Michael Schultz Movies

In this chapter from the youthful adventurer's saga, Jones is assigned to catch temperamental director Erich von Stroheim, but through a series of mix-ups, Indy ends up appearing in a John Ford film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Day-O is a purified TV-movie variation on the odious theatrical feature Drop Dead Fred. Mother-to-be Delta Burke begins to get those old familiar prebirth blues. Feeling that she's let life pass her by, Delta is enervated by the return of her imaginary childhood playmate, Day-O (Elijah Wood). Nothing much happens, except for the formidable Ms. Burke raising her voice to an air-raid-siren decibel every few minutes. As always, however, young Mr. Wood is consistently fine. Day-O was originally telecast May 3, 1992, in the timeslot that used to be occupied by the Disney Sunday Movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Good thing they told us this Jury Duty: The Comedy; we might have thought it was Jury Duty: The Term Paper. This comedy salad features a whole slew of TV luminaries--Alan Thicke, Bill Kirchenbauer, Lynn Redgrave, Heather Locklear, Tracy Scoggin, Reginald VelJohnson etc.--playing judge, jury, defenders and prosecutors in an embezzlement case. The clue as to the film's sobriety level is the fact that Bronson Pinchot plays four roles: Sanford, Arthur Lloyd, Jorge Jimenez, and Magda. Highlights include a mid-trial pizza delivery, a faulty oxygen tank, and a kid holding up a "Hi Mom" sign for the benefit of the courtroom cameras. This dumb-but-lovable TV movie first aired January 15, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dyan Cannon plays the title character, a middle-aged housewife and mother who enjoys singing in local amateur contests. Almost overnight, she becomes a nationally famous rock star, with all the attendant trappings of glamour and adulation. But fame has its price: As Cannon rises to the top of her profession, she neglects her two teenaged children. Heather Locklear guest stars as a rocker who calls herself Darcy X; also in the cast is a pre-stardom Fran Drescher. Rock 'n' Roll Mom was originally telecast on The Disney Sunday Movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The "history is inviolate" theory so chillingly elucidated in Ray Bradbury's The Sound of Thunder is recycled for the made-for-TV Timestalkers. William Devane plays a genially eccentric professor who teams with time traveller Lauren Hutton to prevent the course of history from being disastrously altered. In a manner slightly reminiscent of the 1984 movie hit The Terminator, Devane and Hutton must deal with Klaus Kinski, a mad scientist from the 26th century, who plans to hopscotch through time, spreading death and destruction wherever he goes. The odyssey takes the main characters to all manner of locales, including the Old West. Veteran actor Forrest Tucker made his final screen appearance in Timestalkers, which originally aired March 10, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In-between rappin' numbers by groups like Run-DMC and The Fat Boys, an almost unnoticeable plot unfolds as manager Russell (Blair Underwood) desperately looks for funding to press more records for Run-DMC's first hit. This gets him into deep water when he borrows from the wrong man and then is left behind after his performers hit the charts and are off on a better life. But all is not lost, after more rap and rock by everyone, the clan returns with salvation at hand. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Navin Johnson, the consummate idiot, returns in this remake of Steve Martin's popular 1979 film The Jerk. As in the first, Johnson, the lily white adoptee of a black sharecropper sets out across the country in search of true love. This version was designed as a pilot for a TV series that never materialized. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Howard E. Rollins stars as martyred civil-rights spokesman Medgar Evers, while Irene Cara co-stars as his wife (and future NAACP leader) Myrlie. The film concentrates on the last years of Evers, an ex-insurance agent turned activist. His home in Jackson, Mississippi is besieged by bigots and he and his family are threatened with dire consequences, but Evers continues to work towards the goal of integrating his racially-polarized state. In June of 1963, the 37-year-old Evers is shot to death in front of his home. This 90 minute drama was adapted from a book co-authored by Mrs. Evers, Ossie Davis and J. Kenneth Rotcop. For Us, the Living was first telecast March 22, 1983 on PBS' American Playhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Segal plays rich and surly California executive Walter Whitney, who learns out-of-the-blue that he has a 17-year-old black son, in Michael Schultz's lightweight Carbon Copy. When his son Roger Porter (Denzel Washington) arrives, Walter tries to pass him off to his neighbors in the restricted all-white suburb as a sociological experiment. But when he eventually confesses his parenthood to his wife Vivian (Susan Saint James), his world is turned upside down. In a flash, all the trophies of upper-class white respectability are removed -- he loses his job, his credit cards are revoked, and Vivian throws him out of the house. Without the white man's trappings, he is forced to accept the help of downtrodden minorities. When he is compelled to manual labor, Walter comes to understand the troubles his son goes through. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

When millionaire Vincent Price dies, he leaves a riotous will which amounts to a scavenger hunt, the winner of which receives the entire willed fortune. So 15 potential heirs are sent on a zany quest where they must outrace and outsmart one another to inherit the big bucks. ~ All Movie Guide

This Americanized remake of Lina Wertmuller's The Seduction of Mimi offered audiences the novelty of seeing Richard Pryor performing three different roles in the same film. Which Way Is Up? tells the tale of Leroy Jones (Pryor), a poor orange picker who gets fired from his job when he accidentally joins a worker's union during a demonstration. He is forced to travel to Los Angeles and abandon his family, which includes his wife, Annie Mae (Margaret Avery), and his perpetually randy father, Rufus (also Pryor). While there, he falls in love with labor organizer Vanetta (Lonette McKee), but is soon rehired by his former employers when they realize he is easily manipulated. Back home, Leroy discovers his new managerial role alienates him from his former friends as he tries to divide his time between Annie Mae and Vanetta. When he discovers Annie Mae has been impregnated by the Reverend Lennox Thomas (Pryor's 3rd role) during his absence, Leroy sets his sights on seducing Lennox's wife. The resulting film had ambition to spare, but was generally panned as an inferior remake by the critics and failed to find a mass audience. However, Which Way Is Up? gained a second lease on life via cable and home video and has become a cult favorite with Pryor's fans. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide

Michael Schultz directed this kinetic, hyperventilating comedy (scripted by Joel Schumacher) concerning the crazed events that go on within a single 10-hour period at a Los Angeles car wash. The cast of colorful car-wash employees includes Lonnie (Ivan Dixon), an ex-con; Duane (Bill Duke), a militant black activist; and Lindy (Antonio Fargas), an obnoxious homosexual. Sully Boyar plays Mr. B, the frazzled car-wash owner who has to deal with his screwball employees along with his over-educated slip of a son, Irwin (Richard Brestoff), who quotes Mao and wants to radicalize the workers. Also along for the wash and wax are Miss Beverly Hills (Lauren Jones), with a wild assortment of wigs; Marsha (Melanie Mayron), the distracted car wash secretary; a mad bomber (Prof. Irwin Corey), who is terrorizing the neighborhood; and Daddy Rich (Richard Pryor), the founder of the Church of Divine Economic Spirituality, who sports a gold limousine. Danny de Vito, Brooke Adams and others were originally in the cast but their scenes were ultimately deleted. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide