Heckerling, Amy

The Office - Season One

Based on the popular british series this faster-paced american version follows the daily interactions of a group of office employees via a documentary film crews cameras. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 08/16/2005 Run time: 135 minutes

The British sitcom The Office has the most devoted following this side of Monty Python, so an American remake seemed doomed. Amazingly, the remake actually finds its own enjoyable version of the original's uncanny comedy of embarrassment. Office manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell, The Daily Show, The 40 Year-Old Virgin) believes he's the beloved leader of the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of a paper products company--but his relentless and painfully forced efforts at comedy creep out everyone around him, including paranoid Dwight (Rainn Wilson, who had a memorable recurring role on Six Feet Under), nervous receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer, LolliLove), and aimless salesman Jim (John Krasinski, A New Wave), who's smitten with the already engaged Pam. The pilot episode suffers from closely replicating the British pilot, but after that The Office finds its own footing, turning diversity training, an office birthday party, and a basketball game into excruciating yet hypnotically funny rituals of humiliation. Carell, though clearly talented, can't match Ricky Gervais' unique performance as the aggressively needy British manager (it's hard to imagine that anyone could); as a result, the supporting roles become more prominent, and Wilson, Fischer, and Krasinski quickly create a rapport that matches and may even exceed that of their British counterparts. Be sure to watch the deleted scenes; remarkably, they're as good as the material that made it on the air in this six-episode season. --Bret Fetzer

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Widescreen Special Edition)

A story of a group of california teenagers who enjoy malls sex and rock n roll. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 05/22/2007 Starring: Sean Penn Eric Stoltz Run time: 90 minutes Rating: R

Before he became an overrated filmmaker, Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire) was a reporter for Rolling Stone who was so youthful looking that he could go undercover for a year at a California high school and write a book about it. He wrote the script for this film, based on that book, and it launched the careers of several young actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, and, above all, Sean Penn. The story line is episodic, dealing with the lives of iconic teen types: one of the school's cool kids, a nerd, a teen queen, and, most enjoyably, the class stoner (Penn), who finds himself at odds with a strict history teacher (a wonderfully spiky Ray Walston). This is not a great movie but very entertaining and, for a certain age group, a seminal movie experience. --Marshall Fine

Before he became an overrated filmmaker, Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire) was a reporter for Rolling Stone who was so youthful looking that he could go undercover for a year at a California high school and write a book about it. He wrote the script for this film, based on that book, and it launched the careers of several young actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, and, above all, Sean Penn. The story line is episodic, dealing with the lives of iconic teen types: one of the school's cool kids, a nerd, a teen queen, and, most enjoyably, the class stoner (Penn), who finds himself at odds with a strict history teacher (a wonderfully spiky Ray Walston). This is not a great movie but very entertaining and, for a certain age group, a seminal movie experience. --Marshall Fine

Clueless (Special Whatever! Edition)

Alicia Silverstone won everyone over with her portrayal of a Beverly Hills teen, Cher, whose penchant for helping others with their relationships and self-esteem is a cover for her own loneliness. Director Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) made a smart, funny variation on Jane Austen's novel Emma, sweetly romantic and gently satirical of 90210 social manners. The cast is unbeatable: Dan Hedaya as Cher's rock-solid dad, Wallace Shawn as a geeky teacher, Paul Rudd as the boy who has always been Cher's surrogate brother--and the true holder of her most secret wishes. --Tom Keogh

Cher is a matchmaking 15 year old beverly hills high schooler who has shopping & boys on her mind but mostly shopping. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/01/2007 Starring: Alicia Silverstone Jeremy Sisto Run time: 97 minutes Rating: Pg13

A Night At the Roxbury (Special Collector's Edition)

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/06/2008 Run time: 81 minutes Rating: Pg13

Expanding their one-joke skit from television's Saturday Night Live, Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell are Doug and Steve Butabi, the wearers of the rayon suits and Speedo trunks who bob their heads in unison to dance music while unsuccessfully preying on women in clubs. What's funny in a three-minute piece doesn't always get funnier by expansion, but Kattan and Ferrell give it a go with fellow SNL member Molly Shannon as their ambitious neighbor. By day they work in their father's fake-plant store. By night they prowl the club scene after spraying on the cologne in their gauchely decorated bedroom. A fender-bender with Richard Grieco (playing himself) gets them into the popular club the Roxbury, but it's not all good news, as the brothers soon find themselves torn apart. Doug and Steve are pathetic but lovable, mostly due to the actors' talents for self-deprecating humor. All gifted comedians, Kattan, Ferrell, and Shannon obviously feel comfortable around each other, and their love triangle (which prompts send-ups of Say Anything and Jerry Maguire) is the funniest joke in this mostly lame comedy. Too bad, because it clocks in at about 80 minutes and could have run on television as a pretty good episode of SNL, which has been known to get a bit lame itself. --Shannon Gee

Johnny Dangerously

This dispensable 1984 comedy is a mostly humorless parody of '30s gangster movies, the kind of thing that might work reasonably well in a five-minute sketch on Saturday Night Live but which nearly beats a viewer to death over the course of a feature. Michael Keaton and Joe Piscopo play rival Mafia bosses, but once the novelty of that is introduced, it's already old. There's plenty of sustained effort from the rest of the cast (Marilu Henner, Danny DeVito, Maureen Stapleton), with Griffin Dunne getting special points. Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) directs as if this were indeed on television. --Tom Keogh

In Amy Heckerling's hilarious send-up of 1930s gangster films, Michael Keaton stars as Johnny Dangerously, a devoted son who turns to a life of crime in order to pay for his mother's operation. As a dapper kingpin, he manages to provide support for her never-ending medical problems while romancing a steamy torch singer (Marilu Henner), battling arch-rival Danny Vermin (Joe Piscopo) and exposing a corrupt D.A. (Danny DeVito). It's a zany, wild spoof that's riddled with as many gags as bullet holes.

Look Who's Talking, Too

Special features: full screen and widescreen versions 2-channel dolby surround languages: english french spanish portuguese subtitles in english french spanish portuguese chinese korean and thai digitally mastered audio & anamorphic video theatrical trailers talent files interactive menus and more. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 09/25/2007 Starring: John Travolta Kirstie Alley Run time: 80 minutes Rating: Pg13

If nothing else, the powers that be behind this terrible sequel to the 1989 hit Look Who's Talking will be divinely punished for abusing John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" on the soundtrack. Until then, it's better to push memories of this movie to the back of one's memory. John Travolta and Kirstie Alley reprise their roles from the earlier film, but this time their married relationship is in trouble for sundry reasons. Adding to that complication is the arrival of a new baby (whined by Roseanne Barr) to join the previous one (quipped by Bruce Willis). Mel Brooks and Damon Wayans add their voices to those of some other kids, but this hastily patched-together follow-up wouldn't be funny no matter how may comic minds you threw in the mix. Between the shoddy script and miscasting of Barr, there's enough doom to go around in this thing, but an opening-credits sequence that manages, through crummy special effects, to turn a sperm's path toward an egg into a nauseating experience doesn't help. Stick with the original. --Tom Keogh

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Full Screen Special Edition)

A story of a group of california teenagers who enjoy malls sex and rock n roll. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 05/22/2007 Starring: Sean Penn Eric Stoltz Run time: 90 minutes Rating: R Director: Amy Heckerling

Before he became an overrated filmmaker, Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire) was a reporter for Rolling Stone who was so youthful looking that he could go undercover for a year at a California high school and write a book about it. He wrote the script for this film, based on that book, and it launched the careers of several young actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, and, above all, Sean Penn. The story line is episodic, dealing with the lives of iconic teen types: one of the school's cool kids, a nerd, a teen queen, and, most enjoyably, the class stoner (Penn), who finds himself at odds with a strict history teacher (a wonderfully spiky Ray Walston). This is not a great movie but very entertaining and, for a certain age group, a seminal movie experience. --Marshall Fine

Before he became an overrated filmmaker, Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire) was a reporter for Rolling Stone who was so youthful looking that he could go undercover for a year at a California high school and write a book about it. He wrote the script for this film, based on that book, and it launched the careers of several young actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, and, above all, Sean Penn. The story line is episodic, dealing with the lives of iconic teen types: one of the school's cool kids, a nerd, a teen queen, and, most enjoyably, the class stoner (Penn), who finds himself at odds with a strict history teacher (a wonderfully spiky Ray Walston). This is not a great movie but very entertaining and, for a certain age group, a seminal movie experience. --Marshall Fine

Look Who's Talking

See life from a babys-eye-view with bruce willis as the voice of mikey. Alley is a single mother looking for the perfect father for her baby mikey. Travolta is the cab driver who helped deliver mikey. Now they try to fight the feelings between them as mikey tries to get them together. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 11/28/2006 Starring: John Travolta Kirstie Ally Run time: 96 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Amy Heckerling

This cute, 1989 comedy directed by Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) helped keep John Travolta busy during some fallow years and extended America's then-love affair with Bruce Willis, whose voice is the only part of him that appears. Kirstie Alley costars as an unwed mother in search of a suitable man to become her baby's father. Travolta is a cab driver who doesn't match her ideal, but he gets involved anyway. Half the fun comes from Willis's risible reading of the newborn's thoughts. The film was followed by two lesser sequels, Look Who's Talking Too and Look Who's Talking Now. --Tom Keogh

A Night at the Roxbury

Follows the hopelessly uncool butabi brothers as they try to make the guest list at a hip hollywood nightclub. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 01/25/2005 Starring: Will Ferrell Dan Hedaya Run time: 81 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: John Fortenberry

Expanding their one-joke skit from television's Saturday Night Live, Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell are Doug and Steve Butabi, the wearers of the rayon suits and Speedo trunks who bob their heads in unison to dance music while unsuccessfully preying on women in clubs. What's funny in a three-minute piece doesn't always get funnier by expansion, but Kattan and Ferrell give it a go with fellow SNL member Molly Shannon as their ambitious neighbor. By day they work in their father's fake-plant store. By night they prowl the club scene after spraying on the cologne in their gauchely decorated bedroom. A fender-bender with Richard Grieco (playing himself) gets them into the popular club the Roxbury, but it's not all good news, as the brothers soon find themselves torn apart. Doug and Steve are pathetic but lovable, mostly due to the actors' talents for self-deprecating humor. All gifted comedians, Kattan, Ferrell, and Shannon obviously feel comfortable around each other, and their love triangle (which prompts send-ups of Say Anything and Jerry Maguire) is the funniest joke in this mostly lame comedy. Too bad, because it clocks in at about 80 minutes and could have run on television as a pretty good episode of SNL, which has been known to get a bit lame itself. --Shannon Gee

I Could Never Be Your Woman

Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 09/30/2008 Rating: Pg13

I Could Never Be Your Woman is an Amy Heckerling film in the very best sense: very funny, culturally relevant, a little bitter and a little sweet. Heckerling's body of work is often labeled inconsistent: On the plus side, you have teen classics Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless, both of which captured the '80s and '90s zeitgeists perfectly and were huge commercial and critical successes. On the other, more disappointing side, we find the Look Who's Talking trilogy and A Night at the Roxbury. After her last foray behind the camera, the mildly funny but pretty uninteresting film The Loser, Heckerling has come back with an extremely entertaining and likeable movie that has unfortunately been overshadowed by a lot of controversy regarding the film's release and studio politics. I Could Never Be Your Woman is a movie about Rosie, a divorced woman in her 40s (Michelle Pfeiffer) and the younger man she falls in love with (the perennially likeable Paul Rudd). It is also a movie about youth-obsessed Hollywood, celebrity culture, and the inevitability of aging. Rosie is the mother of a teenage daughter (Atonement's Saoirse Ronan) and struggles to raise her daughter apart from the warped narcissistic values of Hollywood, while being in a position of perpetuating those same values (Pfeiffer plays the creator and producer of a teen TV show). While the movie is otherwise a jumbled mess of themes and plot points, Heckerling succeeds in keeping it cohesive. With this A-list cast, Heckerling's strong pedigree, and a genuinely enjoyable script, this is a film that didn't deserve a straight-to-video-release. --Kira Canny