Gross, Mary

Troop Beverly Hills

As Phyllis a Beverly Hills housewife is in the middle of a divorce she tries to find focus in her life by taking over her daughter's (Hannah) Wilderness Girl troop. Among the girls are Tiffany (who her father has to bribe to attend meetings Emily (the daughter of an out of work actor whose financial difficulties hinders her wanting to participate in certain activities) the neurotic Tessa (whose parents divorce has forced her into therapy twice a week) the hostile Chica (whose parents are too busy with their own lives to even remember her birthday) and Claire (the child star who see the wilderness girls as her chance to lead a "normal" life). Phyllis then begins to take the girls camping at a Beverly Hills hotel and earn patches relating to material things. The district leader Velda feels the troop should be disbanded. However the head of the Wilderness girls organization believes that as long as Phyllis has taken an active interest in the girls that is the only thing that's important. Then Velda begins to sabotage the girls endlessly.System Requirements:Run Time: 105 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 043396078918 Manufacturer No: 07891

Big Business

Two sets of identical twins, separated at birth and reared in drastically different environments, are reunited in the big city of Manhattan, for a series of comedic mishaps.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 13-JAN-2004
Media Type: DVD

Practical Magic

Actor Griffin Dunne improves a bit on his first film as a director, Addicted to Love, with this drama-comedy about a family of witches. Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock play spell-casting sisters of different temperaments: the former is a high-living, free-spirited sort, while Bullock's character is a homebody who can't get around a family curse that kills the men in their lives. A widowed single mom, Bullock gets into a jam with an abusive Bulgarian (Goran Visnjic) and is helped out by her sibling, but the result brings a good-looking, warm, inquisitive cop (Aidan Quinn) into their lives. The film has a variety of tonal changes--cute, scary, glum--that Dunne can't always effectively juggle. But the female-centric, celebratory nature of the film (the fantasies, the sharing, the witchy bonds) is infectious, and supporting roles by Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing as Kidman and Bullock's magical aunts are a lot of fun. --Tom Keogh

If a broom falls company is due. When a circle rings the moon trouble looms Should you misplace your broom sorry; a hand vac can't be used in an exorcism rite. Fun and excitement abound in the Owens family of wily witches. One problem though: the men the Owens women fall in love with are doomed to an untimely death. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman bring a sparkling screen magic to Practical Magic adapted from Alice Hoffman's bestseller and directed by Griffin Dunne (Addicted to Love). They play Sally and Gillian Owens sisters hexed by a centuries -old curse...and coping with a witches brew of events involving a possible love match (Aidan Quinn) for one a zombie (Goran Visnjic) for the other and a need to resume the age-old witchcraft taught by two doting Owens aunts (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest). Sit for a spell and enjoy.Running Time: 110 min.System Requirements:Starring: Sandra Bullock Nicole Kidman et al. Director: Griffin Dunne Edition Details: Region 1 encoding (for use in US and Canada only) Color Closed-captioned Widescreen Dolby Number of discs: 1 Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 085391632221 Manufacturer No: 16322

Baby Boom

A successfull career woman is thrust into unexpected motherhood when she inherits a little girl and finds her life and relationships drastically changed.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 6-FEB-2001
Media Type: DVD

The writing-directing team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers (Father of the Bride) made this sweet satire about a high-powered yuppie executive (Diane Keaton) who unexpectedly becomes a mom and finds she can't successfully integrate the role into her busy life. Typical of the Shyer-Meyers films prior to Myers taking the director's reins on the wonderful Parent Trap, Baby Boom is a little wooden and more sentimental than genuine. But there are entertaining moments, for sure, and Keaton is a delight. --Tom Keogh

Saturday Night Live - The Best of Eddie Murphy (Bonus Edition)

Perhaps one of the greatest lights ever to shine on late-night television, Eddie Murphy has gone on to well-deserved international superstardom. Check out his earliest television work on Saturday Night Live: The Best of Eddie Murphy, a collection of his greatest roles, from Gumby to Stevie Wonder to Buckwheat. Of course, some would argue that his best role was as himself, and there is plenty of evidence for that--many of the skits feature Murphy au naturel and the opening sequence is taken from his monologue when he returned to the show triumphantly after leaving for Hollywood. Exploring the world around him and finding laughs everywhere, Murphy can take a simple idea (such as the "James Brown Hot Tub Party") and run wild with it, leaving the audience hysterically begging for more. You don't have to be a fan to enjoy this collection, but odds are you'll be one by the time you're finished. --Rob Lightner

In the early 80s Saturday Night Live came back alive and the reason was Eddie Murphy. It's all here-Gumby Buckwheat Little Richard Simmons a dip in James Brown's Hot Tub. Pay a visit to Mr. Robinson's neighborhood and see the best of Velvet Jones Stevie Wonder and more!System Requirements: Running Time 66 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 031398115243 Manufacturer No: LG1152D

A Mighty Wind

Documentary-style Comedy. Christopher Guest follows up his acclaimed ensemble comedies Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman with a docu-comedy about three folk groups from the '60s who reunite for a memorial concert in New York City following the death of a legendary folk manager.Running Time: 92 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085392771820

There's A Mighty Wind a-blowin', along with the gales of laughter you'll get from Christopher Guest's third exercise in brilliant "mockumentary." After tackling small-town theatricals in Waiting for Guffman and obsessive dog-show contestants in Best in Show, Guest and his reliable stable of repertory players (including Fred Willard, Parker Posey, and Bob Balaban) apply their improvisational genius to a latter-day reunion of fictional '60s-era folk singers, a comedic goldmine that Guest first explored 30 years earlier on The National Lampoon Radio Hour. Collaborating with costar and cowriter Eugene Levy (who gives the film's funniest performance), Guest is so delicate in his satirical approach that the laughs aren't always obvious, and the subtlety can be as wistful (as in Catherine O'Hara's performance as Levy's auto-harpist partner) as it is hilarious. Some may wish for more blatant comedy, but that would compromise the genuine affection that Guest & Co. have for the music they're spoofing. --Jeff Shannon

The Santa Clause (Full Screen Special Edition)

After Santa has a fatal accident, Scott Calvin dons Santa's suit and assumes his role and identity (including beard and stomach), not realizing there is no loophole in the Santa Clause.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 7-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD

Divorced toy company executive Scott Calvin (Tim Allen of Home Improvement and the Toy Story movies) is pleased to have his son Charlie for Christmas, though the boy himself isn't happy about it. But when Santa Claus accidentally topples off the roof of the house and falls with a thud in the snow, Scott finds himself taking the merry old elf's place and earning new respect in his son's eyes. When the night ends, the reindeer take them to the north pole, and Scott discovers that by donning the fabled red suit, he's inadvertently agreed to become the next Santa Claus. The next morning he wakes up in his own bed and thinks it's all a dream--only Charlie remembers it with crystal clarity. Scott now has to deal with his suspicious ex-wife (Wendy Crewson, Air Force One) and her psychiatrist boyfriend (Judge Reinhold, Beverly Hills Cop), who both think he's playing tricks with Charlie's mind, and also with his own out-of-control body, which is putting on weight and growing a prodigious beard. The Santa Clause probably won't supplant It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street as anyone's favorite holiday film, but it's an enjoyable, straightforward family film, anchored by the affable charisma of Allen. --Bret Fetzer

Club Paradise

Pack your bags for Club Paradise the Caribbean resort where the good times and laughter come at you in waves. Academy Award (R) Winner Robin Williams steers their crazed course of this tropical romp as an ex-Chicago fireman who uses a sizable disability settlement to transform a remote island watering hole into a lucrative tourist waterland. Peter O'Toole Twiggy Rick Moranis Andrea Martin Eugene Levy and other comic cohorts cheerfully cavort (and Jimmy Cliff musically riffs) under the breezy direction of Harold Ramis (National Lampoon's Vacation Caddyshack) for a lark that The New Yorker's Pauline Kael judged "as pleasant as can be."Running Time: 95 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 012569734029 Manufacturer No: 73402

Robin Williams went through a period in the mid '80s when he looked like he'd turned into the next Richard Pryor: yet another brilliant standup comic neutered by the script mills of the Hollywood studios. Indeed, Williams seems almost like a spectator in this film, reacting to a supporting cast extremely deep in talent doing what they can with the mediocre script by Brian Doyle-Murray and director Harold Ramis. Williams plays a heroic Chicago fireman, who is injured and retires after saving several lives in a fire. He takes his insurance settlement and buys a resort on a poor Caribbean island (the film was shot in Jamaica). He spends the rest of the time playing straight man to a gaggle of guests that includes such SCTV alumni as Rick Moranis, Andrea Gross, Eugene Levy, and Robin Duke, as well as Jimmy Cliff and Peter O'Toole. Occasionally rising to the level of mild amusement, Club Paradise is, disappointingly, little more than a series of hit-and-miss sketches strung together by the feeblest of plots. --Marshall Fine

The Santa Clause (Widescreen Special Edition)

Divorced toy company executive Scott Calvin (Tim Allen of Home Improvement and the Toy Story movies) is pleased to have his son Charlie for Christmas, though the boy himself isn't happy about it. But when Santa Claus accidentally topples off the roof of the house and falls with a thud in the snow, Scott finds himself taking the merry old elf's place and earning new respect in his son's eyes. When the night ends, the reindeer take them to the north pole, and Scott discovers that by donning the fabled red suit, he's inadvertently agreed to become the next Santa Claus. The next morning he wakes up in his own bed and thinks it's all a dream--only Charlie remembers it with crystal clarity. Scott now has to deal with his suspicious ex-wife (Wendy Crewson, Air Force One) and her psychiatrist boyfriend (Judge Reinhold, Beverly Hills Cop), who both think he's playing tricks with Charlie's mind, and also with his own out-of-control body, which is putting on weight and growing a prodigious beard. The Santa Clause probably won't supplant It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street as anyone's favorite holiday film, but it's an enjoyable, straightforward family film, anchored by the affable charisma of Allen. --Bret Fetzer

After Santa has a fatal accident, Scott Calvin dons Santa's suit and assumes his role and identity (including beard and stomach), not realizing there is no loophole in the Santa clause.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 7-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD

Mixed Nuts

Writer-director Nora Ephron hit a low point with this disappointingly dreary comedy set in a suicide clinic on Christmas Eve. The joke is supposed to be that all of the crisis counselors are themselves a pack of lovable losers, led by a badly toupeed Steve Martin. But it's a short step from lovable loser to annoying dweeb and most of the people in this movie cross that line very quickly. It's too bad, because the cast includes Madeline Kahn, Robert Klein, Rob Reiner, Garry Shandling, and Adam Sandler. Somehow, Ephron manages to restrain this lineup from doing anything funny. --Marshall Fine

Martin is a nutty suicide hotline worker whose group is about to be evicted on Christmas Eve.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 1-JUN-2004
Media Type: DVD