The Chuck Taylor in Films: A

PG

Abe & Bruno. (2005) Brad J. Sergi, Kevin Scott Allen, Blythe Metz, Candice Rose, Noah Crawford. Directed by Henri Charr. Bruno, who Abe rescued from a lifetime of captivity in a zoo, is a 500-pound silverback gorilla. When Abe has a heart attack, Bruno is able to go for help but by doing that sets off pandemonium in town and his pursuit by the authorities.

Categories: Comedy, Family.

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G

The Absent Minded Professor. (1961) Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Tommy Kirk, Ed Wynn. Directed by Robert Stevenson. An eccentric college professor so wrapped up in his work that he forgets his own wedding day tries to re-kindle his romance, complete his work on his gravity defying formula and save Medfield College from financial ruin. Who can forget the classic scene when Fred MacMurray applies flubber to the shoes of the college basketball team?

G

Across the Sea of Time. (1996) Peter Reznik, Abby Lewis. Directed by Stephen Low. Armed with only some letters and ancient photos, an 11-year-old Russian boy stows away on a freighter going to New York to fufill a dream of reuniting with his family that emigrated nearly 100 years earlier. (Adapted from IMAX)

R

Across the Tracks. (1991) Rick Schroeder, Brad Pitt, Carrie Snodgress, David Anthony Marshall. Directed by Sandy Tung. Two brothers, one recently released from reform school and the other a track star trying to qualify for a scholarship to Stanford University, conflict with each other over life styles and eventually on the running track.

PG-13

The Adam Project. (2022) Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Zoe Saldana, Catherine Keener, Alex Mallari Jr., Braxton Bjerken. Directed by Shawn Levy. A time-traveling pilot teams up with his younger self and his late father to come to terms with his past while saving the future. Available on Netflix.

PG

PG

Adventures in Dinosaur City. (1992) Marc Martorana, Tony Doyle, R. A. Mihailoff, Don Barnes, Omri Katz, Shawn Hoffman. Directed by Brett Thompson. This improbable comedy involves three “ultra-modern” teenagers who accidentally get transported back in time to a world of animated dinosaurs.

PG-13

Adventures in Spying. (1992) Bernie Coulson, Jill Schoelen, G. Gordon Liddy, Seymour Cassel, Corey Gunnestad, Michael Emil, Matthew Brooks. Directed by Hil Covington. A Rockwater, Washington teenager seeks a $50,000 reward and becomes involved with trying to stop a drug syndicate when he accidentally discovers that a major drug dealer, presumed dead in an explosion, is actually hiding out in his town at the house of a local chemistry professor.

PG

(2 for the film, .5 for the chucks cinemaphotography)

PG

(2.5 for the film, .5 for the chucks cinemaphotography)

PG

The Adventures of Mickey Matson and the Copperhead Treasure. (2013) Derek Brandon, Francesca Derosa, Christopher Lloyd, Rick Plummer, Lee Arenberg, Patrika Darbo. Written and directed by Harold Cronk. When a mythical alchemy machine from ancient times is rebuilt by a group of Confederates who feel the civil war never ended, Mickey Matson and his newfound friend, Sully, must follow a series of clues left by his dead grandfather to keep the evil men away from the three mystical objects that power the device.

NR,

would be PG-13

PG

Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London. (2004) Frankie Muniz, Anthony Anderson, Hannah Spearritt, Cynthia Stevenson, Daniel Roebuck, Anna Chancellor, Keith Allen. Directed by Kevin Allen. Nonstop action and international intrigue await Secret Agent Cody Banks when he is sent to London uncover as a virtuoso clarinet player in a youth orchestra to stop a madman from using a stolen mind control device to take over the world.

(2.5 for the film, .5 for the chucks cinemaphotography)

PG

PG

Airline Disaster. (2010) Meredith Baxter, Lindsey McKeon, Scott Valentine, Riley Polanski. Directed by Griff Furst. When the President learns that domestic terrorists have skyjacked the newly launched passenger jet her brother is flying and kidnapped his family, she must choose between helping her family and the safety of the people in the cities below.

PG

Alabama Moon. (2009) Jimmy Bennett, Gabriel Basso, Uriah Shelton, Clint Howard, John Goodman, J. D. Evermore. Directed by Tim McCanlies. After the unexpected death of his survivalist father, an eleven-year-old boy who has spent most of his life living isolated in the forest must learn to deal with the modern world.

R

Alien from L.A. (1988) Kathy Ireland, William R. Moses, Linda Kerridge, Richard Haines, Don Michael Paul, Thom Matthews, Janet Du Plessis. Directed by Albert Pyum. A nerdish teenager goes looking for her missing archaeologist father, and stumbles into a strange underground civilization.

PG

Alien Raiders. (2008) Carlos Bernard, Matthew st. Patrick, Rockmond Dunbar, Courtney Ford, Jeffrey Licon, Samantha Streets, Derek Basco. Directed by Ben Rock. A group of masked and armed-to-the-teeth militants invades family grocery store in Arizona, immediately killing several of the employees and shoppers and holding the rest hostage. Though the hostage-takers at first appear to be robbers or terrorists, they reveal themselves to be a cadre of rogue scientists that has discovered and tracked an alien infestation to this store, and they are determined to find out which of the survivors are extraterrestrials and end the invasion at any cost.

NR,

would be PG

Aliens Abducted My Parents (and Now I Feel Left Out). (2023) Emma Tremblay, Jacob Buster, Will Forte, Elizabeth Mitchell, Matt Biedel, Hailey Smith, Kenneth Cummins, Landry Townsend. Directed by Jake Van Wagoner. Itsy’s new in Pebble Falls and thinks her life is over until she meets her space-obsessed neighbor Calvin, who believes his parents were abducted by aliens. As an aspiring journalist, Itsy decides to write an exposé, but she discovers much more.

PG

Aliens in the Attic. (2009) Kevin Nealon, Robert Hoffman, Doris Roberts, Tim Meadows, Ashley Tisdale, Ashley Boettcher, Austin Butler, Andy Richter, Carter Jenkins. Directed by John Schultz. The Pearson family kids take on a group of aliens who plan to conquer the Earth.

PG

Aliens for Breakfast. (1994) Sinbad, Ben Savage, Jarrett Lennon, Alfre Woodard, Zachary Bostrom, Teri Garr, Shelley Duvall. Directed by John Kretchmer. Young space nut Richard Bickerstaff is blown away when Areck, a miniature space alien, appears in his breakfast cereal. Soon Areck has Richard fighting against Dorf, another alien disguised as a popular new kid in his class at school who has Pied Piper-like capabilities.

R

All I Want. (2002) Elijah Wood, Franka Potente, Mandy Moore, Chris Martin, Deborah Harry, Elizabeeth Perkins, Aaron Pearl. Directed by Jeffrey Porter. A shy, aspiring seventeen-year old writer drops out of college and rents a room at a boarding house where the quirky tenants teach him all about life and love.

NR

All Summers End. (2017) Tye Sheridan, Ryan Lee, Austin Abrams, Kaitlyn Dever, Beau Mirchoff, Pablo Schreiber. Written and directed by Kyle Wilamowski. A teenager’s life is shaken up when he must grapple with moral issues and other conflicts with his long time friends when they are involved in an auto accident with the brother of the girl who is pursuing him romantically.

TV-MA

All The Bright Places. (2020) Elle Fanning, Justice Smith, Alexandra Shipp, Kelli O’Hara, Lamar Johnson, Virginia Gardner. Directed by Brett Haley. The story of Violet Markey and Theodore Finch, who meet when Violet is considering suicide, and Finch talks her down. Slowly they develop a friendship and then a romantic relationship. But unknown to Violet and other friends, Finch, who is seen as a “crazy person” by many, has serious demons of his own.

NR

All These Small Moments. (2018) Molly Ringwald, Brendan Meyer, Jemima Kirke, Harley Quinn Smith, Simon McCarthy, Brian d’Arcy James, Salena Qureshi. Written and directed by Melissa Miller. A teenage boy’s infatuation with a woman he sees on the bus further complicates his already tumultuous adolescence due to his parent’s separation and trying his best to avoid a girl at school who has a crush on him.

R

Almost Famous. (2000) Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michael Angarano, Patrick Fugit, Anna Paquin, Noah Taylor. Directed by Cameron Crowe. A high-school boy is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone Magazine about an up-and-coming rock band as he accompanies it on their concert tour.

PG-13

Always Be My Maybe. (2019) Randall Park, Ali Wong, James Saito, Michelle Buteau, Vivan Bang, Keanu Reeves, Miya Cech, Emerson Min. Directed by Nahnatchka Khan. A pair of childhood friends end up falling for each other again when they grow up, but are plagued by commitment issues.

PG-13

The Amazing Spider-Man 2. (2014) Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Sally Field, Jorge Vega. Directed by Marc Webb. Peter Parker takes on super villains attacking New Yorkers, especially those from Harry Osborn’s Oscorp. At the same time Peter is graduating from high school and torn about his love for Gwen Stacy. In this version of the story, Peter Parker and a young kid who emulates Spider-Man wear black and red high top chucks.

R

Ambushed. (1998) Courtney Vance, Jeremy Lelliott, Virginia Madsen, William Forsythe, David Keith. Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson. When a klan leader in a small southern town is murdered, his young son, an accidental witness to the crime, and the only black cop in the county sheriff’s office, who is being framed for the murder, become unlikely and often antagonistic allies when the murderers want them both dead.

R

Amelie. (2001) Audrey Tantou, Matthew Kassovitz, Serge Merlin, Clair Maurier, Isabelle Nanty, Marc Amyot, Rufus, Jamel Debboouze. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Amelie, a shy young waitress in Paris, decides to help people around her, and along the way discovers love. One of the clever mysteries of this film: who is the stranger wearing red high top chucks?

PG-13

American Exit. (2019) Dane Cook, Levi Miller, Udo Keir, Clalre van der Boom, Sebastian Sozzi. Written and directed by Tim McCann and Ingo Vollkammer. A dying father takes a road trip with his estranged twelve-year-old son, to try to rebuild their relationship before he dies.

R

R

American Pie. (1999) Jason Biggs, Jennifer Coolidge, Shannon Elizabeth, Natasha Lyon, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Eddie Kaye Thomas. Directed by Paul Weitz. This raunchy comedy involves four high school friends who make a pact to lose their virginity by prom night, and the often hilarious results of their attempts to score with the opposite sex.

R

American Ultra. (2015) Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart,Topher Grace, Connie Britton, Wlaton Goggins, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman. Directed by Nima Nourizadeh. Small-town stoner Mike Howell spends most of his time getting high and writing a graphic novel about a superhero monkey. What Mike doesn’t know is that he was trained by the CIA to be a lethal killing machine. When the agency targets him for termination, his former handler activates his latent skills, turning the mild-mannered slacker into a deadly weapon. Now, the utterly surprised Mike must use his newfound abilities to save himself and his girlfriend from getting wasted.

R

The Amityville Horror. (2005) Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Jesse James, Jimmy Bennett, Chloe Moretz, Rachel Nichols. Directed by Andrew Douglas. A family is terrorized by demonic forces after moving into a home that was the site of a grisly mass-murder.

R

Amityville 1992: It’s About Time. (1992) Stephen Macht, Shwan Weatherly, Megan Ward, Damon Martin, Jonathan Penner, Nita Talbot. Directed by Tony Randel. When architect Jake Sterling brings home an antique clock found in the rubble of an Amityville construction project, he doesn’t realize that the clock contains an evil spirit which soon begins to wreck havoc on his family and the local neighborhood.

R

The Amy Fisher Story. (1993) Drew Barrymore, Anthony John Denison, Harley Jane Kozak, Tom Mason, Laurie Paton, Ken Pogue, Linda Darlow, Gabe Khouth, Garry Davey. Directed by Andy Tennant. The story of the Long Island teen who shoots and wounds the wife of a man she called her lover.

R

An American Crime. (2007) Ellen Page, Hayley McFarland, Nick Searcy, Catherine Keener, Jeremy Sumpter, Ari Graynor, Tristen Jarred. Written and directed by Tommy O’Haver. The true story of suburban housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, who kept a teenage girl locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the 1960s. This is the same story as The Girl Next Door.

NR,

would be R

An Angry Boy. (2023) Scott Callenberger, Eric Roberts, Thomas Cambridge, Caleb Lowery, Lauren McCann, Laura Frenzer, Logan Keeler, Graham Davidson, Jason Simon, Mia Y. Anderson. Written and directed by Andrew Fitzgerald. Having escaped a sadistic cult as a child, Owen must confront his past as the man who tormented him suddenly enters his new life seeking vengeance. This time there’s no escaping for anyone and Owen is determined to out the people responsible for kidnapping and harming him and other boys in the past and present.

PG-13

Anaconda. (1997) Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stolz. Directed by Luis Llosa. This action/adventure pits a documentary film crew against snake hunter Paul Sarone, campily played by Jon Voight, and of course the Amazon River’s giant anacondas.

PG

And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird! (1991) Marcia Strassman, Joshua John Miller, Edan Gross, John Quade, Sam Behrens, Alan Thicke, Susan Gikbney. Directed by Tony Cookson. Max and Josh Carson follow in their late fathers footsteps by inventing a series of robotic gadgets that win them the attention of unscrupulous adults who are interested in acquiring their inventions. This might be okay until after a Halloween party they discover that the spirit of their father has ended up in their latest invention, a robot called Newman.

PG

Andy and the Airwave Rangers. (1988) aka Andy Colby’s Incredible Adventure. Randy Josselyn, Jessica Puscas, Dianne Kay, Chuck Kovacic, Vince Edwards. Directed by Deborah Brock. Andy Colby is asked to babysit his younger sister, but becomes involved in a series of adventures when she is pulled into the TV set by the evil Lord Chroma while watching an interactive video and he pursues to get her back. Pair this with Adventures in Dinosaur City for an evening of “reality tv”.

PG

Angels in the Outfield. (1994) Danny Glover, Brenda Fricker, Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Ben Johnson, Jay O. Sanders, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Milton Davis Jr.. Directed by William Dear. When a boy prays for a chance to have a family if the California Angels win the pennant, angels are assigned to make that possible.

R

Animal House. (1978) John Belushi, Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst, Tim Matheson, Verna Bloom, Donald Sutherland, John Vernon, Douglas Kenney. Directed by Jon Landis. Probably the best fraternity comedy ever made with a classic comedy performance by John Belushi. It’s too bad that the sexual subplot between college professor Donald Sutherland and student Karen Allen gives the film an “R” rating.

R

Anne B. Real. (2003) Janice Richardson, Carlos Leon, Sherri Saum, Lady Mav, Ephraim Benton, Jackie Quinnones, Ernie Hudson. Directed by Lisa France. A young female rapper tries to make it in a male dominated genre, where she is exploited by her own half-brother and her own insecurity. She finds inspiration from a copy of the Diary of Anne Frank, left to her by her deceased father.

NR,

would be R

Another Gay Movie. (2006) Michael Carbonaro, Jonah Blechman, Jonathan Chase, Mitch Morris, Ashlie Atkinson, Scott Thompson. Written and directed by Todd Stephens. Four gay high school firends make a pact to lose their virginity before they go to college in this spoof of American Pie.

PG-13

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. (2023) Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, David Dastmalchian, Katy O'Brian, William Jackson Harper, Bill Murray, Michelle Pfeiffer, Corey Stoll, and Michael Douglas. Directed by Peyton Reed. Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne are dragged into the Quantum Realm, along with Hope’s parents and Scott’s daughter Cassie. Together they must find a way to escape, but what secrets is Hope’s mother hiding? And who is the mysterious Kang?

Anya’s Bell. (1999) Della Reese, Mason Gamble, Tom Cavanaugh, Kelly Rowan, Nancy McLoughlin. Directed by Tom McLoughlin. It’s 1949. Anya, a blind woman who collects bells and never leaves her house suddenly finds herself alone when her mother dies. She meets Scott, another loner, a twelve-year-old boy from a single parent family who others term as slow, and they become friends. Together they help each other conquer personal handicaps. Scott aids the older woman in learning to use a walking cane, so she can become mobile and better take care of herself while Anya discovers that Scott’s learning disability is due to dyslexia not mental incapacity. This is a made for television movie currently only available for viewing online but worth the effort.

Categories: Drama, Family.

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R

Are You Scared? (2006) Alethea Kutscher, Carlee Avers Erin Consalvi, Brad Ashten, Soren Bowie, Amy Lyndon, Kariem Markbury. Directed by Andy Hurst. After waking up in an abandoned factory, six kidnapped teens realize they are contestants on a reality show called “Are You Scared?”

PG-13

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. (2023) Max Pelayo, Reese Gonzales, Veronica Falcón, Eugenio Derbez, Eva Longoria, Kevin Alejandro. Written and directed by Aitch Alberto. Mexican teenagers Aristotle Mendoza and Dante Quintana explore their friendship while struggling with racial and ethnic identity, sexuality and family relationships in 1987 El Paso, Texas.

R

Ashby. (2015) Nat Wolff, Mickey Rourke, Emma Roberts, Sarah Silverman, Kevin Dunn. Directed by Tony McNamara. High-school student Ed Wallis enters into a friendship with his neighbor, Ashby, a retired CIA assassin who only has a few months left to live.

NR

Assimilate. (2019) Joel Courtney, Calum Worthy, Andi Matichak, Katherine McNamara, Cam Gigandet, Mason McNulty. Written and directed by John Murlowski. Two friends making a web series about their small Missouri town discover that their neighbors are being killed and replaced by creatures who are perfect copies of their victims.

TV-MA

The Atoning. (2017) Virginia Newcomb, Cannon Bosarge, Michael LaCour, Dorothy Weems, Sherri Eakin, Alex Zuko. Written and directed by Michael Williams. While they are haunted by ghostly apparitions, two parents try to protect their young son from a dark secret that could destroy their family.

R

Attack the Block. (2011) Jodie Whitaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Leeon Jones, Franz Drameh. Directed by Joe Cornish. A teen gang in South London defend their block from an alien invasion but require the assistance of a young nurse who was one of their crime victims.

NR,

would be G

Aunt Mary. (1979) Jean Stapleton, Martin Balsam, Anthony Cafiso, Chistopher Ciampa, Dago Dimster, Kristopher Marquis, K.C. Martel, Stephen H. Pollak. Directed by Peter Werner. A disabled woman starts a Little League baseball team to help the children in her poverty-stricken Baltimore neighborhood.