Herek, Stephen

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead

Moms on a trip leaving her brood in the care of a babysitter whos just died. Now the kids can have a summer full of fun or can they? special features: subtitles in english french and spanish scene access cast biographies/filmographies and fullscreen version. Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 12/12/2006 Starring: Christina Applegate Joanna Cassidy Run time: 105 minutes Rating: Pg13

Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead aspires to be a cross between Home Alone and Risky Business, with Christina Applegate as an inadvertent scam artist who gets in over her head and somehow pulls it off. When her mother goes to Australia for two months, Sue Ellen (Applegate) thinks she's going to be in charge--until an elderly tyrant of a babysitter arrives. But on the very first night the old lady has a heart attack and keels over. Sue Ellen and her siblings leave the body at a mortuary, only to discover afterward that all the money their mother had left for the summer was in the babysitter's clothes. So Sue Ellen has to get a job. Thanks to a trumped-up resume, she ends up as an executive assistant at a clothing manufacturer. For a while she keeps her head above water by skillfully exploiting a friendly coworker, but her brothers and sisters are running amok at home and a venomous receptionist has it in for her at work. The role-reversal humor of Sue Ellen having to mother her siblings is unsurprising, but Applegate is unexpectedly appealing; her scenes with Josh Charles (Dead Poet's Society, Threesome) have a sweet chemistry. Joanna Cassidy (Blade Runner, The Laughing Policeman) plays Sue Ellen's boss and a young David Duchovny (The X-Files, The Rapture) is a weaselly clerk. --Bret Fetzer

Mr. Holland's Opus

Of all the lives he changed the one that changed the most was his own. Glenn holland is a remarkable music teacher whose own aspirations to compose a great opus have taken a back seat to the needs of his students. Holland realizes the true rewards of his lifetime are self-sacrifice and lasting impact he has. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 01/25/2005 Starring: Richard Dreyfuss Olympia Dukakis Run time: 143 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Stephen Herek

An earnest and at times overblown story of a music teacher's impact on those around him, Mr. Holland's Opus is at times a genuinely touching drama in the vein of It's a Wonderful Life. Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind) plays an aspiring composer and musician who takes a job teaching music at a local high school to save money while he composes his music. But when his wife (Glenne Headley) becomes pregnant, Glenn Holland must put aside his dreams and address the everyday realities of his life, from the melancholy and sometimes tragic fates of his students to the discovery that the son he cherishes is deaf. Building to a highly emotional climax in which the teacher sees the impact he's had on the world around him, Mr. Holland's Opus is a showcase for a fine Oscar-nominated performance by Dreyfuss and an engaging, heartwarming story. --Robert Lane

The Mighty Ducks Boxed Set (All 3 Films)

Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/03/2002

The Three Musketeers

A disney-ized retelling of dumas classic swashbuckling story of three swordsmen plus one of the disbanded french kings guard who seek to save their king from the scheming of the cardinal richelieu. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/03/2002 Starring: Charlie Sheen Tim Curry Run time: 105 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Stephen Herek

101 Dalmatians

Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/16/2008 Run time: 103 minutes Rating: G

It's hard to know who thought it would be a good idea to make a live-action version of Disney's animated classic. The one bright notion anyone had was casting Glenn Close as Disney über-villainess Cruella de Vil; her flashing eyes and angular features are a perfect match and do credit to what is one of the most indelible animated characters Disney has ever created. The story remains essentially the same, focusing on Cruella's plot to kidnap the puppies of a young married couple (Jeff Daniels and Jolie Richardson) and make them into a coat. But the dreaded John Hughes, who wrote this script, fills it with sadistic slapstick and far too few genuine laughs. The human actors work hard, but to little avail; thankfully, there's a passel of puppies to regularly steal scenes when the going gets dreary--although there are only so many laughs to be had from inappropriate dog puddles. --Marshall Fine

Rock Star

If you've ever indulged a rock & roll fantasy, Rock Star will give you the vicarious thrill of seeing that fantasy come to life. That's what happens when talented tribute-band singer Chris Cole (Mark Wahlberg) is tapped to replace his idol as frontman for 1980s metal gods Steel Dragon. Chris becomes the groupie-laden "Izzy," his manager girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston) grows weary of sex 'n' drugs on tour, and Rock Star plays out its utterly conventional plot line. Despite the casting of real rockers to support Wahlberg's underrated performance (nicely matched by Aniston and Timothy Spall as Steel Dragon's road manager), his character is too rigidly written to follow an obligatory rise and fall, and even its basis in fact (inspired by Tim "Ripper" Owens's recruitment into Judas Priest) can't conceal the movie's predictable formula. As a cautionary tale it's routine, but as a leather-pants love story, Rock Star's got enough good karma to keep its dream alive. --Jeff Shannon

A copy machine repairmans world is rocked when hes tapped to be the new singer for his favorite band. A knowing funny look at 80s metalhead rock and the price of fame. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 05/06/2008 Starring: Mark Wahlberg Jennifer Aniston Run time: 155 minutes Rating: R Director: Stephen Herek

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Two seemingly dumb teens struggle to prepare a historical presentation with the help of a time machine. Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 05/22/2007 Starring: Keanu Reeves George Carlin Run time: 90 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Stephen Herek

Like, radical, dude--but not nearly as funny as it should be, even though it was a box-office hit. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are a pair of dim Valley boys, whose life is made heinous by a school history project. Enter George Carlin as a futuristic dude with a time-traveling phone booth. So Bill and Ted go back in time to round up a gang of historical figures (Socrates, Joan of Arc) to bring back for their presentation. Abe Lincoln at the mall? That's about as witty as it gets, rendering this the kind of comedy that gives teenaged audiences a bad name. --Marshall Fine

Picture This!

Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 01/13/2009 Rating: Nr

Technology is the way of the future and every high school student needs a video phone, at least according to Mandy (Ashley Tisdale) and her friends Alexa (Lauren Collins) and Cayenne (Shenae Grimes). When Mandy's overprotective Dad (Kevin Pollak) finally gives her a video phone and a pair of contacts for her 18th birthday, Mandy feels like her image, and her entire world, is about to change for the better--especially when her long-lived crush Drew Patterson (Robbie Amell) actually notices her. What Mandy doesn't count on is that her father will use her new phone to track her every move and that Drew's attention will inspire Lisa (Cindy Busby), the hottest, most popular girl in school, to begin plotting against Mandy with a vengeance. A full 90 minutes of serious attitude, technological obsession, deception, and just plain meanness, this film appeals primarily to the preteen and teen audience and manages to convey the message that goodness and trust will prevail despite enormous odds. Parents will most likely find the film distasteful, though they could potentially learn something about letting go, and it should be noted that there are a fair number of sexual references like "hump and dump," virgins being "deflowered," and "do her and dump her." Look for Ashley Tisdale's "Shadow of the Night" performance as well as 2 bonus making of segments, cell phone confessions, text commentary, and a trivia quiz. (Ages 11 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Man of the House

Let's face it, sometimes you just want to watch some fluff. The ever-expanding subgenre of cheerleader cinema offers dependable fluff, of which Man of the House is a shiny, frivolous example. After a multiethnic cheerleading squad witnesses a mob execution, Texas Ranger Roland Sharp (Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive, Men in Black) is assigned to protect them. That's all you need to know--a formulaic plot follows, but the filmmakers recognizes that the formula is known by all so they doesn't waste time with unnecessary exposition. Instead, we go straight to amusing scenes of Sharp teaching the unruly (and scantily clad) girls some discipline and the girls teaching Sharp to loosen up and forge a better relationship with his estranged daughter. It's a one-joke movie, but thanks to Jones' leathery hound-dog face and cowpoke gravitas, the contrast between the girls and Sharp keeps being funny. Of its kind, Man of the House isn't in the same league as Bring It On (pretty much the ne plus ultra of cheerleader movies), but it's head and shoulders over the likes of Sugar & Spice. Also featuring Cedric the Entertainer (Barbershop), Anne Archer (Fatal Attraction), and R. Lee Ermey(Full Metal Jacket). --Bret Fetzer

When five perky cheerleaders witness the murder of a drug bust informant, they require 'round-the-clock surveillance to keep from being the next victims. Enter tough-as-nails Texas Ranger Lt. Roland Sharp (Tommy Lee Jones), who masquerades as their assistant coach and camps out in their campus digs. But these feisty foxes just want to have fun, and the buttoned-down Sharp learns it's no easy task to keep the uncontrollable coeds in line and out of harm's way. Cedric the Entertainer joins this spirited cast in a comedy that busts out with high energy, pride, and the joy of a Texas Ranger getting in touch with his feminine side.

Life Or Something Like It

Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 01/13/2009

Angelina Jolie proves her box-office versatility in Life or Something Like It, a romantic comedy (Jolie's first) that succeeds on the strength of Jolie's appealing performance. As Seattle TV news reporter Lanie Kerrigan, Jolie craves celebrity (i.e., she's insecure and seeks approval), but her disapproving cameraman (Edward Burns) detects an admirable woman beneath Lanie's bleached-blond coif and pancake makeup. When a homeless street prophet (Tony Shalhoub) predicts that Lanie will soon be dead, she gradually juggles her priorities, connecting with Burns, appearing drunk on camera (a mistake that ultimately works in her favor), and finding new confidence in her professional and romantic potential. It's generic fluff, but director Stephen Herek (Rock Star, Mr. Holland's Opus) approaches the material with his reliably good-natured sincerity, and Jolie's bubbly charm mixes well with Burns's casual sensibility. And while Herek can't compare to George Cukor or Billy Wilder, he knows just how to handle the inevitable loopholes in the prophet's not-so-gloomy premonition. --Jeff Shannon