Kiefer Sutherland

Kiefer Sutherland stars as an NYPD detective-turned-security guard who discovers something sinister lurking in the mirrors of a fire-damaged department store in Haute Tension writer/director Alexandre Aja's menacing study in the origins of evil. It's been just about a year since mercurial police detective Ben Carson (Sutherland) was suspended from the NYPD for the fatal shooting of an undercover officer, and ever since that fateful day he's been locked in a self-destructive spiral of anger and alcoholism. Increasingly isolated from his wife and kids, Ben spends most nights crashed-out at his sister Angela's (Amy Smart) apartment in Queens. But Ben hasn't given up hope just yet, and in order to get his life back together and prove that he's still capable of supporting his family he takes a job as the night watchman at the Mayflower department store. The Mayflower used to be a lavish symbol of inner-city prosperity, that is, until a raging inferno gutted the building while claiming numerous lives in the process. These days, the Mayflower is a scorched reminder of human misery, the ornate mirrors therein reflecting a suffering so profound that it begins to wear on Ben's already-fragile psyche. Not only that, but whatever force dwells behind the shimmering glass seems to have gained the power to alter reality as well.

After Ben gazes into the mirrors and sees a vision of himself being relentlessly tortured, he is horrified to experience violent convulsions, spontaneous bleeding, and frightening asphyxiation. And while his sister is always willing to lend a sympathetic ear, she chalks the anomalies up to an unusually potent mix of stress and anxiety. Unfortunately for Ben, his estranged wife, Amy (Paula Patton), isn't nearly as forgiving. A prosaic NYPD medical examiner who has seen her fair share of tragedy, Amy fears that Ben's erratic behavior could be placing their children in danger. Later, as Ben begins to draw connections between his increasingly gruesome visions and a former Mayflower security guard who vanished without a trace, he begins to suspect that an unimaginable evil is using the mirrors as a gateway into the real world, and that his family is in mortal danger from forces beyond their realm of understanding. Perhaps if he Ben can manage to convince Amy that their children's lives are at risk, he can summon the courage to face the greatest evil he has ever known. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The weapon in question is not a firearm (as might be expected) but a camera: from the 1950s through the early 21st century, photojournalist and sports photographer Eddie Adams (1933-2004) caught a series of indelible images through his lens that dramatically reshaped the way in which the general public perceived the world. Adams perhaps gained broadest recognition for his wartime photography, delivering his most leaden punch in Vietnam, with a series of gritty, grainy and ere-shocking images that never shied from revealing the carnage and vile brutality of the war; in particular, his image of General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Vietcong prisoner via a gunshot to the head attained iconic status and led many to attribute the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam to Adams. Yet Vietnam only represented one of the photographer's coups; among other accomplishments, he "served" in twelve additional wars and used a series of photographic images to convince then-president Jimmy Carter to offer asylum to two hundred thousand boat people from Vietnam. In her documentary An Unlikely Weapon, filmmaker Susan Morgan Cooper takes on Adams as her subject, and - shearing away all explorations of his personal life and history - focuses exclusively on his professional life and personal vision as a photographer. Cooper cross-cuts between onscreen images of Adams's work and revealing interviews with many of his colleagues including Morley Safer, the late Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

In this animated film based on the popular series of fantasy books, six friends - a dwarf, a warrior, a half-elf, a mage, a knight and a kinder - have come together once again after spending five years searching for proof that the gods do in fact exist. Sadly, they reunite amidst rumors of a growing evil and an impending war - but now, with horror and chaos looming on the horizon, the goal of their searches may finally be within their grasp in the form of mysterious warrior princess bearing a crystal blue staff. A threat like none of them have seen is poised to overtake their homeland, but if these heroes can stand against it, they will become legends. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

A handful of zoo animals leave behind their well-protected environment for the streets of the big city in this computer-animated comedy. Sampson (voice of Kiefer Sutherland) is the king of a make-believe jungle far from the African plains -- he's a lion on display at a zoo in New York City's Central Park, and he lords it over the other animals, including Nigel (voice of Eddie Izzard), a testy koala bear; Larry, a dumb but well-meaning snake; ; Bridget (voice of Janeane Garofalo), a bright but cynical giraffe; and Benny (voice of Jim Belushi), a very New York-ish squirrel who is good friends with Sampson and is trying to romance Bridget without much success. The pride and joy of Sampson's life is his son, Ryan (voice of Greg Cipes), and he's devastated when one day Ryan is crated up and shipped back to Africa. Sampson is desperate to find his boy, and with the help of his pals he escapes the zoo and sets out on a daring mission to rescue Ryan, battling the unfamiliar terrain and Kazar, a wildebeest with a will to power and a passion for choreography (voice of William Shatner) along the way. The Wild was the first directorial credit for animator and special-effects artist Steve "Spaz" Williams. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Eighteen months after faking his own death, Jack Bauer is forced to return to Los Angeles when terrorist and assassinations force him out of hiding. Even more disturbing is the day's horrific events were originally set in motion by someone within our country's own administration - an individual with the power and resources to thwart Jack's every move.

Season four of the wildly successful "real-time" adventure series 24 begins some 18 months at the end of season three. John Keeler (Geoff Pierson) has succeeded David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) as president of the United States, and the new secretary of defense is James Heller (William Devane) -- who is also the new boss of crack CTU agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). One of Heller's first moves is to reunite Jack with his old nemesis Erin Driscoll (Alberta Watson), now the head of the CTU. Unbeknownst to most of the principal characters, Jack is in love with Heller's daughter (and policy assistant), Audrey Raines (Kim Raver), this despite the fact that Audrey is still legally married to estranged husband, Paul (James Frain). Outside of Jack Bauer and President Keeler, the only series character from season three to return as a regular in season four is CTU tech analyst Chloe O'Brien (Mary Lynn Rajskub); the rest of the cast is virtually brand-new. The "day" that comprises the fourth season begins, typically, with a nail-biting crisis, when James Heller and his daughter Audrey are captured by a terrorist group headed by Habib Marwan (Arnold Vosloo), who has already set a fiendish master plan in motion with a train bombing in the U.S. It soon develops that the abduction of Heller and Audrey is but a subterfuge to allow an enemy stealth bomber to blow up Air Force One and eliminate the president -- and ultimately to gain control of a nuclear warhead that will destroy a major U.S. city. Making matters worse, there is a turncoat in the ranks of the CTU -- and without giving the game away, it can be noted that CTU agent Sarah Gavin (Lana Parrilla) tumbles to the mole's identity before Jack Bauer does. As the tension mounts, Paul Raines is seriously wounded saving Jack during a covert mission, which "ices" Jack's relationship with Audrey; a shattering personal tragedy forces Erin Driscoll to resign from her post in mid-season; there is dissension in the terrorist ranks during a concerted effort to trigger nuclear meltdowns in six different cities; the seldom-used 25th Amendment is invoked to change presidents in midstream; and an old enemy of Jack's from the series' first two seasons appears virtually out of nowhere to make a terrible situation far worse than could ever be imagined. Clearly, the fourth season of 24 drew inspiration from the headlines of the day, notably the controversial treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The series also was attacked by certain special-interest groups for making several of the villains Arabs, or of Arab descent. And of course, there were those who carped that the series' notion of "real time" (each episode consisted of a single uninterrupted hour in the same day) resulted in some rather ludicrous lapses of logic. But 24 was as big a hit in the ratings throughout its fourth season as it had been all along. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A female detective on the trail of a psychotic killer discovers love in a dangerous time in this thriller, based on the novel by Michael Pye. Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie) is a special agent with the FBI who has a reputation for using offbeat methods, but also boasts a strong record as a criminal profiler. Scott is called in by a former Quantico colleague (Tcheky Karyo) to assist two Canadian police detectives, Paquette (Olivier Martinez) and Duval (Jean-Hugues Anglade), who are on the trail of a serial killer who has been doing business in and around Montreal for close to two decades. The murderer has a history of assimilating many aspects of the lives of his victims after he kills them, but there's been a witness to his most recent crime. Art gallery owner James Costa (Ethan Hawke) saw the killer during an assault, and now finds himself working as an only marginally willing decoy for Scott. As Scott and Costa follow the killer's trail, they find themselves becoming attracted to one another, which is not necessarily a comfort to Scott as she finds her quarry moving closer and closer. Taking Lives also stars Kiefer Sutherland and Gena Rowlands. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Simon Wincer directs the 40-minute film NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience. It includes interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, plenty of high-speed racing action, and multiple points-of-view created by remote control-operated IMAX 3D cameras mounted to the outside of race cars, as well as the helicopter-mounted SpaceCam. Also included are interviews with top racers, such as Winston Cup Champion Tony Stewart. Narrated by Kiefer Sutherland, NASCAR 3D premiered in IMAX theaters in March 2004. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

The third outing of Fox's real-time drama series 24 once again follows the adventures of Kiefer Sutherland's rough-and-tumble Agent Jack Bauer of the U.S. government's Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU). Many familiar faces are along for the ride, including Jack's daughter, Kim (Elisha Cuthbert), fellow CTU agents Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) and Michelle Dessler-Almeida (Reiko Aylesworth), and President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), while a number of new characters have been introduced. Among the newcomers are Chase Edmunds (James Badge Dale), a young CTU agent who has been dating Kim without Jack's knowledge, and Wayne Palmer (D.B. Woodside), the president's brother and new Chief of Staff. The story this time around centers on a deadly biological weapon that a terrorist is threatening to release in Los Angeles. The mission to thwart the attack first takes Jack to Mexico where he'd been working undercover with a drug cartel and acquired an addiction to heroin. As the episodes continue, Jack attempts to trace the virus to the man behind the plot, and more than a few characters meet their demise. The fate of the Palmer administration hangs in the balance. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Littlefoot the Dinosaur sets out on a spectacular journey and makes a very unexpected discovery in this, the tenth film in the Land Before Time series. Youthful brontosaurus Littlefoot (voice of Alec Medlock) has a vivid dream in which he imagines travelling to a far-away land where there are many of his kind, and when he tells the story to his grandparents (voices of Kenneth Mars and Mariam Flynn), they take it as a sign to set out and find this mysterious place. After days of travel, Littlefoot and his family do, indeed, discover a new world where longneck dinosaurs are plentiful, including one they never expected to see -- Bron (voice of Kiefer Sutherland), Littlefoot's father, who went missing before he was born. While Littlefoot is thrilled to be reunited with his father, now he must choose if he should stay with Bron, or the grandparents who have cared for him for years. The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration also features the voice talents of James Garner and Bernadette Peters; Olivia Newton-John sings the theme song. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Set in New York and New England (but filmed in Newfoundland), Behind the Red Door stars Kyra Sedgwick as Manhattan-based photographer Natalie Haddad, who enjoys success with her strangely gloomy and foreboding camerawork. When her agent and best friend Julia (Stockard Channing) arranges for her to accept a lucrative contract with a Boston ad agency, Natalie discovers that she will be working for her own gay brother Roy (Kiefer Sutherland), whom she hasn't seen in a decade. Although Roy is insufferably snobbish and manipulative, he manages to exert a curious control over Natalie, forcing her to confront several disturbing, long-suppressed memories of her past (shown in black-and-white flashbacks). Before the film is over, Natalie is made to realize why Roy's behavior is so overbearing -- and also, the viewer learns just how intimately Julia is involved in the lives of both siblings. Underwritten by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation as part of an ongoing program to heighten HIV/AIDS awareness, Behind the Red Door made its Showtime cable-network bow on January 12, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide