Vera Miller Movies

Live-action filmmaking mixes with imaginative animation in director Michael Landon Jr.'s feature adaptation of author Margery Williams' beloved children's book. An energetic child with a vivid imagination, Toby Morgan (Matthew Harbour) lives with his father (Kevin Jubinville), a successful businessman who seemed to shut down emotionally following the death of Toby's mother. When Toby is sent to spend the Christmas holidays with his loving but stern grandmother (Una Kay), he wanders through the lonely house until he eventually discovers the "magic attic" that was once his father's childhood playroom. There, Toby is surprised to find that his mother left him a stuffed velveteen rabbit -- her final gift to her beloved son. Hugging the rabbit close as he starts to cry, the grieving boy watches in wonder as his tears magically bring the toy to life. Before long, Toby is frolicking in the enchanted attic with a whole new group of friends, including the impetuous Horse (voiced by Tom Skerritt) and the wise but skittish Swan (voice of Ellen Burstyn). Toby's one wish is to spend Christmas with his father, and Rabbit's one wish is to someday hop across the fields as a real rabbit. Later, when Toby falls seriously ill, the courageous Rabbit helps him to win over his grandmother and make a full recovery. When Toby's father returns in time for Christmas, the power of the young child's love grants the Velveteen Rabbit its one true wish. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A married employee of a major corporation schemes with a beautiful coworker to slap the company with a fraudulent sexual harassment suit and later split the settlement in this white collar thriller starring Dina Meyer and Jonathan Higgins. Troubles arise, however, when a snooping co-worker uncovers their ruse and the foolproof plan gradually begins to crumble. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Falling victim to a glib con artist named Michael (Stewart Bick), Texas housewife Diane (Peta Wilson) loses all her money, a disaster that drives her husband Randal (Anthony Lemke) to suicide. Unable to get justice through the official channels, Diane mounts her own plan of revenge. This involves assuming a new identity, trading in her blonde tresses for a redheaded "do", moving to a small town, and systematically seducing the man who ruined her life. One of six "no frills" TV movies produced in Canada for the Lifetime cable network at a flat cost of $2 million each, False Pretenses originally aired October 25, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Considering the utter destruction wrought on the European Jewish population by Nazi Germany, the fact that any meaningful and transcendent love stories amongst Holocaust survivors could be found and retold is a tribute to the Jewish people's resiliency and nobility. With Undying Love: True Stories of Courage and Faith, documentarian and second generation Holocaust survivor Helene Klodawsky examines a handful of genuine marriages -- including that of her own parents -- founded in the Holocaust's aftermath. After the end of World War II, much of the Jewish population was left without its heavily relied upon elders, leaving the surviving younger generation to make decisions usually left to family patriarchs and the like. Ranging from loveless, arranged marriages to tales of love at first sight, all of the relationships retold in the film endured the turbulent decades following the Holocaust through the power of love or, in at least in one instance, strong mutual respect. Undying Love: True Stories of Courage and Faith was a selected entry in the 2003 Palm Springs International Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi

Archibald Belaney was a British man who grew up fascinated with Native American culture -- so much so that in the early 1900s he left the United Kingdom for Canada, where he reinvented himself as Archie Grey Owl and lived in the wild as a North American Indian trapper. He eventually became an environmental activist after renouncing trapping and hunting. Grey Owl is based on Belaney's true story, starring Pierce Brosnan in the title role. In 1934, Archie was living a largely solitary life when he met a young woman named Anahareo (Annie Galipeau), an Ojibway Indian nicknamed Pony. Pony is fascinated by Archie, largely because she wants to know about her people's heritage. Her father, Jim (Graham Greene), is a businessman who wears a suit to work and has little concern for his history; in Archie, Pony sees a link to her past that she can't find in her family. Archie has little use for Pony at first, but in time the two begin to bond, and it's Pony who convinces Archie to give up trapping and work to protect animals. She also encourages Archie to write a book about wilderness life in Canada. The book becomes a huge success and makes Archie something of a celebrity, but with recognition come nagging questions about Archie's true heritage. (In reality, Archie Grey Owl's true idenity did not become public knowledge until after his death.) ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Based on the popular novel for young adults by Frank Sacks, this heart-warming drama concerns Billy Hastings (Kevin Zegers), an 11-year-old boy whose life is shattered after his leg is permanently damaged by a drunk driver. Billy and his mother Julie (Anne Archer) move to a new town in hopes of escaping the bad memories of the accident. Not long after they arrive, they visit a threadbare circus, where they discover a neglected horse. Feeling sorry for the animal, they arrange to take it home, only to discover that the horse is pregnant. That's the least of their surprises, though; the horse shortly gives birth to a unicorn, which appears to have magical powers. Nico the Unicorn also stars Michael Ontkean. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this low-budget thriller, which was released directly to video, Donald Sutherland stars as a Ted Robards, a small-time stockbroker who allows promising young Harvard alumnus Jeremy (William McNamara) to move into his home and help run his firm. While pretending to build up the business, Jeremy secretly dismantles it from within, all the while planning to wreak havoc of a more personal nature on Ted; his son Chris; and especially his pregnant new wife, Sandy (Lesley Ann Warren). Flashbacks reveal Jeremy's tortured upbringing and the killing streak it engendered. As things turn out, however, the pampered, beautiful Sandy has some devastating secrets of her own -- one of which may explain why her husband's protégé is out to get her. Natural Enemy also features Joe Pantoliano and Wayne's World starlet Tia Carrere. McNamara previously played another serial killer in 1995's Copycat. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

This well-wrought Canadian direct-to-video actioner (in large part a knock-off of the Die Hard series) stars Dolph Lundgren as a maverick American Air Force pilot who during a flight disobeys orders and drops a large shipment of food for a starving group of Middle Eastern refugees. Too embarrassed by the publicity to discipline him formally, the Air Force gives him a new assignment: he is to carry the President's black bag, a special briefcase loaded with a computer that the Executive in Chief can use to launch a nuclear war. Following a press conference, the former pilot and the president (Roy Scheider) return to their hotel. Later, the floor on which they stay is overrun by terrorists who want to use the black bag to launch an attack on Washington D.C. During the scuffle, the pilot manages to escape, but not before the bag is grabbed by the terrorists. Later the hostage takers demand that the President commit suicide on television. If he refuses, then they will blow up the capitol city. Assisted by the only other man to survive the terrorist's initial attack, the pilot must somehow stop them. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The excesses of feminism and political correctness come in for some serious ribbing in this Canadian comedy, which might just give Rush Limbaugh a belly-laugh or two, along with anyone else who has ever thought that his pet term "feminazi" was humorous. In the story, Jimmy (Bruce Dinsmore) is having a mid-life crisis, and in order to get a handle on why he has so much trouble with women, decides to participate in a college-sponsored study on male sexuality. What he doesn't know is that the study is being run by some extremely radical, doctrinaire feminists, and that he's in for a nightmarish grilling. He shows up for his first sessions, is blindfolded, and is then put through his paces as a relentless female interrogator puts him constantly on the defensive for everything he has ever done with women throughout his entire life. Indeed, these women completely turn the tables on nineteenth century (male) sexologists and, instead of questioning female orgasm (as those researchers actually did), make Jimmy wonder if there ever was such a thing as male orgasm. Other permutations on the contemporary war of the sexes are shown outside the setting of the study Jimmy is participating in. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A successful defense attorney in Boston (Gary Oldman) finds that success has its price when one of the defendants he got acquitted (Kevin Bacon) resumes the killing spree he had started before being accused. ~ John Bush, Rovi

Jonathan Fisher (Christopher Reeve) is a newspaper reporter who becomes a celebrity when he writes a fictitious exposé on prostitution. The story of the high-living pimp is too close a resemblance to real-life flesh pedlar Fast Black (Morgan Freeman), and Jonathan is jailed when he refuses to turn his papers over to the local district attorney. In jail for suspicion of murder, Black tries to silence the reporter who created the sensational fabrication. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi