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No Time for Sergeants
: :Andy Griffith burst to stardom with this surprisingly funny film adaptation of the Broadway comedy (by, of all people, Ira Levin of Rosemary's Baby fame). Griffith plays a hillbilly who is drafted into the army where, among other things, he has to wear shoes regularly for the first time. Griffith brings an engaging glee to the role of this likable bumpkin, whose happy-go-lucky demeanor is impervious to insult. Ask him to clean the latrines and he rigs the toilet ...
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Move over Darling
: :Doris Day, the perky, chaste adult star of an odd collection of winking 1960s sex comedies, takes the Irene Dunne role in this remake of the comedy classic My Favorite Wife. As the survivor of a five-year ordeal on a desert island, she returns home the very day her husband has remarried. James Garner, trading his Maverick impish humor and con man cool for a mugging performance of double takes and pratfalls, is her overjoyed husband who is too ...
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The Apple Dumpling Gang
: :Bill Bixby plays a 19th-century gambler who inherits responsibility for three orphans, but the kids in turn have something of value: a huge gold nugget. This Disney film from 1975 is an enjoyable potboiler with its sentimentality under control and the accent on laughs, most of which are provided, not unexpectedly, by Tim Conway and Don Knotts as thieves who want to get their hands on the treasure. An easy, safe film for children. You can't go wrong with ...
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Ghost & Mr Chicken
: :Remember watching this silly little comedy from your childhood? It may not have aged all that well, but is still goofy, good fun. Okay, so you can spot the stunt double, and Don Knotts's twitches are a little more obvious. Still, fans of his familiar routines will be comforted in knowing they can again watch their skinny underdog hero solve the ghost story while winning the prettiest girl in town. Knotts plays a trembling typesetter hoping to become a ...
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Pleasantville (1998)
: :Fantastical writer Gary Ross (Big, Dave) makes an auspicious directorial debut with this inspired and oddly touching comedy about two '90s kids (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) thrust into the black-and-white TV world of Pleasantville, a Leave It to Beaver-style sitcom complete with picket fences, corner malt shop, and warm chocolate chip cookies. When a somewhat unusual remote control (provided by repairman Don Knotts) transports them from the jaded real world to G-rated TV land, Maguire and Witherspoon are ...
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Shakiest Gun in the West
: :Fantastical writer Gary Ross (Big, Dave) makes an auspicious directorial debut with this inspired and oddly touching comedy about two '90s kids (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) thrust into the black-and-white TV world of Pleasantville, a Leave It to Beaver-style sitcom complete with picket fences, corner malt shop, and warm chocolate chip cookies. When a somewhat unusual remote control (provided by repairman Don Knotts) transports them from the jaded real world to G-rated TV land, Maguire and Witherspoon are ...
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Herbie: Goes to Monte Carlo
: :Dean Jones, star of The Love Bug, came back to the fold for this third lap around the block, which finds him racing in Monte Carlo while thieves plant a stolen diamond in Herbie's gas tank. The plot is forced and conventional, but the cast is the thing: the excitable Don Knotts (The Apple Dumpling Gang) and the tormentable Roy Kinnear (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) are good men to have in a potboiler such as this. --Tom ...
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Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
: :The 1979 sequel to The Apple Dumpling Gang reunites Tim Conway and Don Knotts as thieves with hearts of gold, this time helping out a soldier (Tim Matheson) whose commander (Harry Morgan) is being undermined by a villainous lieutenant. The film is for kids, but the adult-heavy plot takes this movie in a different direction than its predecessor, which focused on three adorable orphans. The slapstick comedy is good, and supporting cast, Morgan, Matheson, Ruth Buzzi and Jack Elam, ...
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Little Troll Prince
: :The 1979 sequel to The Apple Dumpling Gang reunites Tim Conway and Don Knotts as thieves with hearts of gold, this time helping out a soldier (Tim Matheson) whose commander (Harry Morgan) is being undermined by a villainous lieutenant. The film is for kids, but the adult-heavy plot takes this movie in a different direction than its predecessor, which focused on three adorable orphans. The slapstick comedy is good, and supporting cast, Morgan, Matheson, Ruth Buzzi and Jack Elam, ...
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Prize Fighter
: :The 1979 sequel to The Apple Dumpling Gang reunites Tim Conway and Don Knotts as thieves with hearts of gold, this time helping out a soldier (Tim Matheson) whose commander (Harry Morgan) is being undermined by a villainous lieutenant. The film is for kids, but the adult-heavy plot takes this movie in a different direction than its predecessor, which focused on three adorable orphans. The slapstick comedy is good, and supporting cast, Morgan, Matheson, Ruth Buzzi and Jack Elam, ...
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