Father's Day - Watch these with Dad

Adapting the themes of the 1948 film Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House, this comedy stars Tom Hanks as Walter Fielding, who with his love Anna (Shelley Long) decides to buy a suburban New York home for next-to-nothing. Both Anna and Walter are willing to fix what ails the house and since they are both successful professionals, that should not be too difficult. Unfortunately, what ails the house might be terminal as the rest of the film chronicles the battle between the couple and the disintegrating structure. Construction workers come in to make matters either worse or better -- or both. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Outrageously violent, time-twisting, and in love with language, Pulp Fiction was widely considered the most influential American movie of the 1990s. Director and co-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino synthesized such seemingly disparate traditions as the syncopated language of David Mamet; the serious violence of American gangster movies, crime movies, and films noirs mixed up with the wacky violence of cartoons, video games, and Japanese animation; and the fragmented story-telling structures of such experimental classics as Citizen Kane, Rashomon, and La jetée. The Oscar-winning script by Tarantino and Roger Avary intertwines three stories, featuring Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta, in the role that single-handedly reignited his career, as hit men who have philosophical interchanges on such topics as the French names for American fast food products; Bruce Willis as a boxer out of a 1940s B-movie; and such other stalwarts as Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Christopher Walken, Eric Stoltz, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman, whose dance sequence with Travolta proved an instant classic. ~ Leo Charney, Rovi

Bruce Willis returns as misfit cop John McClane in the third film in the Die Hard series. McClane has fallen on hard times; after moving to New York City and breaking up with his wife, he's developed a drinking problem and has been suspended from the NYPD. However, his past comes back to haunt him in the form of Simon (Jeremy Irons), a terrorist bomber who has been using McClane as his contact as he plants a series of bombs in public places and gives McClane inane "clues" to their whereabouts in the form of riddles and bizarre games. McClane soon discovers he's been involved in Simon's scheme as part of a personal grudge; while associated with an international terrorist group, Simon is also the brother of the man McClane threw off the side of a skyscraper several years back (in the original Die Hard). Now McClane, with the help of a Harlem shopkeeper named Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson), has to find out where Simon has planted the bombs, guess where he'll strike next, and try to find his base of operations before more bombs go off and thousands of people die. The supporting cast features Graham Greene and Colleen Camp; singer Sam Phillips made her acting debut as a member of Simon's terrorist group (Phillips never speaks, so as to not to reveal her Texas accent). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The smash success Caddyshack became a prototype for countless other wacky T&A-tinged teen comedies of the early 1980s. At an exclusive country club for WASPish snobs, an ambitious young caddy (Michael O'Keefe) from an overpopulated home eagerly pursues a caddy scholarship in hopes of attending college and, in turn, avoiding a job at the lumber yard. In order to succeed, he must first win the favor of the elitist Judge Smails (Ted Knight), then the caddy golf tournament which the good judge sponsors. Of course, there are love interests as well -- one good, one naughty -- not to mention several foes he must vanquish along the way. The story itself serves to string along a series of slapstick scenes involving an obnoxious nouveau riche land developer (Rodney Dangerfield) who wants to turn the site into a condominium community; an oddball, Zen-quoting, millionaire slacker/golf ace (Chevy Chase); and a psychotic groundskeeper (Bill Murray) with a gopher-fixation. Caddyshack was a bona fide hit; throughout the '80s and '90s, director Harold Ramis would continue to create such hits as Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, and Analyze This. ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi

The acclaimed graphic novel from crime writer Max Allan Collins becomes this big budget Dreamworks drama from director Sam Mendes and screenwriter David Self. Tom Hanks stars as Michael Sullivan, a morally conflicted Depression-era hit man committing murder in the name of his employer, John Rooney (Paul Newman). A kindly, aging Irish crime boss who raised Sullivan as his surrogate son, Rooney is affiliated with Al Capone in Chicago and thus wields great power in the "Tri-Cities" of Moline, IL; Rock Island, IL; and Davenport, IA. Curious about his father's mysterious profession, Sullivan's son, Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin), stows away in his father's automobile one night and witnesses the execution of a man at the hands of Sullivan and Rooney's biological son, Connor (Daniel Craig). Although Michael keeps his promise to remain silent about what he's seen, the paranoid and unstable Connor tries to wipe out the entire Sullivan clan anyway, succeeding only in killing Sullivan's wife, Annie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and youngest son, Peter (Liam Aiken). Enraged at this and another surprise betrayal by the Rooneys, Sullivan embarks on a path of bloody retribution, Michael in tow. Although he intends to leave his boy with relatives in the rural town of Perdition once the coast is clear, he ends up exposing Michael to the goriest aspects of his talents, slaughtering former associates as he dodges contract assassin Maguire (Jude Law) and cripples the cash flow of the Rooney and Capone organizations through a series of bank robberies, attempting to force either mob family to offer up the sequestered Connor as a sacrifice. Inspired by the popular Japanese comic book series Lone Wolf and Cub and based loosely on an episode from the life and career of notorious real-life crime figures John and Connor Looney, Road to Perdition co-stars Stanley Tucci as legendary Chicago mobster Frank Nitti. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Russell Crowe plays a desperado whose accomplices stage an ambush after he is taken into custody by a determined local sheriff in this remake of the 1957 film starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. James Mangold directs a script based on the Elmore Leonard short story and penned by Stuart Beattie, Michael Brandt, and Derek Haas. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

An old-fashioned cop emerges to foil a high-tech attack on the country's computer infrastructure as Bruce Willis brings back one of the biggest action franchises in screen history. It's been over a decade since audiences last saw New York cop John McClane (Willis), but now, as the world's greatest criminal mastermind (Timothy Olyphant) attempts to cripple the entire country with an innovative act of technological terrorism, only one cop can insure that the integrity of the system stays intact. In this, the fourth installment of the long-running action series, Underworld director Len Wiseman picks up the torch formerly carried by directors John McTiernan and Renny Harlin to helm a script penned by Mark Bomback. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Following his surprise-hit American remake of The Ring in 2002, director Gore Verbinski took on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the second of recent films to be based upon Disney theme-park rides (the first being The Country Bears). When Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), the daughter of Governor Swann (Jonathan Pryce) is kidnapped by a group of pirates led by Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and taken aboard their ship, The Black Pearl, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), the young man who loves Elizabeth despite the fact that she is promised to another, sets out to rescue her. But he can't do it alone, so he enlists the help of swashbuckling ship captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Together the two chase after The Black Pearl, but they soon discover that the captain and crew aren't your average pirates. Cursed to remain between the living and the dead, Barbossa and his men look like skeletons when basked in the moonlight. When it is revealed that the only thing that can break the curse is Elizabeth's blood, Jack and Will are faced with a race against time and a battle against the undead to save the Governor's daughter. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

John Ford directed this outdoor adventure set in the American Colonial period. Gilbert and Lana Martin (Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert) are a young couple trying to make a home in New York State's Mohawk Valley, but repeated attacks by Indians drive them, along with other settlers in the valley, into a nearby fort, where they watch helplessly as the natives lay waste to their farms and cabins. A spinster with a large farm, Sarah McKlennar (Edna May Oliver), comes to their rescue when she hires Gilbert to work as a field hand and gives the Martins a place to stay. The rugged life of the farm and frontier doesn't always sit well with Lana, who was raised in wealthy and comfortable circumstances; in time she develops a thicker skin and learns to love their new life in the Mohawk Valley, especially after giving birth to their first son. Gilbert joins the militia, who must do battle both with the local Indian tribes and the British soldiers who are provoking them to battle. Gilbert returns wounded, and as he recuperates, a healthy crop rises in the fields, but their satisfaction is short lived when the Indians once again hit the warpath. 1939 was a stellar year for John Ford; along with this highly successful adventure tale, which was nominated for three Academy Awards, Ford also released the ground-breaking western Stagecoach. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

They've kept television viewers laughing for nearly 20 years, and now the most popular animated family on the small screen makes the leap into theaters as Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, ad Maggie embark on their first-ever feature-length adventure. Directed by David Silverman and written by a whole host of Simpsons veterans including Matt Groening and James L. Brooks, The Simpsons Movie also features special guest appearances by Albert Brooks among others. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director Gore Verbinski and the crew set sail once again for this, the third chapter in the swashbuckling Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is hopelessly trapped in Davy Jones' locker after a harrowing encounter with the dreaded Kracken, and now Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) must align themselves with the nefarious Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) if they hold out any hope of saving their old friend from a fate worse than death. The East India Trading Company and its fearsome leader, Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander), have taken control of the ghostly Flying Dutchman and its captain, Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), and now the baleful Admiral Norrington (Jack Davenport) has taken the helm in a relentless bid to destroy every pirate ship in his path and bring the Age of Piracy to a violent close. Meanwhile, Will, Elizabeth, and Captain Barbossa navigate treacherous waters and face bitter betrayal as they set sail to gather the only army that can stand up to Beckett -- The Nine Lords of the Brethren Court. But Captain Jack Sparrow is one of the lords, and as long as he's stuck in Davy Jones' locker, Beckett and his nefarious armada are sure to emerge victorious. There's still hope, however, if the heroic team that includes Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris), Pintel (Lee Arenberg), and Ragetti (Mackenzie Crook) can reach exotic Singapore and convince vulpine pirate Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat) to provide them with charts and a ship. But even the powerful Brethren Court may need a bit of help from volatile sea goddess Calypso in order to weather the coming storm. With the entire future of the pirate way at stake, everyone will be forced to choose sides while drifting precariously to the edge of the earth for one final, spectacular battle. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A blend of comedy, drama and romance, Bull Durham follows the intertwining of three lives brought together by the great American pastime. Crash Davis (Kevin Costner, showcasing his Midwestern charm) is a perennial Minor Leaguer assigned to the Durham Bulls, a hapless team with a long tradition of mediocrity. There he tutors a young, dim-witted pitching prodigy, Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) in the ways of baseball, life, and love. Each strikes up a romance with Annie (Susan Sarandon), the team's "mascot" who takes it upon herself to sleep with a new player every season. Each has his/her own conflict: Crash struggles to end his career with some measure of dignity; Nuke struggles to make it to the "big show"; and Annie struggles to find something more than a roll in the hay -- and of course, Crash and Nuke come into conflict over Annie's affections to further complicate matters. The film treats the sport of baseball with a sort of casual reverence, highlighting both the drama and the humor inherent in the game, illustrated by Annie's numerous references to baseball as "her religion." ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi