Albert J. Salzer Movies

A hot-shot college card player and a retired poker legend team-up to take Sin City for all its worth, only to find themselves going toe-to-toe in the ultra-high stakes World Poker Tour. Alex Stillman (Bret Harrison) is a Yale senior with a knack for Texas Hold 'Em. But while Alex dreams of the day he'll be able to dominate the tables out in Las Vegas, he hasn't mastered the art of the cards just yet. Alex's luck begins to change, however, after a chance encounter with legendary poker player Tommy Vinson (Burt Reynolds). Tommy gave up gambling twenty years ago in hopes that he could save his family. He recognizes the potential in Alex, and he's beginning to regain his confidence after two decades of maintaining a low profile. Alex agrees to become Tommy's protégé, and together the pair wins every tournament they enter. But Alex's attraction to beautiful Las Vegas call girl Michelle (Shannon Elizabeth) has caused his attention shift away from the tables, and that distraction has opened up a deep chasm between the emerging talent and the undisputed master. Later, after Alex and Tommy calls off their partnership, they find themselves on opposite sides of the table at the prestigious World Poker Tour. Who will take the top prize? Will it be the old pro who promised he would never gamble again, or the newcomer who learned all of his tricks from the true master of the trade? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Tia Carrere stars in this made-for-cable melodrama as Dr. Vicki Westin, whose brilliance as a surgeon does not quite compensate for her coldness as a human being. Dr. Westin is forced to think outside of herself for the first time in her life when her husband (Richard Burgi) and daughter (Zoe Gaber) are kidnapped. Their abductor is Jeff Bender (Dale Midkiff), a grieving father who child had been one of Vicki's patients, and who had died on the operating table. The grimly vengeful Bender offers Dr. Westin a choice: She can save either her husband or her daughter, but not both--and she has only 48 hours to make her decision! Filmed on location in New Orleans, Torn Apart originally aired over the Lifetime Channel on September 30, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Not long after the death of her mother in a car accident, Kelly (Elisabeth Moss) and her father Jesse (Greg Evigan) move to New Orleans. Their new house is reportedly haunted--and Kelly is convinced that the ghost is begging for her help. Jesse, however, is more skeptical, and with the assistance of Kelly's troublesome friend Cole (Austin O'Brien) he tries to prove that the "haunting" is actually a manifestation of Kelly's own guilt feelings. As it turns out, however, both Kelly and Jesse are right! Evidently intended for theatrical release, Spirit was first seen in the US as a cable-TV offering on the Lifetime channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sentimental coming-of-age drama, directed by Richard Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird) and written by Mark Medoff (Children of a Lesser God), Whoopi Goldberg plays Clara Mayfield, whom Leona Hart (Kathleen Quinlan) meets up with in Jamaica, where Leona retreats to mourn the death of her baby daughter. Leona comes from a rich Maryland family and she leaves her husband, Bill (Michael Ontkean), and her young son, David (Neil Patrick Harris), back in the States in order to achieve some personal healing. She tells Clara she is in mourning and Clara responds knowingly, "I knew the fact, but not the substance." Hearing this kind of cryptic Charlie Chan-like aphorism, Leona can't resist Clara and hires her as her maid, taking her back with her, like a pet, to Maryland. "Come meet the most wonderful person," she tells her husband, and, to be sure, Clara is out-of-this-world wonderful, and since David's self-absorbed parents are neglecting him for their own private flirtations and obsessions, Clara takes up the slack and becomes, in effect, David's family. Clara dispenses worldly advice and has him spend weekends with her in the inner-city Jamaican community, where David learns how the other half lives. But just as David is letting his guard down and permitting Clara to become his 30-year-old buddy, Clara reveals a chilling past life that includes rape, incest, and suicide. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

When his wife becomes the new family breadwinner, a football coach must learn the ins and outs of child care and housecleaning. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

This exploitation film is set during the riotous New Orleans Mardi Gras, a suburban housewife throws aside her conservative values to become a hussy sleeping with every man who catches her fancy. Even her daughter's handsome boy friend is fair game to the sexually insatiable woman. It is all great fun until a motel parking lot attendant and his spooky sidekick begin trying to pursue and blackmail her. The title terror ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide