Word: conned
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Happy Part features Jim (Jason Cooper), an ex-con who did time in a minimum-security prison for parking violations; his son Steve (Alex Burger), who is trying to break into professional bowling to win back his deadbeat father's affection; and Maxine (Susan Swearingen), Jim's lovelorn but down-to-earth girlfriend...
...trying to stay clean and put his life back together when Jane (Erin Scott), his exwarden, convinces him to help her con innocent people out of their money. As Maxine's jealousy and frustration grow, Jim's boss Herb (Jonathan Weinberg) falls in love with...
Director Richard Pearce and writer Janus Cercone purport to present an insider's view of con artistry, but their seen-it-all cynicism is a fraud too. By the end we're eye-high in butterflies, walking cripples and God's own rain shower. The greenest born-again Christian does not believe in climactic miracles as desperately as does a moviemaker looking for a way out of a troubled scenario. No wonder, then, that this Elmer Gantry wannabe winds up as a Field of Streams. And no miracle, either...
...plot revolves around the evangelistic antics of Rev. Jonas Nightengale (Steve Martin), his business manager Jane Larson (Debra Winger) and their touring revivalist ministry of gospel singers. By some cruel twist, they all get stranded in Rustwater, Kansas, an empty town in all senses of the word. The religious con-games of this fraudulent ministry are eventually pre-empted by the sheriff of the town, Will, who becomes Larson's love interest as the movie drags...
Sometimes art gets it just right. In a particularly delicious scene in The Distinguished Gentleman, the latest Hollywood film about political corruption, a lobbyist asks the movie's protagonist his position on sugar-price supports. The con artist turned Congressman (played by Eddie Murphy) has gone to Washington to commit legalized larceny, but he doesn't have a clue about sugar. Which position would prove most profitable? he wonders. It doesn't matter, Murphy is told. If he favors the program, the sugar producers will fill his campaign coffers; if he opposes it, the candy manufacturers will kick in. Similarly...