Edward R. Pressman Movies

Blade's Stephen Norrington resurrects James O'Barr's Crow character with this redo of Alex Proyas' gothic actioner. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Famous onscreen villain Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) returns to the big screen with Wall Street 2, once again directed by Oliver Stone. This installment promises a "ripped from the headlines" plot, with Gekko teaching co-star Shia LaBeouf the ins and outs of criminal investments. Frost/Nixon's Frank Langella co-stars along with Susan Sarandon. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

After profiling Monica Lewinsky, Billy Haynes, and Tammy Faye Bakker, documentarians Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato make their feature debut with this true-life tale of the rapid climb and lurid demise of a flamboyant young club promoter in late-'80s/early-'90s Manhattan. Based on James St. James' nonfiction account Disco Bloodbath as well as on the writer/directors' own 1998 documentary, Party Monster features former child star Macaulay Culkin as Michael Alig, a Midwestern teen determined to forget his past amidst the bright lights and throbbing house music of New York City's nightlife. Introduced to the club scene by St. James (Seth Green), Alig quickly becomes an event promoter himself, dreaming up bizarrely themed dance parties in such unlikely venues as fast-food restaurants and subway cars. But this archetypical "club kid" orchestrates his own downfall when, stoned on designer drugs, he and accomplice Freez (Justin Hagan) brutally murder their small-time dealer friend Angel Menendez (Wilson Cruz). Party Monster had its world premiere in the Dramatic Competition at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Straight From the Projects is a series of video releases. Each episode in the series documents a visit from a rap act to their hometown. This edition showcases M.O.P. as they lead viewers through the mean streets of Brownsville, Brooklyn. This documentary is hosted by Cypress Hill's B-Real. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

While a number of American and European films have examined the horrible legacy of the Third Reich and the Holocaust, Du Sollst Nicht Toeten is one of the first dramatic films from Germany to examine the crimes of the Nazi era and their impact on the German psyche. Peter Rohm (Kai Wiesinger) is a successful lawyer living in Berlin with his wife Rebekka (Karoline Eichhorn). One day, Peter receives an unusual package in the mail -- a Nazi officer's uniform. Puzzled, Peter does some research which suggests that the uniform once belonged to fugitive war criminal Josef Mengele. Peter is soon visited by a mysterious stranger named Mueller (Heinz Trixner), who slips him a powerful drug. When he awakes, Peter is in Argentina, where he's introduced to an elderly man who has lived for years under the name Heinz Baumgarten, but announces that he is in fact Joseph Mengele (Goetz George). Mengele has decided to return to Germany to stand trial for war crimes, and he wants Peter to represent him; Peter reluctantly agrees. As the German media goes into a frenzy and angry demonstrations crowd the streets, Mengele calmly argues that he was merely a research scientist whose work ultimately aided humanity, and that no firm evidence links him to any murders. While a handful of eyewitnesses offer support to the accusations against Mengele, no one seems able to present hard evidence that contradicts Mengele's claims. Adapted from a screenplay by American writers Christopher Riley and Kathleen Riley (which no U.S. producers were willing to film), Du Sollst Nicht Toeten so impressed Goetz George that he helped finance the film to the tune of one million marks; Kai Wiesinger was also enthusiastic about the material and waived his usual fee in order to aid production of the picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a rookie cop who witnesses a robbery in progress on her first night on the job. With her more experienced partner using the men's room, Megan decides to take action on her own. She creeps into the supermarket where a man (Tom Sizemore in a small role) is holding the clerk at gunpoint. Megan gets close enough to shoot the gunman, and calls out for him to drop his weapon. He spins the gun toward her, and she unloads her service revolver into his chest. His gun goes flying, and a bystander, Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver), surreptitiously picks it up and takes it home. Megan's superiors, unable to confirm that the man she shot was armed, suspend her. Eugene, a wealthy commodities broker, becomes obsessed with Megan. He sets up an "accidental" meeting between them and begins dating her, romancing her with fancy restaurants and helicopter rides over Manhattan. He also carves her name into the bullets he uses to gun down strangers in the street. A tough homicide detective, Nick Mann (Clancy Brown of The Shawshank Redemption), gets Megan's gun and badge back so she can help him track down the psycho killer. Eventually, Megan realizes that Eugene is the killer, but he uses his money and influence to elude the law, and he starts coming after Megan's friends and family. Megan's determination to bring Eugene to justice quickly becomes a very personal obsession. This intense cop drama, Blue Steel, was director Kathryn Bigelow's major studio follow-up to her well-received indie vampire flick, Near Dark. Bigelow co-wrote both films with Eric Red (The Hitcher). ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Having made as many films as he had years, at 31, Rainer Werner Fassbinder essayed a slightly different approach for his 32nd film, Despair. Here, he uses a witty screenplay written by the well-known playwright Tom Stoppard, based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Furthermore, the entire film, set in 1930s Germany, is in English. It received mixed reviews, if only because it is so unlike the director's other works. In the story, a Russian owner of a German chocolate-factory, whose business and marriage are both on the rocks, fantasizes about leaving his current life, and living another one. Indeed, he has delusions that he is somehow outside himself, watching himself live his life. So strong is his desire to alter his life that when he encounters a tramp while on a brief business trip, he imagines that the man looks exactly like him, decides to exchange identities with the tramp, and murders him. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Steampunk aesthetics inform this story of a dystopic future in which humankind wages an explosive last stand against the demonic NecroMutants, who would see the entire human race brutally annihilated. Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, Devon Aoki, and John Malkovich star in this effects-heavy sci-fi action thriller from director Simon Hunter (Dead of Night). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A young man exacts a thorough revenge against the father who abandoned him in this independent drama. Elvis (Gael García Bernal) is a young man in his early twenties who, after finishing a hitch in the Navy, learns that his biological father was Pastor David Sandow (William Hurt), a man of the cloth who has never taken responsibility for siring a child out of wedlock. Elvis travels to Corpus Christi, TX, to confront Sandow about his past; the pastor asks Elvis to let him break the news to his wife and children himself, and assures the young man he wants to stay in contact with him. Elvis, however, prefers to handle matters in his own way. First Elvis sets his sights on Malerie (Pell James), the pastor's teenage daughter, and after winning her trust, takes the girl's virginity. Malerie soon discovers she's pregnant, and after her older brother Paul (Paul Dano) sees Elvis slipping out of the house following a liason with the girl, he confronts the seducer and is stabbed and killed.
Elvis manages to cover his tracks cleanly enough that no one is certain Paul is dead. Next, Elvis goes to great lengths to ingratiate himself with Sandow, and despite the objections of his wife (Laura Harring), the pastor eventually invites the man who killed his son and violated his daughter to live under the same roof with his family. The King was the first dramatic feature from director James Marsh, who previously distinguished himself in documentaries. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A Vietnamese man looking for a better life embarks on a dangerous and eye-opening voyage to America in this powerful drama set during the early '90s. In 1990, Binh (Damien Nguyen) is a man in his early twenties who has never known his parents, though he is clearly of mixed-race parentage, which makes him an outcast in his community. Weary of being treated like an animal, Binh sets out to find his mother, Mai (Thi Kim Xuan Chau), only to discover she works as a servant for a wealthy family who subject her to constant abuse, and that she has a baby son. When a household accident leads to the death of the matriarch, Mai, her infant, and Binh go on the run. Mai then confesses to Binh that she's dying, gives him all the money she has, and implores him to leave Vietnam for America, with his half-brother in tow. Unable to travel to America legally, Binh attempts to smuggle his way into the States aboard a ship; he's found out, and is sent to a prison camp in Malaysia, where he meets Ling (Bai Ling), a beautiful woman who has been forced into prostitution to support herself. Befriending Ling, Binh eventually arranges for passage to America aboard a refugee ship, though the harrowing voyage claims the life of Binh's half-brother. Binh and Ling arrive in New York City as illegal aliens, and soon learn that life in America can be just as harrowing as what they left behind; eventually, Binh runs away, hoping to make his way to Texas where he's learned that his father is living. Produced by Terrence Malick, The Beautiful Country also features supporting performances from Nick Nolte and Tim Roth. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

From a script from first-time scribe James Gibson comes this filmed adaptation of ex-gangster Donald Goines' 1974 novel Never Die Alone. Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson (Juice, Bones), the films stars David Arquette as Paul Pawlowski, a reporter who takes an interest in gang kingpin King David, played by rapper/actor DMX. When King David is killed, Pawlowski happens upon the criminal's journal and envelops himself in his story. From there, the rise and fall of King David is covered in flashbacks as Pawlowski makes his way through the diary. Aisha Tyler and Jennifer Sky co-star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

The amoral world of a handful of Wall Street businessmen is delineated in this black comedy written by Lemony Snicket creator Daniel Handler. Rick takes as its central character a mid-level manager (Bill Pullman) working in a nameless corporation for a boss, Duke (Aaron Stanford), who's nearly half his age. Duke and Rick are constantly one-upping each other around the office; compounding their contentious relationship is the fact that Duke is pursuing Rick's daughter, Eve (Agnes Bruckner), a teenager who frequents Internet sex-chat rooms. Rick thinks he has found the solution to his work problems in Buck (Dylan Baker), an old college buddy who's become a paid hitman; for a fee, he'll take care of anyone who comes between Rick and his climb up the corporate ladder. But when a jilted job interviewee (Sandra Oh) puts a hex on Rick, it seems his good fortune may come to an end. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

He's hip, he's fly, and he never mixes meat with dairy -- he's the world's first Jewish private eye, and he's out to save the world in this satiric comedy. Mordechai Jefferson Carver (Adam Goldberg) is a super-cool Jewish detective who takes no mess and is always ready to do the right thing for his Torah-reading brothers. But Carver is a lone wolf, and he isn't so sure he's interested in taking an assignment from Chief Bloomenbergansteinthal (Peter Coyote) of the Jewish Justice League -- or at least not until he meets the Chief's gorgeous daughter, Esther (Judy Greer). It seems a mysterious stranger named Damien (Andy Dick) has made it his business to persuade Jewish children to abandon their faith in favor of celebrating Christmas, and it's Carver's job to put an end to Damien's campaign while urging kids to be proud of their Semitic heritage. The Hebrew Hammer also features Nora Dunn as Carver's kvetching mother, and a cameo appearance by Melvin Van Peebles as outlaw blaxploitation icon Sweetback. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide