David Vadim Movies

Mourning morphs into revenge when a decorated war hero returns home from the battlefield to bury his wife and child after the pair are viciously killed by the criminal forces that have overrun the family's once-peaceful neighborhood of Rockaway, Queens. Trane (Nicholas Gonzalez) was fighting for his country when he received the news that his family back on the home front had been violently taken from him. Shortly after Trane arrives in Rockaway, his old friend Dave (Ricardo Chavira) presents a grim picture of their neighborhood's tragic downfall: Criminals and prostitutes have taken over the streets, making life for law-abiding citizens a living hell. It isn't long before Trane's grief turns to bloodlust, and the soldier who was trained to kill uses his lethal skills to take on powerful neighborhood crime boss Juju (Mario Cimarro). But Trane has underestimated Juju's power, and after coming face to face with the relentless kingpin's right hand man Antwan (Manny Perez) the fearless vigilante discovers that his own sister Cari (Delilah Cotto) has become hopelessly entangled with a gang of Russian mobsters led by shrewd criminal Ivan (Oleg Taktarov). On a street where every step could be his last, Trane must now tread carefully as he works his way up the criminal food chain straight to the man who authorized the murder of his innocent wife and child. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Returning to his action feature terrain after a short hiatus, Steven Seagal plays Orin Boyd, a maverick Detroit detective with an unconventional way of taking down foes. After a failed intervention in a terrorist kidnapping case that humiliates his superiors, Boyd -- who is hailed as a top-drawer investigator but frowned upon for his tactics -- is forced to do time in a tough downtown precinct. After discovering the covert drug operation performed by several corrupt cops at his new assignment, he decides to break the rules yet again. While the cops are planning a massive heroin deal with big-time gangster Latrell Walker (DMX), Boyd finds that Latrell is not who he once was, and Boyd persuades him to assist in bringing an end to the amoral police influence that helped ruin him. Exit Wounds is the second film from cinematographer-turned-director Andrzej Bartkowiak (Romeo Must Die) and also features Tom Arnold, Isaiah Washington, and Jill Hennessy. ~ Jason Clark, Rovi

Two young people from different cultures fall in love and have to face the emotional fallout of their actions in this urban drama set in Brooklyn's rough-and-tumble Crown Heights neighborhood. Sol (Tariq Trotter) is a young man of West Indian descent who is the leader of a group of Afrocentric hip-hop musicians struggling to succeed in the recording industry. Sol and his friend Scratch (Bonz Malone) get into an auto accident one afternoon with Judah (David Vadim), a young Jewish man out for a drive with his girlfriend Sara (Karen Goberman). While Judah and Scratch get into an argument, Sol and Sara attempt to deal with the problem more reasonably, and the two find they have an unexpected rapport. Sol and Sara become fast friends, and their friendship soon grows into a romance, but Sara finds that Judah is both angry and heartbroken about her new relationship, while her conservative family does not trust Sol. Sol's friends, meanwhile, are no more supportive of him, believing he's betraying his culture by becoming involved with Sara. Leading man Tariq Trotter (also known as Black Thought) is the frontman of the acclaimed hip-hop group the Roots, who appear in the film as Sol's band and perform several original compositions for the soundtrack. Brooklyn Babylon received its world premiere as an opening night attraction at the 2001 Slamdance Film Festival, where it was screened over the objections of the film's distributor, Artisan Pictures. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Tony Gerber made his directorial debut with this anthology film, a comedy-drama that opens with a 1950s black-and-white newsreel focusing on the ethnic diversity of New York City. This multicultural mix is dramatized in five interlinked tales set in each of NYC's five boroughs on a hot summer day: In Manhattan, a Soho fashion designer on the brink of eviction begins a relationship with a Japanese department store buyer. In the Bronx, the daughter of a Puerto Rican baker thinks her lover can provide a portal to a glamorous, successful life. For the Queens segment, Gerber expanded his 1995 short film, A Small Taste of Heaven, about a gambling Romanian butcher's apprentice who dreams of someday purchasing a nice suburban house for his wife. On Staten Island, the wife of an Indian limousine driver is treated like a servant by her husband's visiting brother. In Brooklyn, a West Indian man makes the mistake of pawning his wife's family heirlooms to buy a Cadillac. Shown at the 1998 Venice Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Ridley Scott directed this flawed but involving study of Lt. Jordan O'Neil (Demi Moore), a Navy topographic analyst who is chosen as a test case for the presence of women in combat. Aware that she is making history and knowing that 60% of all male trainees will fail the rigorous training, Lt. O'Neil struggles to prove herself physically and mentally worthy of becoming a Navy SEAL. What she doesn't know is that she is being sold out by hardbitten Texas senator Lillian DeHaven (Anne Bancroft in an amusing turn), who is being blackmailed by the Defense Department with politically fatal base closings unless O'Neil fails the program. The complicated political subplot, however, only distracts from the film's real virtues -- the wonderfully staged scenes of CRT selection training -- and fizzles at its climactic moment. The training scenes are wonderful, however, as the central recruits are pushed to their physical limits by a grueling weeding-out process. Viggo Mortensen is outstanding as Master Chief John James Urgayle, a steely-eyed, tough-as-nails instructor who somehow finds time to quote D.H. Lawrence when he isn't making people eat garbage and beating O'Neil senseless as part of a training exercise. Mortensen and the believably-buffed Moore are terrific, and their scenes of confrontation are the film's high points. Unfortunately, the screenplay by David Twohy and Danielle Alexandra falls down every time it attempts to sidestep a cliche, and the climactic mission (involving a downed satellite in the Libyan desert) positively wallows in a predictable Top Gun muddle. Still, the characters are engaging and those looking for an enjoyable variant on the basic-training subgenre of high-octane modern action films should be pleased. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi