Jennifer Ogden Movies

A woman meets her future in-laws and discovers they don't much care for her in this comedy from writer and director Thomas Bezucha. Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney) is a successful young businessman who is dating Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker), and has asked her to spend Christmas with his family, with plans to ask his mother, Sybil (Diane Keaton), for the titular family wedding band and propose to Meredith on Christmas Day. Meredith is more than a bit nervous about meeting Everett's folks, and things only get worse when they arrive -- Meredith is by her nature straight-laced and a bit uptight around strangers, while Sybil and family patriarch Kelly (Craig T. Nelson) are free-thinkers who, except for Everett, have raised a family of cheerfully rebellious children, most notably younger daughter Amy (Rachel McAdams), older brother Ben (Luke Wilson), and adopted sibling Thad (Tyrone Giordano), who is both deaf and gay. Meredith and the Stone family do not get along well at first, especially Sybil, who is appalled at the prospect of Everett giving Meredith the family's heirloom wedding ring; in dire need of moral support, Meredith asks her younger sister, Julie (Claire Danes), to join her for Christmas with the Stones. However, the plan runs into a snag when Everett's head is turned by pretty Julie, and Meredith finds herself on the receiving end of attention from slobby Ben. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Terry McMillan and Ron Bass wrote this screenplay based on McMillan's semi-autobiographical best-selling novel (over 2,000,000 copies in print before the release of this film). San Francisco stockbroker Stella (Angela Bassett), a 40-year-old divorcee, has a nice Marin County home and an 11-year-old son, Quincy (Michael J. Pagan). With Quincy off to see his dad, Stella and her best friend Delilah (Whoopi Goldberg) vacation in Jamaica, where she meets sexy, good-looking Winston Shakespeare (Taye Diggs). He's the man of her dreams in every way except one -- he's half her age. Even so, a romance develops. Grammy Award-winning songwriters Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis supervised the film's music and produced the R&B-slanted soundtrack album. Shown at the 1998 Urbanworld Film Festival (NY). ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

In this quirky romantic comedy about soul transference, Alec Baldwin plays Peter Hoskins, the straight-laced head of the microfiche department at a company that publishes scientific journals. When he meets a free-spirited, sleep-deprived bartender named Rita (Meg Ryan), the opposites attract and launch into a round-the-clock romance characterized by private jokes and an intense connection that defies description. When the two decide to marry, however, an unforeseeable cosmic occurrence entirely alters the nature of their relationship. Those who claim that marriage changes a person couldn't be more right in this case, as a confused old man (Sydney Walker) wanders into the wedding reception and plants a single kiss on the lips of the new bride. Longing for the youthfulness he sees in the happy couple, the man inadvertently causes the two to switch bodies during the smooch. Thinking no one will believe the story, Rita (now hidden inside a cancer-ridden octogenarian) leaves the premises before causing any more of a stir, while the old man in Rita's body is whisked off with Peter on their honeymoon before anyone is the wiser. Soon, Peter begins noticing that his new bride is an entirely different person, but can't figure out why -- and wonders if it's just a natural dose of cold feet. When he can no longer ignore the total dissimilarity, Peter begins suspecting that something supernatural has occurred, and wondering how he can restore his wife to her former self, especially when her body's new occupant resists the effort and goes on the lam. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

Directed by Susan Seidelman and written by Alice Arlen and Nora Ephron, Cookie comes across as an inconsequential piece of fluff, bolstered by a quirky performance by Emily Lloyd. Lloyd is Cookie Capisco, the daughter of mobster Dino Capisco (Peter Falk), who has just finished thirteen years in prison. Dino wants to get out of jail, settle some old scores, and make up for lost time with his daughter. His illegitimate daughter, that is -- since Cookie's mother, Lenore (Dianne Wiest), has been Dino's longtime mistress. Dino's actual wife Bunny (Brenda Vaccaro) has, he thinks, been kept in the dark about Dino's mistress and his daughter. Dino decides that the best way to get to know Cookie is to hire her as his chauffeur. With her ears attuned to the conspiracies floating around Dino, she quickly discovers that her father's old crony, Carmine (Michael V. Gazzo), has been swindling him and that Dino's life is in jeopardy. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Everyone knows that teenagers are smarter than adults, and if given a chance the kids could save the world -- if they don't blow it to bits first. The Manhattan Project tells of how 16-year-old Paul Stephens (Christopher Collet) tries to alert his community to the dangers of nuclear energy. John Mathewson (John Lithgow), a doctor in a pharmaceutical research plant wherein covert plutonium experiments are taking place, is the boyfriend of Paul's mom, Elizabeth (Jill Eikenberry). While Mathewson is romantically occupied, Paul and his girl, Jenny Anderman (Cynthia Nixon), steal the plutonium and construct their own atomic bomb. They do this, of course, as a warning to foolhardy grown-ups -- none more foolhardy than the folks who put up good money to make this film. The Manhattan Project was directed by longtime Woody Allen collaborator Marshall Brickman, whose expert sense of comic timing obscures the thickheaded "message" of this picture. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi