Rod Lurie Movies
Joining the ranks of movie critics-turned-directors, Rod Lurie earned his Hollywood stripes by guiding Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges to Oscar nominations in only his second feature, The Contender (2000).Lurie seemed to be destined for an entirely different profession when he opted to attend college at the prestigious West Point military academy. After graduating in 1984, Lurie served as a Combat Arms officer in the Army for four years. Finished with the military by the late '80s, Lurie turned to the movies, working as an entertainment reporter for the New York Daily News and a freelance magazine writer. Relocating to Los Angeles, Lurie wrote for Los Angeles magazine, published a book, and became the film critic for KABC radio in 1995. During his four years at KABC, Lurie met Joan Allen at an awards show and declared that he was going to write a screenplay tailored to her talents.
While still a critic, Lurie made a foray into filmmaking with the low-budget feature Deterrence (2000). A chamber thriller involving the first Jewish president and a possible nuclear strike on Iraq, Deterrence got little attention but it presaged Lurie's interest in political stories. Lurie then made good on his promise to Allen with The Contender, about a Democratic senator's embattled appointment to be the first female Vice President. Stepping down from his KABC post in 1999, Lurie rounded up a stellar cast to support Allen, including Bridges as the sly, shark-eating President and Gary Oldman as Allen's nefarious Republican nemesis. Distributed by Dreamworks after it was independently produced, The Contender attracted praise for the performances and criticism for the facile, potboiler sex-and-politics plot; the conservative Oldman publicly kicked up a fuss over the film's apparent "liberalization" at the hands of Dreamworks. Regardless, Allen earned a nomination for Best Actress, while Bridges (not Oldman) got a Supporting Actor nod.
Lurie subsequently got to use his West Point experience when Dreamworks hired him to direct the military prison drama The Last Castle (2001), starring Robert Redford as a jailed general (and West Point grad). Though Lurie convinced James Gandolfini to play the corrupt warden with the promise that Gandolfini would be an Oscar-friendly Salieri to Redford's Mozart, The Last Castle proved to be no Amadeus (1984) on its unimpressive release. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
A Hollywood screenwriter and his wife come under attack from her ex-flame and his vicious friends in director Rod Lurie's remake of Sam Peckinpah's 1971 home-invasion classic. In the wake of her father's death, Amy (Kate Bosworth) returns to her rural Southern hometown with her husband, David (James Marsden). Her goal is to put her childhood home on the market while David works on his latest screenplay. Meanwhile, David hires Amy's high school boyfriend Charlie (Alexander Skarsgård) and his crew to rebuild the roof on the secluded country home. But the more time Charlie's work crew spends working on the roof, the greater tensions begin to grow between Amy and David. Every time Amy walks outside, the work stops and the ogling begins. When David attempts to avert confrontation by firing the crew before the job is finished, former high school football star Charlie snaps, deciding that if he can't have Amy on his own terms, he'll take her by force. Later, when night falls, Charlie's gang besieges the house, forcing David and Amy into a desperate fight for their lives. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, (more)
A tense political drama ripped straight from the headlines, Rod Lurie's Nothing But the Truth tells the tale of a Washington, D.C. reporter who is targeted by the government after refusing to reveal her source for a story that identified an undercover CIA operative. Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale) is an ambitious young reporter working at the Capitol Sun-Times, one of Washington, D.C.'s biggest newspapers. When the paper published Rachel's incendiary story revealing the identity of covert CIA agent Erica Van Doren (Vera Farmiga), charismatic special prosecutor Patton Dubois (Matt Dillon) demands that she reveal her source for the story. With the support of her husband, Ray (David Schwimmer); her editor, Bonnie (Angela Bassett); and the paper's in-house attorney, Avril (Noah Wyle), Rachel defies Patton's request and all hell breaks loose. When Rachel likewise refuses to reveal her source even to U.S. District Court Judge Hall (Floyd Adams), she is cited with contempt of court and thrown in the D.C. Detention Center until she decides to cooperate. As Rachel's attorney, Albert Burnside (Alan Alda), argues her case all the way to the Supreme Court, the public begins to question why the embattled reporter would sacrifice both her family and her career to maintain her journalistic integrity. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, (more)
Inspired by his own tough childhood on the unforgiving streets of South Boston, director/co-screenwriter (along with Paul T. Murray and Donnie Wahlberg) Brian Goodman's tough-talking crime drama follows the journey of two childhood friends as they attempt to sever their powerful underworld ties. Ever since they were just young kids, Brian (Mark Ruffalo) and Paulie (Ethan Hawke) have always watched out for one another. From the petty crimes and misdemeanors of childhood to more serious criminal endeavors as they take their tenuous first steps into adulthood, the two sworn friends do their best to survive in the dog-eat-dog neighborhood while gradually falling under the sway of powerful crime boss Pat Kelly (Goodman). Fifteen years later, Brian finds his drug addiction threatening to drive away his wife (Amanda Peet) while simultaneously taking a toll on his longtime friendship with Paulie. It seems that neither of the two men can break free of the vicious cycle that threatens to consume them, and as turf-war tensions begin to build, police detective Moran (Wahlberg) takes to the streets determined to clean them up once and for all. Will Brian and Paulie prove successful in earning some quick cash while staying off the detective's radar, or has their longtime lucky streak in dealing with the law finally dried up? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mark Ruffalo, Ethan Hawke, (more)
Nearly anyone who performs in public on a regular basis is familiar with the notion of the audience member who makes their opinions loudly and clearly known during the show, and like most comedians Jamie Kennedy has dealt with his fair share of hecklers over the course of his career. However, when Kennedy moved from stand-up comic to actor, he encountered a new breed of heckler -- the on-line film critic who posts angry rants on the internet, taking Kennedy to task for nearly every aspect of such critically drubbed movies as Son Of The Mask and Malibu's Most Wanted. Kennedy teamed up with director Michael Addis to make the documentary Heckler, which explores the increasingly combative relationship between artists and their audience. Heckler features interviews with a number of comics and musicians discussing their experiences with loud-mouthed spectators (including Bill Maher, David Cross, Louie Anderson, Rob Zombie, Joe Rogan and David Allen Grier), but Kennedy goes a step further, confronting a number of the writers who've bad-mouthed his work and questioning their role in the creative process. Kennedy and Addis also talk with filmmaker Uwe Boll, who went so far as to challenge his critics to a boxing match. Heckler received its world premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jamie Kennedy, Louie Anderson, (more)
Director and co-screenwriter (along with Chris Gerolmo, Allison Burnett, and Michael Bortman) Rod Lurie tells the uplifting tale of a sports writer who almost lost it all before stumbling into the story of a lifetime in this uplifting sports-themed drama starring Josh Hartnett and Samuel L. Jackson. Erik (Hartnett) is a Denver-based sports writer whose prose is dull and whose marriage is failing. Not only is Erik having a difficult time dealing with his stubborn editor Metz (Alan Alda) - who refuses to take the suffering scribe off of the boxing beat - but the pain of being separated from his young son has weighed heavier on Erik's conscience than he could have ever imagined. When Erik sees a local homeless man (Samuel L. Jackson) being violently assaulted by a gang of sadistic street toughs, he instinctively comes to the suffering man's rescue. As fate would have, Erik discovers that the nondescript homeless man is actually the former boxing champion Battling Bob Satterfield, whom many sports fans had assumed dead. Now driven to tell the story that may establish him as a successful sports writer, Erik gradually begins to make the transformation from ordinary man to extraordinary champion - largely by turning inward and by reexamining his relationship with his own son. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Hartnett, (more)
- 2005
Rumor has it that this weekly, hour-long ABC series about America's first woman president was conceived in anticipation of Hillary Rodham Clinton's likely 2008 presidential bid. Whatever the case, Geena Davis starred as Mackenzie Allen, the politically unaffiliated vice president of popular conservative chief executive Teddy Bridges (Will Lyman). When Bridges fell mortally ill, his party did everything it could to persuade Mackenzie to step down and allow powerful Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton (Donald Sutherland) to assume the Presidency. But our heroine was not about to place the country in the hands of a vengeful, duplicitous sexist like Templeton, and thus upon Bridges' death she dutifully took charge of the Oval Office -- even though she had never had any burning political ambitions at any time of her life. Working hand in glove with her chief of staff (and also her husband!), Rod Allen (Kyle Secor), Allen's second in command, Jim Gardner (Harry Lennix), and Press Secretary Kelly Ludlow (Ever Carradine), the plucky Mackenzie managed to navigate the treacherous waters of the Potomac -- and along the way, she continually surprised both sides of the political spectrum by relying upon her own judgment, rather than pay homage to party pressure, polls, or political correctness. Also in the cast were Jasmine Anthony as Mackenzie's six-year-old daughter, Amy, and Matt Lanter and Caitlin Wachs as her teenaged twin offspring, Horace and Rebecca. Created by Rod Lurie of The Contender fame, Commander in Chief took the oath of office on September 27, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Geena Davis, Donald Sutherland, (more)
Alan Rickman and Janeane Garofalo headline writer/director Mike Binder's comedy about an American businessman who is summoned to London under the auspice of overseeing an impending business merger, only to discover that he is actually being groomed to replace his British counterpart - who unfortunately has no intentions of giving up his job. Matthew Barnes (Binder) and his wife (Garofalo) thought they were going to London for a brief business trip, little did they realize Matthew's employer had something a bit more permanent in mind. It seems that the powers that be would like to see Matthew's British counterpart John Gissing (Rickman) fired, and would love for Matthew to step in as his official replacement. But John is no dummy, and he's seen this storm brewing on the horizon for quite some time. Now, instead of stepping down peacefully and allowing the situation to play out as his superiors have planned, John schemes to make the American couple's stay in London as unpleasant as humanly possible by sending them on a series of disastrous and humiliating misadventures. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mike Binder, Janeane Garofalo, (more)
A small-time crook who worships Steve McQueen gets in over his head in French music video director Dominique Forma's debut feature, Scenes of the Crime. Lenny (Jon Abrahams of Scary Movie) is about to be married, but he skips his own bachelor party to drive for thug Rick (Peter Greene), who, unbeknownst to Lenny, is planning a kidnapping. The kidnapping plot goes awry, and Lenny ends up alone in the van, holding the soft-spoken victim, Jimmy (Jeff Bridges), at gunpoint. Jimmy turns out to be a powerful criminal himself and warns Lenny that there will be dire consequences if he isn't released unharmed. While Jimmy's partner (Bob Gunton) negotiates his release with Rick's boss (Loyd Catlett), Jimmy's slimy bodyguard, Seth (Noah Wyle of E.R.), tries to figure out a way to resolve the situation himself. As the van sits parked on a city street, the couple that runs the nearby deli (Morris Chestnut and Madchen Amick) and a senile old man who lives nearby (R. Lee Ermey) become involved in the tense standoff. Based on an anecdote Forma heard in a seedy bar, Scenes of the Crime was shown in competition at the 2002 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Jon Abrahams, (more)
Robert Redford stars in this action drama as General Irwin, a respected three-star tactician whose career ends in disgrace when he's court-martialed and sent to The Castle, a maximum security military prison. Irwin quickly butts heads with the facility's autocratic warden, Colonel Winter (James Gandolfini), who runs his command with an iron fist, even killing prisoners when he deems it necessary. Irwin rallies his fellow convicts into a rag-tag army and leads them in a revolt against Winter, an action that the warden is ready to repel by violent means. Mark Ruffalo, Robin Wright Penn, and Delroy Lindo co-star in this Dreamworks production, the third feature film from one-time film critic Rod Lurie. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, (more)
The world finds itself on the brink of nuclear disaster, with the balance point a small diner in Colorado, in the suspenseful political thriller Deterrence. In the year 2008, U.S. President Walter Emerson (Kevin Pollak), who recently took office after the death of the former chief executive, is campaigning for re-election. After winning the Colorado state primary, Emerson finds himself stranded in a roadside diner after a freak snowstorm. Traveling with Emerson are his chief of staff, Marshall Thompson (Timothy Hutton), national security advisor Gayle Redford (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and a network TV crew. While the president exchanges pleasantries with the diner's staff and customers, a new bulletin appears on TV: Udei Hussein, son of the late Saddam Hussein, has invaded Kuwait and butchered several hundred U.S. peace-keeping troops. Outraged, the president announces that if Hussein and his forces do not withdraw and officially surrender, he will begin dropping nuclear weapons on Baghdad. However, Iraq responds that if they are attacked, 23 cities in the United States and allied nations will be immediately destroyed in a counterattack. Emerson, his advisors, and the others trapped in the diner with them debate long and loud about what to do, and what the potential consequences could be. Deterrence was written and directed by former film critic Rod Lurie. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kevin Pollak, Timothy Hutton, (more)
The hard-ball gamesmanship and casual character assassination of American politics sets the stage for this thriller from writer and director Rod Lurie. When the Vice President of the United States unexpectedly dies, all eyes in Washington D.C. are on President Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges) as he chooses a new VP. Sen. Jack Hathaway (William Petersen), a respected career politician enjoying a new swell of popularity after a well-publicized attempt to save a drowning woman, is expected to be Evans' choice, but instead he picks Sen. Laine Hanson (Joan Allen), a decision that raises eyebrows on both sides of the political fence. Veteran power broker Shelly Runyon (Gary Oldman) is vehemently opposed to Hanson's appointment, in part because the Democratic senator was once a Republican, and vows to do everything in his power to prevent her from being confirmed. Runyon and his staff start digging for dirt on Hanson, and soon make a surprising discovery -- her personal morality is called into question when it's alleged that she took part in a group sexual liaison while she was a college student. The Contender also stars Mike Binder as one of Hanson's advisors, Mariel Hemingway as an old friend with a surprising secret, Christian Slater as an ambitious congressmen assisting Runyon, and Philip Baker Hall as Hanson's father; it was the second feature from former film critic Rod Lurie. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joan Allen, Gary Oldman, (more)
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