D.J. Caruso

Vertigo Comics' heralded comic book Y: The Last Man is headed to the big screen from Disturbia's production team of director D.J. Caruso and writer Carl Ellsworth for New Line Cinema. The plot features a lone male survivor in a world where all the male mammals are wiped out by a plague. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Salton Sea director D.J. Caruso travels from the shore to the suburbs for this suspenseful tale of a high-school senior who suspects that his neighbor is a notorious serial killer. Kale (Shia LaBeouf) is a high-school senior who has yet to come to terms with the fact that his father is gone, the tragic victim of a fatal accident. As Kale's mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) struggles to pay the bills by picking up extra shifts at work, her son's behavior grows increasingly erratic. When an altercation at school finds Kale placed under court-ordered house arrest, the homebound student teams with newly arrived girl-next-door Ashley (Sarah Roemer) to investigate the suspicious neighbor (David Morse) whom Kale believes to be an elusive and wanted serial killer. Their attentions focused intensely on the man they believe to be a murderous maniac hiding in broad daylight, Kale and Ashley trespass down a dangerous path while attempting to discern whether his suspicions are grounded in fact or just a combination of deep depression and suffocating cabin fever. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A female detective on the trail of a psychotic killer discovers love in a dangerous time in this thriller, based on the novel by Michael Pye. Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie) is a special agent with the FBI who has a reputation for using offbeat methods, but also boasts a strong record as a criminal profiler. Scott is called in by a former Quantico colleague (Tcheky Karyo) to assist two Canadian police detectives, Paquette (Olivier Martinez) and Duval (Jean-Hugues Anglade), who are on the trail of a serial killer who has been doing business in and around Montreal for close to two decades. The murderer has a history of assimilating many aspects of the lives of his victims after he kills them, but there's been a witness to his most recent crime. Art gallery owner James Costa (Ethan Hawke) saw the killer during an assault, and now finds himself working as an only marginally willing decoy for Scott. As Scott and Costa follow the killer's trail, they find themselves becoming attracted to one another, which is not necessarily a comfort to Scott as she finds her quarry moving closer and closer. Taking Lives also stars Kiefer Sutherland and Gena Rowlands. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Amy Palmer (Azura Skye), a girl working as a domestic at the Luther mansion, harbors an obsessive crush on young Lex Luther (Michael Rosenbaum). Before long, Lex's girlfriend, Victoria Hardwick (Kelly Brook), is victimized by an invisible but highly dangerous entity. Is Amy behind these unseen attacks -- or are there more sinister, kryptonite-engendered forces at work? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the opening episode of Dark Angel's two-part season-one finale, Tinga (Lisa Ann Cabasa) has been recaptured by Manticore, prompting her genetically engineered siblings Max (Jessica Alba) and Zack (William Gregory Lee) to go to her rescue. Meanwhile, Logan (Michael Weatherly) prepares to celebrate the first anniversary of his meeting Max -- a celebration that may not come off if Max's feline DNA kicks in again. And Lydecker (John Savage) continues his efforts to close in on Max, even though he is increasingly disenchanted with his Manticore superior, Madame X (Nana Visitor). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lucas Davenport, the wily (and very sexy) computer-programmer detective created by novelist John Sandford, comes to the small screen in the form of actor Eriq LaSalle) in this made-for-TV adaptation of Sandford's best-seller Mind Prey. A nutcase named John Mail (Titus Welliver) escapes from a mental institution and kidnaps his therapist (Sheila Kelley) and her two daughters. Though he intends to exact revenge against his captive for having him put away, Mail intends to prolong the agony by playing a cruel game of cat-and-mouse with the police, leaving behind a number of cryptic computer clues to his whereabouts. It is up to Lucas Davenport to make sense of these clues--and to figure out there is more to the story than a simple kidnapping. Fans of John Sandford were not entirely happy with the literary liberties taken in this adaptation, but since star Eriq La Salle was also one of the producers, it isn't surprising that the main character would be reshaped to suit his established TV persona. Reportedly the pilot for an unsold weekly series, John Sandford's Mind Prey originally aired March 22, 1999 on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A stranger pulled into a deadly scheme races against time to save his daughter in this thriller. Gene Watson (Johnny Depp) is an accountant who comes to L.A. with his ten-year-old daughter Lynn (Courtney Chase) to attend a funeral. On the street, Gene and Lynn are pulled aside by Mr. Smith (Christopher Walken) and Ms. Jones (Roma Maffia), who flash what look like police badges and usher them into a van. Gene soon discovers that he's been kidnapped, and his captors have an unusual demand -- if Gene does not murder Gov. Eleanor Grant (Marsha Mason) within 75 minutes, his daughter will be killed. Gene now has just an hour and a quarter to tip off the authorities, spare Gov. Grant, and find out what Smith and Jones are trying to do, along with saving his daughter's life. He finds a much-needed ally in one-legged shoe-shine man Huey (Charles S. Dutton). Most of the action in Nick of Time occurs in "real time," meaning that the passage of time on screen matches that of real life, as the frequent shots of clocks and watches will attest. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director John Badham's remake of French action thriller La Femme Nikita moves the action to the U.S., where Maggie (Bridget Fonda) is a strung-out Washington, D.C. drug addict who kills a policeman in a pharmaceutical-induced haze. Sentenced to death, Maggie is rescued by a shady operative, Bob (Gabriel Byrne), who offers to save her life if she'll become a covert government assassin. Maggie agrees and trains for a life as a professional killer under a new name, Claudia. Her classes include weaponry, martial arts, explosives, and even social graces under the tutelage of Amanda (Anne Bancroft). Claudia is transformed into a classy sophisticate and is assigned to Venice, California, where she falls for J.P. (Dermot Mulroney), an attractive photographer who lives downstairs. Claudia's highly dangerous job soon interferes when she's ordered to carry out a series of clever assassinations, including a hit in a restaurant and a hotel bombing. When one particular killing goes horribly wrong, she gets some assistance from Victor the Cleaner (Harvey Keitel), a disposal artist who may have also been ordered to get rid of Claudia. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Action film director John Badham bites the hand that feeds him in this action movie spoof that features ribbing of pretty-boy Hollywood action stars by Michael J. Fox and a parody of colorful, hair-trigger James Woods types by the man himself. Woods plays New York homicide detective John Moss, who is within an inch of closing in on a serial killer who calls himself The Party Crasher (Stephen Lang) because his specialty is shooting his victims in the middle of discos. Chasing The Party Crasher after his latest victim has been dispatched, Moss finds himself hanging onto the door of a speeding truck with The Party Crasher at the wheel. When Moss is thrown off the truck and nearly killed, The Party Crasher escapes, and Moss is taken off the case. Moss is given a new assignment --to tag around with Hollywood action film star Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox), the popular hero of the "Smoking Gun" movies. Lang spotted Moss on a television news show and thinks he would be the ideal cop to study for adding authenticity to an up-coming police action picture. Posing as Moss's rookie partner, Lang follows Moss everywhere, proceeding to spoil his pursuit of The Party Crasher and interfering with Moss's burgeoning affair with his girlfriend Susan (Anabella Sciorra). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide