Abrahams, Jim

Big Business

Bette Midler (THE FIRST WIVES CLUB, BEACHES) and Lily Tomlin (DISNEY'S THE KID, ALL OF ME, 9 TO 5) -- the first ladies of laughter -- star in this critically acclaimed box office hit about two sets of identical twins who are mismatched at birth. Forty years later, their paths cross amid the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, and the result is unrestrained pandemonium. New York's opulent Plaza Hotel is the setting for a wildly hilarious, classic case of mistaken identities, split personalities, and double trouble! With the unparalleled comedic talents of Midler and Tomlin, two's company ... four's a riot!

Top Secret!

In between the disaster movie satire Airplane! in 1980 and the hardboiled cop show parody The Naked Gun in 1988, the comedy crew of Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker put together a picture that's almost as funny as their better-known hits. Top Secret! sends up spy movies and cheesy teen rock & roll musicals. Val Kilmer stars as swivel-hipped American rocker Nick Rivers, a sort of blonde Elvis whose secret weapon is Little Richard's tune "Tutti Fruitti." On tour behind the Iron Curtain, Nick strikes blows for democracy overtly and covertly, with his music as well as his espionage skills. In short, this is a very, very silly motion picture. Some great gags, including a subtitled scene in a Swedish book shop, and an inspired bit with a Ford Pinto that not everybody may get anymore. (The Pinto, you may or may not recall, was notoriously prone to gas tank explosions when rear-ended.) --Jim Emerson

Ruthless People

A milestone comedy of the 1980s, Ruthless People delighted critics and audiences alike and set the tone of Hollywood comedies for years to come. Along with that other popular farce about wealthy Californians, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, this ingenious romp revived Bette Midler's career and launched Disney (by way of its subsidiary, Touchstone Pictures) into the lucrative production of R-rated comedies; it also ensured the star power of then-TV star Danny DeVito. Dale Launer became Hollywood's hot screenwriter du jour by cleverly reworking O. Henry's Ransom of Red Chief into a wicked tale of marital malice heightened by a bungled kidnapping. Midler is sublime as the victim of low-rent abductors ("I've been kidnapped by Kmart!"), and DeVito's the gleeful philanderer who refuses to pay ransom for his wife's unwanted return. With Anita Morris, Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater, and Bill Pullman among the plot-twisting schemers, the movie's so much fun that an eventual remake seems almost inevitable. --Jeff Shannon

In this fiendishly funny comedy from the creators of AIRPLANE!, loathesome millionaire Sam Stone (Danny DeVito) is ruthless. How ruthless? When his shrill wife Barbara (Bette Midler) is nabbed by inept kidnappers (Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater), Sam cries tears of joy ... and refuses to pay the ransom. And when the abductors threaten to kill the abrasive heiress, Sam takes immediate action -- he celebrates! RUTHLESS PEOPLE. Raucous ... outlandish ... one of the top box office hits of the year!

"...First Do No Harm"

Award-winning actress Meryl Streep (Best Actress, SOPHIE'S CHOICE, KRAMER VS. KRAMER, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY) delivers a powerful and uplifting performance in this story of one family's strength and courage in a time of extreme crisis. Plunged into emotional and financial hardship, a devoted mother (Streep), a hardworking father (Fred Ward -- CHAIN REACTION, CORKY ROMANO) and the rest of this close-knit family face a decision that will change their lives forever. As time and options begin to run out, they must find the courage to overcome incredible odds. Widely praised by critics -- you'll find this compelling story of determination and hope both entertaining and inspirational!

Mafia!

This hapless comedy may actually work a lot better on video than it did in theaters. A parody of contemporary mob movies (with a few sidebars skewering such hits as Forrest Gump and The English Patient), Mafia! most closely resembles the first two Godfather films in its generational saga of a gangster family. Lloyd Bridges plays Don Cortino, a native Sicilian who presides over a crime syndicate, and Jay Mohr plays his Michael Corleone-like son. The film is by Jim Abrahams, formerly of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker directing team (Airplane!, The Naked Gun), single- handedly trotting out the old dumb-joke aesthetic that worked wonderfully a lifetime ago but looks a little creaky in the era of There's Something About Mary. Silly allusions to every crime film (GoodFellas, Casino) produced in the last three decades and featuring at least one wise guy or made man find their way into Mafia!'s gags, but most are arbitrary and shrugged off. The film tanked in theaters for good reason; on the other hand, Mafia! might have a lot more to offer if you're slumped on your own couch at the end of a long day, ready for brain-dead entertainment and absolutely apathetic about comic integrity. Even a film this instantly stale on the big screen might have its place in video posterity. -- Tom Keogh

Taking aim at Hollywood's greatest gangster films, MAFIA! is the hilarious comedy spoof that packs all the laughs you'd expect from the hit-making director of AIRPLANE! and HOT SHOTS! In this sidesplitting saga of disorganized crime's most dysfunctional family, legendary star Lloyd Bridges rules the underworld as the ruthless, powerful ... and ceaselessly clumsy ... Godfather Vincenzo Cortino. When the time comes to choose the next Don Cortino, however, a riotous rivalry breaks out between his two sons: one a war hero (handsome Jay Mohr -- JERRY MAGUIRE) and the other a raving psychotic! Also starring sexy Christina Applegate (JUST VISITING) in an outrageously funny cast -- you'll happily die laughing with this dead-on mobster movie parody that offers entertainment you can't refuse!

Hot Shots!

The gang that created Airplane and The Naked Gun sets its sights on Top Gun in this often hilarious spoof starring Charlie Sheen, who previously only inspired laughs with his personal life. He plays Topper Harley, a fighter pilot with an ax to grind: clearing the family name. He gets involved in a relationship with Valerie Golino, a woman with an unusually talented stomach. But his mission is to avenge his father. Lloyd Bridges, late in his career, revealed an aptitude for this kind of silliness, here as a commander who is both incredibly dim and delightfully accident prone. Directed by Jim Abrahams, the film makes fun of a variety of other films as well, from Dances with Wolves to The Fabulous Baker Boys. It was so successful that they all returned in the sequel, Hot Shots! Part Deux. --Marshall Fine

Recruited to join a top-secret mission for the Air Force, a renegade pilot (Sheen) finds himself coping with an incompetent admiral (Bridges) and a carefully-selected squadron of flyers who are either inept or half-blind. He also winds up in competition with the corps' model of military perfection (Elwes) for the heart of the base's sultry psychiatrist (Golino)

Airplane! (1980) / Top Secret! (1984) (Double Feature)

This double feature presents two of the Zucker brothers' patented slapstick spoofs. AIRPLANE (1980) leaves no disaster-flick cliche unroasted when a rogue pilot (Robert Hays) with a fear of flying is forced to bring a commercial jetliner to safe landing. Meanwhile TOP SECRET (1984) lampoons World War II spy films and Elvis Presley movies through the story of a American rock singer (Val Kilmer) who finds himself involved in an East German submarine plot. See individual titles for further plot details.System Requirements:Running Time: 177 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 097361232041 Manufacturer No: 123204

Hot Shots! Part Deux

The sequel to the wonderfully wacky Hot Shots! uses Rambo as its model for nonstop send-ups (though director Jim Abrahams can't resist inserting a Saddam Hussein lookalike, given the film's post-Gulf War release). This time, Lloyd Bridges, who was an admiral in the first movie, has become president (take that, Colin Powell!) and needs someone to take care of the threat posed by a certain mustached Middle Eastern dictator. Who better than ever-reliable Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen)? In addition to trying to take out Saddam commando-style, Topper must juggle two women: Valerie Golino, from the original, and CIA babe Brenda Bakke, who knows a thing or two about close-quarters combat. If anything, this may be funnier than the first. --Marshall Fine

In this hilarious "Hot Shots!" sequel, former renegade pilot Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen) is once again recruited for a secret mission. This time the country's incompetent president (Lyod Bridges) sends him to the Middle East to resue U.S. hostages and the countless men who have already been sent in to rescue them. Pining for his former lover (Valeria Golino) in a Buddhist temple, Topper manages to pull himself together and sets out on his laugh-laden, action-packed task.

Hot Shots! Part Deux

The sequel to the wonderfully wacky Hot Shots! uses Rambo as its model for nonstop send-ups (though director Jim Abrahams can't resist inserting a Saddam Hussein lookalike, given the film's post-Gulf War release). This time, Lloyd Bridges, who was an admiral in the first movie, has become president (take that, Colin Powell!) and needs someone to take care of the threat posed by a certain mustached Middle Eastern dictator. Who better than ever-reliable Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen)? In addition to trying to take out Saddam commando-style, Topper must juggle two women: Valerie Golino, from the original, and CIA babe Brenda Bakke, who knows a thing or two about close-quarters combat. If anything, this may be funnier than the first. --Marshall Fine

In this hilarious "Hot Shots!" sequel, former renegade pilot Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen) is once again recruited for a secret mission. This time the country's incompetent president (Lyod Bridges) sends him to the Middle East to resue U.S. hostages and the countless men who have already been sent in to rescue them. Pining for his former lover (Valeria Golino) in a Buddhist temple, Topper manages to pull himself together and sets out on his laugh-laden, action-packed task.

...First Do No Harm [Region 2]