Frank Novak Movies

300's Zack Snyder brings Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' critically acclaimed comic book Watchmen to the big screen, courtesy of DC Comics and Warner Bros. Pictures. Set in an alternate universe circa 1985, the film's world is a highly unstable one where a nuclear war is imminent between America and Russia. Superheroes have long been made to hang up their tights thanks to the government-sponsored Keene Act, but that all changes with the death of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a robust ex-hero commando whose mysterious free fall out a window perks the interest of one of the country's last remaining vigilantes, Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley). His investigation leads him to caution many of his other former costumed colleagues, including Dr. Manhattan, Night Owl (Patrick Wilson), Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), Sally Jupiter (Carla Gugino), and her daughter, The Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman). Heralded for bringing the world of superheroes into the literary world, Watchmen gave the super-powered mythos a real-life grounding that had been missing in mainstream comics to that point. The film adaptation had languished in one form of development hell or another for years after the book's release, with various directors on and off the project, including Terry Gilliam, David Hayter, and Darren Aronofsky, as well as Paul Greengrass, whose eventual dismissal stemmed from budget conflicts with the studio. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

A woman discovers that a part of her family history may be more complicated -- and more famous -- than she ever imagined in this comedy. Thirtysomething Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston), who has spent most of her adult life in New York City, is flying home to California with her long time boyfriend, Jeff Daly (Mark Ruffalo), for the wedding of her annoyingly perky younger sister, Annie (Mena Suvari). While Sarah and Jeff have recently announced they're engaged to be married, Sarah has been having second thoughts, and she isn't excited about the prospect of spending time with the family where she's always felt like the odd duck. As Sarah tries to decide what she should do with her personal and professional lives, she turns to her sharp-tongued and still youthful grandmother, Katharine (Shirley MacLaine), for advice, and Katharine shares a little-known bit of family history -- that Sarah's now-deceased mother left her father, Earl (Richard Jenkins), a few days before their wedding and ran off with another man for several days before coming back and marrying Earl. However, after hearing this Sarah is also treated to some long-simmering local gossip about a young man who ran off with a bride-to-be after he was seduced by her mother...and that the story became the basis for the hit movie The Graduate. Sarah begins to wonder, was Katharine the real-life Mrs. Robinson of this story? And if it's true, who was the man who had affairs with Sarah's mother and grandmother? Was it dashing and wealthy family friend Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner), who has also turned Sarah's head? Rumor Has It... was produced from an original screenplay by Ted Griffin; Griffin was originally set to direct the film, but shortly after production began he was replaced, with Rob Reiner taking over the project. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Paul Millander (Matt O'Toole), the serial killer who taunted the squad throughout the first season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, is back in business. Claiming a third victim, Millander repeats his previous M.O., leaving behind a tape suggesting that the victim committed suicide. But Grissom (William L. Petersen) not only concludes that no suicide has occurred, but also ascertains that the victim's birth date was August 17, the same day in 1959 that Millander's own father was killed -- and, more chillingly, the same day in 1956 that Grissom himself was born. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker Frank Novak debuts with this wild satire about a white trash marriage that's coming apart at the seams. Fanatical toy collector Don (Bob Mills) and his Italian-born wife Donatella (Petra Westen) are so estranged from one another that they use their only child Don, Jr. (Andrew Eichner) as a go-between. The warring couple both still live in their rundown North Hollywood bungalow, even though their divorce court date is in only two weeks. Donatella is too afraid of losing all of her belongings to move out, while Don is using every trick in the book to drive her out. When he learns that Donatella, who works as a forklift operator, has the hots for female company manager Marion (Tracey Adams), Don goes berserk. He builds a wall clean through the middle of the house with a little doggy-door so that Don, Jr. can shuttle between the two halves. As the film progresses, the tranquility of Donatella and Marion's half contrasts sharply with the high-school basement party atmosphere of Don's, which is populated with an increasingly motley array of drug-addled toy collectors and general freaks. His loser brother-in-law Chuck (Zia) agrees to act as a house security guard in exchange for being allowed to live in Don's car with his crack-addict girlfriend Tiffany (Maeve Kerrigan). Meanwhile, men's rights advocate and gun nut Joe (Al Schuermann) arms Don with guns and eventually a rocket launcher -- after which things get really out of control. This film won the Grand Prize at the 2000 Slamdance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Mr. Turner (Anthony Tyler Quinn), who hencefore shall be referred to as Jonathan, decides that it is time to become legal guardian of homeless teenager Shawn (Rider Strong). But Shawn himself has other ideas; he wants to hit the road and return to his biological father Chet (Blake Clark). . .and what's more, he's gotten it into his head that Jonathan is not sincere in his wish to take care of him. Meanwhile, Mr. Feeny (William Daniels) assigns Eric (Will Friedle) to tutor a high school athlete named Jeff (Bobby Jacoby)--a curious choice, in that Eric's grades aren't much better than Jeff's. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Connie Sellecca portrays another 1990s woman in peril in this made-for-television thriller. Sellecca stars as Sharon Blake, a successful career woman who has a passionate affair with a possessive man (Gregory Harrison). When she tries to break off the relationship though, she uncovers the dark side of her former lover, who starts stalking and harassing her. Harrison (Trapper John, M.D.) is effectively creepy as the obsessed, spurned ex-lover. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Two men meet in a diner on a desert highway--an uptight, reserved motorist (Lance Henriksen) and an overbearing, insistent hitchhiker (Eric Roberts). A dangerous balance results when it becomes clear that one of the two is a serial killer known in the media as "The Hatchet Man," while the other is a fugitive who has robbed a casino. With two capable actors and plenty of tension, it is slowly revealed which one is which. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide

As if losing both her husband and her money isn't enough, a woman in her mid-20s also finds herself married to a 12-year-old boy (who doesn't even like her) in the comedy Holy Matrimony. Havana (Patricia Arquette) is an aspiring showgirl who is working at a sleazy carnival while she dreams of her big break. Short on cash, Havana's boyfriend Peter (Tate Donovan) comes up with a plan; while Havana flirts with her boss, Peter will swipe his keys and lift the day's take from the carnival's safe. After grabbing the cash, Havana and Peter hightail it to Canada, where Peter figures that they can hole up with his family. However, Peter didn't always lead a life of crime; he was raised in a Hutterite community, and while Peter's Uncle Wilhelm (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and younger brother Ezechiel (Joseph Gordon Levitt) are glad to see him, they don't think much of Havana, whose brassy personality convinces them that she was the one who led Peter down the wrong path. To make peace with his family, Peter marries Havana, but not long after, he dies in a car wreck. Hutterite custom demands that when a man dies, his widow is to marry his brother; the catch in this case is that Ezechiel is only 12 years old and understandably not interested in matrimony. However, Havana agrees to the marriage, largely because Ezechiel knows where Peter stashed the earnings from the robbery and Havana does not. Havana's ignorance of Hutterite traditions and lack of enthusiasm for their austere lifestyle is a matter of no small annoyance to her, but Ezechiel shrewdly uses his knowledge about Peter's hidden bankroll to persuade Havana to lead a more righteous life. Holy Matrimony was directed by Leonard Nimoy in one of his periodic breaks from acting. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

One of the more popular features from Roger Corman's "B"-factory Concorde/New Horizons, Carnosaur perpetuates the grand Corman tradition of zeroing in on a big-budget Hollywood studio moneymaker, then dashing off a quick-and-dirty poor man's version before moss gets a chance to grow on the larger film's concept. This bargain-basement spin on Jurassic Park was actually based on a novel by John Brosnan (under the pseudonym Harry Adam Knight). It features Diane Ladd (whose daughter Laura Dern took the high road on Spielberg's film) as a kooky mad scientist whose experiments on human and dinosaur DNA result in dual disasters -- first, a rubbery midget Tyrannosaurus bred from dinosaur and chicken DNA (imagine the barbecue potential!) which escapes the lab and goes on the requisite bloody rampage; and second, a specially-engineered virus with the ability to replace human beings with dino-babies. Although this exploitation quickie doesn't waste too much time delivering the standard Corman cargo (blood and breasts), the mayhem is too often derailed by endless genetic techno-babble from Ladd, whose freaked-out performance is the film's sole plus. The downbeat ending is pure '80s, and paves the way for the inevitable sequels. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Shortly after O'Brien is assigned to service the food replicators, Deep Space Nine falls victim to a mysterious and fatal virus. O'Brien, of course, is not responsible; the virus, long dormant, had been placed in the station's system years earlier to disable the Cardassians. Kira races against time to find an antidote, her task made doubly difficult by the fact that the virus renders its victims unable to communicate. First aired January 23, 1993, "Babel" was scripted by Michael McGreevey and Naren Shankar from a story by Sally Caves and Ira Steven Behr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stephen King wrote his first original screenplay for this horror gore fest that features cameos by directors Clive Barker, Joe Dante, Tobe Hooper, John Landis, and King himself (playing a cemetery attendant). The story concerns a twilight people named "sleepwalkers" --creatures similar to vampires and werewolves whose faces turn animalistic whenever they are frightened or angry and who require the lifeforce of a virgin to survive. A single-parent sleepwalker family, consisting of Mary Brady (Alice Krige) and her son Charles (Brian Krause), have taken up residence in a small Indiana town. Charles has expressed a romantic interest in the attractive Tanya Robertson (Madchen Amick), a girl in his high school literature class. Mary wants Charles to lure Tanya home so that she can suck out her life force, but it appears that Charles has fallen in love with her --that is, until their first date, at a picnic at the cemetery. There Charles changes from a shy romantic suitor into a brutal and violent force, slapping Tanya around and attempting to rape her. But Tanya wards off his advances by plunging a corkscrew into his torso. Charles staggers back home to mother, where she nurses him back to health. Then Charles and his mother seek vengeance upon the Robertson family. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In an episode blatantly inspired by current events (those of early 1991, that is), the network carrying "FYI" is taken over by a huge corporation called American Industrial Enterprises. Almost immediately, the company's barracudalike VP Barbara Boyle (Nancy Youngblut) begins imposing Draconian budget limitations on the "FYI" staffers; at one point, investigative reporter Frank [Joe Regalbuto] is forced to go undercover wearing only a ludicrous pair of "Groucho glasses" as a disguise. Finally, Murphy (Candice Bergen) decides to stage a revolt--with astonishing results. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide