Joel Schumacher Movies
Born and raised in working-class New York City, versatile Hollywood director Joel Schumacher started out as an art student. After graduating from Parsons School of Design, he worked for several fashion design firms and dressed window displays at a department store. He found work as a costume designer (Woody Allen's Sleeper and Interiors) and screenwriter (Car Wash and The Wiz) before turning to full-time directing. After a few TV movies, Schumacher made his feature-length directorial debut with the Lily Tomlin comedy The Incredible Shrinking Woman, followed by the Mr. T vehicle D.C. Cab.Schumacher finally hit mainstream success in 1985 with the Brat Pack classic St. Elmo's Fire, kick-starting the careers of Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Emilio Estevez, among others. This was soon followed by the beloved teen vampire flick The Lost Boys, starring both Corey Haim and Corey Feldman. Schumacher also directed music videos at the end of the '80s, including "Devil Inside" by INXS. With the exception of the Americanized romantic comedy remake Cousins, he seemed to cater almost exclusively to the youth market during this time.
The medical-student thriller Flatliners introduced Schumacher to starlet Julia Roberts, whom he quickly cast in his next movie, the aptly named Dying Young. Both films failed at the box office, so he tried a bit of social commentary with the psychological drama Falling Down starring Michael Douglas. The success of his John Grisham adaptation The Client led to a TV-series spin-off and another Grisham adaptation, A Time to Kill. Unfortunately, Schumacher had already become commonly known as The Man Who Destroyed the Batman Film Franchise with the widely panned Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.
Schumacher tried to make a comeback with the disturbing and brutal crime thriller 8MM starring Nicolas Cage. Fortunately, he made a wiser move back to writing and directing comedy dramas with Flawless, starring Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman. After doing some producing, the director teamed up with action extravaganza producer Jerry Bruckheimer for Bad Company, a box-office dud featuring the odd pairing of Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins. His Vietnam drama Tigerland marked the breakthrough performance of Irish actor Colin Farrell, whom he cast again in his next two features: the crime drama Veronica Guerin and the blockbuster suspense thriller Phone Booth. Schumacher then began work on a film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway musical Phantom of the Opera. Released with an onslaught of hype in the fall of 2004, the film did little to aid the already-flagging musical revival of the 2000s, and was seen only by the most devout Webber fans.
The director chose somewhat safer ground with the flashy psychological thriller The Number 23 in the winter of 2007, reuniting with his Batman Forever star Jim Carrey. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) is a surveillance expert on the rise. He's living the American dream with a wife, Amy (Catherine Keener), infant daughter, and a house in the suburbs of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. After the completion of an assignment for a U.S. Senator, Welles is summoned to the house of a recently deceased captain of industry. His widow, in settling his estate, has discovered an 8MM film in her late husband's private safe. The silent short depicts the apparent murder of a young woman by a large, masked figure, what is known as a "snuff" film. Greatly disturbed by the film's contents, the widow hires Welles to find the identity of the woman and determine if she is still alive. Welles finds the girl's identity and follows her trail from the time she ran away from home to Hollywood. Once there, Welles meets adult bookstore clerk Max California (Joaquin Phoenix) to act as Virgil to Welles' Dante. As the two begin their descent into the world of underground pornography, the detective grows more and more distant from his family, as if he cannot shake the taint of the world in which he now walks. Tom and Max eventually meet pornographers Dino Velvet (Peter Stormare) and Eddie Poole (James Gandolfini). By this time the detective finds he can no longer walk out of the inferno. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, (more)
Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) takes the law into his own hands after the legal system fails to adequately punish the men who brutally raped and beat his daughter, leaving her for dead. Normally, a distraught father could count on some judicial sympathy in those circumstances. Unfortunately, Carl and his daughter are black, and the assailants are white, and all the events take place in the South. Indeed, so inflammatory is the situation, that the local KKK (led by Kiefer Sutherland) becomes popular again. When Hailey chooses novice lawyer Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) to handle his defense, it begins to look like a certainty that Carl will hang, and Jake's career (and perhaps his life) will come to a premature end. Despite the efforts of the NAACP and local black leaders to persuade Carl to choose some of their high-powered legal help, he remains loyal to Jake, who had helped his brother with a legal problem before the story begins. Jake eventually takes this case seriously enough to seek help from his old law-school professor (Donald Sutherland). When death threats force his family to leave town, Jake even accepts the help of pushy young know-it-all lawyer Ellen Roark (Sandra Bullock). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L. Jackson, (more)
- 1979
Director Joel Schumacher makes like Robert Altman in the made-for-TV Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill. In the tradition of Altman's Nashville, Schumacher's film is a rambling, anecdotal study of an amateur talent show in a tawdry Southern saloon. The link between the two films is strengthened by the presence in Amateur Night of Henry Gibson, who'd played a Porter Wagoner type in Nashville. Among the contestants is country-western singer Tanya Tucker, who also contributed some of the background themes for the film's musical score. Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill was produced by Motown Industries' motion picture division. Sidebar: To improve ratings, the ad copy for this film was headlined "Disco Killer on the Loose!"--then, in smaller type, the copy explained that "killing" was merely a slang term for winning over the audience! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Dignified Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins tries the buddy action-comedy on for size with this typically slick and bombastic offering from producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Hopkins stars as Gaylord Oakes, a CIA spy attempting -- along with his partner, Kevin Pope (Chris Rock) -- to secure a suitcase-sized nuclear bomb in Prague from a Russian black marketer (Peter Stormare). Just as the partners discover that another bidder for the device exists, they are ambushed and Pope is killed trying to protect Oakes. Desperate for the bomb's owners and their attackers to believe that Pope is still alive so that the deal can commence in ten days time, Oakes recruits his late partner's long-lost twin, ticket-scalping chess hustler Jake Hayes (also played by Rock), a small-time criminal who never knew he had a brother. Offered a sizable payday and the admiration of his student nurse girlfriend, Hayes agrees to undergo vigorous training and dangerous situations as he impersonates his brother and helps Oakes to remove the nuclear threat, but the new partners clash in every way possible, from personal discipline to musical taste. Meanwhile, the assassin of the real Kevin Pope sends another cadre of killers after the agent he believes is still alive. Bad Company co-stars Kerry Washington, Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, Gabriel Macht, and Matthew Marsh. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Chris Rock, (more)
This was the third follow-up to Tim Burton's Batman (1989), the original revisionist look at the Gotham City legend, as well as the second in the Batman series directed by Joel Schumacher and the first featuring George Clooney as the Caped Crusader; it features not one but two super-villains, and a new heroine to fight crime alongside Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) and Dick Grayson (aka Robin) (Chris O'Donnell). The experiments of Dr. Victor Fries (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to preserve his late wife cryogenically have gone horribly wrong, turning him into the evil genius Mr. Freeze, who must keep his body at sub-zero temperature in order to say alive -- and he wants to put Gotham City on ice. Shy horticulturist Pamela Isley (Uma Thurman) goes a bit wild with a Venus Fly Trap-like creation she's been working on and mutates into Poison Ivy, who wants to kill all the people on Earth so plants can take over. Can Batman and Robin stop these fiends before their plans go too far? Meanwhile, Bruce and Dick's faithful butler Alfred (Michael Gough) isn't feeling well, so his niece Barbara (Alicia Silverstone) comes to pay a visit. When Barbara finds out what her uncle's employers do in their spare time, she decides she wants in on the action, and she joins the crime fighting twosome as Batgirl. Batman & Robin also features Jesse Ventura in a small role as a prison guard; it would be his last film role before becoming Governor of Minnesota in 1998. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, (more)
Director Joel Schumacher inherited the Batman franchise from Tim Burton and began steering it in the campier direction of the Sixties television show with this third installment. First-time Batman/Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer), in his only outing as the Caped Crusader, is effectively brooding as he ponders strange dreams about his parents' death and escapes his own near-demise at the hands of Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones), a former district attorney driven insane and turned into a master criminal when a gangster throws acid in his face. Meanwhile, as sexy psychologist Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) tries to analyze and seduce both Bruce Wayne and Batman, Wayne Enterprises employee Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey) reacts badly to getting fired, using his self-invented mind-energy device to transform into the super-intelligent Riddler. The Riddler teams up with Two-Face to bring down Batman and drain the minds of Gotham City residents with his device, while Batman gets some much-needed help in the form of circus performer Dick Grayson (Chris O'Donnell), out for vengeance after being orphaned by Two-Face. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
Director Joel Schumacher takes the reins for this tense supernatural thriller concerning two brothers who find themselves at the center of a terrifying occult experiment. Screenwriter David Kajganich pens a film financed by Gold Circle Films and distributed domestically by Lionsgate. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dominic Purcell, Jesse Metcalfe, (more)
Everyone loves a good, two-fanged fright flick, and from the silent screen to the 21st Century, vampire films have drawn moviegoers to theaters in droves. Much like the immortal monsters that stalk the night in search of precious blood, it seems that our fascination with these strange and seductive creatures will never die. In this ocumentary, interviews with a wide array of filmmakers, actors, special-effects artists, writers, and critics combine with a hearty collection of memorable film clips to explore the evil and eroticism that abounds in vampiric cinema. Vampires director John Carpenter, Underworld director Len Wiseman, and The Lost Boys director Joel Schumacher all weigh in on what inspired them to craft films featuring vampires, while Kristanna Loken and Stuart Townsend reveal what it was like to assume the persona of a creature that so many viewers fear, yet embrace at the same time. Additional interviews with Stan Winston and Greg Nicotero highlight how creative vampires can be tons of ghoulish fun, while writers Marv Wolfman and David Goyer discuss understanding their motivations and critics Leonard Maltin and Harry Knowls explain just why these monsters are so compelling to watch up on the big screen. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Carpenter, Len Wiseman, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Franklyn Ajaye, Sully Boyar, (more)
- 2006
They're called trailers, because originally they trailed the feature presentation. But before long, movie marketers learned there was a better chance of grabbing the audience's attention before the film. Trailers have since gone on to become one of the quintessential elements of movie-going, as illustrated in this documentary from Michael J. Shapiro and Jeff Werner. Featuring interviews with Joe Dante, Leonard Maltin, voice-over artist Don LaFontaine and several others, Coming Attractions: The History of the Movie Trailer traces a century of movie previews. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Osborne, Joe Dante, (more)
In this romantic comedy, two people brought together by marriage are brought even closer by their mates. Maria Hardy (Isabella Rossellini) and Larry Konzinski (Ted Danson) first meet at a wedding, where Maria's mother and Larry's uncle are tying the knot. However, the new cousins also have something else in common: Maria's husband Tom (William L. Petersen) is having an affair with Larry's wife, Tish (Sean Young). Maria and Larry get to talking at the wedding reception after their spouses go missing for a while, and they develop a rapport. A friendship grows between them, and they start seeing each other on a regular basis. When Maria confronts Tom about his infidelity, he responds by asking her if she's sleeping with Larry. As Maria and Larry become aware of what's happening between their not-so-better halves, they decide to get revenge by pretending to have an affair as well. However, the longer they pretend to be in love, the more they realize that they aren't pretending after all. Cousins was based on the popular French film Cousin Cousine. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ted Danson, Isabella Rossellini, (more)
In this casual, uninvolved comedy running on a low-octane script, a scruffy taxi company is about to be wiped out when its owner Harold (Max Gail) exhorts his cabbies to do what they can to help save the company -- and what they can do turns out to be a surprise to everyone concerned. Saving the day (and the film) are the likeable, eccentric drivers, introduced by means of a new trainee (Adam Baldwin) who rides around with each in turn. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adam Baldwin, Charlie Barnett, (more)
Directed by Joel Schumacher, Dying Young was adapted from a novel by Marti Leimbach. When Victor Geddes (Campbell Scott) discovers that he is suffering from leukemia, his wealthy family hires pretty, young Hillary O'Neil (Julia Roberts) to help nurse him through his chemotherapy treatment. As the two struggle through the debilitating effects of Victor's treatment, they fall in love and attempt to make the most of their time together. Campbell Scott's real mother, the late Colleen Dewhurst, plays his "reel" mother in the film. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Roberts, Campbell Scott, (more)
It's just not William Foster's (Michael Douglas) day. Laid off from his defense job, Foster gets stuck in the middle of the mother of all traffic jams. Desirous of attending his daughter's birthday party at the home of his ex-wife (Barbara Hershey), Foster abandons his car and begins walking, encountering one urban humiliation after another (the Korean shopkeeper who obstinately refuses to give change is the worst of the batch). He also slowly unravels mentally, finally snapping at a fast-food restaurant that refuses to serve him breakfast because it's "too late." Running amok with an arsenal of weapons at the ready, Foster -- also known as "D-FENS" because of his vanity license plate -- rapidly becomes a source of terror to some, a folk hero to others. It's up to reluctant cop Prendergast (Robert Duvall), on the eve of his retirement, to bring D-FENS down. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, (more)
Despite its occasional lapses into silly self-consciousness, Flatliners is one of the most intriguing and well-constructed supernatural thrillers of the 1990s. A group of brilliant medical students decide to literally play with life and death. They put themselves in suspended animation, electronically inducing a near-deathlike state and then pulling out of it at the last possible moment. Things get hairy when one of the students (Kiefer Sutherland) becomes obsessed with the notion of really dying, the better to experience the Afterlife before being revived--if he can be revived. In her first dramatic starring role (playing a sensitive young lady on a misguided guilt trip), Julia Roberts is very, very good--completely bereft of movie-star mannerisms. Audiences flocked to see Flatliners back in 1990 due to the highly publicized off-screen romance between Roberts and Sutherland. Oh, yes: Kevin Bacon and William Baldwin are in the picture, too. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, (more)
Can a homophobic former rent-a-cop find happiness learning to sing with a man in a dress? That's the big question in this comedy-drama. A retired security guard (Robert De Niro), deeply conservative and set in his ways, falls victim to a debilitating stroke. His doctors prescribe an extensive program of physical therapy once he's released from the hospital, including singing lessons to help him regain his full powers of speech. As it turns out, there's a vocal instructor living next door to the guard, so he signs up only to discover that his new teacher is a flamboyant drag queen awaiting a sex-change operation (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Written and directed by Joel Schumacher, Flawless also stars Wilson Jermaine Heredia and Daphne Rubin-Vega, both of whom first gained notice in the Broadway musical Rent, as well as Rory Cochran and Barry Miller. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, (more)
The blurry line between a rumor and the truth is stretched to the breaking point in this drama. Three arrogant and self-centered college students, Jones (Lena Headey), Derek (James Marsden), and Travis (Norman Reedus), are brought together for a class project, in which they decide to start a rumor and keep track of how it spreads. Looking for possible gossip material, they see Naomi (Kate Hudson), a girl known for her high-minded views on saving sex for marriage, drunkenly making out with Bo (Joshua Jackson) at a party. The three students begin passing around the rumor that Naomi became a victim of date rape later that evening, embroidering the truth with allegations that Bo forcibly seduced Naomi after she was too inebriated to put up a fight. Before long, the rumor makes its way back to Naomi herself, who suffered a black-out on the night in question after too much alcohol. Naomi panics, and convinced that the rumor is true, contacts the police, who assign Detective Kelly (Sharon Lawrence) to investigate the charges of rape filed against Bo. Featuring a cast of young actors best known for their work on television, Gossip was an appropriate first feature film for director Davis Guggenheim, who previously distinguished himself on such TV series as ER, NYPD Blue, and Party of Five. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Bogosian, Marisa Coughlan, (more)
Nearly anyone who performs in public on a regular basis is familiar with the notion of the audience member who makes their opinions loudly and clearly known during the show, and like most comedians Jamie Kennedy has dealt with his fair share of hecklers over the course of his career. However, when Kennedy moved from stand-up comic to actor, he encountered a new breed of heckler -- the on-line film critic who posts angry rants on the internet, taking Kennedy to task for nearly every aspect of such critically drubbed movies as Son Of The Mask and Malibu's Most Wanted. Kennedy teamed up with director Michael Addis to make the documentary Heckler, which explores the increasingly combative relationship between artists and their audience. Heckler features interviews with a number of comics and musicians discussing their experiences with loud-mouthed spectators (including Bill Maher, David Cross, Louie Anderson, Rob Zombie, Joe Rogan and David Allen Grier), but Kennedy goes a step further, confronting a number of the writers who've bad-mouthed his work and questioning their role in the creative process. Kennedy and Addis also talk with filmmaker Uwe Boll, who went so far as to challenge his critics to a boxing match. Heckler received its world premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Kennedy, Louie Anderson, (more)
- 2010
Director Joel Schumacher heads into action-horror territory with this Paramount production, scripted by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
Diane Keaton, Kristin Griffith, and Mary Beth Hurt play Renata, Flyn, and Joey, the grown daughters of wealthy Arthur (E.G. Marshall) and his emotionally disturbed wife, Eve (Geraldine Page). When Arthur leaves Eve, her three daughters rally around her. As it turns out, none of the daughters are ideally suited to provide an "anchor" for their distracted mother, but all four women are strengthened by their renewed relationship. Interiors received five Oscar nominations, including Best Director for Woody Allen, Best Original Screenplay for Allen, Best Actress for Geraldine Page, Best Supporting Actress for Maureen Stapleton (who plays Arthur's new love), and Best Art Direction for Mel Bourne and Daniel Robert. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, (more)
- 1974
Killer Bees a made-for-TV thriller, directed by Curtis Harrington, is the story of a strong willed woman with a curious power. Madame von Bohlen (Gloria Swanson) matriarch of a family and controller of the family wine business rules her family with an iron hand. What is becoming increasingly obvious, after a series of mysterious bee attacks, is that she also has psychic control over a swarm of bees that reside in her vineyard. This silly, fun thriller has a great cast including Kate Jackson, Craig Steven and Edward Albert, and they all seem to be having as much fun with their roles as Gloria Swanson. Swanson attacks her role with the same feline energy that make her a star. She is outstanding as the controlling, iron-willed woman who will stop at nothing to get her way. A fun time is had by all in this outlandish, well-acted thriller. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
One man's life is thrown into turmoil by picking up a telephone in this claustrophobic thriller. Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) is a brash, cynical, and self-centered public relations man who juggles a busy career with both a wife, Kelly (Radha Mitchell), and a mistress, Pamela (Katie Holmes). Stu steps into a phone booth on a busy New York street to make a call to Pamela without Kelly being the wiser, but as soon as Stu hangs up, the phone begins to ring. Curious, Stu picks it up -- and a stranger on the other end (voice of Kiefer Sutherland) informs him that if he hangs up the phone, he'll be shot. The red dot of an infrared rifle scope convinces Stu that the caller means business, and when another man tries to make his way into the booth, he's shot mere inches from Stu, calling the attention of the police. Captain Ramey (Forest Whitaker) naturally assumes that Stu was the killer, as Stu struggles to find a way to convince the police of what's happening before more lives are lost, without leaving the booth and putting his own life on the line. At one time proposed as a vehicle for Jim Carrey, Phone Booth was directed by Joel Schumacher, from a screenplay by exploitation icon Larry Cohen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
- 1972
Play It As It Lays offers what is probably the harshest view of Hollywood to be given a major production up to the time of its release; it depicts a world of narcissistic egotists who will do anything to inflate their own sense of importance. Based on the novel by Joan Didion, it tells of the rise and fall of one woman's acting career. Maria Wyeth (Tuesday Weld), a model, began her acting career in a Warhol-like film, and moved "up" to perform in a biker film. The director of both films, Carter Lang (Adam Roarke), discovered her, and soon afterwards, marries her. As Carter's career moves ahead, he pays less and less attention to Maria. She has a number of affairs to try to brighten her world, but nothing much works. When she gets pregnant by one of them, Lang divorces her. Then, her best friend (Anthony Perkins), who tried to bring about a reconciliation between Lang and her, commits suicide. Her world in tatters, she has a nervous breakdown. The film's story is told in flashbacks while she is in recovery. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
A deadly boating accident derails the life of a sensitive youngster, leading to confusion, madness and murder. Years after the incident, Angela (Felissa Rose) is still withdrawn and rarely speaks, living a sheltered life with her aunt and cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten). The two young teens are sent off to Camp Arawak to spend the summer, and though Ricky attends every year and has plenty of friends, Angela is unable to fit in and finds herself the target of cruel taunts from her bunkmates. Her cousin is always ready to stick up for her, and she begins a timid romance with Ricky's best friend Paul (Christopher Collet), but it isn't enough to stop the abuse from their fellow campers. Soon a series of fatal accidents is plaguing Camp Arawak; a pedophilic cook is scalded alive, a practical joker drowns mysteriously and the boys' restroom becomes the scene of a horrific bee swarm attack. The campers are fleeing in droves, and the few who remain begin suspecting foul play. But who is the killer? The camp's owner (Mike Kellin) believes that the killings are only meant to ruin his business, and he's convinced that the hot-tempered Ricky is to blame. When the evening of the camp social arrives, it proves to be the bloodiest night of all, and a terrible secret is revealed in a bizarre confrontation on the beach. This offbeat slasher mystery (also known as Nightmare Vacation) has earned a sizable cult following for its twisted sensibilities and inspired a pair of direct-to-video sequels. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mike Kellin, Jonathan Tiersten, (more)
In 1973, health-food store owner Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) enters the hospital for a routine gall bladder operation. When he expires on the operating table, Miles' sister requests permission to cryogenically freeze her brother's body. After 200 years, Miles is unwrapped by a group of scientists and awakens to a "brave new world" of deadening conformity, ruled with an iron fist by a never-seen leader. Miles is forced to flee for his life when the scientists -- actually a group of revolutionary activists -- are overpowered by the leader's police. He eludes the cops by pretending to be an android, and in this guise is sent to work at the home of Luna (Diane Keaton), a composer of greeting cards who thinks that the world of the future is perfect as it stands. There's more, but why spoil your fun? Sleeper is the most visual of Woody Allen's earlier films, and demonstrated a more pronounced rapport between Allen and his off- and onscreen leading lady Diane Keaton than had previously existed. The Dixieland score is performed by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, (more)
