Michael McKean

England's loudest and most punctual band reunites after a 15-year hiatus for one final concert.

The movie opens with the opening night (which is also the closing night) of washed-up producer Max Bialystock's (Nathan Lane) latest Broadway endeavor, Funny Boy: A Musical Version of Hamlet. The crowd leaves the theater exclaiming about how awful the show was ("Opening Night"). Later, Bialystock's new accountant, Leopold Bloom (Matthew Broderick), comes to check the books for Funny Boy. Leo's visit is interrupted when Hold-Me-Touch-Me (Eileen Essell), one of Max's elderly backers, stops by to drop off a "checkie" and play naughty games with Max. Leo confesses that he's always wanted to be a producer. However, he's extremely nervous -- he carries his blue baby blanket with him, rubs his face with it when he becomes anxious, and descends into full-blown hysterics when Max takes the blanket away. After calming down and looking at the show's books, Bloom gets an idea and muses that you could make more money with a flop than with a hit, though it would be illegal. Bialystock tries to convince the insecure Bloom to collaborate with him to put on the biggest flop in history, then take the money and go to Rio de Janeiro ("We Can Do It"), but Bloom refuses and goes back to his accounting firm. Leo finds himself unhappy with his job and fantasizes about being a Broadway producer ("I Wanna Be a Producer," a big production number with elaborate sets and chorus girls wearing costumes made of pearls -- a riff on the line "beautiful girls wearing nothing but pearls" from "We Can Do It"). He has an epiphany and quits, returning to Bialystock and agreeing to help him with his flop. They form a partnership, Bialystock & Bloom. Max and Leo search for the worst play ever written and settle on Springtime for Hitler, a "singing love-letter to Adolph Hitler" written by Neo-Nazi Franz Liebkind (Will Ferrell). The lederhosen-wearing Liebkind receives them on his roof, where he raises carrier pigeons. The partners ask him to sign over the rights to produce the show, but first they are coerced into wearing swastika armbands while singing and dancing to "the Führer's favorite tune" and taking the sacred Siegfried Oath ("Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop"). They swear, under penalty of death, to never never never dishonor the spirit or the memory of Adolph Elizabeth Hitler. They then meet the worst director in town, a flamboyant homosexual named Roger DeBris (Gary Beach), and his equally flamboyant assistant Carmen Ghia (Roger Bart). DeBris, claiming that he's going to a costume party, appears in an elaborate sequined evening gown in the style of the Chrysler Building. It takes some persuasion -- and Max and Leo have to meet DeBris' live-in production team, who resemble the Village People -- but at the mention of a Tony Award, DeBris agrees to direct ("Keep it Gay"). DeBris' middle name, as it turns out, is also Elizabeth. Max and Leo return to their office to find Swedish bombshell Ulla Inga Hansen-Bensen-Yanson-Tallen-Hallen-Svaden-Swanson (Uma Thurman) wanting an audition, though none are scheduled. Bialystock allows her to try out anyway ("When You Got it, Flaunt it"), and they hire her as their secretary and cast her. At one point as they're preparing to go out, Leo asks Max if he can wear one of Max's black hats. Max tells him it's a Broadway producer's hat, and Leo can't wear it until he has a show on Broadway. Next, they need to raise the money: two million dollars. Bialystock pimps himself out to every rich old lady he can get his hands on in exchange for the dough ("Along Came Bialy"). Max and Leo return to their office to find that Ulla has painted everything white, from the walls and the furniture to the knickknacks and the telephone. Max leaves and Leo laments the danger that a relationship will distract him from his work, but he allows himself to kiss Ulla anyway ("That Face"). After the kiss, he throws away his blue blanket. Auditions are run by DeBris and his assistant Ghia, with Liebkind, Bialystock, and Bloom observing. During the singing auditions for Hitler, Liebkind flips out over a performance and shows the auditioner how the song is supposed to be sung ("Haben Sie Gehört Das Deutsche Band?"). Max hires Liebkind to play Hitler on the spot. On opening night ("Opening Night (Reprise)"), Leo turns up at the theater with the special Broadway producer's hat, but Max admonishes him not to wear it until the curtain has gone up and come down. Leo wishes everyone good luck, and the others (minus Bialystock) chastise him for breaking the ancient theater taboo while Bialystock invokes bad luck in every way he can think of, from breaking a mirror and walking under a ladder to throwing a black cat in front of people going backstage ("You Never Say Good Luck on Opening Night"). As Liebkind goes backstage there's a loud crash, and he exclaims that he's broken his leg. Desperate, they recast Roger DeBris as Hitler and file into the theater to watch Springtime for Hitler. The audience is horribly offended by the opening number and people begin to walk out. Then Roger DeBris enters as Hitler. After seeing the flamboyant Hitler playing the Nazis for laughs, the crowd views the show as a satire and loves it ("Springtime for Hitler"). Bialystock and Bloom return to the office, distraught at the success of their show. Bloom fishes his blue blanket out of the wastebasket, grabs the two sets of books (one labeled "Show to the IRS," the other "Never show to the IRS") and attempts to go turn himself in, but is stopped by Bialystock. As they tussle, DeBris and Ghia arrive to celebrate. Liebkind, wearing a cast and carrying a crutch and a gun, bursts in shooting and shouting that Bialystock and Bloom must die because they broke the Siegfried Oath. There is commotion, DeBris and Ghia hide in the closet, and Liebkind runs out of bullets. Just as Max thinks he's saved the day by convincing Liebkind that it was the actors who mocked Hitler and therefore Liebkind should go kill them all, the police show up. They arrest Liebkind, who promptly breaks his other leg while trying to escape. Then they find the duplicate sets of books and arrest Bialystock for tax fraud, as Bloom is nowhere in sight. After they all leave, Ulla comes in and finds Bloom hanging on the back of the door. She convinces him to take the money from the safe and run away with her to Rio. In jail, Bialystock gets a postcard from Bloom about how much fun he and Ulla are having in Rio. Bialystock laments his predicament ("Betrayed"). However, Leo and Ulla come to Max's aid in court because Leo realizes that Max, despite being sleazy and manipulative, has been a good friend to him ("'Til Him"). Ulla reveals that she's now Mrs. Bloom ("he wouldn't do it unless we got married!"). Bialystock and Bloom are each sentenced to five years in Sing Sing penitentiary -- the judge (David Huddleston) conveniently ignoring the fact that Bloom is not being tried for anything. ("It breaks my heart to break up such a beautiful friendship, so I won't.") They write and produce a musical in prison ("Prisoners of Love," with piano accompaniment by Liebkind), selling 700% of the ownership shares to the prisoners and prison staff. They're pardoned and released because they lifted the spirits of the other inmates. Bialystock and Bloom take Prisoners of Love to Broadway, where Ulla and chorus girls play the prisoners and Max and Leo's prison buddies sit in the audience in chains. Leo finally gets to wear the producer's hat, and the partners become successful producers ("Leo and Max") of such blockbusters as A Streetcar Named Murray, South Passaic, Maim, and Katz.

Leigh Ann (Katie Holmes) is a high school student who wants to achieve top grades to become valedictorian. However, her grade in History class is threatened by her sadistic teacher, Mrs. Tingle (Helen Mirren). Mrs. Tingle has a special dislike for Leigh Ann and down-grades Leigh Ann's well-designed project. The teacher also stumbles upon Leigh Ann with the final exam, which had been stolen and planted in Leigh Ann's backpack without her consent, and threatens to have her expelled for it. Leigh Ann and her two friends, Luke (Barry Watson) and Jo Lynn (Marisa Coughlan), head to Mrs. Tingle's house that night and try to convince the teacher that Leigh Ann is innocent. Mrs. Tingle, however, does not listen. A physical struggle ensues and Mrs. Tingle is accidentally knocked unconscious. The students panic and tie Mrs. Tingle to her bed. Pretending to be Mrs. Tingle, Jo Lynn calls the school the next morning and feigns illness in order to buy themselves some time, but all are unsure of what they should do next. Mrs. Tingle eventually reveals that she hates Leigh Ann because Leigh Ann has the potential to leave their small town and experience life something Mrs. Tingle never got a chance to do but her honesty only furthers her captors' dislike of her. She also opines that Leigh Ann does not have the guts to do anything that will get her in trouble; in response, an angry and infuriated Leigh Ann kisses Luke and has sex with him on Mrs Tingle's couch. The next day at school, Jo Lynn ignores Leigh Ann because she had a crush a crush Leigh Ann had been aware of. A regretful Leigh Ann tries to make amends with Jo Lynn, but an admission that she'd had sex with Luke further infuriates Jo Lynn. Leigh Ann, Luke, and Jo Lynn decide to blackmail Mrs. Tingle by producing photographic evidence of her love affair with the school's gym teacher. Before they can enact their plot, however, Mrs. Tingle escapes from her bonds. After a fight at the top of the staircase, she seemingly falls to her death but then quickly recovers, scrambles to her feet, and picks up a crossbow. She fires it wildly, trying to hit Leigh Ann. Trudie Tucker (Liz Stauber) walks through the door, gets hit in the chest by the bolt, and appears to be dead just as Principal Potter (Michael McKean) arrives to check up on Mrs. Tingle. Leigh Ann forces Mrs. Tingle to tell everything that happened with her that she wanted Leigh Ann to fail, that she shot Trudie with the arrow, among other things. However, Trudie was protected by a thick textbook she was holding at her chest and was completely unharmed. Mrs. Tingle is fired, and the final scene of the film shows Leigh Ann being named valedictorian.

The two owners of the Long Shot Copies shop struggle against a copying giant, King Co. Having gotten their start from a one hundred thousand dollar windfall when one of them hit a promotional mid-court basketball shot, they have to find a way to keep their company afloat or fold. Thus starts a series of gimmicks and a war against the opposition, particularly after they are visited by a corporate thug. —John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net>

A series of mysterious crimes threatens the existence of a new radio network. In 1939, WBN, a fourth radio network, is about to take to America's airwaves. As if the confusion of the premiere night wasn't enough, Penny Henderson, the owner's secretary, must deal with an unhappy sponsor, an overbearing boss and a soon-to-be ex-husband who desperately wants her back. As the broadcast begins, a mysterious voice breaks the broadcast and suddenly members of the cast turn up dead. It's up to her husband Roger, to find out whodunit as the police chase him through the halls of WBN. —Kevin <Kibble@vm.temple.edu> On one fateful evening in 1939, WBN, a fourth radio network, is making its nationwide debut--and is engulfed in chaos. Penny Henderson, the station owner's secretary, has her hands full coping with a disgruntled sponsor, a tyrannical boss, an incompetent director, temperamental stars, unpaid writers on the verge of mutiny and, worst of all, her soon-to-be ex-husband Roger, who's determined to win Penny back. As the curtain rises on the opening act, a mysterious voice interrupts the program and menacing events begin to unfold--leading the WBN team to realize that dead air is the least of their worries! As cast members turn up dead, it is up to Roger to find out whodunnit as the police chase him through the halls of WBN. —Anonymous

At last the Feds have caught him! Infamous 60's radical Huey Walker is heading for jail. So how come it's Huey's yuptight FBI escort who ends up behind bars? In 1989, clean-cut FBI man John Buckner is detailed to escort heavily-bearded Huey Walker back to jail for offenses dating back to his days as a celebrated hippie radical. After Walker dupes Buckner on the train he falls into the hands of a couple of well-meaning refugees from the 60's, the two men with apparently nothing in common find themselves on the run together. But appearances can be deceptive. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26} The young FBI agent John Buckner is instructed to bring Huey Walker, a hippie from the sixties, to prison. They travel by train, and of course, Huey tries to escape. John loses his freedom and his identity through one of Huey's tricks: He plies him with drink and takes his gun, his handcuffs and his passport. Now John ends up in jail instead of Huey... When the mistake is discovered, John sets off in pursuit of Huey. —Tony Kessen <rhkessen@cs.vu.nl>

A deranged man hides in the attic of a new house and becomes obsessed with the unsuspecting family that moves in. A deranged man, Tom Sykes, hides out in the attic while an unsuspecting couple (Rogers & McKean) and their family carry on their life in the house below. Once Tom stops just hiding out and becomes involved with the family and, in particular, the wife, the problems begin. An original USA made for cable movie. —Tim Kretschmann <Tim.K@VirComm.com>

Film school grad Nick Chapman thought his career was made after his award winning short film, but discovered Hollywood wasn't as easy as it seems. Nick Chapman graduates from film school, and his short film wins a special prize. This gives him a high enough profile that he can get Hollywood to back the film he has long dreamed of making. Studio exec Allen Habel is interested. But Nick soon is seduced by Hollywood and makes one concession after another until his original movie is lost altogether. Worse, Nick is lost, too, turning on girlfriend Susan and old buddy Emmet. Will he come to his sense before everything is lost? —Reid Gagle Nick Chapman is a graduate film student. His best friend, Emmet Sumner, is an aspiring cinematographer, the two who hope to make films together. Nick is supported in his pursuits by his girlfriend, aspiring architect Susan Rawlings. Nick's prospects look good when he wins the student film award presented by the National Film Institute. He has a clear idea for his next film, and hopes to get it made with the assistance of those in the movie business who court him, including agent Neil Sussman, and movie studio exec Allen Habel. Sussman and Habel's visions for Nick's movie are vastly different than Nick's original concept. Habel's manoeuvrings include getting Nick to cast a vapid aspiring actress named Gretchen in one of the lead roles. Nick gets caught up more with the process of making the big Hollywood movie than with keeping true to his artistic vision. In the process, he also loses sight of the important personal aspects of his life, such as his friendship to Emmet and Susan. Nick also learns that the fast lane in Hollywood is laden with the potential for serious and irreparable crashes. —Huggo

In this sequel to the first 'Short Circuit' film, former tech scientist Ben Jahrvi (Fisher Stevens) has relocated to New York City from his homeland in India. He attempts to make a living peddling miniature toy robots, which he builds in the back of his truck. When one of Ben's robots rolls through the office of toy buyer Sandy Banatoni (Cynthia Gibb), she offers to purchase 1,000 models for a major department store. Although Ben does not have the means to produce the toys in mass quantities, a sleazy con artist named Fred Ritter (Michael McKean) overhears the conversation and negotiates a deal to serve as Ben's business partner. Fred obtains money from a loan shark, and leases a vacated warehouse to use as a factory. Meanwhile, two jewel thieves tunneling underneath the building worry that the business will thwart their plans to steal a case of valuable diamonds from the bank across the street. Hoping to drive them away, the criminals don masks and destroy all of Ben's equipment. Dejected, Ben considers giving up the business until his two old friends, Stephanie Speck and Newton Crosby, send him a large package from their home in the rural Midwest containing the original life-size robot, Number Five (voiced by Tim Blaney), which Ben helped create and was thought destroyed at the end of the previous film. Fully sentient, the robot calls itself "Johnny Five" and offers to build the toys for their order. The next morning while Ben closes the deal with Stephanie (voiced by an uncredited Ally Sheedy), Johnny Five sneaks out to explore the city. The naive robot is amazed by urban life, but addled by most residents' rude and deceitful natures. Meanwhile, Fred conspires to sell Johnny Five, but the robot resists capture, and continues its efforts to assimilate into human society. Eventually, two police officers find Johnny Five wandering the streets and bring it to the station, where they lock it up with other stolen property. Learning of Johnny Five's "arrest," Ben rushes to the police station and retrieves the robot. Johnny Five explains that being treated like a sub-human machine has caused it to experience painful emotions, such as loneliness. Ben commiserates, sharing his own desire for companionship. Using information obtained from books about human behavior, Johnny Five offers to help Ben pursue a romantic relationship with Sandy Banatoni. Elsewhere, the jewel thieves team up with a greedy bank executive named Oscar Baldwin (Jack Weston), hoping to use his budding friendship with Johnny Five to regain access to the warehouse tunnel. After kidnapping Ben and Fred and imprisoning them in a large walk-in freezer, Oscar convinces the robot to finish digging until they reach the vault. When Oscar steals the jewels, however, Johnny Five realizes the trick and attempts to stop him. The thieves retaliate by attacking Johnny Five with an ax, leaving it severely damaged. Meanwhile, Ben and Fred escape captivity, but the police mistake Ben for the jewel thief and arrest him. As Johnny Five's systems malfunction, Fred is forced to repair the robot himself. Although still leaking battery fluid, Johnny Five swears vengeance on Oscar, and chases his getaway car to the docks. Using its last remaining power, Johnny Five attacks Oscar and detains him until Ben arrives with police. Johnny Five's memory drive fails, but Ben uses a defibrillator to revive it. Sometime later, Johnny Five gains national fame and becomes the first legally recognized robotic citizen of the U.S.A.

A foster couple becomes loving parents to a 10-year-old-boy who is the perfect son, unaware that he`s a robot.

In 1982 legendary British heavy metal band Spinal Tap attempt an American comeback tour accompanied by a fan who is also a film-maker. The resulting documentary, interspersed with powerful performances of Tap's pivotal music and profound lyrics, candidly follows a rock group heading towards crisis, culminating in the infamous affair of the eighteen-inch-high Stonehenge stage prop.

The New Deal used car lot in Mesa, Arizona is in danger of being taken over by the Roy L. Fuchs car dealership across the roadway where they do business. Both dealerships are managed by twin brothers, Roy L. Fuchs and Luke Fuchs (both played by Jack Warden). However, Roy L's dealership is easily the more lucrative than his brother's, which deals in often junked used cars. One of New Deal's most prominent salesmen is Rudy Russo (Kurt Russell), a young man who never shies away from making a deal, and also has plans to run for a seat on the State Senate. Along with Rudy, there's Jeff (Gerrit Graham), a superstitious fellow, and Jim (Frank McRae), the mechanic who is easily excitable. Recently, Luke has been having problems with his heart, much to the delight of his other brother. Roy L. is desperate to keep his car lot from being demolished and replaced by a proposed freeway exit. He sends one of his mechanics over to the car lot under the guise of an 'interested party', and gets Luke to give him a test drive. However, Roy L's mechanic takes Luke on a wild ride around the block during which Luke has a heart attack and dies. Rudy, Jeff and Jim attempt to cover this up by burying Luke in an old Edsel in a service pit out back. When Roy L. and his lawyer Sam Slaton (Joe Flaherty) show up looking for Luke, Rudy explains that Luke drove to Florida in the Edsel. However, Roy L. believes that Rudy is lying, but Sam explains that there's no way to disprove this claim. The following night, Rudy and his friends go through with the first of several advertising stunts. Taking his camera crew out to a packed football stadium, they intend to hijack the signal for the football game to tell of their car lot. Things don't go as planned, when Jeff begins cursing on camera that the car he's standing by is red (he's superstitious about the color), and the woman they hired for the commercial ends up getting her dress ripped open and exposed on public television. The technique works, as the stunt makes newspaper headlines, and brings many kinds of people out to see the New Deal car lot. The next morning, Jeff cons a family into buying a station wagon by having the car lot's mascot, Toby, fake being run over during a test drive. Roy L. counters this with a little stunt of his own, but in the war to win customers, Rudy does one better, and steals away Luke's customers, by setting up a gaggle of strippers to entice vehicle buyers from Roy L's car lot. Roy L. counters this with purchasing airtime to denounce New Deal's business tactics as harmful. It is then that Rudy plans to really up the stakes, and wants to attempt and interrupt the broadcast for the President's State of the Union address. Matters are further complicated when a woman shows up claiming to be Luke's daughter, Barbara Jane Fuchs (Deborah Harmon). She visits the car lot in hopes to reunite with her father, having dropped out of college more than 10 years before to reside in a hippie commune. Rudy conceals the truth about her father by taking her out on a date, but finds that he slowly is growing to like her. Rudy eventually distracts her during the night of the broadcast, by taking her to dinner, and then to his place. Jeff and Jim do the commercial, with Jeff on drugs as a cowboy named Martial Lucky, who shoots out and blows up several of Roy L. Fuchs' vehicles for the commercial. After the broadcast, Roy L. drives immediately to the New Deal car lot and angrily picks a fight with Jeff for destroying his cars. As they fight, Roy L. notices a picture of the service pit in an old picture, and remembers how Rudy and the others were filling it in. Roy L. rushes out back, and after digging down always, finds the roof of his brother's old Edsel. Shortly after this, Jim contacts Rudy to come to the car lot right away. Rudy does not explain to Barbara why he has to go, leaving her curious. In the morning, the police arrive at the car lot along with Roy L. and his lawyer. Rudy makes up the lie that Luke came back the night before, and went to get some breakfast. During the night, Rudy, Jeff and Jim exhumed the Edsel, and have moved it out of the pit area. Jim has poured gasoline on the vehicle, and sends it off with the accelerator on. As everyone's attention is drawn to the car, they watch as it speeds out of control towards a power transformer, that erupts in a fireball, destroying Luke's body. Roy turns to Rudy, and assumes that since Luke is dead, the car lot is now his. However, Rudy explains how Luke's daughter returned, and she's staying with him. It is just then that Barbara appears after listening to a message on Rudy's answering machine and finding out about Luke's death. Barbara fires Rudy, Jeff and Jim for their cover-up scheme, and assumes control of her father's car lot, but knows very little about advertising. Roy L. gains access to the script for her commercial, and has his connections at a local television station doctor up her commercial. In place of her saying 'style of cars', the word 'mile' is substituted for 'style', making this as though Barbara has committed a case of false advertising. Meanwhile, Rudy's luck changes when Jeff's superstitious nature causes him to win a bet he made on the night's football game, guaranteeing him enough money for his campaign, and the next day, he meets with the party chairman, named Tucker (Dub Taylor). However, on their way to their destination, the car passes by the New Deal car lot, which has been closed by court order. Tucker explains that a 'concerned citizen' reported the car lot after the commercial mentioned a 'mile of cars', and that the trial is scheduled for the same day. Rudy immediately grabs back his money, and bolts from the car, heading towards the courthouse; he arrives in time for the trial to begin. As Barbara is questioned if she does indeed have a mile of cars on her car lot, Rudy mimes in the back of the room to lie and say 'yes'. Barbara does so, to which Roy L's attorney claims he can prove she is lying to the court. Rudy mushily shouts from the back of the room, "Why don't you see for yourself, Judge?" This buys Barbara some time, as the judge decides to come by the car lot the next day. After the trial, Rudy uses most of his campaign funds to purchase over 250 cars from a Mexican dealer he knows. Using the town's driver's education class, he sets out with all 250 cars headed towards the car lot in less than two hours. Rudy has the student drivers ramp their vehicles up to 70 mph, but hits a snag when a policeman ends up hitting one of the vehicles, leaving them without a 'safety margin' for error. After the incident, Rudy sends Jim up ahead to scout for any other possible issues. Jim eventually finds a police roadblock, and Rudy has his student drivers take their vehicles off road. Meanwhile, Roy L. has heard of the cars, and drives out to attempt and intercept Rudy; a fight breaks out between the two, leading to Rudy winning, and the cars heading towards the car lot. Eventually, the student drivers arrive, and fill the car lot to capacity, just as the judge arrives. This soon becomes apparent that Jim has not arrived and Rudy radios Jeff, who is sitting along the side of the road. Jeff explains that some water washed off the blue paint on his car...revealing this as a red Fire Chief's car...and per Jeff's stigma, he can't drive a red car! Rudy attempts to convince Jeff that there is actually 'gray primer' underneath the red paint, and tells him that he is the key to helping them keep the car lot. Jeff manages to overcome his fear of the red color, and makes it just in time to help them save the car lot. Roy's attorney informs Rudy and Barbara that once the freeway ramp across the street is constructed, New Deal will become the largest dealership in the state. While everyone celebrates, Roy L. curses out the judge, who then decides to see Roy L. in court for his outburst. The film then ends with Barbara, Rudy, Jim and Jeff presiding over their saved car lot.