Martin Mull Movies
Martin Mull intended to become a painter when he enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design, but his Scaramouche-like sense of the ridiculous led to a career as a nightclub comedian. The deceptively conservative-looking Mull is widely recognized as one of the most accomplished satirists in show business. Even before he gained TV fame, Mull's barbed comedy albums had earned him a following on the college campus circuit. His first major TV assignment was Mary Hartman Mary Hartman (1976-77), where he was seen as Garth Gimble, an ill-tempered wife beater who ended up being impaled by a Christmas tree. When Mary Hartman Mary Hartman producer Norman Lear developed the spin-off series Fernwood Tonight in 1977, Mull was brought back as glad-handing emcee Barth Gimble, Garth's twin brother. In films since 1978, Mull is often called upon to portray an underhanded or vacillating CEO (vide Mister Mom). His well-groomed mustache and tweedy appearance served him well as Colonel Mustard in the 1985 movie version of the venerable board game Clue. Back on television, Mull has etched such indelible comic characterizations as Leon Carp, Roseanne Connor's gay boss, on Roseanne (1988- ), and the leading roles of Martin Crane in Domestic Life (1984) and Dr. Doug Lambert in His & Hers (1990). In collaboration with Allan Rucker, Martin Mull was the creator/writer of a devastating series of lampoonish "cultural studies" books and TV specials, under the blanket title The History of White People in America. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Way back when she was 13 years old, lonely Holly Grant (Kelli Williams), envying the busy social lives of her best friends, made a wish to receive a boyfriend for Christmas. Instead, Holly was given a glass globe, ostensibly by "Santa Claus" himself, with the attached message that her wish would be granted within the next two decades. Flash forward 20 years: Now a dedicated pro bono attorney, the still-unattached Holly has experienced great success in making everyone happy -- except herself. Enter two men in our heroine's life: Ted Powell (Bruce Thomas), her onetime high school heartthrob, and some guy calling himself Doug, who strangely resembles a person whom Holly ardently dislikes -- and who may well be the answer to the wish posted to Santa twenty years before! A Boyfriend for Christmas originally aired over the Hallmark channel on November 27, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kelli Williams, Patrick Muldoon, (more)
- 1988
Fans of the syndicated 1980s TV series An Evening at the Improv will get a kick out of this commemorative TV special. Budd Friedman, overseer of the Improv comedy club in Los Angeles, takes a back seat to host Robert Klein this time out. Offering their considerable talents to the occasion are such Improv habitues as Billy Crystal, Richard Lewis, Paul Rodriguez, Martin Mull and Robin Williams. This 60-minute video is unrated, but the language gets hilariously salty at times. All-Star Toast to the Improv debuted on the HBO cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Everyone is a stereotypical extreme in this sometimes mean-spirited black comedy about the vicious staff at an orphanage, the garrulous punk kids who live there, and the pretentious overblown rich couple who adopt one of the orphans -- this is not a happy world. In the Bleeding Heart Orphanage, Sister Serene (Anne De Salvo) applies all the mental and emotional restrictions she can to her wild charges, while Kurtz (Murphy Dunne) applies the electric cattle prod. When one of the children (all around 10 years old, more or less) is adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick (Martin Mull and Karen Black), his cohorts come to rescue him from the terrors of an upper-class Santa Barbara existence -- and subsequent mayhem ensues. With a low-brow, low-budget approach, the premises are obviously meant to key in to the slapstick characterizations, but for some viewers, even the comic moments may not assuage the meaner undertones of the film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Mull, Karen Black, (more)
- 1997
In this comedy, a famous housewife must put her alleged homemaking skills to the test after she and her family are marooned on a tropic island. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Big City Comedy originated in 1980 as a syndicated TV series, hosed by John Candy. The chucklesome Candy was aided and abetted by such guest pals as Billy Crystal, Tim Kazurinsky and Martin Mull. Unfortunately, the sketches and routines weren't quite worthy of the talent involved, so assembling a "best of" video must have been a tricky proposition. Candy himself relied too much on funny costumes and makeup to get laughs, a common failing of many Second City veterans who find themselves saddled with mediocre material. Still, Big City Comedy affords a few hearty chuckles within its 58-minute lifespan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
The thin storyline for this film is that three young women hope to gain a foothold in the acting profession, so they perform nude in front of the window of the disk jockey (Mad Man Jack played by Al Music) who is running a contest that would launch their careers. Along with many songs by a wide variety of groups -- from The Police to Blondie -- are crowds of young women cheerleading, doing aerobics, hang gliding, wind-surfing, and performing any number of physical feats. Other than music and nubile women in sporting events, the film has little to say and was never released theatrically. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Music, Lantz Douglas, (more)
In this spoof of McCarthy-era paranoia and 1950s wholesomeness, the characters and plot are drawn from the popular Parker Brothers board game of the same name. On a dark and stormy night in 1954, six individuals with ties to Washington are assembled for a dinner party at the swanky mansion of one Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving). Boddy's butler, Wadsworth (Tim Curry), assigns each guest a colorful name: Mr. Green (Michael McKean), Col. Mustard (Martin Mull), Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren), and Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn). Two additional servants, the Cook (Kellye Nakahara) and Yvette, the maid (Colleen Camp), assist Wadsworth as he informs the guests that they have been gathered to meet the man who has been blackmailing them: Mr. Boddy. When Boddy turns up dead, however, the guests must try to figure out who killed him so they can protect their own reputations and keep the body count from growing. Three separate endings were filmed for Clue and shown in different theaters; all three are collected for the video edition. Although the film is set in the 1950s, the original Clue game was actually devised by Anthony Pratt, a clerk in Leeds, England, to pass the time during World War II air-raid drills. First released in 1946 under the name Cluedo by British manufacturer Waddington's, Clue was renamed and released in the U.S. in 1949. Today, Clue/Cluedo is marketed in 70 countries around the world and has been adapted into a British game show and an off-Broadway musical. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, (more)
This reject from slasher-movie remedial school -- featuring copious amounts of teen sex and the usual unimaginative gore murders -- involves the return of a problem teen (Donovan Leitch) to high school after his release from an institution. After essentially pinning the "Red Herring" sign on the main character, the filmmakers then pander what passes for suspense as Leitch's classmates head for that big D-hall in the sky. Not even a supporting performance by then-unknown Brad Pitt managed to rescue this lackluster thriller, which arrived far too late in the game to appeal to the teen-horror crowd -- an audience which by then had already migrated from Halloween clones and Friday the 13th sequels to Freddy Krueger territory after Wes Craven's crafty A Nightmare on Elm Street. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donovan Leitch, Jill Schoelen, (more)
After several strippers are murdered, a reporter (Barbara Alyn Woods) goes undercover at a seedy club to unmask the killer. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1985
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, All Movie Guide
In this comedy, two women head for Reno to get simultaneous quicky divorces and end up becoming friends. Edie was married years ago, but her husband abandoned her two weeks after the wedding. Pen spent nine years married to an ice-cold businessman who neglected her. Edie and Pen meet while leaving the courtroom. They immediately head for a bar where they encounter Harry, who is despondent that his wife took his beloved dog when she left him. As the three grow increasingly inebriated, they begin having long conversations about their pasts, presents and futures. Now that ditzy Edie is divorced, she plans to marry her new love in Acapulco. Meanwhile, womanizing Harry attempts to bed the vulnerable Pen. Dramatic tension rises when Pen discovers that Edie's fiancé is her ex-husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stockard Channing, Jennifer Tilly, (more)
- 1978
- PG
When a radio station's management announces that there's going to be an upswing in commercials on the air, with a strong emphasis on ads for the U.S. Army, the anti-establishment deejays form a united front against the "suits." With station manager Jeff Dugan's (Michael Brandon) unofficial approval, the other employees hijack the station, playing the kind of music they like before the authorities can arrive. Martin Mull appears in his feature-film debut as a zoned-out record spinner. In addition, the film includes live appearances by the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Jimmy Buffett, Tom Petty, and REO Speedwagon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Brandon, Eileen Brennan, (more)
Starring many of his family members, this is Tommy Chong's (of the well-known duo, Cheech and Chong) first solo production. As an outdated hippie, Far Out Man (Tommy Chong) searches to relive his lost youth by traveling across the country. C. Thomas Howell, Judd Nelson, and Cheech Marin all make cameo appearances in this far out film. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Chong, Shelby Chong, (more)
- 1987
- R
Never released in the theaters, this film consists of a series of short skits and parodies of television and the movies, and stars Richard Belzer, Martin Mull, and Harry Shearer. The film's 1981 production date explains the presence of Joan Hackett, who died in 1983. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pamela Sue Martin, Joan Hackett, (more)
- 1985
Comedian Martin Mull's seminal mockumentary concerns the mundane trials and banal tribulations of a gaggle of Ohio suburbanites. All the hallmarks of middle-American culture are skewered: religion, excessive use of dairy products, crime, and family bickering. The cast includes Mull, Mary Kay Place, and Fred Willard. Harry Shearer of This Is Spinal Tap directs. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- 1985
A sequel to Martin Mull's spoof about the hardships of white life in middle America. ~ All Movie Guide
Twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (from the popular television series Full House) are back with another TV-movie for the kids. This time around the twins go West to help save their grandmother's endangered dude ranch from their greedy uncle who wants to take it over. Western cliches abound, but kids should find the duo heroines entertaining in this safe family choice. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ashley Olsen, Mary-Kate Olsen, (more)
The true meaning of Christmas -- desperate last-minute shopping -- is the subject of this holiday-themed comedy. Howard Langston (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a mattress salesman with a bad habit of putting his work ahead of his family. His son Jamie (Jake Lloyd), who wishes Dad would pay more attention to him, wants only one thing for Christmas -- a Turbo Man action figure, with all the accessories. Howard promises both Jamie and his wife Liz (Rita Wilson) that there will indeed be a Turbo Man under the tree for Jamie on Christmas morning, but come December 24, Howard realizes that he hasn't actually bought the toy yet. Seemingly it would be no great problem to head on down to the toy store and pick one up, but it just so happens that Turbo Man has been the hottest ticket of the holiday season, and literally thousands of parents are scrambling for the last few action figures. Howard then spends a hilariously hellish Christmas Eve madly scrambling from store to store in desperate search of a Turbo Man; in the course of his adventures, Howard keeps crossing paths Myron Larabee (Sinbad), a postal worker who wants a Turbo Man even more desperately than Howard. And on the home front, Howard has to worry about Ted Maltin (Phil Hartman), an annoyingly perfect suburbanite obsessed with Christmas who has eyes for Liz. This was the second film for child actor Jake Lloyd, who three years later would gain international attention when he was cast as the young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, (more)
- 1985
A middle-aged Annette Funicello stars in this made-for-Disney film about a blue-collar family whose lives are forever transformed when they win the lottery. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
