Brian Levant Movies

Perhaps it's a blessing that old Ward Cleaver didn't live to see how his son Beaver (Jerry Mathers) turned out. Now in his mid-30s, the Beav is divorced, out of work, and living in his mother's house with his two children. Beaver's brother Wally, also married, is doing rather better, but his friendship with neighborhood sharpster Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond) threatens his financial wellbeing. Only the boys' Mom June (Barbara Billingsley) has matured in the twenty years since Leave It to Beaver left the air. Still the Beaver was the pilot for one of those ubiquitous "reunion" series of the 1980s; this one sold, and ran for several seasons on the TBS Superstation as The New Leave It to Beaver. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the adoption agency, along comes this sequel to the 1990 comedy hit Problem Child. Ben Healy (John Ritter) and his sociopathically unruly son Junior (Michael Oliver) move out of town after Ben and his wife split up. Ben discovers that his new city is overrun with divorced women looking for husbands, and Lawanda Dumore (Laraine Newman) soon sets her predatory sights on Ben. However, Lawanda doesn't care for Junior (not difficult to understand) and intends to ship him off to boarding school as soon as she and Ben tie the knot. Junior gets wind of her plans and does all in his power to scuttle them. Meanwhile, Junior finds a new playmate -- Trixie (Ivyann Schwan), a girl even more obnoxious than himself, who is the daughter of Annie (Amy Yasbeck), the school's nurse, who also has her eye on Ben. Oddly enough, Amy Yasbeck also appeared in the original Problem Child as Flo, the wife that Ben divorced in this picture. Yasbeck and Ritter married in real life in 1999. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The good (if not fully evolved) citizens of Bedrock make their way to the big screen in this live-action adaptation of the popular animated series of the 1960s. Fred Flintstone (John Goodman) and his best friend Barney Rubble (Rick Moranis) work together at the Slate and Company Rock Quarry. When Fred loans Barney some money that allows him and his wife Betty (Rosie O'Donnell) to adopt a child, Barney is looking for a way to show his gratitude. Barney thinks he's found one when the executives at Slate and Company announce that they're giving all their employees intelligence tests to help determine future promotions. When Barney switches his high-scoring test with Fred's, his plan works -- but not quite the way he had hoped: Fred is deemed executive material and given a big promotion, complete with a sexy secretary (Halle Berry) who makes his wife Wilma (Elizabeth Perkins) jealous, while Barney is soon out of a job and can't pay his bills. Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbara, who created the original television series, make cameo appearances here; Elizabeth Taylor gives a fine comic performance as Wilma's nagging mother, and Harvey Korman provides the voice of the Dictabird. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The Cleaver Family makes the jump from the small black and white screen to color and Panavision in this updated version of the classic TV sit-com. Eight-year-old Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (Cameron Finley) is a good natured kid with a habit of getting in trouble; he's not bad, mind you, just a bit absent-minded. Beaver lives with his 12-year-old brother Wally (Erik Von Detten), his father Ward (Christopher McDonald), and his mother June (Janine Turner) in a small town in Ohio. Beaver wants a new bicycle more than anything, but his father wishes that he had more of an interest in team sports; someone suggests to Beaver that if he joined the school's football team, Ward might be impressed enough to buy him the bike. Beaver signs up, but his skills on the gridiron fall somewhere between slim and none, and the experience proves more than a bit embarrassing for both Beaver and Ward. Before long, Beaver has quit the team, but he tries to hide this fact from his father. Beaver does get his bike -- but he doesn't get to do much with it before it's stolen by a bigger kid in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, Wally's best friend, the mildly sleazy Eddie Haskell (Adam Zolotin), has fallen for a cute girl at school, Karen (Erika Christensen), and wants Wally to help him impress her; however, Karen seems to like Wally more than Eddie. This puts Wally in dutch with his best friend, and Wally feels even worse when he and Karen begin to quarrel. Ken Osmond, who played Eddie Haskell on the original TV series, plays Eddie's father here, and Barbara Billingsley, the original June Cleaver, appears as Aunt Martha. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Two Oscar-winning actors add a family-oriented comedy to their resumes with this Disney-produced arctic adventure. Snow Dogs stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as Ted Brooks, a Florida-dwelling dentist with a successful chain of offices and a comfy, poolside lifestyle. All this changes, however, when he finds out that he was actually adopted as a child, and that his birth mother has died and left him an inheritance in her home state of Alaska, of all places. After arriving in the snow-bound clime, Ted learns that he has been willed a pack of cutely named sled dogs: Demon, Diesel, Dutchess, Nana, Mack, Scooper, Sniff, and Yodel. Problem is, the town's premiere sled-dogger, Thunder Jack (James Coburn), wants the pack for himself, and encourages Ted to go back to his tropical environs. But with a major sled-dog race looming, Ted's inspired to learn the ropes, as it were, and prove himself worthy of his birth mother's inheritance -- any way he can. Snow Dogs was directed by Jingle All the Way's Brian Levant and features some animatronic dog effects by Jim Henson's Creature Shop; the script was very loosely adapted from popular author Gary Paulsen's nonfiction book Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

Jonathan Silverman, Oscar Nunez, Cesar Millan, Rhea Perlman, and Eddie Griffin headline this installment of the popular film series featuring everyone's favorite fun-loving St. Bernard. Animal handler Eddie (Silverman) may deal with some of the best beasts in the business by day, but when it comes to his personal life there are no pets allowed. So strict is Eddie in enforcing this policy that when his young son Billy discovers a stray dog named Beethoven and his young litter of puppies, he insists that the boy find another place for the homeless pooches to live. But when dog-nappers make off with the canine star of the latest film that Eddie is working on, producers start to turn up the pressure for Eddie to find a replacement. Now, the harried father's only hope is to replace the missing canine with Beethoven, a natural star if there ever was one. Of course it doesn't take long for Beethoven to win Eddie's heart, and take Hollywood by storm, in the process proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks after all. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Reminiscent of Kindergarten Cop, with a dash of Spy Kids, The Spy Next Door blends together an entertaining mixture of family fun and martial-arts comedy styling to form a familiar story that once again reminds us that even hardened action heroes have a soft side. Jackie Chan stars as Bob Ho, an international spy on loan to the CIA who gives up his job in hopes of leading a so-called normal life with his next-door-neighbor girlfriend and her rambunctious brood. There's nothing in Spy that the audience hasn't seen before from similarly themed incarnations (think The Pacifier), but, fans will appreciate director Brian Levant's homage to Jackie Chan's past Hong Kong movie blockbusters -- most notably, Police Story and The Legend of Drunken Master -- during the opening credit sequence, which is fitting considering many of the action sequences are derivative of those films.

The main story centers on Bob's relationship with artsy single mom Gillian (Amber Valletta) and her three kids: precocious teenage stepdaughter Farren (Madeline Carroll), nerdy middle child Ian (Will Shadley), and adorably energetic Nora (Alina Foley). After an emergency sends Gillian away to Denver, Bob steps up and offers to watch the kids while she's gone. Ill-equipped to handle a situation that's clearly over his head, Bob utilizes his spy skills and gadgets -- video watch, GPS tracking, x-ray glasses -- to gain control over the situation in hopes of winning over the kid's affection, but when an old enemy escapes from prison and threatens his potential family, Bob must return to his 007 world of international espionage to protect them.

Admittedly, there's a certain level of cheese in this film, especially when it comes to the Boris-and-Natasha-style villains, Poldark (Magnús Scheving) and Creel (Katherine Boecher), whose silly Russian stereotyped performances and running joke about American fashion unabashedly border on cringe-worthy territory. Not to mention, the thinly plotted storyline involving brainiac Ian, who accidentally downloads a top-secret formula for oil-eating ooze created by the bad guys, which propels the main action of the film. Adding to the pile are the supporting cast members: George Lopez as the traitorous CIA agent, Glaze, and Billy Ray Cyrus as CIA agent and Bob's BFF Colton James, who lends folksy witticisms like "As gone as rum cake at an AA meeting."

Even so, Chan's charm wins out in the end, and The Spy Next Door's most effective sequences involve Bob's attempts to bond with the kids -- from taking little Nora shopping for a Halloween costume to helping Ian with school bullies and girls. These comedic moments more or less overshadow an otherwise simplistic narrative, and the audience can't help but smile to themselves every time Chan appears onscreen. Die-hard fans might miss the era of classic kick-ass Hong Kong action films, but Spy manages to fill that void as an entertaining alternative that kids and parents alike will enjoy. ~ Alaina O'Connor, Rovi

Years after realizing his childhood dream of getting a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, 16-year-old Ralphie (Braeden Lemasters) sets his bespectacled sights on a gift of the four-wheeled variety in this belated sequel to the Bob Clark's beloved 1983 classic A Christmas Story. As the snow begins to fall and the carolers start to sing, Ralphie dreams of waking up on Christmas morning to find the keys to a 1938 Hupmobile Skyline Convertible dangling from the tree, and embracing a whole new world of freedom as he cruises the streets of Hohman, Indiana in style. Home Alone alumni Daniel Stern takes over for the late Darren McGavin as The Old Man, with Stacey Travis, David Buehrle, David W. Thompson, and Valin Shinyei sounding out the supporting cast as Mrs. Parker, Schwartz, Flick, and Randy respectively. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi