Jason Naylor Movies
- 1986
When it was first telecast on November 23, 1986, the made-for-TV Thanksgiving Promise (based on a novel by Blaine and Brenton Yorgason) was advertised as "A Thanksgiving Story as Only Disney Can Tell It." Actually, the film might not have come to fruition at all without the input of the Bridges family: Lloyd, Beau, Lloyd's wife Dorothy, Beau's son Jordan, and Jeff Bridges (uncredited). Jordan Bridges is the central character, a farm boy living in the shadow of his older brothers. Jordan's neighbor (Lloyd) entrusts the boy with a man-sized job: To care for a wounded gosling and fatten up the bird for Thanksgiving dinner. Inevitably, Jordan becomes attached to the bird, and as Thanksgiving approaches, he takes a series of odd jobs, hoping to buy the goose from his neighbor. But Jordan's father (Beau) insists that the boy keep his word and relinquish the goose. In addition to his costarring chores in Thanksgiving Promise, Beau Bridges coproduced and directed the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
The first day of school yields a myriad of reactions from the children of the Seaver clan. Ten-year-old Ben Seaver (Jeremy Miller) runs up against the proverbial classroom bully, in this case a bruiser named Louie (played by Jamie Abbott, who ironically would later pop up in the recurring role of Ben's best friend Stinky Sullivan). Fifteen-year-older Carol (Tracey Gold) tries to come up with ways to enliven what promises to be an excruciatingly dull school year. And sixteen-year-old Mike (Kirk Cameron) finally links up with his summertime "dream girl" Debbie (Lisa Capps), only to have his head turned by another lovely young lass named Shelley (Rachel Jacobs). Bill Kirchenbauer makes his first appearance as Coach Graham Lubbock, a role he'd carry into the Growing Pains spinoff Just the Ten of Us. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on the Stephen King short story The Body, Rob Reiner's easygoing nostalgia piece is set in Castle Rock, OR, over Labor Day weekend, 1959. A quartet of boys, inseparable friends all, set out in search of a dead body that one of the boys overhears his brother talking about. The foursome consists of intellectual Gordie (Wil Wheaton), born leader Chris (River Phoenix), emotionally disturbed Teddy (Corey Feldman), and chubby hanger-on Vern (Jerry O'Connell). The boys' adventures en route to the elusive body are colored by the personal pressures brought to bear on all of them by the adult world. Richard Dreyfuss, playing the grown-up Gordie, narrates the film, while Kiefer Sutherland dominates every scene he's in as a brutish high-school bully. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, (more)
