Bruce Joel Rubin Movies
Bruce Joel Rubin has expressed a fixation on matters of life and death -- or more specifically, on the afterlife and cognition immediately before death. As a writer, he has explored the human psyche in original ways, pushing both the limits of human thought and understanding, as well as the limits of filmmaking as a story-telling device. His screenwriting career has left marks both artistically, as well as in the realm of mainstream entertainment values, and has received awards for several motion pictures bearing his name in the credits.Rubin was born on March 10, 1943, in Detroit, MI. He spent time traveling to Greece, India, Tibet, and Nepal, where he explored religion and culture. He was married to Blanche Mallins, and returned to the Midwest to earn his graduate degree before relocating to Los Angeles. His film credits date back to 1970, when he co-directed (with Brian De Palma and Richard Schechner) a pseudo-documentary of a series of stage performances entitled Dionysus. He wrote the stories for both Brainstorm (1983), and director Wes Craven's Deadly Friend (1986). Twenty years after his first film credit, he would grace the world with two piercingly brilliant screenplays, both in 1990. One of these films was the artistically acclaimed Jacob's Ladder, directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Tim Robbins. The story involves a young Vietnam vet, formerly victimized by mysterious substance experiments, and the film itself experiments with viewer psyche in the way reality gets distorted, confused, and essentially made indecipherable. The protagonist is also plagued by memories of a lost child and a failed marriage, incorporating Rubin's classic themes of death and life events. Ghost, the devastating love story starring Patrick Swayze, Whoopi Goldberg, and Demi Moore, earned Rubin an Oscar for Best Screenplay in 1990. This film, a box-office smash, dealt with the interaction between real life and the supernatural, as well as the notions of lingering feelings and energy after death. Both a mystery-thriller and a romantic drama, the film was well received by an extremely wide audience range, and has earned its rank amongst the modern classics. In 1991, Rubin's script for Deceived was made into an action-thriller starring Goldie Hawn. Two years later, he wrote and directed My Life, depicting a man's memoirs as he collected them for the child his wife was still carrying. The film starred Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman. Rubin's Hollywood film credits continued with a writing credit alongside Michael Tolkin on Deep Impact in 1998. He also wrote the screenplay for the film Stuart Little 2 (2002), based on the classic children's story by E.B. White. ~ Sarah Sloboda, All Movie Guide
- 2009
- PG13
- Add The Time Traveler's Wife to Queue
A Chicago librarian suffers from a rare genetic disorder that sends him hurtling through time whenever he is under extreme duress; despite the fact that he vanishes at inordinately frequent and lengthy intervals, he attempts to build a stable future with the beautiful young heiress he loves. Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams star in this dramatic fantasy, which is directed by Robert Schwentke and based on the best-selling book by author Audrey Niffenegger. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, (more)
New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye's directorial debut, the family-friendly science-fiction tale The Last Mimzy is an adaptation of a short story by Lewis Padgett. The story concerns a young brother and sister, Noah and Emma Wilder (Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn), who discover a strange box of artifacts one day while vacationing at the family's summer cottage. When the objects in the box begin to act in strange and mysterious ways, the pair decides to hide it from their mother (Joely Richardson) and workaholic father (Timothy Hutton). When Noah begins to display a previously unknown flair for advanced scientific concepts, the boy's teacher (Rainn Wilson) takes an interest in him. The two youngsters soon become the object of much interest from the government after their new discovery causes a large blackout. Eventually, the duo discovers that they are responsible for helping save the future of humankind, and Emma's precious stuffed rabbit might be something much more than it appears to be. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris O'Neil, Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, (more)
This sequel to a family hit based on the popular children's book by E.B. White again mixes live action actors with computer-animated cartoon characters. Michael J. Fox returns as the voice of Stuart Little, a three-inch tall talking mouse adopted by a human family in New York City. When his older "brother", George (Jonathan Lipnicki), starts spending more time with his other friends, playing games that Mrs. Little (Geena Davis) feels are too dangerous for the diminutive Stuart, the lonely fellow goes in search of companionship and finds it when he makes the acquaintance of Margalo (voice of Melanie Griffith), a tiny bird wounded by a sinister falcon (voice of James Woods) that is relentlessly pursuing her. While Margalo's busted wing heals up the Littles' house, Stuart grows closer to her and falls in love, but his new pal is hiding a secret that involves the villainous falcon and jewelry theft. In order to save his friend and their friendship, Stuart must call upon the assistance of the dreaded Snowbell (voice of Nathan Lane), the Little family cat with a Catskills comic delivery and no great love of Stuart. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael J. Fox, Geena Davis, (more)
Mimi Leder (The Peacemaker) directed this science-fiction disaster drama about the possible extinction of human life after a comet is discovered headed toward Earth with the collision only one year away. Ambitious MSNBC reporter Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni) stumbles onto the story, prompting a White House press conference. United States President Beck (Morgan Freeman) announces the government's solution: a team of astronauts will travel to the comet and destroy it. The team leader aboard the spaceship Messiah is Spurgeon Tanner (Robert Duvall), who was once the last man to walk on the moon. However, the mission fails, splitting off a chunk of the comet, now due to land in the Atlantic with the impact sending a 350-foot tidal wave flooding 650 miles inland, destroying New York and other cities. The larger part of the comet, hitting in Canada, will trigger an E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event), not unlike a "nuclear winter" as dust clouds block out the sun and bring life to an end. President Beck reveals Plan B: a cavernous underground retreat constructed to hold one million Americans, with most to be selected through a national lottery. Since teenage amateur astronomer Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood) discovered the comet, his family gets a pass to enter the cave, but his girlfriend Sarah (Leelee Sobieski) and her parents will be left behind. Meanwhile, still in space, Spurgeon Tanner devises a plan for a kamikaze-styled operation that could possibly save the Earth. Special visual effects by Scott Farrar and Industrial Light & Magic. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Morgan Freeman, Robert Duvall, (more)
In My Life, Michael Keaton stars as Bob Jones, who has just been informed that his wife Gail (Nicole Kidman) is pregnant with their first child. However, he has also been told he has kidney cancer that has spread to his lungs; the longest Bob is expected to live is four months, which will deny him the joy of witnessing the birth of his child. Raging within, he visits a Chinese healer, Mr. Ho (Haing S. Ngor), who encourages him to let go of all the anger and fear he has kept trapped inside himself. Bob proceeds to videotape himself, on the advice of Mr. Ho, where Bob will talk to his unborn child and discuss what he has learned in life. In the process of the videotape sessions, Bob discovers that his anger resides in his past with his family, and Bob reveals secrets that he has kept hidden from himself and his wife through the years. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Keaton, Nicole Kidman, (more)
Hot off her success in Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts starred in this thriller about a battered wife stalked by her abusive husband. Roberts plays Laura Burney, the wife of a rich investment counselor, Martin (Patrick Bergin). Martin appreciates his wife as a trophy, but at home he abuses her for not keeping the house as clean as he would like it. The verbal abuse descends into physical violence --so much so that Laura decides to disappear rather than live a life under Martin as a brutalized slave. Laura fakes her own death by drowning, and relocates to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she changes her name to Sara Waters. She starts a relationship with her friendly Iowa neighbor Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson), but her happiness is short-lived. Martin has discovered that Laura has staged her drowning and is coming to Iowa to reclaim his possession. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin, (more)
Goldie Hawn delivers a surprisingly understated performance (allowing the audience to shift their laughter from the usually comic Hawn to the unbelievable storyline) in the unsuccessful thriller Deceived. Hawn plays Adrienne Saunders, a successful art restorer who is married to Jack (John Heard), a devoted husband who is also an expert in the antiques business. Married for six years and parents of a charming 5-year-old daughter Mary (Ashley Peldon), the Saunders appear to have everything going for them. But after a series of odd occurrences that even an idiot would notice, Adrienne finally comes the conclusion that her husband is not the man she thought he was when she married him. After Jack tells Mary that he was in Boston but Adrienne's friend tells her she saw him in New York, the mysterious clues begin piling up and are too numerous to ignore: there's a call from a department store concerning some sexy lingerie that Jack purchased; a friend is found murdered after checking on the authenticity of an Egyptian necklace; and there are indications that Jack was involved with a scheme to steal artifacts from a museum. Adrienne is finally convinced that something is fishy about her husband when he mysteriously dies is an auto wreck, and she discovers that Jack has been using the name of a man who had died 16 years earlier. Adrienne proceeds to polish her magnifying glass and conducts some detective work on her own to find out who her husband really was. This is when the danger really begins. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Goldie Hawn, John Heard, (more)
An interesting hybrid of popular film genres, Ghost showcases the talents of its entire cast. While out on the town one evening, New York couple Sam (Patrick Swayze) and Molly (Demi Moore) are confronted by a mugger. After submitting to his demands, Sam is murdered anyway. He then finds himself a disembodied spirit, invisible to the living world, wandering without hope until he finds a spiteful spirit aboard the subway (Vincent Schiavelli) who gives him some helpful pointers on how to co-exist. Soon Sam comes back into contact with those he knew in life, and he begins to learn piece-by-piece of his close friend and co-worker Carl's (Tony Goldwyn) embezzling plot which caused his death; the apparent mugging was, in fact, a premeditated murder. In the meantime, Carl has designs on Molly, and Sam is determined to extract revenge. He contacts a psychic (Whoopi Goldberg), and together, the two set out to serve justice and stop the maniacal Carl from getting to Molly. Blending comedy, romance, action, and horror, Ghost was a box-office smash and managed to garner five Academy Award nominations, including "Best Picture," "Best Supporting Actress" (Goldberg), "Best Original Screenplay," "Best Editing," and "Best Score"; Goldberg won her first Oscar. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, (more)
A tortured man finds himself caught in a middle-ground between hallucination and reality in this supernatural thriller, scripted by Bruce Joel Rubin of Ghost (1990) and My Life (1993).
Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is a soldier stationed in Vietnam who undergoes a traumatic experience on the battlefield - the nature of which is initially unclear. The film then moves into his post-Vietnam experience in 1970s New York, where he feels consistently traumatized, but can never quite remember exactly what happened to him in Southeast Asia or to free himself from his anxieties over the recent tragic death of his young son (Macaulay Culkin). Though well educated, Jacob works as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service and has become romantically involved with one of his co-workers, Jezzie (Elizabeth Pena), after divorcing his wife. Soon, Jacob's tenuous hold on reality starts to slip as horrifying events befall him; he is nearly run over by a subway train, pursued by faceless demons in cars, and spots reptilian tails and horns protruding from the bodies of those he encounters. Jacob also suffers severe panic attacks related to the chaos that may be reality, or may exist only in his mind. He seeks counsel from Louis (Danny Aiello), a kindly chiropractor, as his ex-wife Sarah (Patricia Kalember), fellow Vietnam vet Paul (Pruitt Taylor Vince), and enigmatic stranger Michael (Matt Craven) all try to help the tortured soul. Jason Alexander, Ving Rhames and Eriq LaSalle highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is a soldier stationed in Vietnam who undergoes a traumatic experience on the battlefield - the nature of which is initially unclear. The film then moves into his post-Vietnam experience in 1970s New York, where he feels consistently traumatized, but can never quite remember exactly what happened to him in Southeast Asia or to free himself from his anxieties over the recent tragic death of his young son (Macaulay Culkin). Though well educated, Jacob works as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service and has become romantically involved with one of his co-workers, Jezzie (Elizabeth Pena), after divorcing his wife. Soon, Jacob's tenuous hold on reality starts to slip as horrifying events befall him; he is nearly run over by a subway train, pursued by faceless demons in cars, and spots reptilian tails and horns protruding from the bodies of those he encounters. Jacob also suffers severe panic attacks related to the chaos that may be reality, or may exist only in his mind. He seeks counsel from Louis (Danny Aiello), a kindly chiropractor, as his ex-wife Sarah (Patricia Kalember), fellow Vietnam vet Paul (Pruitt Taylor Vince), and enigmatic stranger Michael (Matt Craven) all try to help the tortured soul. Jason Alexander, Ving Rhames and Eriq LaSalle highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, (more)
With the over-the-top gruesomeness of The Re-Animator to compare it to, Wes Craven's Deadly Friend limps into the second tier, coming across as a Frankenstein tale lost on Elm Street. Paul (Matthew Laborteaux) is a teen computer genius who has recently moved to a new town. The quiet and peaceful milieu permits him to continue experimenting with his life's work -- a human-like robot named Bee Bee. But Paul becomes smitten with the comely girl next door, Samantha (Kristy Swanson). For Samantha, however, the small-town life is less than quiet and peaceful; she is the victim of an abusive father, who she dreams of killing. During an argument, her father pushes her down the stairs, and she lapses into a coma. Paul, with the help of local paperboy pal Tom (Michael Sharrett), decides to implant Bee Bee's microchips into Samantha's brain to re-animate her back to life. But Samantha, restored to life and with the strength of an inhuman robot, decides to exact vengeance upon her father and the rest of the townspeople who have done her wrong. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Laborteaux, Kristy Swanson, (more)
Only Kelly Reno and Teri Garr from the cast of the original Black Stallion make appearances in The Black Stallion Returns. In the first film, young Reno rescued his beloved stallion from its cruel Arab owner. This time around, the stallion is abducted by Moroccan henchmen and bundled back to Africa. This paves the way for a repeat of all the salient action from the first Black Stallion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kelly Reno, Vincent Spano, (more)
Natalie Wood made her last screen appearance in Brainstorm; in fact, she died before the film was completed, necessitating extensive rewrites. Wood's character is secondary to the one played by Christopher Walken. A research scientist, Walken has been experimenting with a revolutionary brain-reading device. This wondrous machine is able to read a person's thought processes and translate these to videotape. When Walken wants to study the brainwaves of his late partner Louise Fletcher, he finds himself seriously at odds with his superiors-not to mention several ominous-looking government types, headed by Cliff Robertson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, (more)
Carrie meets Porky's as Charles in Charge co-stars Scott Baio and Willie Aames re-team for this mischievous-minded teen comedy about a hormonal high school science student suddenly bestowed with telekinetic powers. Emerson High School genius Barney Springboro (Baio) has a keen understanding of the periodic table of the elements, and a curious knack for experimentation. One day, while Barney is conducting a particularly sensitive experiment in horticulture, the lab is suddenly set ablaze, and his dreams appear to go up in flames. But any scientist will tell you that some of the best discoveries appear from the ashes of failure, and when Barney realizes that he now possesses the power of telekinesis his high school life suddenly becomes a lot more interesting. Of course the jocks don't stand a chance against a geek who can knock out a home run with the power of his mind, and as Barney's hormones take hold the skirts begin to flip and the tops begin to pop. Now, as the senior prom draws near, Barney does his best to land a date for the dance as his horrified parents put in a call to the local exorcist, his best friend Peyton (Aames) joins in on the fun, and a local reporter attempts to break the biggest story this small town has ever known. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Baio, Willie Aames, (more)
- 1970
This adaptation of "The Bacchae" by Euripides seems to be a collection of black and white home movies using hand held cameras. The filming and editing was done by Brian De Palma, but nothing distinguishes the film from being a filmed stage performance of writhing and groaning amateur actors and actresses. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Finley, William Shephard, (more)
