Zieff, Howard

The Dream Team

Private Benjamin (Full Screen Edition)

A pampered socialite (Goldie Hawn) is so distraught after the wedding-night death of her husband (Albert Brooks) that she up and joins the Army. She whines, she pouts, she brings the corps down, until, of course, she gets with it. Eileen Brennan received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role as the butch Captain Doreen Lewis, Benjamin's nemesis. Funny and winning, the film takes an odd turn when Benjamin is assigned to the international theater and gets involved with a dour Frenchman (Armand Assante). Of course, it's all part of Benjamin's growth as a person, and the part confirmed that Hawn had gone from a go-go girl to a "you go" girl. --Keith Simanton

Goldie Hawn wins the Comedy Medal of Honor in this box-office smash about a pampered upper-middle class princess who joins "today's Army." Eileen Brennen and Armand Assante co-star. Year: 1980 Director: Howard Zieff Starring: Goldie Hawn Eileen Brennen Armand AssanteRunning Time: 110 min.System Requirements:Interactive Menus Production Notes Scene Access Dolby Digital Theatrical Trailer Languages: English & French Subtitles: English French & Spanish Standard version has been modified from its original version; it has been formatted to fit your screen. Interactive Menus Production Notes Theatrical Trailer Video Format: Standard 1.33:1 (4.3) English: Dolby Digital Stereo French: Dolby Digital Mono Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 085391107521

My Girl

A doomed Macaulay Culkin becomes the object of affection for a little girl (Anna Chlumsky), estranged from her widowed father (Dan Aykroyd). This somewhat daring premise has various emotional buffers to keep young viewers from going into shock from Culkin's demise, but the film is also not shut off from real feelings. And while the story remains safely predictable, at the end of the day it is still a bittersweet experience. Culkin's performance is okay in that somewhat mannered way of his post-Home Alone career, but Anna Chlumsky is unusually sophisticated in her understanding of her character and situation. Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis are perfectly stable as the kids' single parents. Directed by Howard Zieff (Private Benjamin). The DVD release has a full-screen presentation, Dolby sound, theatrical trailer, and optional French and Spanish soundtracks. --Tom Keogh

House Calls

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: NR
Release Date: 31-MAY-2005
Media Type: DVD

Private Benjamin/Protocol

Goldie Hawn brings her charm and joy-buzzer appeal to two hilarious comedies. She's Judy Benjamin make that Private Benjamin who finds the U.S. Army doesn't quite offer the country-club atmosphere she expected. Oscar nominations went to Hawn (for 1980 Best Actress) costar Eileen Brennan (Supporting Actress) and Nancy Meyers Charles Shyer and Harvey Miller (Original Screenplay). And ditzy cocktail waitress Sunny Davis (Hawn) finds that diplomatic immunity is not a vaccination as she brings uncommon sense to Washington and upends the rules of Protocol. Politics were never so much fun!Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 012569722705

My Girl 2

Dan Aykroyd Jamie Lee Curtis and Anna Chlumsky return as the offbeat Sultenfuss family in this enchanting sequel to MY GIRL. The year is 1974. Vada (Anna Chlumsky - My Girl The Mommy Market) is now 13 years old and living with her father (Dan Aykroyd - Ghostbusters Sneakers) and pregnant stepmother (Jamie Lee Curtis - True Lies Forever Young). When one of her teachers gives an assignment about the life and achievements of someone she's never met Vada chooses her late mother as the subject. Her research soon leads her to Los Angeles to stay with Uncle Phil (Richard Masur) his likeable girlfriend (Christine Ebersol) and her streetsmart son Nick (Austin O'Brian - Last Action Hero). Guided by Nick through the city of Los Angeles in search of clues to her late mother's history Vada makes some surprising discoveries about her roots and also about herself as she confronts the uncertainties of adolesence - first love first kisses and her place in a changing family.System Requirements:Running Time: 98 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 043396078901 Manufacturer No: 07890

Unfaithfully Yours

This remake of Preston Sturges's 1948 comedy follows the same plot but doesn't produce nearly as many laughs, though it does have its amusing moments. Dudley Moore is a famous orchestra conductor who is convinced that his wife (Nastassja Kinski) is having an affair with his best friend, a flamboyant violinist (Armand Assante). So he plots an elaborate scheme by which he will kill them both and get away with murder. That fantasy, which he has while conducting an orchestra, rapidly falls apart once he actually tries to put it into motion. Moore and Assante compete for overacting awards, while Kinski was never much of an actress to begin with. Still, this was one of Moore's better roles during his brief bout with stardom in the '80s, and any movie with Albert Brooks (as Moore's venal manager) in it can't be all bad. --Marshall Fine

The remake of the classic with Dudley Moore suspecting Nastasja Kinski of infidelity. Enterprising revenge scenes.

My Girl/My Girl 2

The Main Event

An executive awakens one morning to find that her accountant has stolen all her money and fled the country. The only asset she has left is a boxer she purchased as a tax write-off. The executive then goads the boxer into re-starting his career.

Comedic misfire from the mid-1970s in a futile attempt to bottle the same lightning that struck when Barbra Streisand teamed with Ryan O'Neal in What's Up, Doc? Here, Streisand plays a spoiled rich girl, the head of a bankrupt cosmetics company, who discovers she's lost everything--except her ownership of the contract of a washed-up boxer (O'Neal, known for his combative nature offscreen). So she tries to rally this dispirited pug into a comeback that will earn the kinds of purses that will put her back on her feet. Naturally, in the process romantic sparks are kindled. But despite a loud and energetic performance by Streisand, this Howard Zieff comedy doesn't add up to much. --Marshall Fine

Barbra Streisand Collection (What's Up, Doc?/The Main Event/Up the Sandbox/Nuts)

What's Up, Doc? (1972)
Director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show) tipped his hat to the classic screwball comedies of the 1930s, and especially the most glorious of them all, Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby. Barbra Streisand plays a charming flake who distracts a self-absorbed musicologist (Ryan O'Neal). He's engaged to be married, but soon Streisand's character has him chasing after stolen jewelry and getting into one madcap fix after another. Bogdanovich, who is also a film critic, understands the engine of the screwball genre, and his loving revival of the form brings a smile, though it is not quite consistently inspired or funny. There are plenty of great moments, however, including a slap at O'Neal's own star-making vehicle, Love Story. --Tom Keogh

Up the Sandbox (1972)
Although not as successful as What's Up, Doc? or The Way We Were, Up the Sandbox springs from the early 1970s, when Barbra Streisand's career was in full stride. Streisand stars as Margaret, a stay-at-home mom in the middle of New York who's feeling the strain of her narrow life. Frustrated by her self-involved husband and the emotionally rewarding but mentally unstimulating tasks of motherhood, she escapes into fantasies--such as being hit on by a cross-gendered Fidel Castro, bombing the Statue of Liberty with black militants, and having a furious catfight with her overbearing mother. The movie's strength lies in these fantasies' slippery nature; some are over the top, but others are so subtle you're not always sure where they start and stop, making the portrait of Margaret's psyche intriguingly complex. Streisand fans should check out this sleeper. --Bret Fetzer

The Main Event (1979)
Comedic misfire from the mid-1970s in a futile attempt to bottle the same lightning that struck when Barbra Streisand teamed with Ryan O'Neal in What's Up, Doc? Here, Streisand plays a spoiled rich girl, the head of a bankrupt cosmetics company, who discovers she's lost everything--except her ownership of the contract of a washed-up boxer (O'Neal, known for his combative nature offscreen). So she tries to rally this dispirited pug into a comeback that will earn the kinds of purses that will put her back on her feet. Naturally, in the process romantic sparks are kindled. But despite a loud and energetic performance by Streisand, this Howard Zieff comedy doesn't add up to much. --Marshall Fine

Nuts (1987)
Barbra Streisand is a mad high-priced "escort" accused of murder, but whether she's mad as hell or mad as a hatter is the question in this courtroom drama, adapted from the play by Tom Topor. While her doting, willfully uncomprehending mother (Maureen Stapleton) and stepdad with a secret (Karl Malden) try to have her judged incompetent and sent to an asylum, she fights for her day in court with the help of a hapless legal aid attorney (a refreshingly understated Richard Dreyfuss). James Whitmore presides over the hearing with a compassion and sense of justice that gives one faith in a system and la Streisand (who developed and produced the project) sinks her teeth into the tempestuous role like a starving actress. The plot holds few surprised, but the drama lies in the characters and veteran director Martin Ritt (Hud) brings out the best in a top-flight cast. --Sean Axmaker

What's Up Doc? The Main Event Nuts Up the SandboxFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085392340729