Jay Brazeau Movies

A hardened seaman and a dogged reporter become trapped on an island with a mysterious scientist, a ruthless band of mercenaries, and a vicious pack of unidentifiable creatures in BloodRayne director Uwe Boll's seventh video game-to-screen adaptation. A team of mercenaries has been attacked on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, and as mysterious reports begin to emerge from the chaos, a veteran Seattle newspaper editor sends top reporters Tom Moore and Valerie Constantine to the scene in hopes of getting the scoop on the story. Shortly after arriving on the island under the guidance of ship captain Jack Carver (Til Schweiger), the trio is attacked by mercenary commander Maria Sanchez. Though Tom is killed, Valerie and Jack manage to stage a daring escape and quickly begin to bicker over their plan as Maria's murderous soldiers fast begin gaining ground. Despite Captain Jack's plan to locate his friend Emilio and get off of the island as quickly as possible, reporter Valerie remains determined to investigate the strange situation and get as many details as possible for her upcoming story. Later, when Jack, Valerie, and Emilio are captured and taken to the secret lab of genius scientist Dr. Krieger, Valerie is extended an invitation to join the doctor in announcing his latest findings to the world. Though it finally seems as if Valerie has gotten just the scoop needed to make her story, the situation quickly turns chaotic when one of Dr. Kreiger's creatures escapes from the lab and sets out on a murderous rampage. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond) tackles the work of H.P. Lovecraft again for his episode of Showtime's Masters of Horror series, Dreams in the Witch-House. Ezra Godden, who starred in Gordon's Dagon, plays Walter, a grad student who, naturally, rents a room at a creepy old house. Bad signs abound, from the reclusive downstairs neighbor, Masurewicz (Campbell Lane), to the gruff, mean-spirited landlord, Dombrowski (Jay Brazeau). The room itself is kind of a hole. Then there's all that mysterious late-night pounding and chanting. But, hey, the rent's cheap. One night, Walter is awakened by screaming, and runs next door to find his attractive neighbor, Frances (Chelah Horsdal), and her little boy, Danny (David and Nicholas Racz), being terrorized by a large rat, which runs into a hole in the wall. When Walter goes to complain to the uncaring landlord, crazy old Masurewicz asks him if the rat had a human face! Things get even stranger. He has vivid dreams of a witch visiting him and seducing him, but the dreams leave real physical evidence behind. Walter, who is studying string theory, begins to suspect that there is a portal to another dimension within the building. Maybe old Masurewicz isn't so crazy after all. He seems to know all about the witch, and urges Walter to get out while he still can. But Walter suspects that the witch (with help from her familiar, that ugly rat), is after Danny's innocent blood, and, having developed a romantic attraction to Frances, he's determined to keep her and the boy safe. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

A man trying to save his relationship with the woman he loves finds himself sinking into a quicksand of small lies and half-truths in this comedy. Paul (Jason Lee) is a regular guy who is engaged to marry Karen (Selma Blair); while Paul loves Karen, he's more than a bit nervous around her family, even though her father (James Brolin) has already given him a job in the family business. Shortly before the wedding, Paul's friends throw him a bachelor party, complete with a boatload of liquor and a squadron of grass-skirt-clad tiki dancers. Paul strikes up a conversation with one of the dancers, the cheerful if inept Becky (Julia Stiles), and the next morning, he wakes up bleary-eyed with a massive hangover -- and Becky in bed next to him. Paul soon receives a phone call from Karen saying she's stopping by for a visit, and Paul scrambles to get Becky out of his apartment. Paul attempts to explain some incriminating evidence with a few white lies, but a messy situation gets messier when Paul runs into Becky at a pre-wedding family get-together...and discovers she's Karen's cousin. A Guy Thing also features Shawn Hatosy, Lochlyn Munro, and Julie Hagerty. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

MTV's first made-for-TV movie, 2Gether: The Original Movie, is a hilarious and sometimes touching send-up of the "boy band" phenomenon of the '90s. When rock manager Bob Buss (Alan Blumenfeld) is fired by the studio-created boy group Whoa!, he decides to get even by creating another band from the ground up. After discovering young Jerry O'Keefe (Evan Farmer) singing in the streets, Buss builds his new group around O'Keefe's natural talents. Adhering to the standard music-industry clichés, Buss' pre-fab creation, 2gether, consists of "The Lead Singer" (O'Keefe), "The Bad Boy" Mickey Parke, "The Cute One" Q.T. McKnight, "The Shy One" Chad Linus, and "The Older Brother," who happens to be Chad's older brother Doug Linus. Whipping them into shape in but a few days, Buss prepares 2gether for their big-time debut in Jacksonville -- as the opening act for Whoa! Several MTV personalities, notably the ubiquitous Carson Daly, appear as themselves. In true "life imitates art" fashion, 2gether briefly became an honest-to-goodness pop sensation, turning out several popular tunes, a well-circulated music video, and a weekly TV series. Filmed in Vancouver, 2gether: The Original Movie first aired on February 1, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An alien race who had earlier been liberated from the Goa'uld Cronus (Ron Halder) by the SG-1 must be rescued again when the vengeful Cronus goes on a rampage. This time, however, the SG-1 rescue effort is met with resistance by the aliens, who are fearful of future retribution. Meanwhile, Teal'c (Christopher Judge), whose father was killed by Cronus, launches a dangerous vendetta of his own. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This unusual Canadian addition to the Scandavian film movement Dogma 95, which emphasizes a realist style with minimal artifice, focuses on a Romanian photographer adrift in the confusing world of Vancouver. Forty-year-old Petru (Peter La Croix) manages to get a job as a night watchman in an aging shipyard. His grumpy boss (Jay Brazeau) offers him a place in a low-rent neighborhood filled with artists. One painter relishes urinating on his work while a pretty young sculptor (Gina Chiarelli) encourages the Romanian to show his photographs. Noroc was screened at the 1999 Vancouver Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Better Than Chocolate is a lesbian love story. Walking home from an evening at the lesbian club 'Cat's Ass,' Maggie is confronted by a gang of skinheads. Suddenly a minibus comes to a screeching halt and out jumps Kim. The skins move on, and Maggie thanks Kim, who watches her go. This is their first meeting. Maggie has recently dropped out of law school and now works in a women's shop. To avoid a confrontation with her mother, she makes up a success story and tells her that she's living in a beautiful apartment. As her mother is having her difficulties with her second husband, she decides to take her young son and come to live with Maggie for a while. Meanwhile, Maggie is housesitting the apartment of a female performer on tour. As fate might have it, she runs across Kim again and they find themselves at the new apartment making love in the shower -- at which moment Maggie's mother and little brother step in. The film was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Debuting over the CTV network on January 23, 1998, the hour-long Canadian drama series Cold Squad was a precursor in both style and substance to the American weekly Cold Case. The series involved the concerted efforts of a dedicated Vancouver detective unit to reopen and (hopefully) solve unsolved murder cases, some of them several decades old. Julie Stewart headed the cast as Sgt. Ali McCormick, the unofficial head of the squad. There was a great deal of personnel turnover during the series' seven seasons on the air, with a complete supporting-cast overhaul at the beginning of Season Three (see the huge cast list below). The winner of eight Gemini Awards, the 98-episode Cold Squad ended its Canadian run on June 4, 2005; it was picked up for syndication in the United States on September 15, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The heartwarming story of a boy, his dog and a basketball forms the basis of this family comedy from Disney. Snively (Michael Jeter) is an unfunny clown whose appearances at children's parties are usually upstaged by his dog Buddy, who has learned how to shoot a basketball. Snively is tired of being upstaged by the pooch, and he eventually abandons him. Buddy is taken in by Josh (Kevin Zegers), a shy boy whose father recently died. Josh's mother Jackie (Wendy Makkena) moves them to a small town in Washington, where the naturally withdrawn Josh doesn't quite fit in. Too shy to try out for the basketball team, he instead becomes team manager, and he practices on his own after the team goes home. One night, Josh discovers Buddy that can not only shoot hoops, but he's a better shot than anyone on the team. Coach Barker (Stephen E. Miller), hungry for victory, adds Buddy to the team and soon the dog with game is famous -- just famous enough, in fact, for Snively to return, demanding the return of his pet. Buddy the Dog was spotted by the film's producers shooting baskets on the "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment of The Late Show with David Letterman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this strikingly original independent drama from Canada, a young woman finds that her obsession with death is challenged when she falls in love with a handsome medical student. Sandra Larson (Molly Parker) was fascinated with the dead from an early age; as a girl, she and her best friend would find the bodies of birds and small animals and devise funeral rituals for them, though Sandra always took these adventures far more seriously than her compatriot. As Sandra matures into womanhood, her obsession with the deceased begins to develop a sexual component, but her necrophilia is not about lust so much as a spiritual yearning for the light and calm of death's embrace. In college, Sandra studies embalming, which allows her to study and embrace death on a daily basis, and she finds work at a funeral home owned by Mr. Wallis (Jay Brazeau), a man who in his way shares her obsessions. One day at a coffeeshop, Sandra meets Matt (Peter Outerbridge), who is studying to be a doctor; she senses that he knows her secrets, and a tentative romance blooms between them. But while Matt wants to "cure" Sandra of her intimate feelings for death, she finds that he's not capable of understanding her erotic nature, which is directed within herself more than outward toward others. Understandably controversial upon its initial release (though far more subtle and poetic than one might expect given the subject matter), Kissed was the first feature film from director Lynne Stopkewich, who previously distinguished herself as a production designer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When young computer genius Rudy inherits his father's business, he is at first unprepared to do battle with his avaricious uncle, who has him kidnapped and held hostage until the boy signs off all rights to the lucrative enterprise. Not wanting the uncle to control the business following Rudy's disappearance, a pair of corporate executives happen upon a youth who looks just like the missing heir. In hopes of keeping the business afloat, they substitute him at the board meetings. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A teen from Los Angeles and her recently widowed mother move back to the family's Pacific Northwest home in 1980 to try to reassemble their lives. Young teen Beth at first hates country living, but then she meets the outspoken, defiant Jody and the two become fast friends. Jody has quite a reputation and has had to deal with the shame of having an alcoholic mother. Beth and Jody both adore Winnie the Pooh, and share an adventurous spirit. This spirit gets them into trouble when they decide to go explore the mysterious caves beneath Bear Mountain. Legend has it that in one of those caves, a very lucrative, 100-year-old lost gold mine can be found. This adventure chronicles Beth and Jody's experiences beneath the great mountain. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Seinfeld's Jason Alexander stars in this made-for-television remake of the 1963 classic musical. Alexander stars as Albert J. Peterson, a man hoping to make his fortune and get the girl by promoting the big send-off for a newly drafted pop star named Conrad Birdie (Marc Kudish). A song-and-dance movie, actress-dancer Ann Reinking served as choreographer of this film. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide