Michael Covert Movies

Home is where the kidnap victim is in this darkly comic farce. Scooter (Trace Fraim) and Junior (Michael Covert) are a pair of exceptionally dim-witted brothers from West Texas who are left high and dry when their mother passes away. The brothers aren't much good at taking care of themselves (and they know it), so they set out to find a woman who will take mom's place in their house. The hapless pair start by approaching a prostitute (Jennifer Tilly), who after taking $35 from the boys leaves them just where they started, and after a few similarly disastrous attempts at finding a new maternal figure, Scooter and Junior decide to take a more aggressive approach. They abduct a woman named DeDe (Tara Chocol) from the parking lot of the supermarket where she works, but as it turns out, DeDe doesn't really mind -- the dumb but good-natured brothers are actually a pleasant change of pace compared to her husband, a violent and ill-tempered Texas Ranger named Vincent (Patrick Warburton). DeDe agrees to be the brothers' new "mom," but on one condition -- they have to help retrieve her baby daughter. Scooter and Junior are willing, but Vincent isn't willing to let DeDe go, and the brothers soon find that Vincent is not a good man to have on one's bad side. Dirt was directed by Michael Covert and Trace Fraim, who also star as Junior and Scooter; it's the second feature as director for Covert, who also wrote the screenplay, and Fraim's debut behind the camera. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A collection of losers, misfits, and outcasts find their lives unexpectedly converging at a diner along a desert highway in this violent and offbeat comedy drama. Dwayne (John Savage) is a strait-laced-looking vacuum cleaner salesman with a bad habit of murdering prospective customers, while Patty Mae (Jennifer Tilly) is a sexy mystery woman who has amassed an impressive collection of carpet sweepers. Martin (Eric Roberts) is a down-on-his-luck family man wondering how he'll support his wife and kids now that he has lost his job. Johnny (Luke Perry) is a deeply depressed young man who has arranged for a hired killer (Sam J. Jones) to murder him, not knowing that the killer has no intentions of allowing him to die quickly or easily. And Harv (James Russo) and Gene (Joe Viterelli) are a pair of mobsters from Las Vegas who discuss their various problems with women, not very concerned about the fact there's a man locked in the trunk of their car. American Strays also features Carol Kane, Brion James, and Melora Walters. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this Canadian thriller, uneducated, disaffected white youths known as skinheads are attacking racial minorities. A government agent (Michael Ironside) investigating the incidents traces them to a wealthy, extreme right-wing, neo-Nazi businessman who is secretly bankrolling the skinheads, using them to do what he would like to do himself, but enabling him to keep his hands clean. The agent assembles a team (as in The Dirty Dozen) to fight back. ~ Brian Gusse, Rovi