Keram Malicki-Sanchez Movies
Tony Kaye made his feature directorial debut with this dramatic exploration into the roots of race hatred in America. In a shocking opening scene, teen Danny Vinyard (Edward Furlong) races to tell his older brother, neo-Nazi Derek (Edward Norton), about the young blacks breaking into his car in front of the house, whereupon Derek gets his gun and with no forethought shoots the youths in their tracks. Tried and convicted, Derek is sent away for three years in prison, where he acquires a different outlook as he contrasts white-power prisoners with black Lamont (Guy Torry), his prison laundry co-worker and eventual pal. Meanwhile, Danny, with a shaved head and a rebellious attitude, seems destined to follow in his big brother's footsteps. After Danny writes a favorable review of Hitler's Mein Kampf, black high-school principal Sweeney (Avery Brooks) puts Danny in his private "American History X" course and assigns him to do a paper about his older brother, who was a former student of Sweeney's. This serves to introduce flashbacks, with the film backtracking to illustrate Danny's account of Derek's life prior to the night of the shooting. Monochrome sequences of Derek leading a Venice, California gang are intercut with color footage of the mature Derek ending his past neo-Nazi associations and attempting to detour Danny away from the group led by white supremacist, Cameron (Stacy Keach), who once influenced Derek. Director Tony Kaye, with a background in TV commercials and music videos, filmed in L.A. beach communities. Rated R "for graphic brutal violence including rape, pervasive language, strong sexuality and nudity." ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, (more)
- 1994
- R
This suspenseful thriller follows the exploits of a young wife as she tries to escape from an abusive mate and ends up on the gritty city streets. Jenefer manages to get away from her husband but must give her baby up for adoption before she can do so. Alone on the scary streets she encounters Ola, a street-wise hooker who takes her under her wing. Ola also tries to protect Jenefer from the murderous Hassan, her pimp and king of the neighborhood. Ola sees Hassan brutally kill another whore, but refuses to testify against him. She resists McClaren, a harsh police officer, and his attempts to interrogate her. She is then deported. The suddenly bereft Jenefer gives into Hassan and becomes a prostitute. This helps her become stronger and streetwise so that she is finally able to confront and dispatch her husband in the blood-filled conclusion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rae Dawn Chong, Kari Wuhrer, (more)
- 1999
Taking a breather from the increasingly soap-operatic plot entanglements of the Faith (Eliza Dushka) story line, "Earshot" displays the simpler spirit of season one. After battling a couple of fish-like demons, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) kills one rather messily, with some green demon ooze soaking into her hand. Over the next week, Buffy begins to be able to read students' minds; Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) informs her that the ooze probably imbued her with the telepathic powers of the demons. At first the thoughts are benign, then in the cafeteria, she hears someone think, "This time tomorrow, I'll kill you all." Other people in the school, including a teacher, voice similar sentiments -- setting up red herrings -- as Buffy and friends attempt to find the disturbed person. This allows for some comic scenes such as when Xander (Nicholas Brendon) utilizes the situation to question girls on their turn-ons and date choices. It also leads to Buffy finding out that her mother had sex with Giles on the hood of a police car while under the influence of tainted snacks (see "Band Candy"). Buffy is soon receiving too many telepathic voices to make sense of them and will be driven insane if the power doesn't go away. ~ All Movie Guide
A single and freewheeling travel writer finds that adapting to the nine-to-five lifestyle isn't as easy as it looks when her ailing father hires her to take control of his successful bridal magazine in this marriage-minded comedy starring Heather Graham, David Sutcliffe, Sandra Oh, and Taye Diggs. Upon returning to her hometown to once again be a bridesmaid in yet another wedding, jet-lagged, gin-soaked travel writer Pippa McGee (raham) soon learns that her tyrannical publishing magnate father has been hospitalized after suffering a serious heart attack. As Pippa rushes to his bedside and the ailing mogul asks her to take editorial control of one of his most popular magazines, her excitement soon turns sour upon learning that the magazine in question is not a political or travel magazine, but the one and only Wedding Bells monthly. Determined to succeed despite the constant reminders of just how single she truly is, Pippa is horrified to learn that the man her father has chosen as her publishing mentor is the same man that she drunkenly came on to at her close friend's recent wedding. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heather Graham, David Sutcliffe, (more)
- 2000
- R
A serial killer with a difference is on the prowl in a small Virginia town in this darkly comic horror story. Brent Marken (Michael Biehn) is the sheriff of the city of Cherry Falls, a quiet community that suddenly has a big-city problem to contend with when Marken discovers a murderer is on the loose. The killer is targeting teenage girls who attend the local high school -- and his victims are all virgins. This causes no small amount of anxiety for Brent's teenage daughter Jody (Brittany Murphy), who is not as ready for intimacy as her boyfriend Kenny (Gabriel Mann). Brent has personal problems of his own to deal with; his relationship with his wife Marge (Candy Clark) has hit an impasse, and he shares a dark secret with Tom Sisler (Joe Inscoe), the principal of the high school. Cherry Falls marked the American directorial debut for Australian filmmaker Geoffrey Wright; the cast also includes Jay Mohr, Caroline Perreyclear, and Rick Forrester. Cherry Falls enjoyed its first theatrical engagements in the United Kingdom, several months after it was first slated to open in the United States, thanks in part to the difficulty the producers had with the MPAA in securing an R rating for the picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Biehn, Brittany Murphy, (more)
Based on the novel, How I Created My Perfect Prom Date, by Todd Strasser, Drive Me Crazy stars Melissa Joan Hart as Nicole, a trend-conscious teenager living next door to Chase (Adrian Grenier), a self-conscious, downbeat type who reads poetry and spouts political platitudes. Needless to say, Nicole and Chase have nothing in common and little to say to each other. But when the boy of Nicole's dreams asks someone else to the prom, she decides to remake Chase into worthy date material as a way to make her old flame jealous. Before long, Nicole and Chase aren't just pretending that they like each other. Drive Me Crazy presented Sabrina, the Teenage Witch star Melissa Joan Hart in her first leading role in a feature film; it was produced under the title Girl Gives Birth to Prom Date and test-screened as Next to You before the producers settled on Drive Me Crazy. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melissa Joan Hart, Adrian Grenier, (more)
- 1999
Romano (Paul McCrane) surprises everyone when he promotes his longtime nemesis Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston) to associate chief of surgery. Returning from his mother's funeral, Greene (Anthony Edwards) is plunged into an argument with Weaver (Laura Innes) over a patient who is to be resuscitated. New second-year resident Malucchi (aka "Dr. Dave," played by Erik Palladino), manages to rub the entire staff the wrong way, especially Carter (Noah Wyle) during a medical crisis at a construction site. And can it be that Benton (Eriq La Salle) is not truly the biological father of little Reese (Matthew Watkins)? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
- PG
Based on the autobiographical novel by Nicholas Gage, Eleni traces Gage's search for the truth behind the execution of his Greek mother Eleni. John Malkovich plays Gage (herein referred to only as Nick), a New York Times journalist assigned to cover a border war in Albania. Intimately familiar with his beat--it's where he grew up--Nick periodically flashes back to his childhood, and his memories of his late mother Eleni (Kate Nelligan). Not at all concerned with politics, Eleni goes to extreme lengths to shelter her children from the ravages of civil unrest. For attempting to smuggle her kids out of the country, Eleni is arrested and executed. Back in the present, Nick manages to locate local politico Katis (Oliver Cotton), the man who signed Eleni's death warrant. He wangles his way into Katis' confidence, then prepares to kill the man--but he's in for a surprise, and something of an epiphany. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kate Nelligan, John Malkovich, (more)
- 1982
- Add Faerie Tale Theatre: The Pied Piper of Hamelin to QueueAdd Faerie Tale Theatre: The Pied Piper of Hamelin to top of Queue
Robert Browning's cautionary poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin is vividly brought to the 21-inch screen by director Nicholas Meyer. Monty Python regular Eric Idle stars as the enigmatic Piper, who agrees for a price to rid the town of Hamelin of its rat population. When the corrupt city elders refuse to pay the Piper, he makes the town's children dance to a strange, alluring tune, resulting in anguish and grief for the selfish adults. Though peppered with comedy relief, wise-guy dialogue and contemporary attitudes, this 60-minute, taped installment of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre is a lucid, faithful recreation of the original. Parents of very young kids, beware: this one might induce a few unsettling dreams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Screenwriter Daniel Waters, who up-ended the traditional teen comedy with his cult classic Heathers, makes his directorial debut with this darkly humorous teen romp. It's summer at Camp Bleeding Dove, and when the teenaged counselors aren't busy watching their young charges or being verbally browbeaten by camp director Oberon (Peter Stormare), they're engaged in an ongoing game of musical cots, with nervous Talia (Emily Bergl) crazy about bad-boy Wichita (Brad Renfro), Wichita lusting after neat-freak Wendy (Dominique Swain), Wendy taking a longing look at Pixel (James King), and Pixel opting to pair off with Adam (Jordan Bridges), while lonely Donald (Justin Long) and Jasper (Keram Mailicki-Sanchez) watch from the sidelines. In the midst of all this hormonal overdrive, the various counselors barely have time to think about the campers, but suddenly they're forced to when Oberon is severely injured in an accident, leaving it up to them to run the camp and organize the activities -- which suddenly take a sharp turn off the straight and narrow. Happy Campers was screened as a last-minute entry at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, shortly after New Line Cinema, which financed the project, opted to turn the film back over to its producers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brad Renfro, Dominique Swain, (more)
In this action-packed martial arts outing, a crazed criminal (Andrew Dice Clay) abducts the finalists and the hostess (Shannon Tweed) from the Miss Galaxy Beauty Contest in hopes of receiving a huge fortune in diamonds. During the abduction, the crook and his gang ruthlessly massacre a dozen innocent bystanders. Unfortunately for the crook, he doesn't realize that the glamorous hostess is a world kickboxing champion. The leader of the swat team (Robert Davi) -- and a martial-arts expert himself -- lies in waiting for the kidnapper downstairs from where the hostages are staying. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shannon Tweed, Andrew Dice Clay, (more)
Veteran hack director Sidney J. Furie directs the silly straight-to-video comedy Rock My World. The aging stuffy English aristocrats Lord and Lady Foxley (Peter O'Toole and Joan Plowright) have fallen on hard times, so they loan out the use of their mansion to the American rock band Global Heresy. When the band's bass player mysteriously disappears, Nat (Alicia Silverstone) shows up to replace him. Then the servants don't show up, and the Foxleys are forced to pose and a maid and a butler in their own mansion. The culture class between the conservative English and the reckless Americans is played for comedy, leading to an ending where the power of rock & roll transforms both cultural groups. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter O'Toole, Joan Plowright, (more)
