Irwin Winkler Movies

Director Martin Scorsese adapts Shusaku Endo's novel about religious persecution in 17th Century Japan in this Corsan Films production starring Andrew Garfield. The story revolves around a Jesuit priest named Father Rodrigues (Garfield) who, upon receiving word that his mentor in Japan has turned his back on the church, travels to the island nation with another clergyman to investigate. Arriving in Japan to find that the country's Christian population is being oppressed, Father Rodrigues begins working with an interpreter (Ken Watanabe) to track down the elusive cleric. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Martin Scorsese reteams with Leonardo DiCaprio on this adaptation of Jordan Belfort's memoir surrounding his indulgent ride as a crooked banker made headlines in the 1990's. Terrence Winter provides the screenplay. Jonah Hill and Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin co-star. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Seasoned hitman Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) sets out to avenge the brutal murder of his mentor, Harry (Donald Sutherland), and finds himself joined by Harry's vengeful son (Ben Foster), who is eager to follow in his late father's footsteps, in this remake of the 1972 action thriller starring Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent. Harry taught Arthur how to be a detached killer who always hits his mark. Now Harry is gone, and for the first time in Arthur's career it's about to get personal. As lone-wolf assassin Arthur prepares to hunt down Harry's killers, he is approached by his fallen mentor's vengeful son, Steve, who is eager to take up the lethal tools of his father's trade. Unadept at working with a partner yet compelled to help Steve carry on the family tradition, Arthur agrees to take him on as a protégé. Later, the duo begins to methodically eliminate their targets, forging a partnership born of blood with each new hit. The closer Arthur and Steve get to the name at the top of their list, however, the more apparent it becomes that his job will be anything but business as usual. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Plenty of young movie buffs come to Hollywood hoping to break into the movie business, but Mardik Martin traveled a bit farther than most. Born and raised in Iraq, Mardik Martin's father was an Iraqi intelligence officer, but at an early age Mardik became fascinated with the movies and dreamed of going to America. When he was 18, after a stint working in MGM's Baghdad distribution office, Martin traveled to California to attend college, and while a political overthrow soon left his family penniless and unable to support him, the aspiring filmmaker refused to turn his back on his dreams. Mardik made friends with a fellow film student and rabid movie buff named Martin Scorsese, and Mardik would not only help the young Scorsese make several of his early films, he would help write the screenplays for some of Scorsese's signature works, including Mean Streets, Raging Bull and New York, New York. Mardik: From Baghdad to Hollywood is a documentary which follows Mardik Martin's story from his youth in the Middle East to his salad days in Hollywood, only to lose his career to drugs and start a new life in academia. Mardik: From Baghdad to Hollywood was an official selection at the 2008 Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

An in-name-only, direct-to-video sequel to 1995's blockbuster thriller The Net, The Net 2.0 begins with a new character - a stunning computer tech named Hope Cassidy (North Shore'sNikki DeLoach) - who travels to Istanbul, where she plans to take a new job. Yet Hope soon finds herself pursued by dozens of unsavory characters and underhanded types, who threaten to "erase" her identity by wielding the power of the internet's dark side. Helmed by Charles Winkler (the son of The Net's director, Irwin Winkler), The Net 2.0 co-stars Keegan Connor Tracy and Demet Akbag. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

The public and private lives of famed songwriter Cole Porter are both explored in this musical drama, in which the aging Porter (played by Kevin Kline) looks back on his life while watching a rehearsal of a stage musical based on his story. As Porter compares notes on the play with director Gabe (Jonathan Pryce), he shares thoughts on his rise to fame in the mid-'20s, writing witty and sophisticated tunes for a string of successful Broadway musicals. Porter seemed to be living a charmed life when he met Linda Thomas (Ashley Judd), a beautiful American woman who, like Porter, was enjoying a sojourn in Paris following the collapse of her first marriage. Thomas is immediately taken with Porter, whose intelligence and charm is a welcome change after her brutal first husband, and the two discover they share a remarkable understanding of one another. Porter and Thomas marry, even though she's aware that her new husband is gay; Thomas is willing to forgive Porter's indiscretions with other men in favor of the emotional support he brings her. However, as the years wear on and the couple takes up residence in Hollywood as Porter begins writing tunes for motion pictures, Thomas finds Porter drifting away from her as his liaisons become more frequent and more serious. Then tragedy enters their life when Porter loses the use of his legs in a riding accident and Thomas is diagnosed with cancer. De-Lovely features a number of noted pop singers interpreting classic songs from Porter's catalog, including Diana Krall, Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette, Elvis Costello, Robbie Williams, Mick Hucknall, and others. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Kevin Kline stars as George, a down-on-his-luck architect in this tearjerker from Irwin Winkler (At First Sight, Guilty By Suspicion). A disdainful local character who draws disapproval from the community, particularly his neighbor played by Mary Steenburgen, George sets out to change his life after suddenly losing his longtime job and discovering he's terminally ill (he has cancer). Attempting to reconnect with his estranged and troubled son, Sam (Hayden Christiansen), George endeavors to spend the summer they have together building his dream home by the sea. The laborious process leads to the rebuilding of dissipated relationships, the birth of new ones, and all-around healing. ~ Rachel Deahl, Rovi

New York architect Amy Benic (Mira Sorvino) meets blind masseur Virgil Adamson (Val Kilmer) and falls in love. As she learns his lifelong blindness may be curable through experimental surgery, she convinces him to undergo the operation. Virgil then learns vision may not quite be what he expected. At First Sight is directed by Irwin Winkler and also stars Bruce Davison, Nathan Lane, and Kelly McGillis. At First Sight is a romance adapted by writer Steve Levitt based upon the story To See and Not See from noted writer Dr. Oliver Sacks' collection, An Anthropologist on Mars. Dr. Sacks' work is also the basis for the Penny Marshall film Awakenings, starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams and the opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Michael Morris with music by Michael Nyman. In his original story, Dr. Sacks tells of receiving a call in October 1991 from a retired minister in the Midwest. His daughter was about to marry a fifty-year old man, Virgil, who had been blind since early childhood. He had thick cataracts and been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a disease which slowly eats away the retinas. As he could still make the distinction between light and dark, it was found he was misdiagnosed and simple cataract extraction could possibly restore his sight. While surgery was a success, Virgil, like his cinematic counterpart, found he would have to learn to use his vision much like an infant would, even though he was adept at relating to the world through touch. In his A New Theory of Vision, written in 1709, George Berkeley concluded there was no necessary connection between a tactile world and a sight world; a connection between them could be established only on the basis of experience. This same story was also adapted into the play Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel. ~ Ron Wells, Rovi

A woman serving on the jury of an anti-Mafia trial must protect herself and her young son from a psychopathic gangster in this thriller. Demi Moore stars as Annie Laird, a single mother and artist who readily agrees to do her civic duty on the jury in the trial of a major organized crime figure. She quickly comes to regret this decision when a mysterious and eccentric Mafia associate known as The Teacher (Alec Baldwin) threatens to kidnap her son and harm her friends unless she promises to vote not guilty. Fearing for their lives, she plays along, but unfortunately the Teacher shows no sign of backing away from his plans, having become personally obsessed with Annie. Unwilling to trust the authorities, Annie instead develops a plan to save her child by taking on the Teacher and the mob. Adapting a novel by George Dawes Green, the screenplay was written by Ted Tally (The Silence of the Lambs). ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

Ann-Margret stars in the made-for-cable movie Nobody's Children, filmed on-location in Bucharest, Romania, and based on a true story. Ann-Margret and Jay O. Sanders star as the real-life Carol and Joe Stevens, a married couple from Detroit who are unable to conceive a child of their own. They travel to Bucharest in 1990, just following the end of Ceausescu's regime, where a secret police controls the populace and state institutions are filled with abandoned children. The Stevenses bear witness to the deplorable conditions under which the unwanted babies must live as well as the extreme poverty and illness of the other Romanian children. French doctor Stephanie Vaugier (Dominique Sanda) helps Carol wade through the bureaucracy so she is able to adopt two children and return to the States. Originally aired on the USA television network in March of 1994. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

The directorial debut of producer Irwin Winkler, Guilty by Suspicion is a sobering account of one movie executive's woes in dealing with the political fallout from the McCarthy Era Hollywood blacklist. Robert De Niro stars as David Merrill, a film director in the 1950s whose obsession with his burgeoning career has estranged him from his wife Ruth (Annette Bening) and their son. When he returns from a trip to Paris, Merrill is surprised when told by his boss, Darryl F. Zanuck (Ben Piazza) that he's been summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which is investigating Communist ties to Hollywood. Although Merrill once attended a meeting years before, he's not a Communist, and he refuses to help the committee wreck the career of his friend Bunny Baxter (George Wendt). Merrill becomes blacklisted, unable to find work even in menial positions or under assumed names as the editor of a B-movie or the director of a low-budget Western. Reconciled with his family, Merrill caves in and agrees to testify, but as he prepares to "name names," his conscience plagues him. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Touted upon its release as the finale of the Rocky saga, this fifth entry in the long-running series of sports dramas reunites star Sylvester Stallone with John G. Avildsen, director of the Oscar-winning original. Stallone is Rocky Balboa, suffering from career-ending brain damage as a result of his punishing bout with Ivan Drago at the finale of the previous film. Upon their return to Philadelphia, Rocky and his wife, Adrian (Talia Shire), discover they are broke, their fortune squandered by an incompetent accountant. Forced to move back to their working-class neighborhood, Rocky finds that his only asset is the run-down gym willed to him by Mickey (Burgess Meredith, who appears in new flashback sequences). Resisting big money offered to him by Don King-like boxing promoter George Washington Duke (Richard Gant), Rocky becomes a trainer and finds a talented comer in Tommy Gunn (real-life boxer Tommy Morrison, nephew of John Wayne). Rocky's son (played by Stallone's real-life son Sage Stallone) feels neglected by his father, who lavishes attention on his protégé, but Tommy ultimately turns his back on his mentor to sign a more lucrative deal with Duke, leading to a street-fight showdown. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Set in Iowa, Betrayed stars Debra Winger as an FBI agent who infiltrates a Klanlike white supremacist organization. Allegedly a woman of intelligence and perception, Winger throws caution and logic to the winds when she falls in love with local farmer Tom Berenger. Much to her surprise Berenger turns out to be the most rabid racist of all. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi