Kevin Gage Movies

Director James Cotten recruits an all-star roster for this crime thriller set along the Mexican-American border. Mexican drug lord Pelon has managed to escape the ire of the American government, but his decision to switch from cocaine from Colombia to heroin from Afghanistan attracts their attention. Numerous assassins come for the man's blood, but Pelon evades them all. Hitman Mark Shields sets himself apart from the pack with 20 years of killing experience, but he becomes distracted by the presence of a woman and her daughter. This character-driven action film stars Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Armand Assante, and Esai Morales. ~ Kimber Myers, Rovi

Two young women, Angelica (Chantal Degroat), who has returned home for the summer from UCLA, and Emily (Maya Barovich) go off to a rave in the woods, where Angelica hopes to score some ecstasy. There, they meet Swan (Sage Stallone, horror aficionado and son of actor Sylvester Stallone), who, unbeknownst to them, was sent to find two naïve young women and bring them back to his father, Chaos (Kevin Gage), and his depraved cohorts, Frankie (Stephen Wozniak) and Daisy (Kelly K.C. Quann). As the helpless girls are brought into the woods to be tortured and murdered, Emily's loving parents grow worried that their normally levelheaded daughter has missed her curfew and is not answering her cell phone. After a frustrating encounter with the local police, they decide to go and look for the girls themselves. Chaos, written and directed by David DeFalco, is clearly modeled after Wes Craven's seminal 1972 low-budget horror film, Last House on the Left, which was inspired by Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Directed by Paul Abascal, Paparazzi chronicles the aftermath of four paparazzi photographers whose search for the all-important "perfect shot" ends in a tragic car accident. Movie star Bo Laramie (Cole Hauser) is understandably furious when, thanks to the notorious celebrity-chasers, his wife, Abby (Robin Tunney), is seriously injured, and his eight-year-old son is paralyzed. After the accident, Bo dedicates his life to putting a stop to a paparazzo's deadly overzealousness. Chris Rock, Matthew McConaughey, Mel Gibson, and Vince Vaughn are reported to be featured in cameo appearances. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

A young social outcast goes to great measures to find the perfect friend in this debut horror feature from director Lucky McKee. Set apart from her peers as a child due to her lazy eye, May's only friend and confidant was a delicate doll encased in glass. Though as a young adult May has learned to control her lazy eye with glasses and contacts, her introverted tendencies always seem to hinder her search for the perfect friend. Walking down the street one day, May happens across a young man tenderly caressing the damage of a wrecked car and falls in love with his seemingly perfect hands. As May and Adam (Jeremy Sisto) begin to spend more time together, the quirky couple seem to have much in common, and May believes that she might have finally happened across the perfect boy. Her deep-rooted psychological problems slowly surface, however, and Adam is gradually driven away, leaving the vulnerable May in the company of amorous co-worker Polly (Anna Faris). It soon becomes obvious to May that, though various acquaintances seem to have perfect traits, they never add up to a perfect whole -- leading the creative and demented young girl to her own unique method of creating the perfect friend. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

In this crime drama, New York journalist Jake Bridges (William Petersen), off on a bender in Atlantic City, gets into a bar confrontation with Lew Collins (Meat Loaf) but is rescued by gregarious Frankie McGregor (Michael Wincott), a member of a gang headed by Irishman Lange (Michael Byrne), a sadist in a wheelchair. After Bridges gets an eyeful of Frankie's girlfriend, nurse Melissa (Diane Lane), he finds excuses to drop by the hospital where she works. Admiring Bridges's credentials as a writer, Frankie cultivates his companionship in order to upgrade his schooling in literature. Jake gives him a reading list, while Frankie draws Jake into the gang. Shown at the 1998 Santa Barbara Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Ridley Scott directed this flawed but involving study of Lt. Jordan O'Neil (Demi Moore), a Navy topographic analyst who is chosen as a test case for the presence of women in combat. Aware that she is making history and knowing that 60% of all male trainees will fail the rigorous training, Lt. O'Neil struggles to prove herself physically and mentally worthy of becoming a Navy SEAL. What she doesn't know is that she is being sold out by hardbitten Texas senator Lillian DeHaven (Anne Bancroft in an amusing turn), who is being blackmailed by the Defense Department with politically fatal base closings unless O'Neil fails the program. The complicated political subplot, however, only distracts from the film's real virtues -- the wonderfully staged scenes of CRT selection training -- and fizzles at its climactic moment. The training scenes are wonderful, however, as the central recruits are pushed to their physical limits by a grueling weeding-out process. Viggo Mortensen is outstanding as Master Chief John James Urgayle, a steely-eyed, tough-as-nails instructor who somehow finds time to quote D.H. Lawrence when he isn't making people eat garbage and beating O'Neil senseless as part of a training exercise. Mortensen and the believably-buffed Moore are terrific, and their scenes of confrontation are the film's high points. Unfortunately, the screenplay by David Twohy and Danielle Alexandra falls down every time it attempts to sidestep a cliche, and the climactic mission (involving a downed satellite in the Libyan desert) positively wallows in a predictable Top Gun muddle. Still, the characters are engaging and those looking for an enjoyable variant on the basic-training subgenre of high-octane modern action films should be pleased. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Ward and June Cleaver have nothing on suburban couple Ray and Carol Peterson (Tom Hanks and Carrie Fisher). Together with their perfect son, Ray and Carol are so clean that they squeak. Thus, when new neighbors Dr. Werner Klopek (Henry Gibson), Uncle Reuben (Brother Theodore), and Hans (Courtney Gains) begin evincing bizarre behavior, Ray is slightly put out. Carol thinks that Ray is getting all worked up over nothing. Ray and his fellow suburbanites endure all sorts of slapstick misadventures in the vain hope of getting "the goods" on the newcomers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This is an eerily prescient family adventure starring Kate Capshaw as Andie, a frustrated NASA astronaut who's never actually been into outer space. Her husband, flight controller Zach (Tom Skerritt), is sympathetic, but he can't influence her place in the rotation. Andie is assigned to train a group of intelligent high school students at the summer science camp called Space Camp, which is run by NASA and supervised by her husband. There she meets her campers: Kevin (Tate Donovan), a blasé, horny teenager; Tish (Kelly Preston), an airhead with a photographic memory; Kathryn (Lea Thompson), an arrogant pilot; obnoxious youngster Max (Joaquin Phoenix, then billed under the first name Leaf); and scientist-in-training Rudy (Larry B. Scott). While testing the solid booster rockets aboard a real shuttle, the team is blasted into space accidentally. Without enough air, the discordant team pulls together, each discovering hidden talents. The Challenger space shuttle disaster in January 1986 was bizarrely similar to the events depicted in Spacecamp, with far more horrific results. Its release date pushed back several months because of the tragedy, the film was still a painful reminder to the public of the national calamity, and it consequently grossed only about ten million dollars at the box office. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi