Elie Samaha Movies

Producers Jack and Joe Nasser team with director Keoni Waxman for this biopic exploring the tragic life of Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith. Dancer and singer Willa Ford stars as the voluptuous Texan blonde who married geriatric American oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II before rising to fame as Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1993. Later, Smith's life took a dark turn when her 20-year-old son, Daniel, died of an accidental overdose while visiting his mother and newborn sister in the hospital shortly after delivery. The deeply troubled mother would suffer an eerily similar and lamentable fate just five months later when, in the midst of multiple lawsuits concerning her lavish waterfront home in the Bahamas and infant daughter, Dannielynn, Smith herself died of an accidental overdose in Hollywood, FL. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A man attempts to deal with a truly remarkable variety of personal and emotional problems in this comedy drama based on the real-life experiences of comedian and author Jeff Nichols. Jeff (Seann William Scott) is a man edging into his thirties who has a serious drinking problem along with Attention Deficit Disorder, Dyslexia and Tourette's Syndrome; to say Jeff has a hard time dealing with others stretches the boundaries of understatement, and he devotes a fair share of his day to support meetings, even ones dealing with conditions which don't involve his problems. Jeff prefers to blame his wealthy parents (Dierdre O'Connell) and (Denis O'Hare) for his problems, even though they haven't done much besides stand aside as he's burned down their home. Unable to hold down a job, Jeff has been evicted from the garage he was renting from Bert (Kevin Conway), who can no longer handle his many eccentricities, but with nowhere else to go, he somehow charms his way into the heart and home of Lynn (Gretchen Mol), a woman he met at a support group for people with relationship problems. While Lynn is a walking mass of phobias regarding men and romance, she discovers something in the damaged Jeff that encourages her to take a chance on him. Adapted from Nichols's autobiography The Little Yellow Bus, Trainwreck: My Life As An Idiot was the first theatrical feature from director Tod Harrison Williams. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The protégé of the most skilled mischief maker in college history sets his sights on England's prestigious Camden University to offer an informative course in advanced-level shenanigans in this sequel to the 2002 Ryan Reynolds hit that finds that film's co-star Kal Penn crossing the pond to realize his true party potential. Van Wilder's former assistant has learned the ways of the master, and now he's prepared to share his newfound knowledge with the stuffy students of the school known more for academia than rowdy mischief. Of course, by now Taj (Penn) knows that where there's a will there's a way, and there are plenty of fun-loving misfits at this esteemed institute of higher learning who are just looking for an excuse to ditch their studies and blow off a little steam by embracing their inner Van Wilder. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A seemingly insignificant act may cause the fabric of history to unravel in this sci-fi adventure. Charles Hatton (Ben Kingsley) owns and operates a successful firm known as Time Safari. Thanks to time travel technology developed by Hatton's employee Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), Time Safari allows big game hunters to journey back to prehistoric days and shoot living, breathing dinosaurs. Rand picks out the dinosaur in question, who is soon to die, and creates a floating walkway for the hunters, so the impact of their presence will not be felt by the land around them. But on one expedition, things go horribly wrong when a nervous hunter steps off the walkway and crushes a butterfly, a tiny act that proves to have massive consequences over the course of several million years. As the earth's climate and animal life begin to mutate due to this shift in natural history, Time Safari's leading hunting guide, Travis Ryer (Edward Burns), works beside Rand in a desperate attempt to halt the "ripples of time" before modern civilization completely collapses. A Sound of Thunder was based on a classic short story by pioneering science fiction author Ray Bradbury. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Though equally respected in their field, divorce lawyers Audrey Woods (Julianne Moore) and Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan) are opposites inside and out of the courtroom. Audrey is meticulous and by the book, while Daniel relies on personality and luck to get by. Despite the difference in methods, neither lawyer has lost a case, and neither plan on ending their streak after being respectively hired by Serena (Parker Posey) and Thorne (Michael Sheen), a celebrity power couple gone wrong. The divorce settlement hinges on a particularly spectacular Irish castle, which both parties would like to keep for themselves. Audrey and Daniel hurry to Ireland with depositions in their eyes, but a growing mutual attraction manages to squirm out from beneath, and, after being immersed in a romantic Irish festival, the rival lawyers wake up married. Reeling, potentially in love (to Audrey in particular's dismay), and faced with the type of media explosion capable of leading to the end of their careers, the mismatched lawyers contemplate how to go about their clients' divorce hearings as man and wife. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry reprise their roles as a killer for hire and a dentist with a bad case of nerves in this sequel to the comedy hit The Whole Nine Yards. Former hitman Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski (Bruce Willis) has retired from his life of crime and is living a quiet life of cooking and housekeeping in Mexico, despite the fact his wife, Jill (Amanda Peet), a would-be hired killer, still wants to keep her hand in the business. Tudeski has been able to convince the authorities he's dead thanks to dental records falsified by his former neighbor Nicholas "Oz" Oseransky (Matthew Perry), who lives in Los Angeles. But Oseransky discovers that not everyone is fooled by Tudeski's handiwork when his wife, Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge), is kidnapped by Lazlo Gogolak (Kevin Pollak) and his goons. Gogolak is a high-ranking member of the Hungarian mafia, and Tudeski previously murdered his son, so he's abducted Cynthia in order to get Oseransky to reveal the hired killer's current whereabouts. But Tudeski has come to like the quiet life, and isn't so sure he wants to face Gogolak and his crew for the sake of a jittery dentist who once did him a favor. Most of the principle cast of The Whole Nine Yards returned for this sequel, though director Howard Deutch stepped in to replace Jonathan Lynn, who was working on The Fighting Temptations when The Whole Ten Yards went into production. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Michael Oblowitz directs Steven Seagal in this action film. Seagal portrays a secret agent named Cold who is hired to transport something from France to America. As he continues his travels, he finds he can trust no one, and that many people are out to do him harm in order to secure the contents of his package. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Lots of people have misgiving about their in-laws, but in this offbeat comedy, a man discovers that his new son-in-law's father is significantly stranger than he's able to deal with. Jerry Peyser (Albert Brooks) is a well-meaning but slightly anal-retentive podiatrist who doesn't much care for surprises in his life. When his daughter Melissa (Lindsay Sloane) announces she's going to marry her boyfriend, Mark Tobias (Ryan Reynolds), Jerry figures that helping his wife plan the wedding and getting through the ceremony is as much excitement as he needs or wants. However, when Jerry and his wife, Katherine (Maria Ricossa), meet Mark's father for the first time, Steve Tobias (Michael Douglas) ends up taking Jerry on the ride of his life. Both Mark and Steve's ex-wife, Judy (Candice Bergen), seem to have a decidedly ambivalent attitude about Steve, and Jerry finds out why -- Steve is actually an undercover agent for the CIA. In the guise of doing Steve a favor, Jerry gets dragged into a strange and dangerous episode involving international arms dealers, French super-villains, heavily armed men's room attendants, and a stolen private jet belonging to Barbra Streisand, as well as several less-than-pleasant encounters with Angela (Robin Tunney), Steve's colleague in espionage who doesn't trust Jerry. The In-Laws was adapted from the memorable 1979 comedy of the same name, in which Alan Arkin and Peter Falk played the mismatched fathers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Two former government agents square off as they search for the most deadly new weapon on Earth in this white-knuckle thriller. Sever (Lucy Liu) was once a top agent with the Defense Intelligence Agency, but she quit when her son was killed in a bungled raid organized by Gant (Gregg Henry), and has sworn to take vengeance against him and his colleagues. When Sever learns that Gant and his team are in possession of a remarkable new weapon -- a microscopic device injected into the victim's bloodstream which is benign until triggered, then kills immediately without leaving a trace -- she is determined to get her hands on it, whatever the cost. However, Gant has turned rogue, and FBI agent Julio Martin (Miguel Sandoval) has been ordered to find him and recover his new weapon. Martin needs the best man he can find for the job, and calls upon Jeremiah Ecks (Antonio Banderas), a former FBI tracker, to do the job. Ecks quit the Bureau when his wife was killed, but Martin informs Ecks that his spouse is actually alive and in hiding, and if he can bring in Gant, she will be returned to him. But Ecks has to face the most formidable adversary of his life in Sever, a master of mayhem bent on revenge. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever was the first English-language feature from Thai filmmaker Wych Kaosayananda (aka Kaos), whose first feature Fah was a box-office blockbuster in his homeland. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In 1975, as the war in Vietnam finally draws to a close, a number of Vietnamese refugees seeking new homes in the United States find themselves housed at the Camp Pendleton Marine base in California, where Sgt. Jim Lance (Patrick Swayze) is put in charge of their care. Lance is a compassionate man who tries to afford the refugees as much dignity and respect as is possible; frustrated by his inability to speak with them directly, Lance strikes up a friendship with Tai (Don Duong), who worked with the U.S. Army as a translator during the war and now wants to settle in America. Tai helps Lance speak with the refugees, and coaches him in conversational Vietnamese. Tai and Lance soon come to realize how much they have in common, and how they are both still coming to terms with the emotional scars inflicted upon them by the war. Tai is looking after his nephew Minh (Trung Nguyen) and niece Anh (Jennifer Tran), who are waiting for their mother to arrive, but Tai is tortured with guilt, convinced he should have given her his seat on the flight to California. Lance, on the other hand, was stationed in America while his brother fought and died in Vietnam, and Lance believes he should have taken his brother's place. Meanwhile, Minh spends his days looking after Anh and wandering the camp; he strikes up a friendship with Addie (Forest Whitaker), a cook at the camp with a passion for art. Together, Addie and Minh try to brighten the refugees' area by creating a large and colorful mural that symbolizes the multicultural America they dream of. Green Dragon was written and directed by Timothy Linh Bui, whose brother Tony Bui helmed the acclaimed drama Three Seasons, which examined life in contemporary Vietnam. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Action hero Steven Seagal goes behind bars -- though don't worry, he isn't really a bad guy -- in this action thriller. Sascha Petrosevitch (Seagal) is an FBI agent working undercover to infiltrate a gangland kingpin's operations. While Petrosevitch is able to gain the trust of one of the gangster's lieutenants, Nick Frazier (Ja Rule), things go haywire during an FBI raid, and Petrosevitch takes several slugs in the back as he struggles to maintain his cover. Eight months later, Petrosevitch and Frazier are serving time together in the newly refurbished Alcatraz Penitentiary, as Petrosevitch secretly continues his investigation. Prison warden Hubbard (Stephen J. Cannell) is arranging for the execution of convicted killer and thief Lester (Bruce Weitz), and U.S. Supreme Court justice Jane McPherson (Linda Thorson) has announced she will attend as a witness. But Hubbard's assistant Donny (Morris Chestnut) has devised a secret plan -- it seems Lester stole and stashed away 200 million dollars in gold before he was arrested, and Donny, along with an underground SWAT team, takes control of the prison and takes Hubbard, McPherson, and the other assembled dignitaries hostage, demanding to be told where Lester has hidden his fortune. Now Petrosevitch must drop his cover and persuade his allies within the prison -- including Frazier and Little Joe (Michael "Bear" Taliferro) -- to join him in a desperate bid to foil Donny and free the hostages. Half Past Dead also features Nia Peeples, Kurupt, Tony Plana, and Claudia Christian. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A small-time loser who dreams of the big time discovers just how far wrong a good deed can take him in this black comedy. Frank Jacobs (Daniel Stern) is a guy with perennial bad luck living in a small town in Kansas, where he runs a gone-to-seed motel and is married to Helen (Patricia Richardson), a shrewish woman with a sharp tongue and little affection for her husband. Frank's great dream is to make a career for himself as a country and western singer, and while scrambling for a spot during an open mike night at a roadhouse, he makes the acquaintance of Julie (Lacey Kohl), a fellow singer who is married to past-prime C&W star Roy Baker (James Caan). After a quarrel, Roy leaves Julie by the side of the road, and Frank offers to give her a place to stay for the night. Helen is certain Julie's a home wrecker, and a serious argument erupts between Helen, Frank, and Julie; a gun goes off, and Helen is dead. Certain there's no easy way to explain Helen's death, Frank and Julie bury her in the backyard, and Frank soon finds himself having a fling with the attractive young singer. But before long, Roy arrives, eager to take Julie back whether she likes the idea or not, and matters are complicated when Helen's twin sister Wanda (also played by Richardson) arrives, determined to find out what's become of her sister. Viva Las Nowhere (also shown as Dead Simple) also stars Sherry Stringfield as another aspiring singer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide