Paul Webster Movies

Four friends compare notes on their romantic problems -- which in time become quite interesting indeed -- in this sharp comedy from Great Britain. Sean (Luke De Woolfson), Lenny (Enzo Cilenti), Vincent (James Lance), and Jody (Kate Ashfield) are four pals who meet every evening for dinner at the same neighborhood restaurant. Sean works the night shift at a hospital, and one night he makes a date with Susie (Sienna Guillory), a woman who is visiting her unconscious boyfriend; Sean soon discovers the woman's sexual appetite exceeds his own, and they can't get out of the hospital before taking things to the horizontal level. Lenny is a directory assistance operator for the telephone company and is infatuated with one of his co-workers, Gail (Shauna MacDonald), though his attempts to set up a date end in disaster. Vincent, a supermarket stock clerk, is a notorious womanizer who has a personal policy of never sleeping with the same woman more than three times. And Jody works in computer assembly and offers sarcastic advice to her three mates, especially Sean, whose problems with women she finds especially amusing. Vincent makes the acquaintance of a lonely woman from abroad named Madeline Zozzocolovich (Heike Makatash), and romance soon rears its head, but after Vincent informs her of his three-strikes-and-you're-out rule, Madeline is crushed and disappears, and soon the foursome are scouring a small resort community, hoping to find her before she tries something drastic. Late Night Shopping was the first feature from director Saul Metzstein and screenwriter Jack Lothian; the film won the C.I.C.A.E. Award at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Director Hugh Hudson, who made his directorial debut with the award-winning Chariots Of Fire, returns to the theme of British life in the 1920s in the bittersweet family drama My Life So Far. Gamma Macintosh (Rosemary Harris) is the matriarch of a family that inhabits Harewood House, a castle in the Scottish Highlands. Besides Gamma, the adult heads of the household are her daughter, Moira (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and Moira's husband Edward Pettigrew (Colin Firth), a mildly eccentric inventor who tinkers with experimental automobiles and airplanes. Moira and Edward have two children, son Fraser (Robbie Norman) and daughter Elspeth (Kelly Macdonald). One day Moira's brother Morris (Malcolm McDowell) stops by with his fiancée, a French woman named Heloise (Irene Jacob), whose beauty and sophistication turns Edward's head and stirs new emotions in young Fraser. Filmed in 1997, My Life So Far remained in the editing room until 1999, when it was shown in a special benefit screening at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this hard-edged drama with a strong undercurrent of dark comedy, Stretch (Tim Roth) and Spoon (Tupac Shakur) are two friends who share both a passion for music and a dependence on heroin. Stretch and Spoon play in a jazz combo with Cookie (Thandie Newton), and after a New Year's Eve gig, they score drugs and get high together. Cookie lacks her friends' experience with hard drugs and soon ends up in the hospital after a severe overdose. Cookie's brush with death turns out to be a serious reality check for Stretch and Spoon, and they decide that it's time to kick drugs and get clean and sober. But both men know that they can't get off heroin on their own, and therein lies the problem; as they try to navigate a complex maze of social service agencies (who can't help them get treatment because they aren't on welfare), drug treatment facilities (one of which turns them away because they're only equipped to handle alcoholics), and hospitals (where, in order to be admitted as emergency patients, Stretch and Spoon ponder how to go about stabbing each other) in search of a detox program. The two friends begin to wonder if it might simply be easier to stay on drugs than to get healthy. Gridlock'd marked the feature film directorial debut for actor Vondie Curtis Hall, best known for his work on the TV series Chicago Hope; Elizabeth Pena and John Sayles both appear in supporting roles. Rap musician-turned actor Tupac Shakur, who played Spoon, died in a drive-by shooting four months prior to the release of this film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

New York cop Jack Grimaldi (Gary Oldman) has a nice home, a stunning wife Natalie (Annabella Sciorra), and a sweet, if stupid mistress, Sheri (Juliette Lewis). Jack also earns extra money by betraying mob witnesses to Mafia-boss Don Falcone (Roy Scheider). Assigned to guard the viciously sexy Russian-born hit woman, Mona Demarkov (Lena Olin), Jack is almost instantly seduced and allows Mona to escape. Falcone orders Jack to find and kill Mona, and threatens to murder him if he fails. Mona offers to pay Jack to help her eliminate Falcone and fake her own death. Several plot twists and turns later, Jack is left with his life in shambles. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

Writer, director, and star Mario Van Peebles tried to correct historical misconceptions about African-Americans on the frontier with this action-packed western that's also an homage to spaghetti Westerns. During the Spanish-American War, a squadron of black soldiers led by Jesse Lee (Van Peebles) is assigned a dangerous mission behind enemy lines in Cuba by evil Colonel Graham (Billy Zane). Joined by a white gambler, Little J (Stephen Baldwin), the troupe is to recover a chest of gold. Realizing that Graham will slaughter them once they've relinquished the booty, Lee and his men retrieve the chest, wound Graham, and head for home. Ambushed by Graham in New Orleans, the "posse" heads for Lee's hometown of Freemanville, a frontier settlement of ex-slaves. Years ago, Lee's minister father (Robert Hooks) was murdered there by Klansmen, and the gunslinger wants revenge. There's new trouble brewing in Freemanville, however. Sheriff Bates (Richard Jordan), top lawman in neighboring Cutterville, plans to wipe out Freemanville's citizens and sell their lucrative property to a railroad. Then there's Graham, still on Lee's trail. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Rubin & Ed is Trent Harris' off-the-wall buddy movie about two mismatched geeks on a quest to bury a frozen cat. Rubin Farr (Crispin Glover) is a shy, reclusive loner who lives in his mother's hotel. He'd much rather sit in his bedroom listening to Mahler, playing with his squeaky-mouse, than go outside. His mother has other plans, however, and one afternoon she decides to pull the plug on Rubin's eccentric behavior. She demands that he go out and make at least one friend. Rubin capitulates, and after a somewhat half-hearted search, he finds Ed Tuttle (Howard Hesseman, in one of his best performances). Ed is a divorced, middle-aged loser enrolled in a self-help/ get-rich-quick organization called PPR: Positive Power through Real Estate. Ed agrees to have dinner with Rubin and his mother if Rubin agrees to attend a PPR training seminar. All goes as planned for both, until Ed opens the freezer and discovers Rubin's dead cat. The unlikely pair then embarks on an hallucinatory quest through the Utah desert in order to find the perfect spot to bury Rubin's cat. Though at first mutually disgusted by each other, Rubin and Ed eventually learn how to become friends. Karen Black is superb as Ed Tuttle's annoying ex-wife Rula, as is Michael Greene as PPR magnate Mr. Busta. ~ Anthony Reed, Rovi

Dexter King (Jeff Goldblum) is an actor who spends his nights on-stage in London's West End as a comedic punching bag for obnoxiously self-centered comedian Ron Anderson (Rowan Atkinson). He gets hit in the head with hammers, he trips, and he stands by dumbly as Anderson gets all the laughs. His home life is little different. His roommate, Carmen (Geraldine James), is a nymphomaniac, so he's always surprised by naked men parading through the kitchen in the morning. A chance meeting with lovely nurse Kate Lemon (Emma Thompson) and a tryout for the lead in a new Andrew Lloyd Webber-ish musical based on The Elephant Man (called, not surprisingly, "Elephant!") jolt Dexter from his torpor. Not that it makes him much less of a loser, which is the quality the show's producers are looking for. "You're a victim," they tell him. His attempts to seduce Kate are equally jarring. She asks him if he is a big believer in having sex on the first date. "Why, no," he tells her, trying to impress her with his sensitivity. Too bad, she replies -- she doesn't believe in getting serious with someone if they're sexually incompatible. Romance and showbiz go on, with the show a hit, though Dexter's romance hits a temporary snag: his backstage romance with a co-star (Kim Thomson) gets found out. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., Rovi

A scheming police chief wants the mayor out so he can gain control, so he hires a ridiculous bunch of misfits to fill the local police force. His plan is that the city look so bad the mayor will get the bounce. The city's real policemen all get food poisoning at a party and the misfits must take over and get the job done. There's lots of dirty jokes and jiggling breasts here. ~ Rovi