients find to be quite sound, and when they stop by to see him, he always manages to be out of the office (and why wouldn't a man so successful be busy?). The ruse seems to work, and soon Laurel's business is going great guns, but an increasingly large number of her clients want to see Cutty face to face, which won't be easy to pull off. However, with the help of a drag queen, Laurel tries to remake herself into Cutty for a night in order to keep her firm afloat. The Associate was based on a novel by author Jenaro Prieto. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Boys is a coming-of-age tale about an addled prep school student who nurses a woman back to health after an accident and becomes involved in her cryptic past. John Baker Jr. (Lukas Haas) is a tormented high school senior outcast who's weary of his upper-crust boarding school life and dreads his future as a supermarket chain manager. When he finds Patty Vare (Winona Ryder) unconscious in a field after being thrown from a horse, Baker sees this as an opportunity to break out of his humdrum existence, and he smuggles her into the school to take care of her. The relationship blooms into a somewhat bizarre love affair, as John discovers that Patty is concealing a mysterious secret involving a missing baseball player and a stolen car. Although the film takes a little time to get started, what originates as an analysis of guarded youths making foolish judgments evolves into a celebration of adolescent insurrection. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Once upon a time, pursuing wolves frighten horses drawing a carriage, and it tumbles down a hill. Dying, the pregnant woman inside orders her grieving husband Frederick (Sam Neill) to cut the baby from her womb, so that at least it might live. Years later, the infant is now headstrong young Lilli (Taryn Davis), who is resentful of her father's upcoming marriage to Claudia (Sigourney Weaver). Claudia is devoted to the memory of her own mother and installs a magic mirror that belonged to her in a wardrobe in her private room. More time passes; Lilli is now an adult, but her relationship with the now-pregnant Claudia has never improved, though Claudia has never done her any ill. Claudia loses her baby, and on the same night, gazes into her mother's mirror, which shows her an image of herself young and beautiful. She determines to rid herself of Lilli. Lilli is walking near the forest when Claudia's mute brother Gustav (Miroslav Taborski) draws a knife and chases the frightened young woman into the forest. She evades him, so he kills a pig and takes the heart to a delighted Claudia, who believes it to be Lilli's heart. She has Gustav put the heart in a stew cooking in the kitchen, and that night as she dines with Frederick, Lilli eats the stew with great pleasure. Later, Frederick and some men search for Lilli in the rainy forest.

Lilli takes refuge from wolves in a ruined castle, where she's confronted by seven vagabonds who've banned together to seek a lost gold mind. Will (Gil Bellows), scarred during the Crusades, is around Lilli's own age and resents her presence, but the older Lars (Brian Glover) is friendlier to her. The mirror tells Claudia that Lilli is still alive, so in the forest where Claudia keeps a shrine to her dead baby, she casts a spell designed to kill her stepdaughter. Lilli, helping the men in their mine, is almost smothered in a cave-in; she's rescued, but one of the men dies. The mirror again tells Claudia that Lilli still lives. Whirling in a black gown, Claudia conjures a wind that strikes the forest; giant trees topple all around Lilli and the men, killing Lars, but Lilli still lives. So the mirror now transforms Claudia into a bald old hag, and she goes into the forest herself. She offers an apple to Lilli, who takes one bite and falls into a trance that no one can tell from death. She's placed in a stained-glass coffin and lowered into the ground, but the agonized Will, who's fallen in love with her, lifts her from the coffin and a piece of apple falls from her mouth. She returns to life, and they all head for the castle. She arrives in time to interrupt Claudia in the act of slashing Frederick's throat, then confronts Lilli in a room full of mirrors. (There's a hint that Claudia had a part in the death of Lilli's mother.) Lilli stabs not Claudia but her mirror image. It bursts apart, shredding and burning Claudia to death.

This bold movie out-grims the Brothers Grimm, telling their oft-told tale as a horror movie/adventure -- and it works. In fact, the weakness of the movie is precisely that the story is so familiar, but the changes wrought by the writers and director keep it fresh for most of its length. It's handsomely designed, using real locations and costumes that are never too grand for the setting. Weaver is clearly having a great time as the not-so-wicked stepmother who eventually becomes a vengeful witch. Especially for a fairy tale, the characters are complex and not necessarily always likable; even Lilli (who is never called "Snow White") has a hard edge, and her "Prince Charming" is a bitter, scarred commoner. It's a shame this attractive, imaginative film didn't have any theatrical release in the United States; originality, especially in a field as well-ploughed as fairy tales, should be encouraged. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

This drama about the efforts of an upper-class couple to have a child takes place in 1935 Boston. When Father Michael McKinnon (Kenneth Branagh) arrives from England to join the St. Jude's clergy, he avoids wealthy parishioners Arthur and Eleanor Barret (William Hurt, Madeleine Stowe). Attorney Arthur, an FDR adviser, and successful author Eleanor, want a child, but Arthur is sterile. Eleanor asks Arthur to pay someone to impregnate her, and Harvard law student Roger Martin (Neil Patrick Harris) is hired. He profits considerably, since he is required to return for several attempts. However, he becomes obsessed with Eleanor, infuriating Arthur, who threatens to kill him. Emotions and events escalate, as McKinnon reveals he's the son of Arthur's Nazi-leaning brother, Eleanor loses the baby, McKinnon becomes attracted to Eleanor, and there's a mysterious' murder. Shown at the 1998 Santa Barbara Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

After the success of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and television's Dawson's Creek, screenwriter Kevin Williamson made his directorial debut with this screwball thriller in which an honor roll student and two friends kidnap their witchy teacher. Although her single mom (Lesley Ann Warren), a waitress, struggles to make ends meet, aspiring writer Leigh Ann Watson (Katie Holmes) works hard, avoids sexual temptation, and focuses on her studies. She hopes to make valedictorian and earn a scholarship to college -- and get away from her dead-end hometown. As her senior year draws to a close, however, she's dogged by harsh grades from her vituperative history instructor, Mrs. Tingle (Helen Mirren). On the same day she finds out that she's still in second place behind fellow valedictory candidate Mary Beth Carter (Liz Stauber), Leigh Ann must endure Mrs. Tingle's fierce criticism of the final project into which she's poured her heart. After commiserating with her best friend, aspiring actress Jo Lynn Jordan (Marisa Coughlan), and hunky stoner Luke Churner (Barry Watson), Leigh Ann runs even further afoul of Mrs. Tingle; Luke stashes an advance copy of the teacher's final exam in Leigh Ann's backpack and Tingle discovers it, promising to turn Leigh Ann in for cheating and ruin her chances of a better life. When the three teens turn up at Tingle's house to try to reason with her, Luke and Jo Lynn manage to accidentally kidnap Mrs. Tingle. Soon the three students are keeping their teacher a prisoner, trying to figure out how to blackmail her into silence while maintaining the illusion that nothing strange is going on. Teaching Mrs. Tingle was filmed under the name "Killing Mrs. Tingle," but the title was changed after a rash of real-life high school killing sprees made the headlines. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide