Mark Huffam Movies

A group of tech-savvy thrill seekers get a deadly surprise when they steal a highly advanced combat simulator and test their skills inside a derelict prison once used to house suspected terrorists. When an unidentified player hacks into their A.I. software, a simple night of fun becomes a bloody battle for survival. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Shrooms director Paddy Breathnach returns to terrify horror hounds with this supernatural shocker about a dangerous loner who falls into a deep coma, and travels out of body to seek revenge against his tormentors. Kenneth Chisholm is a depraved hospital janitor with a penchant for snapping voyeuristic cell phone pictures. One night, while out at a local bar, a group of trainee medical students work up the courage to confront the sleazy shutterbug. Devastated, Kenneth suffers from an epileptic fit and falls into a deep coma. Later, when remorseful trainee Catherine Thomas attempts to revive Kenneth by administering an experimental drug cocktail designed especially for coma patients, she inadvertently sets off a horrifying series of events that will put the lives of both herself and her fellow students in grave danger. As a result, Kenneth is jolted into an out of body state that allows him to enter the bodies of his enemies and manipulate them into doing his bloody bidding. But who can you turn to for help when the person you always counted on could be possessed by a madman? When anyone can be the killer, no one can be trusted. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

One young man's dream takes him on a remarkable journey in this sports-themed drama. Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker) was born in Mexico, and came to California with his family when he was just a boy. One of the few things Santiago brought with him was a love for soccer, and while he holds down two jobs -- working landscaping during the days with his father, Hernan (Tony Plana), and as a busboy at night -- he still dreams of playing the game professionally, and spends his precious spare time with an amateur team in Los Angeles. One day, Santiago is approached by Glen Foy (Stephen Dillane), a part-time scout for powerhouse British team Newcastle United; Glen has seen Santiago play and thinks he has talent, and can get him a tryout with Newcastle if he can make his way to England. While Hernan refuses to help Santiago pay for the trip, his grandmother (Miriam Colon) empties her savings to help him follow his dream. Santiago's first reserve game with the team happens during a typically British rainstorm, with Santiago suffering a mild asthma attack to boot; he doesn't play at his best and is turned away from the team, but he refuses to go home, determined to make good. After striking up a friendship with star kicker Gavin Harris (Alessandro Nivola) and demonstrating his mettle to coach Mal Braithwaite (Gary Lewis), Santiago earns a second chance to show Newcastle United what he can do and make his father proud of him. Goal! was a major international hit, and a sequel was already in production before the film opened in the United States in the spring of 2006. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An unhinged parody of James Bond theatrics, Johnny English finds Mr. Bean himself suiting up as the eponymous super spy for a series of wild and silly adventures. A lowly pencil pusher working for the MI7 agency, Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) is suddenly promoted to super spy after Agent One is assassinated and every other agent is blown up at his funeral. When billionaire entrepreneur Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovich) sponsors the exhibition of the Crown Jewels and the valuable gems disappear on the opening night, and on the watch of English, the newly designated agent must jump into action to uncover the thief and procure the missing valuables. Tracking the thieves' underground escape route with sidekick Bough (Ben Miller), English locks in on Sauvage despite repeated assurances by boss Pegasus (Tim Pigott-Smith) that the respected entrepreneur has nothing to do with the crime. Could the mysterious Lorna (Natalie Imbruglia), who has an odd habit of turning up at the wrong place at the wrong time, hold the key to helping Johnny? A massive hit overseas, Johnny English held its own at the box office in early April 2003, and was slated for wide release in the U.S. If the spoofing in Johnny English strikes especially close to home, that may be because the film was scripted by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who teamed to pen such Bond adventures as Die Another Day and The World is Not Enough. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Louis de Bernières' best-selling novel of love during wartime is brought to the screen in this story that blends comedy, action, and romance. In 1940, war rages throughout Europe, but the fighting has yet to arrive on the Greek island of Cephallonia, where life continues to follow its own slow, deliberate path until word arrives that Italian troops have invaded neighboring Albania. A wave of anti-Axis patriotism sweeps the island, and Mandras (Christian Bale), a local fisherman, is one of a handful of men who volunteer for the army, leaving behind his aging mother (Irene Papas) and the woman he loves, Pelagia (Penélope Cruz), the daughter of the island's physician, Dr. Iannis (John Hurt). The timing of Mandras and his compatriots proves less than fortuitous, as Italian troops invade Greece in their absence, but the remaining leaders of the island issue an ultimatum -- the people of Cephallonia will surrender, but only to a ranking German officer. Since none of the available German officers can speak a word of Greek, an Italian soldier fluent in the language, Capt. Antonio Corelli (Nicholas Cage), is sent in to serve as translator. Corelli stays on with the Greek occupation forces, and he soon finds himself falling in love with beautiful Pelagia, who believes that Mandras was killed in the fighting in Albania. But as romance slowly blooms between the Italian soldier and the Greek girl, Mandras and a handful of surviving soldiers have joined a guerilla resistance faction, and they join up with Allied forces in a bid to retake Greece; soon, Pelagia must choose between the two men she loves, as the Greeks battle both the Italian occupation troops and German soldiers who have been sent in to replace them. Captain Corelli's Mandolin was directed by John Madden; the project originally began shooting with Roger Michell, but Michell was forced to resign from the film after he suffered a heart attack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Marquis de Sade was a man who liked to stir up trouble, at a time when his native France was in a state of tremendous political turmoil, and this historical drama examines how much controversy he could cause even under repressive circumstances. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) manages to narrowly escape execution during the Reign of Terror, and instead is sentenced to the Charenton Asylum for the Insane. Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix), the priest who heads the asylum, is sympathetic to the political machinations that have put the Marquis in his care, and allows him not only to write what he pleases, but to stage theater pieces using the other patients as actors. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine), a tyrannical doctor overseeing the mental institutions of Napoleonic France, is as outraged as the emperor when he reads Justine, a scabrous volume the Marquis penned while an inmate at Charenton, and he demands that de Sade be stopped. But Royer-Collard soon learns that stopping the Marquis from writing is not so simple; when de Sade's quills and ink are taken from him, he uses wine and even his own blood to write his stories. When these options are no longer available, he dictates his work with the help of Madeline (Kate Winslet), a laundry girl working at the asylum, who is fascinated by the notorious de Sade, though she declines his frequent requests to satisfy his notorious sexual appetites. Based on the play by Doug Wright (who also penned the screenplay), Quills was directed by Philip Kaufman, who previously documented the line between eroticism and literature in Henry and June and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide