Michael Ritchie Movies
An acute satirist of hallowed American institutions, filmmaker Michael Ritchie found his greatest artistic success in the more creatively adventurous 1970s Hollywood before his comic sensibility was diluted by 1980s and 1990s commercial constraints. Still, Ritchie once said, he only wanted to make "films to be enjoyed."Born in Wisconsin and raised in Berkeley, Ritchie graduated from Harvard with a degree in history and literature. His direction of Arthur Kopit's play Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Momma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad during his senior year led to a job offer to be an associate producer on the Omnibus TV series. Honing his skills on TV throughout the 1960s, Ritchie directed episodes of several series, including Profiles in Courage, Dr. Kildare, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Ritchie brought TV's documentary immediacy to film when rising superstar Robert Redford asked him to direct Downhill Racer (1969). The first film in Redford's "winning trilogy," Downhill Racer skewered Olympic competition in its portrait of golden slope star Redford as an egotistical bastard and earned kudos for the kinetic location-shot skiing sequences. Redford and Ritchie continued the trilogy with their caustic political comedy The Candidate (1972). Scripted by Oscar-winner Jeremy Larner, The Candidate's tale of idealist Redford's seduction by the political machine was rendered all the more real as numerous Redford fans turned out for campaign events staged by Ritchie on location. A rich indictment of mass media politics in the year of Watergate, The Candidate has only become more timely in the ensuing decades. Turning to another brand of American competition, Ritchie next took humorous aim at beauty pageants and all they represent in Smile (1975). Staging a "real" pageant akin to Redford's "real" campaign parade, Ritchie continued to fuse cinema verité techniques with fiction to mine ironic commentary out of a scenario that proved too close for comfort for most audiences. As much about keeping up middle class appearances as about the pageant itself, Smile comically yet pointedly revealed the spiritual emptiness behind the optimistic homilies, pristine surfaces, and relentlessly perky assertions about "helping people" that define the contestants', judges', and by association, suburbia's existence. Though the critics were impressed, Smile flopped.
After his succès d'estime with Smile and The Candidate, Ritchie achieved box office success with The Bad News Bears (1976) and Semi-Tough (1977). A somewhat more heart-warming comedy about trash-talking Little Leaguers and their boozy coach, The Bad News Bears poked fun at America's favorite suburban pastime and spawned two lesser sequels, including the Ritchie-produced The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978). A star vehicle for Burt Reynolds, Semi-Tough was more a slick screwball comedy about football players and their women than a sports movie, but the absurd atmosphere still evinced Ritchie's critical view of the sporting world's media-made commercialism.
Ritchie continued to experience some box office success during the 1980s, but with decreasing artistic returns. Inadvertently setting the tone for the decade, Ritchie was critically blasted for the thriller The Island (1980); he removed his name from the troubled horror spoof Student Bodies (1981) in favor of the infamous Allen Smithee moniker. Ritchie scored a hit with the broad Chevy Chase comedy Fletch (1985) and helmed the sequel Fletch Lives (1989), but the wisecracking silliness had little of Ritchie's 1970s bite. Eddie Murphy's presence was enough to make the ill-conceived The Golden Child (1986) a box office attraction.
Though such subsequent features as Wildcats (1986), The Couch Trip (1987), Diggstown (1992), and Cops and Robbersons (1994) were little more than adequate vehicles for their stars, Ritchie revealed that he still had his satiric touch in the HBO film The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993). As much about the media circus as it was about the titular true-life case, The Positively True Adventures garnered Ritchie a DGA award for direction. Though he worked on a couple of projects in the late '90s, Ritchie's 1995 film adaptation of the long-running musical The Fantasticks became his final release when it opened briefly in 2000. He died from prostate cancer in April 2001, survived by his wife, five children, and two stepchildren. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- 2002
- R
- Add Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie to Queue Add Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie to top of Queue
Based on a real-life 1994 scandal involving college basketball point-shaving, Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie stars David Krumholtz as the title character. Though a mere freshman on the campus of Arizona State University, Benny Silman (Krumholtz) is in charge of accepting all bets for the school's basketball games, under the watchful eye of his mentor, a high-rolling Las Vegas gambler (Nicholas Turturro). It isn't long before Benny is operating his own bookie ring, raking in big bucks at every turn. The beginning of the end for Benny occurs when A.S.U. basketball star Stevin "Hedake" Smith (Tory Kittles) suggests that he'd like a piece of the action, too. Although the Benny Silman depicted onscreen remains unrepentant and unapologetic, even when getting his just desserts at the hands of the authorities, the real Silman appears in the film's epilogue, equipped with an unexpected "Don't let this happen to you!" admonition. Filmed on location in California and Nevada (not surprisingly, the producers were unable to line up shooting dates in Arizona), the made-for-cable Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie debuted March 31, 2002 over the FX network. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Krumholtz, Jennifer Morrison, (more)
- 1999
- NR
To paraphrase the late, great NBC programming executive Brandon Tartikoff, the television industry is comprised of two different groups of people: The "beggars," those actors, writers, directors, and producers who tirelessly and relentlessly package and pitch ideas, concepts, and premises for new TV series; and the "choosers," those elite network chieftans who make the final decisions as to what will or will not be seen on the air. With this in mind, Beggars and Choosers was the perfect title for a raunchy, ribald cable-TV satirical sitcom, set behind the walls of a major (but not too major) television network. The setting for this weekly, 60-minute series was the headquarters of the LGT network, which, though it ran a distant last to such prestigious webs as ABC, CBS, and NBC, still managed to score a few ratings successes, notably the Seinfeld clone "Peter's Pals" and the ethnic soaper "Puerto Vallarta." Like most contemporary entertainment-manufacturing concerns, LGT was a hotbed of betrayals, double-crosses, backstabbings, dark intrigues, covert conspiracies, and sexual shenanigans. Heading the huge cast of regulars and recurring characters was Brian Kerwin as youthful LGT president Brian Kerwin, who manfully kept his wits about him while swimming with sharks at the workplace and dealing with domestic problems engendered by his demanding wife Cecile (Isabella Hoffman) and his troublesome teenaged children Audrey (Keegan Connor Tracy) and Cary (Kaj-Erik Eriksen). Co-starring with Kerwin was Charlotte Ross as Lori Vopone, LGT's barracuda-like vice president of development, who would stop at literally nothing to get bigger ratings and advance her own career. Others in the cast included Tuc Watkins as the network's closeted homosexual casting executive Malcolm Laffley, who spent most of the first season trying to work up the courage to "out" himself; William McNamara as supercilious talent agent Brad Advail, who was convinced that his success hinged upon which pair of socks he wore on any given day; Christopher Kennedy as Marty Hertz, LGT's bean-counting head of business affairs; and Sheila Moore as the network's hypersensitive vice president of standards and practices. Initially, LGT was owned by the senile, semi-comatose E. L. Ludden (Bill Morey) and his scheming trophy wife Lydia (Carol Kane). During a bitter power struggle between Mr. and Mrs. Ludden, control of the network was seized by flaky dot.com billionaire Dan Falco (Beau Bridges), who shortly thereafter turned the business over to his nitwit brother Freddie (James Belushi). The gloriously uninhibited and diabolically clever Beggars and Choosers debuted over cable's Showtime network on June 19, 1999, remaining in first-run for the next two seasons. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brian Kerwin, Isabella Hofmann, (more)
This comic children's fantasy from director Michael Ritchie stars Mara Wilson as eight-year-old New Yorker Anabel, who wishes that her father Oliver (Robert Pastorelli), a hansom cab driver in Central Park, would see his dream come true. In a thinly veiled jab at the overblown stage productions of Andrew Lloyd Weber, Oliver aspires to be cast in the lead role in a new big-budget musical based on A Tale of Two Cities. Anabel's wish is received by Murray (Martin Short), the very first male fairy godmother, a bumbler who predictably botches the spell fulfilling Anabel's wish, turning Oliver into a statue instead. In order to reverse the mistake, Murray needs help from his union, the North American Fairy Godmothers Association (NAFGA), which is holding a convention in Manhattan. Enter Claudia (Kathleen Turner), a scheming former fairy godmother turned witch, who steals the attendees' magic wands, intending to use their magic in a bid for power. A Simple Wish (1997) was one of four films representing the initial slate of The Bubble Factory, a movie production house assembled by the theater world's Sheinberg family. Their other films were The Pest (1997), McHale's Navy (1997), and For Richer or Poorer (1997). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Martin Short, Mara Wilson, (more)
The longest-running show in the history of the American theater (it opened at an off-Broadway theater in the spring of 1960, where it remained until the production finally closed in early 2002) finally arrives onscreen. Hucklebee (Brad Sullivan) and Bellamy (Joel Grey) are a pair of small town fathers who are scheming to bring their children Matt (Joseph McIntyre) and Luisa (Jean Louisa Kelly) together in a romance. As a carnival arrives to bring some excitement to the sleepy village, the fathers persuade a mysterious interloper named El Gallo (Jonathan Morris) to stage a mock abduction of Luisa, which will hopefully prompt Matt to come to her rescue. However, while El Gallo's plan succeeds, he also awakens his innocent charges to the darker and more disappointing side of love. The Fantasticks was shot and edited in 1995, but beyond a few preview screenings, it went unreleased until the fall of 2000. The film marked the dramatic debut of former New Kids on the Block vocalist Joseph McIntyre, and features Teller (of the magic/performance art duo Penn & Teller) in a rare speaking role. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joel Grey, Barnard Hughes, (more)
After several weeks filming The Scout in the late 1970s, star Peter Falk and director Howard Zieff abandoned the project. Two decades later, writer Andrew Bergman gave his original script to Albert Brooks and Monica Johnson, who polished it as a vehicle for Brooks and director Michael Ritchie. Brooks stars as Al Percolo, a talent scout for the New York Yankees whose latest recruit (Michael Rapaport) has just vomited on the field and fled. Sent to Mexico as punishment by his boss (Lane Smith), Percolo finds phenomenal young pitcher Steve Nebraska (Brendan Fraser). Before he can get back to the Big Apple, however, Percolo gets pink-slipped by the Yankees, so he offers Nebraska as a free agent. After a stellar tryout, Nebraska is signed for millions. Soon after, he starts to exhibit odd behaviors that may be linked to psychological problems. A psychiatrist (Dianne Wiest) hired by the ball club wants Nebraska in daily therapy, so Percolo ends up babysitting a mentally unstable pitcher. Brooks's normally winning mix of laughs with psychological insights didn't add up to box office or critical success, despite cameos from real-life sports figures such as George Steinbrenner and Steve Garvey. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Albert Brooks, Brendan Fraser, (more)
In this comedy, police detectives on the trail of a dangerous criminal are confronted with a new and unexpected danger: a typical suburban family. Osborn (Robert Davi) is a underworld figure with plenty of blood on his hands who, in hopes of keeping his dealings quiet, is operating out of an unassuming home in the suburbs. The police are determined to put Osborn behind bars, so rough-hewn veteran cop Jake Stone (Jack Palance) and his young partner Tony Moore (David Barry Gray) are assigned to stake out Osborn's home, and they get permission to keep watch from the house next door, which belongs to the Robberson family. However, Jake and Tony soon discover that this prime location may be more trouble than it's worth; Norman Robberson (Chevy Chase) is a dunderhead addicted to TV police shows who insists on helping whether it's a good idea or not, mother Helen (Dianne Wiest) keeps pestering Jake about why he shouldn't smoke, teenage daughter Cindy (Fay Masterson) develops a furious crush on Tony, and five-year-old son Billy (Miko Hughes) wants the cops to play vampire with him. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Jack Palance, (more)
- 1993
- R
- Add The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom to Queue Add The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom to top of Queue
A Texas housewife plots hire a hit man to kill the girl who beat out her daughter for a place on the cheerleading squad in this made-for-cable satire based on a true story. Holly Hunter stars as Wanda Holloway, a twice-married Baptist mother of two who becomes obsessed when her daughter, Shanna (Frankie Ingrassia), gets disqualified from the election for the eighth-grade cheerleading squad because of overly manipulative campaign tactics (i.e. handing out free rulers imprinted with her name). Looking down her nose at neighbor Verna Heath (Elizabeth Ruscio), whose daughter, Amber (Megan Berwick), made the squad, Wanda becomes convinced that there's a conspiracy afoot and decides to do something about it. Getting in touch with her ex-husband's brother, Terry Harper (Beau Bridges) -- a lowlife with a liquor and drug habit and a wife (Swoosie Kurtz) who sees imaginary creatures on the floor -- Wanda all but orders him to find her an assassin on the cheap. Terry chickens out, contacts the police, and helps get the goods on his former sister-in-law before she can do any actual damage. A media circus soon engulfs the participants' small Texas town as Wanda heads to court and tries to prove she was the victim of a setup. Set against the backdrop of the Gulf War and the fall of communism, The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom was filmed for HBO by Bad News Bears and Smile director Michael Ritchie. In adapting the Wanda Holloway story for the small screen, the film followed Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story, a 1992 ABC TV movie starring Lesley Ann Warren. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Holly Hunter, Beau Bridges, (more)
Cool Runnings fictionalizes the true story of a bobsledding team from Jamaica making it to the Olympics. The tale begins when Derice Bannock (Leon), realizing that due to an accident his chances of qualifying for Jamaica's 1988 Olympic track team are dashed, scrounges around looking for another sport for the competition. Since ex-United States gold medal bobsledding winner Irv Blitzer (John Candy) now lives in Jamaica, Derice chooses bobsledding, convincing Irv to coach the team. Derice then forms his team. He gets his friend Sanka Cofie (Doug E. Doug) to join up and recruits Junior Bevil (Rawle D. Lewis), a young man who lacks self-confidence, and Yul Brenner (Malik Yoba), a disagreeable and bitter malcontent. After setbacks and near disasters, the group jells as team members and they head off to the Olympics to compete for an Olympic spot. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leon, Doug E. Doug, (more)
An uneven but entertaining blend of graphic horror and black comedy from John Landis, very much in the mode of the director's successful An American Werewolf in London. French actress Anne Parillaud -- star of Luc Besson's acclaimed thriller La Femme Nikita -- plays Marie, a lithe and lovely vampire with a conscience who will not take "innocent blood" and maintains a low profile by dining exclusively on criminals and lowlifes. She finds a virtual smorgasbord in Pittsburgh's criminal underworld, arriving in the thick of a bloody mob war sparked by ruthless kingpin Sal Macelli (Robert Loggia). After preying on one of Macelli's hoods (Chazz Palminteri), Marie fumbles her attack on the boss himself and he manages to escape, eventually transforming into a vampire himself. Macelli soon comes to appreciate his new superhuman condition and hatches a diabolical scheme to control the syndicates by turning his underlings into vampires -- including his beleaguered lawyer, Emmanuel Bergman (Don Rickles). Marie, faced with a new and powerful undead enemy, is forced to take matters into her own claws. To this end she enlists the reluctant aid (and eventual affection) of undercover cop Joe Gennaro (Anthony LaPaglia), whose cover has just been leaked to the press, making him a target for Macelli and his growing army of blood drinkers. Landis has crafted a dark and brooding film, pumped up with bouts of extreme gore and gangland violence -- but where American Werewolf's occasional comic touches helped to ground the story and give the "straight" horror scenes more punch, most attempts at humor here seem jarring and out of place. The film's highlights come from numerous horror in-jokes, including cameos from Sam Raimi, Clive Barker, Dario Argento and Linnea Quigley; Rickles' explosive death scene ranks among the weirdest in cinema history. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anne Parillaud, Robert Loggia, (more)
In this comedy, a charming con man teams up with a boxer fallen on hard times in hopes of making some quick money. After doing time for selling art that turned out to be forged, Gabriel Caine (James Woods) and his partner Fitz (Oliver Platt) set their sights on a village called Diggstown; Fitz arrives first and takes several well-heeled locals in a high-stakes poker game, and then Gabriel follows to make a sporting proposition to John Gillon (Bruce Dern), the city's wealthiest citizen. Gabriel tells Gillon he has a boxer that can beat any ten opponents Gillon can line up, in the same day. Gillon takes the challenge and places a big enough wager to make matters even more interesting, but now Gabriel has to convince Honey Ray Palmer (Louis Gossett Jr.), a middle-aged former boxer who has been taken for a ride by Gabriel in the past, to go along with this scheme. In the meantime, Gabriel works out a deal with gangster Victor Corsini (Orestes Matacena) to back his bets while romancing Emily (Heather Graham), the sister of a large and ill-tempered fighter Gabriel met while behind bars. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Woods, Louis Gossett, Jr., (more)
Though the original Fletch was drubbed by critics, it proved a major success for star Chevy Chase. It was inevitable, then, that a sequel would make an appearance. Surprisingly, Fletch Lives didn't come out until 1989--a full five years after the original. Once more, Chase stars as Irwin Maurice "Fletch" Fletcher, the gonzo investigative reporter created by novelist Gregory McDonald. Indulging his penchant for disguises and bizarre aliases, Fletch investigates a deep dark mystery at a crumbling Southern plantation. Various friends and enemies are portrayed con brio by Hal Holbrook, Cleavon Little, Juliane Phillips, Randall "Tex" Cobb, Richard Libertini and Richard Belzer (Chase's cohort from the old Groove Tube days). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Hal Holbrook, (more)
Michael Ritchie's The Couch Trip follows a long line of Hollywood films (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Disorderly Orderly) in which the psychos are seen as saner than the psychiatrists. Charles Grodin plays Dr. George Maitlin, a pompous radio self-help guru, who is having his own personal mental breakdown. Maitlin's lawyer puts in a call to a Cicero, IL, mental facility and the telephone is answered by schizophrenic mental patient John Burns (Dan Aykroyd). Thinking Burns is a crony of Maitlin, Burns is offered the job of replacing Maitlin during his recovery. Of course, Burns accepts the job. Immediately jetted to Los Angeles, Burns meets panhandler Donald Becker (Walter Matthau) at the airport. While wearing the garb of a priest, Becker sounds off against the madness of societal conventions; Burns takes to him immediately and they become fast friends. When Burns assumes command of the airwaves in Maitlin's place, his words of wisdom are so obvious and commonsensical that he is an overnight sensation. Meanwhile, in London, where Maitlin is convalescing, he gets wind of Burns' success. With renewed vigor and outrage, Maitlin leaves his recovery room and hops on a plane back to Los Angeles in an effort to recover his radio show. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dan Aykroyd, Walter Matthau, (more)
Blonde-haired, blue-eyed women's libber Molly McGrath (Goldie Hawn) quits her teaching job at a comfortable middle-class school to take a new position as varsity football coach at a predominantly black inner-city school. Culture and gender clashes abound; she must win over the hard-boiled youths, convince them to practice hard and show up for class, and convince them they can win football games. Her job begins to take a toll on her family, however, when her ex-husband (James Keach) attempts to take away her daughter, claiming she is neglecting her responsibilities as a mother. Wildcats marked the fourth sports film directed by Michael Ritchie. ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi
- Starring:
- Goldie Hawn, James Keach, (more)
Eddie Murphy followed up his Beverly Hills Cop success with this fantasy adventure that plops him right into the land of Ray Harryhausen and Indiana Jones. The plot revolves around a God-like youngster (J.L. Reate) known as a "golden child," who has been sent to Tibet to bring the gift of compassion to humanity. But the devil isn't idle, sending his emissary, Sardo Numspa (Charles Dance) to kidnap the golden child. Sardo absconds with the child and takes off to Los Angeles. In L.A., a beautiful Tibetan priestess named Kee Nang (Charlotte Lewis) seeks out Chandler Jarrell (Eddie Murphy), a social worker and self-styled "finder of lost children." She tells Chandler he has been chosen to rescue the magical child from the devil and save the world from evil. Before Chandler can let go of his first riposte, he finds himself holding a magic dagger, following a sacred parakeet, and under-going several trials by fire. He also falls in love with Kee Nang, who at one point in the film has to be brought back from the dead. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy, Charles Dance, (more)
Chevy Chase added a classic comic hero to the film landscape with Fletch, one of his few truly popular star vehicles in a famously misguided post-Saturday Night Live career. Chase plays Irwin M. Fletcher, known to everyone as Fletch, a Los Angeles Lakers-loving investigative reporter with a gleeful disdain for deadlines and a knack for pushing the buttons of his frustrated editor (Richard Libertini). He's also known for donning numerous disguises and assuming zany false identities to help gain information. While pursuing an ongoing story about a powerful drug dealer who operates from Venice Beach, he comes across an intriguing offshoot in which he becomes intimately involved. Aviation executive Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) has an unusual proposition for Fletch: If Fletch agrees to an elaborate plan to kill him, for reasons Stanwyk refuses to divulge beyond explaining that he has bone cancer, Fletch will walk away with a healthy sum of money and a plane ticket to Brazil. Curious yet suspicious by profession, Fletch begins investigating Stanwyk's true motives, which leads him through numerous misadventures. Among them are a visit to a stuffy country club; a high-speed car chase with an unwitting passenger; repeat encounters with Stanwyk's wife (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), although she may not be his only one; and a trip to Provo -- that's Utah, not Spain. Inspired by a novel of the same name by Gregory McDonald, Fletch went from thriller to comedy as it was adapted into a vehicle for Chase. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, (more)
Director Michael Ritchie spoofs survivalists in this rambling black comedy. Donald Quinelle (Robin Williams) is a successful young executive who is called to his boss' office one morning and is fired by a parrot sitting in the CEO's chair -- a method the company uses to axe high-powered execs. Donald meets Sonny Paluso (Walter Matthau), a former gas station owner who is out of work because his business was blown up. At a diner, the two newfound friends witness a robbery and catch sight of the perpetrator, Jerry Reed (Jack Locke). Reed is a mob hit man who swears to kill the two men who saw him commit the crime. Donald, formerly afraid of weapons, becomes obsessed with guns as a way to protect himself from the mob. He enrolls in a survivalist training school in the mountains of Vermont. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
- Starring:
- Walter Matthau, Robin Williams, (more)
In this slasher film parody, a psychotic serial killer called "The Breather" is killing off sexually active high school students when not making threatening phone calls (with a rubber chicken disguising his voice). Among The Breather's weapons of choice are paper clips, eggplants, and wooden horse-head bookends, and one of the murders is committed to commemorate Jamie Lee Curtis's birthday. Student Bodies was written and directed by Mickey Rose, who previously collaborated with Woody Allen on the screenplays for several of Allen's early films. The film had a notoriously difficult production and producer Michael Ritchie (best known as director of such films as The Candidate and Downhill Racer) opted to take his name off the picture, instead using the Director's Guild pseudonym Alan Smithee. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kristen Riter, Matthew Goldsby, (more)
The Island, a turgid action drama directed by Michael Ritchie, revolves around the adventures of Maynard (Michael Caine), a newspaper reporter who tries to solve the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. Maynard, and his son crash-land on a remote island ruled by a gang of pirates who kill anyone who intrudes there. From beginning to end, The Island is slow, uninvolving and very bloody. The terrible script by Peter Benchley, who also wrote Jaws, is jagged and the dialogue is cliched. The film was an economic disaster and is only of interest because of a good score by Ennio Morricone. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, David Warner, (more)
Bette Midler's wildly funny and theatrical stage show is preserved on the big screen in this concert film shot in California in 1980. Along with her usual raunchy comedy material and over-the-top staging, Midler performs some of her best known songs (including "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "Chapel of Love") along with Bruce Springsteen's "E Street Shuffle," om Waits' "Shiver Me Timbers," and the Faces' "Stay With Me." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bette Midler, Irving Sudrow, (more)
Inside jokes about the film industry dominate this slight tale of ambition and romance at the Cannes Film Festival. Keith Carradine plays a first-time director who has sunk two years and all his money into a movie about the execution of murderer Gary Gilmore. With his last bit of cash, he flies himself and his picture to Cannes, but the film is seized by French customs. The wife of an Italian producer (Monica Vitti) helps him retrieve his work, and the two become embroiled in a passionate, yet ultimately ill-fated, affair. Carradine gets the first-time, self-important director mostly right, but the movie is so specific to the film industry that viewers may lose interest. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
- Starring:
- Keith Carradine, Monica Vitti, (more)
- 1978
- PG
- Add The Bad News Bears Go to Japan to Queue Add The Bad News Bears Go to Japan to top of Queue
Filling the shoes occupied by Walter Matthau in the Bad News Bears and William Devane in The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, Tony Curtis takes on the role of the teams newest coach in this, the third installment in the series. Jackie Earle Haley returns as Kelly Leak, the Bears' star player, as the team ventures to the other side of the world to face off against the best little league team in Japan. While there, the Bears find their way into mischief and Kelly finds love with a local girl. Though this was the last entry in the film series a television series followed a year later. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Jackie Earle Haley, (more)
Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson star as two pro-football pals who both fall for the team-owner's very rich daughter. Kind of goofy, kind of funny, and somewhat endearing--those are the qualities that surface in this light-hearted comedy built upon an extremely predictable scenario. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, (more)
The success this underdog comedy from director Michael Ritchie almost single-handedly spawned the kids' sports film boom of the 1980s and '90s. When beer-breathed ex-minor-league ball player and professional pool cleaner Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) agrees to coach a little league team in the San Fernando Valley, he soon finds he's in over his head, having inherited an assortment of pint-sized peons and talentless losers. They play well-organized teams and lose by tremendous margins, and the parents threaten to disband the Bears to save the kids (and themselves) any further embarrassment. Buttermaker refuses, though, and brings in a pair of ringers: Amanda (Tatum O'Neal), his ex-girlfriend's tomboy daughter, and Kelly (Jackie Earle Haley), a cigarette-smoking delinquent who happens to be a gifted athlete. With their help, the Bears manage to change their losing ways and qualify for the championship, where they face their arch-rivals, the Yankees. ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi
- Starring:
- Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal, (more)
The American beauty-contest ritual is skewered by screenwriter Jerry Belson and director Michael Ritchie in Smile. The film takes place during an annual pageant in Santa Rosa, CA. The event is supervised by local mover and shaker Brenda DiCarlo (Barbara Feldon), to whom the contest is the most important thing on earth. Nothing -- not even the violent backlash of her neglected husband, Andy (Nicholas Pryor) -- is allowed to interfere with her pet project. Choreographer Tommy French (Michael Kidd), outwardly nasty and cynical, takes money out of his own pocket to insure the safety of the contestants as they parade down a rickety stage runway; chief judge "Big Bob" Freelander (Bruce Dern) discovers that his son is a budding voyeur, information which leads to a silly "politically correct" consequence; and the various contestants scheme to upstage one another through a variety of means (one girl puts Vaseline on her teeth to assure a gleaming smile). Among the contestants are such stars-to-be as Colleen Camp, Denise Nickerson, Annette O'Toole, and Melanie Griffith. Though not a hit itself, Smile has developed a fervent cult following, which led to a Broadway musical version of the property in 1986, with songs by Marvin Hamlisch. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bruce Dern, Barbara Feldon, (more)
"What do we do now?" Director Michael Ritchie and executive producer/star Robert Redford satirically explore the machinations and manipulations of media-age political campaigns in this cynical political drama. Rumpled left-wing California lawyer Bill McKay (Redford), the son of a former governor (Melvyn Douglas), is enlisted by campaign maestro Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle) to challenge Republican incumbent Crocker Jarmon (Don Porter) for his Senate seat. McKay agrees, but only if he can say exactly what he thinks. That approach is all well and good when McKay does not seem to have a chance, but things change when his honesty unexpectedly captivates the electorate. As McKay inches up in the polls, Lucas and company start to do what it takes to win, leaving McKay to ponder the consequences of his political seduction. Working without studio interference from a script by Jeremy Larner, a speechwriter for 1968 Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, Ritchie enhanced the behind-the-scenes realism of Larner's insights with a realistic, cinéma vérité approach. He orchestrated a campaign parade for "candidate" Redford that drew such a considerable unstaged audience that local politicians wanted to draft Redford for a real election. Redford's resemblance to the telegenic Kennedys, and his character's resonance with the future career of California governor Jerry Brown, only emphasized how close to the bone The Candidate was (and is). Released the fateful year of Richard Nixon's reelection, the film garnered accolades, if not substantial box office; Larner won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and thanked the "politicians of our time" for inspiration. Creating a documentary fiction about the semi-truths manufactured to market a candidate, The Candidate shrewdly exposed the effects of the media on the increasingly cynical political process, posing unanswerable questions that have become all the more pressing with every soundbite-ruled election. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, Peter Boyle, (more)
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