Harold Gould

Continue reading: Whisper Of The Heart Review

"The funny voices? The silly faces? They were funny for about one second," says a woman breaking the heart of Pistachio Disguisey (Dana Carvey) in the nitwit kiddie spy flick "Master of Disguise."

She couldn't be more right. In a transparently desperate attempt at a career comeback, Carvey hams like a bad Christmas dinner as Pistachio, a clumsy twit of an Italian waiter who learns that he comes from a long line of disguise experts who have been "protecting the world from evil over the centuries."

For no explained reason, his father (James Brolin) has kept the family history a secret from Pistachio. But when Pistachio's mom and dad are kidnapped by their old arch-enemy -- a black-market art collector named Devlin Bowman (Brent Spiner) -- Grandpa (Harold Gould) shows up to train Pistachio for a rescue mission designed to showcase Carvey's ability to affect an endless array of annoying personas.

Continue reading: Master Of Disguise Review

Hitting the nail on the head of mother-daughter relationships -- and doing so with amusing savvy and imaginative good humor -- Disney's "Freaky Friday" remake is such a sublimely fun-for-all matinee delight that it cleansed my palate of the sour taste of every bad movie I've seen this summer.

Yes, it's a live-action Disney family movie -- which has traditionally been enough to send shudders down the spine of anyone over the age of 11. But director Mark S. Waters ("Head Over Heels") eschews the studio's history of pandering triteness in favor of sharp writing, credibly clever characters and terrific performances.

Magnetic Linsday Lohan (whose charm also carried the studio's 1998 "Parent Trap" remake) and a revitalized Jamie Lee Curtis couldn't be more ideally cast as exasperated teenager Annabell Colman and her harried, head-shrinker mom Tess, both of whom are given new insights into their contentious relationship when their bodies are swapped through a fortune-cookie hex.

Continue reading: Freaky Friday Review