Michel Roy Movies
The turning point in the life of Ed Pekurny (Matthew McConaughey) comes thanks to the misfortunes of the NorthWest Broadcasting Company. After two years on the air, their flagship cable channel, True TV, has slid into obscurity due to competition from the The Gardening Channel. Program director Cynthia Topping (Ellen DeGeneres) brainstorms a last ditch effort to save the channel: broadcast one ordinary person's life 24 hours a day, unedited (while he sleeps, the day's highlights will be shown). When the network agrees to the idea, Topping must find the subject of her program. After endless auditions, she lucks upon Ed, a goofy but good-looking video store clerk. Ed has little time to get used to his new shadow, a three man video crew, before the show becomes a hit. Suddenly Ed's a cultural icon with fan clubs, stalkers, and imitators, but the media saturation has it's effects on his friends and family, who are now part of the program. Ed alienates his proud brother, Ray (Woody Harrelson), by falling in love with his girlfriend, Shari (Jenna Elfman). His estranged father Hank (Dennis Hopper) reappears after abandoning the family and creates tension between Ed and Ray's mother, Jeanette (Sally Kirkland) and her wheelchair-bound second husband, Al (Martin Landau). When Ed realizes the phenomenon has turned on him, he convinces Topping to stop the ordeal, but not her boss, Whitaker (Rob Reiner). To regain his life, Ed must find a way to cancel EDtv. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, (more)
- 1995
- R
- Add National Lampoon's Senior Trip to QueueAdd National Lampoon's Senior Trip to top of Queue
In this over-the-top comedy, a group of rowdy high-school students -- whose idea of a good time is throwing a wild party at the home of Principal Moss (Matt Frewer) while he's busy at school -- winds up in detention. As punishment, they're instructed to write an essay on what's wrong with America's educational system. The class brain, stuck in detention with the partiers, comes up with a well-written piece that's sent to the president of the U.S. The president is so impressed that he invites the students to Washington, D.C., to speak before Congress. Sen. John Lerman (Lawrence Z. Dane), one of the president's chief rivals, knows the truth about the students, and he seconds the idea of bringing them to Washington, certain that their behavior will embarrass the president. Principal Moss, sex-starved teacher Tracy Milford (Valerie Mahaffey), and drug-addled bus driver Red (Tommy Chong) load the troublemakers onto a bus and hit the road for the nation's capitol -- and mayhem ensues. National Lampoon's Senior Trip was helmed by Kelly Makin, who also directed the TV series Kids in the Hall; Kevin McDonald, a former Kid in the Hall, has a small part as a deranged crossing guard. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Frewer, Valerie Mahaffey, (more)
Unlike most teen horror movies, Brainscan relies more on atmosphere and plot than gore and bloodsoaked effects. Edward Furlong plays Michael, a 16-year-old horror movie fan, computer whiz, and misfit who responds to an ad for Brainscan, an CD-ROM virtual reality game that promises to "interface with your unconscious." Once involved with the game, Michael dreams that he brutally stabs a stranger and slices off his foot -- only to awaken and find the foot in his refrigerator. Out of Michael's computer comes Trickster (T. Ryder Smith), a sardonic, malevolent creation who advises Michael to keep playing new editions of Brainscan to evade capture by a suspicious cop (Frank Langella). With a death count that is relatively low and mostly offscreen (amputated feet notwithstanding), Brainscan doesn't make up for its lack of onscreen violence with a particularly original script, although it should be commended for not taking the easy way out. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Furlong, Frank Langella, (more)
- 1993
- PG13
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The Lethal Weapon series and the rest of the buddy-cop genre receives the parody treatment in this low-brow comedy. Emilio Estevez stars as Jack Colt, the Mel Gibson-like loose cannon, while Samuel L. Jackson assumes the Danny Glover role as Wes Luger, his exasperated partner. Together, Colt and Luger investigate the murder of Luger's former partner (Whoopi Goldberg) and discover a criminal conspiracy led by the nefarious General Mortars (William Shatner). Hoping to mimic the success of the Naked Gun films, director Gene Quintano (of Police Academy 4 fame) loaded the film with broad visual gags, deadpan slapstick, and gratuitous parodies of The Silence of the Lambs, Basic Instinct, and other movies. The attempt to mimic successful parodies proved ineffective, however, as critics and viewers alike found the parody stale and the juvenile humor dreary. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emilio Estevez, Samuel L. Jackson, (more)
Wolfgang Petersen directed this intricate suspense thriller, based on the novel by Richard Neely and starring Tom Berenger as Tom Merrick, who begins to suspect the auto accident that caused his memory loss may not have been accidental. The film begins with a car crash over a seaside cliff in San Francisco. Judith Merrick (Greta Scacchi) is thrown clear of the crash and escapes without injury. Her husband, Tom, on the other hand, is trapped inside and when he is finally rescued, he is disfigured and in a coma. Judith helps him through his ensuing recovery and plastic surgery and the couple returns to their home in San Francisco. Tom, now suffering from selective amnesia, meets his old friends Jeb (Corbin Bernsen) and Jenny Scott (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer). After meeting them, he gathers hints that before the accident, he wasn't well liked by many people. The next day, when he returns to work, he begins to pick up more clues on his past life -- clues that indicate his marriage wasn't as idyllic as he presumed. To make matter worse, he keeps having flashbacks of shattered glass, ocean waves, and a gun. To help him solve the mystery of his past, Dan hires retired private eye Gus Klein (Bob Hoskins), who works with Dan to unravel his past. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Bob Hoskins, (more)
